Frequently Asked Questions
GENERAL
Yes, all our voice talents are native mother-tongue speakers; we don’t accept non-native speakers on our roster.
Our talents record remotely and are residents of their language’s target markets (in other words, our Brazilian Portuguese talents are based in Brazil, our Italian talents are based in Italy etc. ) to ensure authenticity of accents.
Whilst local talents of course use our headquarters and record with us in-house for the purposes of language authenticity, we use mother-tongue voices who are native and resident within their respective target markets. As our talents are therefore based internationally in their respective home countries, most of our talents record remotely, either in their professional-grade home studio or at a local studio near them.
No problem! We will happily provide a custom sample free of charge for you to help ensure that you are confident in your order before proceeding.
We of course hope that won’t be the case! Having said that, re-records / edits to correct talent mistakes (such as mispronunciation / omission) are of course free!
Re-records or updates for other reasons however may result in an additional fee. We’ll always share our policies on re-records with you in our customer guidelines at the time of quoting however, so there won’t be any surprises!
ORDERING AND RECORDING
All sorts! We’ve had the pleasure of working with a huge variety of clients whose orders range from 10 second phone messages, to 30 second TV ads, to hour-long e-learning courses, and even 600+ hour machine learning projects! So whatever your requirements are, let us know and we’d be happy to provide you with a quote! No length is too big or too small!
In the meantime, you can take a look at some examples of our past work here on our case study page.
Delivery time depends on script size and the voice talent you have chosen. But we will always meet your deadline.
We support all common audio formats including wave, mp3, aiff, and others.
You can! We offer a Live Direct service in which clients can dial into the recording session with the talents to direct via Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or by phone, and provide feedback on takes live and in real time! Typically, these sessions are offered in 30-minute and 60-minute bookings (depending on the length of the script), however should you require a longer session, please do let us know and we’d of course be pleased to accommodate.
A real-time conversation between you and voice talent during the entire recording session to ensure directions are followed and interpretations are adapted properly.
We have extensive experience in QA (Quality Assessment) of audio files, and we know exactly what to look for in high-quality voice over work.
Usage fees are additional fees payable to the voice artist for the ongoing use of their voice recording – This particularly effects broadcast projects, and also some online work, depending on the intended audience size.
We can quickly and easily implement changes to the script after the recording’s has been done. However, a re-recording fee may be charged.
The default delivery format for voice-only audio (one voice, no music or other effects, etc) is:
- 44.1khz
- 16-bit
- mono
- WAV (PCM) files
Depending on other audio specifications (such as music mix, sound effects, etc), as well as the parameters of the platform on which the finished audio will be hosted / used (Netflix, Prime Video, cable TV, YouTube, etc), we can recommend appropriate format(s) and deliver audio in the best way for your project.
Absolutely – we would be delighted to assist with translating your English script into multiple languages. We use native translators in every language, who translate your script authentically and ensure that it is ready for recording. What’s more, we use a multi-stage translator process (i.e. multiple translators, reviewing / editing each other’s work) to ensure accuracy. Once the translations are complete and approved by yourselves, you’re then ready to have them recorded by your selected native voice talent(s).
Our standard session fee / non broadcast quotes are calculated based on the length of finished audio required per talent /language in a project, and therefore, the language selection itself will not have an affect on the quote given. For example, if you have a project which requires 5-minute voiceovers in 3 languages, the same quote would then be applicable for each.
The only time that the language selection may impact a quote would be for broadcast work. Here, the language selection would affect the size of the potential target audience and hence would affect each language’s usage fee slightly differently.
We do indeed offer script review and translation review services, in which one of our native linguists can review your script, and provide feedback, and / or if necessary, suggest any alterations that they feel would improve the ‘flow’ of the text.
After a project is delivered, there may be some small instances which you flag for correction, such as talent mistakes (mispronunciation / omission) or editing mistakes. We request that these are received in one batch together, and if agreed that they are the fault of the studio, they will of course be corrected free of charge.
Re-records / audio updates however that come about after delivery for other reasons, such as subjective feedback, script changes etc. would typically be considered additional work (due to the need to facilitate an additional recording session).
To minimise these kinds of issues, we only use experienced, native professionals. We also suggest that as well as selecting talent(s), you specify exactly which demo (and which part of which demo as appropriate) represents the desired style of read. If you will not be present in a Live Direct session (to instruct the talent in real-time), you are nevertheless invited to provide plenty of clear instructions, either via email or written and highlighted in the script. Advice on doing so can be found in our customer guidelines, which our team will provide to you during the quoting process.
EDITING AND FORMATTING
In its simplest terms, post-production includes everything necessary after the voiceover has been recorded (or rendered, as with text-to-speech technology). This stage can vary depending on your project. Videos often need careful editing and timing to match visuals and sound.
We offer subtitling translation in over 90 languages, from English for the deaf or hard of hearing to all common and not-so-common languages. You can learn more here.
Sound design is the process of recording, acquiring, manipulating, or generating audio elements. Our professionally-managed sound design service ensures your video content cuts through.
Not a problem – we can synchronize the audio so that the start and end time of each phrase match the required timings of your video. If we’re also assisting you with the translation process, we can also ensure that the translations are carried out with the time constraints of the source language in mind, to avoid any ‘overspill’ of the audio!
All of our talents record either in-house at our high-quality facilities, or in their professional-grade home studio, or local studio. So typically, the audio quality you can hear in their demos directly reflects the audio set up they would record on for projects too! These facilities have been certified as part of our talent on-boarding process. Moreover, our production team also carries out strict QA checks in the post-production stages of the voice over process, to ensure that the audio meets the VTO benchmark. If it doesn’t, we’ll address and remedy this before we deliver the audio to you, whether that means via corrections or re-record!