{"id":1969,"date":"2016-08-25T22:44:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T03:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevoicerealm.com\/blog\/?p=1969"},"modified":"2026-09-26T15:25:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T19:25:05","slug":"two-sides-to-one-coin-voiceover-and-dubbing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevoicerealm.com\/blog\/two-sides-to-one-coin-voiceover-and-dubbing\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Sides To One Coin: Voiceover and Dubbing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surely you have seen a movie where there is a voice rambling about what\u2019s happening, why it\u2019s happening or voicing out a character\u2019s thoughts while the actor on screen is quiet, lips not moving. Then you are familiar with a voiceover. Sometimes the voiceover is helpful as it helps you understand the movie, and sometimes audiences have been heard to say it is annoying. Voiceovers are employed in countless ways through cinema and advertising and many other things that happen online. Voiceover has evolved nicely with the technological age, having found a way to reach out and expand globally.<\/p>\n

What UN-style voiceover means<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s also what\u2019s called a UN-style voiceover, but it is not widely seen today. An example of a UN-style voiceover is when an interviewee speaks a foreign language: production companies typically use voice actors to record over the original audio. This way, the viewer hears the interviewee in the background speaking his or her language, while the voice actor interprets. The volume of the voice actor is typically much louder and lags seconds behind the original audio track, allowing the audience to hear it. This voice-over technique is useful because it allows the viewer to both hear and understand the speaker\u2019s words at the same time, although, again, it is not popularly used now. This is typically referred to as UN-style voiceover.<\/p>\n

How dubbing differs from voiceover<\/h2>\n

In the video production world, the word \u201cdubbing\u201d is used when the original speaker\u2019s audio track is replaced entirely by the voice actor\u2019s. As opposed to UN-style voiceover, which preserves the original track underneath the voice actor<\/a>, the dub must be carefully timed and synchronized to match the speaker\u2019s lips, meaning, actions, and even intonations so that it’s not too obvious and distracting when people are watching the film. This is often referred to as lip-sync dubbing, or \u2018revoicing\u2019 in the film industry. As you can imagine, this process is arduous and lengthy; oftentimes, the voice actor is required to work with editors in a studio, re-recording segments where the audio and visuals struggle to match. Back then, dubbing was employed primarily in musicals when the actor had an unsatisfactory singing voice.<\/p>\n

\"Infographic

Three ways to put a new voice on screen \u00a9 The Voice Realm<\/p><\/div>\n

Today, dubbing enables the screening of audiovisual material to a mass audience in countries where viewers do not speak the same language as the performers in the original production. Dubbing is often used to localize a foreign movie. Telenovelas, which made Spanish dubbing<\/a> popular, and anime shows are perfect examples of these. The speed of the video can be slowed in dubbing sessions to accommodate articulation in another language, while a voiceover actor working on a voiceover for a video will have to hit timing and sync the voiceover with the video. In comedies and animated movies, famous local actors have been observed to be hired to perform the dubbing, as their names are intended to attract a local audience; the entire cast may be dubbed by a local cast of similar familiarity.<\/p>\n

No matter the differences, voiceover and dubbing are highly appreciated and utilized tools in both film and advertising, and there will always be a need for them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voiceover, un-style voiceover and lip-sync dubbing get mixed up all the time. What each one actually is, and where you’ll see them used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[279,425],"tags":[402],"class_list":["post-1969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voice-over-business","category-voice-realm-news","tag-dubbing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t