The dubbing definition in film

The voice recordings are translated, lip-synced, and combined with the sounds from the original movie. As a result, a new film soundtrack is created for the new language.

Dubbing is usually done for the videos that are distributed worldwide, as well as cartoons for children. There in fact could be different types of dubbing — lip-sync, voiceover, and lectoring.

Lip-sync sounds most natural for viewers as the translated audio matches all the emotions and even the mouth movement of actors. Voiceover is added over the original sound, that you can even hear. Lectoring is done by just one voice actor for all the dialogues, without any emotions at all.

Different countries have different traditions regarding dubbing. For example, lectoring is most commonly used in Poland. Scandinavian countries mostly dub for children only. France does full-cast dubbing, while Lithuania uses voiceovers.

Well, we know what is dubbing in films, let’s see what is usually required to do it.

How to dub audio

To make the translated version sound as natural as possible a lot of work should be done, in fact:

The first step is translating the original script, taking into account the length of words, cultural references, humor, and so on.
The next step is voice casting to make sure the new voices match the actors’ characteristics and sound authentic.
Then voice actors record the new audio, ensuring that timing and tone match the source video.
Finally, the new voice soundtrack is mixed with music, sound effects, and all other audio from the original film.

Most often special dubbing studios and professional software are required to make a high-quality movie soundtrack in the new language. Not every producer can have enough budget or time for this. Luckily there is another option that is often used worldwide.

Video dubbing alternative

Subtitles are captions displayed at the bottom of a screen that translates the dialogue or narrative. It is used instead of dubbing in videos for different reasons — budget, time, country traditions, audience (for example, deaf people), or just individual preferences.

YouTube even provides automatically translated captions for some languages. However, the results are not always accurate and not all languages can be supported. So sometimes you need to create them yourself.

Fortunately, there is an online tool for this and you can use it free of charge if your video file is up to 500 MB. Let’s see how it works.

Add your video

Open Clideo’s subtitle editor in any browser you prefer. You can use the tool both on your computer or mobile.

To add your video, click the big blue “Choose file” button. You can also add from a cloud.

Then choose how you want to add your captions. For example, you can add them manually or upload the .SRT file if you have it already.
Add and edit subtitles

When the file is uploaded, you will see its preview with a timeline and the “Subtitles” tab below.

If you add all the texts manually, then in the “New subtitle” field, type in your text. As you type, the text on the timeline will be updated accordingly.

To set the beginning/ending time for the caption, drag and drop the thumbnail borders. Alternatively, on the “Subtitles” tab, to the left of the text, type in the exact timing.

To add the next caption, click “Add subtitle”. You can also click the + icon to add exactly below the selected one. To remove any text, select it, and then click the X icon.

Click the “Styles” tab to change position, font, and its size, text color, as well as the overall style.

To change the output format, call the “Format” drop-down menu to choose the one you need.

At any moment, you can replay the video to preview if the text matches the movie perfectly.

Finally, at the bottom of your screen, press “Download .SRT” if you need a separate file with text only. Click the blue “Export” button, to generate a video file with subtitles.
Save the result

When your new film is created, you can save it to your device or online cloud storage. If you would like to make any changes, hit the “Edit” button to get back to the editor.