Voice-overs

Voice-over translation, or known as just a voice-over, is an audiovisual translation technique in which, unlike in dubbing, actor voices are recorded over the original audio track which can be heard in the background.

This method of translation is most often used in documentaries and news reports to translate words of foreign-language interviewees in countries where subtitling is not necessarily the norm. This method is also commonly used to translate foreign movies and TV shows in some countries, most notably in Eastern Europe, Mongolia, and Vietnam.

A typical voice-over translation is usually done by a single male or female voice artist. It is slow paced, therefore shortened but fully intelligible, usually following the original dialogue by a few seconds. Thus, the original audio can be heard to some extent, allowing the viewer to grasp the actors' voices, yet due to the lack of synchronization between original dialogue and a voice-over, original music is usually a victim of lowering the original track's volume. The voice-over usually contains only a hint of emotion, as many of the interpreters try to sound "transparent" to the audience. A significant drawback of such dubbing is the ambiguity as to which character is speaking at a given time, as the interpreter usually makes very few changes in intonation to distinguish between different participants in a dialogue. Any text appearing on the screen is also usually read out by the interpreter, although in more recent times, it is sometimes carried with subtitles covering any on-screen text.