Arabic Voice Over Archives - DeafCat Studios

Which Arabic Voice Over Talent is Right for You?

Deafcat Studios — Sun, 12 Jul 2015 20:01:49 +0000

Arabic Voice Over

You have a movie, cartoon, advert, radio spot or any project that needs Arabic Voice Over and you are not quite sure how to go about it? You ask around and the feedback around you just makes things more complicated because you realize that there are too many factors that come into play when choosing the proper Arabic voice over talent that would ensure a great final product? Well, we have compiled a couple of best practices that might help you take the proper decision.

1- Understanding the project type and the requirements: That is a no brainer really, but choosing the proper Arabic voice over talent is still a very important part of the project. A good director can help you cast the right talent since he/she usually knows the strengths and weaknesses of the talents that they work with. For example, some talents are really good for cartoon based projects and some are better for drama and others are really good at recording ads. It is very important to understand the project requirements very well and trust the director’s recommendations for a successful project.

2- Identifying your target audience: Every Arabic voice over job is supposed to speak out to a certain target audience; literally. Hence it is essential to be able to speak the target audience’s language. If you are talking to kids, you need to be able to speak their lingo, and if you are talking to business men you should be able to convey confidence etc. Consequently, adapting the translation to your target audience’s style is a very important aspect in delivering a powerful voice over project.

3- Choosing the right Arabic dialect: There are 300+ million Arabs in the Arab world who speak hundreds of different dialects. However, the good news is that modern standard Arabic is common for all. Hence, if you want to reach a vast majority of Arab speakers, you should always pick modern standard Arabic for your projects. Nevertheless, modern standard is not always the best option since it is very heavy and a bit classical and definitely is not the first choice for a comedy series for example. Instead you can opt for a lighter local dialect such as Lebanese that is still understood by the majority of Arabs.

4- Preserve the essence of the original reference video track: The majority of voice over projects that we work with at the studio usually have original English reference and M&E tracks. We find it extremely essential to preserve the essence of the original reference while working on the Arabic voice over track. Our job at the end of the day is to make sure that we are properly communicating the client’s message in as much authenticity as possible.

5- Provide clients with exceptional mixing and mastering services: Last but not least, mixing and mastering are the glue that holds the final project together. When poorly performed, mixing and mastering can easily turn a great voice over project into a major flop. Hence, it is important to work with mixing and mastering engineers that have experience in Arabic voice over projects.

Knowledge & Information about Arabic Language

You have to understand the the Arabic language is very hard sounding and can create a lot of sibilance, hence a talented sound engineer needs to be able to properly deal with the sibilance while making sure that the words are understandable and without affecting the overall audio track quality.

The post Which Arabic Voice Over Talent is Right for You? appeared first on DeafCat Studios.

Modern Standard Arabic Voice Over for Cartoons!

Deafcat Studios — Sun, 22 Feb 2015 21:49:03 +0000

A couple of days ago a producer at a TV network contacted me for a potential business collaboration. The project at hand was dubbing into Arabic cartoon series and animated movies. During our conversation, he asked me a few questions that you can find below in this Q&A.

Q: What is the difference between all the various Arabic dialects and which one in your opinion is the best sounding?

A: There are more than 30 dialects in the Arabic language and they are very different from each other. Some dialects are really heavy and influenced by other languages and other dialects are light and closer to the modern standard Arabic, hence the lighter the dialect the more understandable by the majority of Arabs. If you look at mass media in the MENA region, they usually opt for anchors who speak a lighter dialect like Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian or even Tunisian so that all Arabs can understand. It is very difficult for me to choose the best sounding dialect since it is very subjective; however, if I was to pick one, I would select a dialect that is light and modern such as Lebanese or Egyptian.

Q: Should Arabic voice over for cartoons be performed in modern standard Arabic or in a specific dialect?

A: Well if the cartoon is to be broadcasted to a mass regional audience, then it would make more sense to record it in modern standard Arabic and not a specific dialect.

Q: Do you think modern standard Arabic can be used for comedy roles or would it be better to opt for the local slang?

A: There is no doubt that some Arab regions are more relaxed than others, and people of these regions are usually very sociable and have a great sense of humor. Therefore, their local dialects can also be perceived as humorous. However, modern standard Arabic can be equally humorous if not more. We have dubbed funny cartoon series into modern standard Arabic and they were highly successful. I would definitely recommend it over a local dialect.

You can watch below some of the cartoons that have been dubbed with modern standard Arabic voice over.

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VO request from Dubai turns out to be quite challenging

Deafcat Studios — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 19:14:48 +0000

Technically, voice over (VO) projects are quite simple to do. However it gets a little bit complicated when the delivery date is very short and when the script is not available. The last voice over project I got from a small production house in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) and it was quite a fun challenge where I had to do script writing of 7 short videos (reportage) to which the main protagonist was a French guy speaking in English. That alone took quite a lot of time because I couldn’t understand what the French guy was saying in English. It was funny but the team and I did it.

After that, we had to translate the script from English to classical Arabic and then we had to find out the right talent to do VO. After recording the scripts, the mixing engineer did a fantastic job mixing the voice over with the original audio track so that all the videos had a uniformed master track. Taking on small projects like that is always fun because you never know what you might expect but most importantly because the studio can cater to the needs of smaller production houses with limited budgets.

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Arabic voice over for corporate presentations

Deafcat Studios — Sun, 28 Dec 2014 16:45:47 +0000

It seems that there are a lot of companies internationally that are looking to translate and add Arabic Voice Over to their corporate presentation. We at DeafCat Studios have a wide selection of Female and Male Arabic talents and copywriters that are more than qualified to cater to our clients’ needs. Voice Over in Arabic can be a little bit tricky since there are many dialects, therefore it is always advisable to go for the proper Arabic or the written one since it is common in all Arab speaking countries.

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