The Difference Between Voice Over, Voice Acting & Dubbing
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Those not in the VO industry, often mistake one for the other or think voice over is the same as voice acting and dubbing.
So while they all involve voice recording, how are they to be differentiated from each other?
Let’s define each one first so the subtle differences can be understood better.
Voice Over – The voice of a female or male voice artiste recorded using a high-quality condenser microphone in an acoustic professional studio with a soundproofed booth for both broadcast and non-broadcast media for ad spots, commercials, documentary and all kinds of narration including IVR, e-learning, corporate videos, and tutorials. For TVCs and spots, it is usually recorded after the video or film is created using a script and timed to the video and visuals.
Voice Acting – When a Voice Artiste uses his or her voice modulation, inflection, intonation and impersonation skills to change up accent, pitch and disguise their natural speaking voice and manner to bring unique characters alive it is called voice acting. It’s a creative process and requires keen observation skills, memory and mimicry skills to pull off good voice acting. For animated shorts or films, it is usually recorded before the animation is produced. In fact, animators use the energy and expression in the voice to animate authentic emotion on screen.
Dubbing – When a voice artiste dubs or voices over for the lead or supporting actors in a film, animated movie or TV series in their native language, dialect or local accent so that the film, video, series can be syndicated or licensed to play or are released in other markets other than the original country of creation. It is a key service offered by localization companies that specialize in translation as well. Popular English movies or Japanese anime, for example, are dubbed in local languages in Asia like in India, China, and Korea or in European and African languages so people across the globe get access to and can buy and enjoy the entertainment. This is a very specific skill, as it requires lip-synching in a language, which might need more words or fewer words to express the same sentiment. It has to be very precise and keen observation skills are needed to match not only the acting, emotion, and intonation exactly but the movement of lips especially for close up shots. Both the voice actor and the sound engineer handling the dubbing project need to be very skilled. The term Automated Dialog Replacement (ADR) is used in post-production, and it is the process of re-recording dialogue by the original actor after the filming process to improve audio quality or reflect dialogue changes (also known as “looping” or a “looping session”). Originally, different singing voices were used for lead actors that couldn’t sing well enough. That’s how the idea of using a different voice initially emerged and dubbing or “re-voicing” was born. The whole process is time-consuming and complex and sound engineers use software like VocAllign Pro, apps, and plug-ins to automate the process wherever possible.
Now that each of these talents and services has been defined, you might get a clearer understanding and appreciation for the art of voice over, voice acting and dubbing.
Voice Acting experiences are so different from voice over in that they are definitely more creatively challenging. It’s acting without the camera. Sounding natural and authentic, living the scene out in your mind’s eye with usually no one else to bounce or queue off your lines as you have the opportunity to do in a live stage performance or even camera-facing scenes and productions, not being able to feed off another actor’s emotions, makes it even more of an imaginative process as you have to know what other actors in the scene are saying and feeling by reading and understanding the previous and forthcoming dialogue carefully so you can emote appropriately.
Netflix is heavily involved with dubbing and localizing its original content and licensed content from across the globe. It is opening up the opportunity for foreign language / non-English series content to be viewed by 371 million native English speakers globally. This, of course, opens up the opportunity for voice actors as well.
Voice over for commercials also requires voice acting if you’re playing a young mum at the park who’s lost her child for example or impersonating a little boy drinking a new energy booster beverage.
With advertisers now increasingly looking to hire natural-sounding, everyday people in their 360-degree campaigns so it’s more relatable, clickable and so that more eyeballs see it across social media as well, Voice Over Artists that are great Voice Actors as well are at an added advantage. That newsreader tone or uptight narration are soon becoming a thing of the past.
So more than just a good voice, it takes a lot more to be a voice-over artist, voice actor and dubbing artist and the more talent you have and skills you develop in this area the better for your career in the VO industry.
For Voice Training, Voice Over and Voice Acting workshops and to check out our Voice Bank of Female, Male Multi-lingual Talent and Child artists visit https://wondersofthevoice.com or visit www.voice4ads.com for a quote on your next voice over project.
About the writer: Noella is a seasoned voice-over artist, author, and singer with over 20 years of voice-over, voice acting and jingle experience. She plays the lead, ‘Ollie’ in the all-new CG animated TV serial ‘Ollie and Friends’ season 5 launched on OKTO on 5 (Mediacorp, Singapore).
