How to Dub a Video

VocalLab Video Dubbing takes a video, works out what is said and exactly when, then re-voices it in another language while keeping the original timing.

Watch the full walkthrough

Prefer to read? The written steps are below.

Dubbing is available on paid plans.

Dub a video

1. Open Dubbing in the Studio sidebar, under Create.
2. If your video isn't in the language auto-detect would guess, set the spoken language before you upload.
3. Drag in a video or audio file. Uploading costs nothing.
4. Check the file and the price on the review screen, then click Analyze.
5. When analysis finishes, pick a language and a voice, then click Translate.
6. In the editor, choose which lines to voice and click Voice … lines.
7. Click Download video. The file is built on demand.

What analysis does

Analysis transcribes your video and splits it into lines, cutting only inside natural pauses so no word is ever broken across a boundary. Each line keeps its exact start and end — that is what lets the dub stay in sync with the picture.

It is charged once. Dubbing the same video into a fourth language next month costs nothing extra for analysis, because the transcript is already paid for.

Translation that fits the picture

A dubbed line has to be speakable in the time the original took, so every line is translated against its own slot rather than on its own. Each line then carries a fit meter:

• Fits — lands comfortably in the original timing.
• Tight — fits, but had to be spoken slightly faster.
• Too long — still overruns its slot and needs a shorter wording.

The strip above the line list colours every line at once, so you can see the health of a whole dub at a glance and click straight to the one that needs you.

The editor

Translating produces a track in which every line still plays the original audio. You then voice the lines you actually want, which is what keeps a long video affordable.

• Edit the text of any line. Free.
• Voice or re-voice one line. Costs that line only.
• Cast a different voice on a single line — useful when the video has more than one speaker.
• Keep original leaves a line in the source speaker's voice on purpose. Free, and reversible.
• Takes — every re-voicing is kept, and switching back to an earlier reading is free.
• Trim shortens an overrunning line by cutting words from the end, so you can see the change before spending anything.
• Rebuild track folds your edits into the audio you hear on the video. Free.

What it costs

A line costs whichever is greater: 200 points per minute of the slot it has to fill, or 1 point per 17 characters of its text — with a floor of 5 points. Rewriting a line into a paragraph therefore costs what a paragraph costs, and the price on the button moves as you type.

Translating into the video's own language is free — there is nothing to translate, so no translation runs. Editing text, keeping the original, switching between takes and rebuilding the track are all free.

As a rough guide, a fully voiced dub of a 10-minute video into one language works out at about 250 points for analysis and 2,250 points for translation and voicing.

Supported files

• Video: mp4, mov, mkv, webm, avi
• Audio: mp3, wav, m4a, ogg, flac

Upload an audio file and you get a dubbed audio file back — the whole flow works without a picture.

Languages

Transcription covers 30 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The spoken language is detected automatically; set it yourself only if the transcript comes out wrong.

You can dub into 15 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Any voice can speak any language, including your own cloned and designed voices. The language picker sets what is said; the voice picker sets who says it — so an English voice with an Indian accent speaking Spanish is a perfectly valid choice.

Plans and limits

How long your files are kept

Your source video is kept for 14 days after you last work on it, then removed. Transcripts, translations and dubbed tracks stay with the project.

Finished videos are assembled at the moment you download them rather than stored, so a dub you never export never occupies space.