A medical translation company ensures precision through specialized workflows, expert translators, and compliance with local regulations.
Professional translation services today include also voice translation, i.e. the translation of voice content. The work does not end with simple conversion of the text to a different language. Voice content has to be transcribed, then translated and then recorded in the target language.
The selection of voice talent is an equally important part of the voice translation process. In this article we compare and contrast the different kinds of voiceover options that are available to us today. The article aims at making an informed choice in the world of professional translation services.
There are two broad categories of voice options available today. Artificial or machine voice, and a natural human voice.
Artificial voices are of two kinds. In Voice Over planning we have to make a decision of the kind of voice we wish to use in a particular presentation or content.
These are truly artificial sounds, developed using machines. The smalls small elements, called ‘phonemes’ are artificially generated and using software and algorithms and rules of orthography of the respective languages, are trained to pronounce words based on these phonemes.
These are based on deep learning. Human voices are recorded to cover a wide range of phonemic combinations and intonation, such that they can be reproduced to create new renditions for completely different texts. The quality of these voices is improving day by day as more and more work is going into artificial intelligence and deep learning and computational linguistics.
Human voices on the other hand, are recorded by a real human beings, while reading from a script. All the attributes of human understanding and rendition come into play and the listen is natural and emotive. Human voice overs can be amateur or professional.
will usually record their voice overs using non-professional equipment such as phones and personal computers. Their voices are inexperienced and the recordings lack the professional touch. They will be marked by background noise, reverberation, breathing sounds, salivation and fricative noises.
These artistes record in professional studios. The voiceovers reflect deep experience and keen knowledge of modulation and intonation. Depending on the level of experience, a professional voiceover will be clean of salivation, breathing sounds and reverberation. There is almost no background sound. All files are studio edited and cleaned for pleasurable listening.
The choice of voiceover takes into account the following factors:
● duration
● legality
● cost
● control
● production time
● purpose and
● output quality
Professional translation now extends to voice translation and professional Voice Over. As much emphasis is placed on the selection of voice talent as on the choice of translator. The artiste and the translator must work in tandem – not as isolated parts of the process. The voice talent can give very valuable suggestion to make a text sound renderable, spoken, and fluid, unlike a written text meant for reading. Before the recording, the script can be edited based on the voice talent’s suggestions, besides the regular linguistic checks. Hence Voice Over artistes are now even considered professional translators of sorts and in many cases they double up as translators too.
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Vikram Malhotra is the Founder and CEO of Wordpar International.
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