English Voiceover and Dubbing

Your audience speaks English – just like us! But that doesn’t mean they have the same cultural identity. They may be from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, or one of the four countries in the United Kingdom. To connect with these listeners and viewers, you need more than a translation app or dictionary – you need authenticity.

The linguists at SPG Studios are acutely aware of how word choice, phrasing, and accents influence perception and meaning. Our English-language specialists and voice talent deliver that nuance and context. Moreover, their work passes through both peer review and quality control to ensure the finished product is culturally relevant and immersive.

The result is high-quality localization, and it’s what SPG has done for over 30 years for clients as diverse as film studios, gaming companies, universities, web content providers, Fortune 500 companies and the ad agencies that serve them.

Why should you localize your content for English-speaking markets?

English is spoken by over 1.132 billion people worldwide in over 100 countries, making it the most spoken language in the world. It is also the official language of over 50 countries. The collective economy of the English-speaking world exceeds $22 trillion in annual GDP, representing a quarter of the world total.

Localizing products and services into English is crucial. There are variations within English that span across several markets. If you are looking for Australian, South African, Canadian, or New Zealand-specific voiceovers, they require coordination with voice and translation talent from that specific region. We are frequently called upon to “translate” and re-record projects from one English variation to another!

Whether you dub, subtitle, or narrate, localizing into English gives you access not only to predominantly English-speaking countries, but also a massive worldwide expatriate community. International companies have enjoyed great success localizing their marketing and ad campaigns, training videos, TV and radio spots, VOD (video on demand), e-learning materials, video games, and more into English.

Over the past 30+ years, SPG has provided localization services in English for feature films, TV and other episodic series, documentaries, video games, web content, commercials, TV and radio spots, e-learning and training videos. In the majority of cases, we’re asked to provide voice-overs, narrations, or dubs, which are sometimes referred to as video dubbing or audio translation. Sometimes clients also need us to prepare subtitles, translations, graphics localization, and other media services.

SPG has lots of friends in the English-speaking world! We work with a large and diverse range of native voice artists, directors, localization experts, and recording and mixing engineers. Depending on the content type and project goals, we can employ:

• “UN style” voice-over, which plays “on top of” the original dialog
• Narration that replaces the original, or
• Lip-sync dubbing, which synchronizes to lip movements and reflects the tone and emotional quality of the original speaker

All three styles require linguists to translate the as-recorded script to bring every nuance of your source material into English. Dubbing requires the added step of adapting the script to optimize the sync between our recorded English audio and the original visuals. SPG’s best-in-class adapters scrutinize each word and phrase to ensure the dubbed performance conveys the exact “feel” of the original.

For many clients, the most crucial step in the process is casting English voices. SPG can manage the entire process, or present you with filtered or unfiltered lists of voice samples. We can offer a near-limitless variety of ages, styles, tonal quality, and performance capabilities. SPG has dubbed children singing, aliens speaking a made-up language, and everything in between!

Other critical steps in the process include:

• Pairing English and regionally appropriate voice talent with session directors and talented recording engineers
• Editing, mixing, and post-production services that ensure the audio quality sounds perfect
• File transfer, digital asset management, efficient workflow tools, and secure digital rights management

After recording is complete, we turn our attention to the graphics localization of onscreen text, titles/credits, “lower thirds”, and other written material. To fully immerse your audience, all relevant text should use the written English appropriate for your target region!

When text or narration is preferable to lip-sync voice dubbing, SPG offers subtitling, closed captioning, and audio description services. Our roster of English-speaking translators, linguists, adapters, and editors have extensive experience creating subtitles and closed captions in a timely and cost-effective manner. We also employ audio description specialists with thousands of hours of experience delivering information to the sight-impaired community.