How to dub a video into another language, step by step

Dubbing a video is a short chain: a clean source, a script you trust, a voice you like, and a check before you publish. This guide follows the chain in order, with Dublio as the example.

1. Decide who it is for

Name the audience and the language before anything else. Which country or region? Which register: a polite lecture or a friendly channel? A one-line answer such as “Spanish for Mexico, friendly, addressing viewers as tú” saves a lot of editing later, and it is exactly what you will write in the instructions.

2. Prepare the video

Clear speech, little noise, one speaker at a time. Read Prepare your video for dubbing for the habits that matter. Keep the original file: Dublio works from a file you own, and clip mode replaces the upload with the cut part.

3. Test on a short part

Fill in a start and an end time on the New dub form and dub one minute first. You hear the voice, see the tone and spot the terms that need instructions, using very few minutes.

4. Write the instructions

Tone, address form, names to keep, words to avoid. See How to write instructions for the translator. Do this before the first translation. It is cheaper than correcting every line afterwards.

5. Read the script

This is the step that decides quality. The translation sits next to the original, line by line. Check names, numbers, technical terms and anything funny. Edit a line by hand, or press the circular arrow to translate just that line again. Press play on a line to hear it.

6. Choose a voice

Thirty voices, grouped female and male. Press Hear to listen in your language, and pick the one that fits the content. A calm voice suits a lecture and a brighter one suits a channel. One voice is used for the whole video.

7. Generate and look for tags

Press Generate. Dublio voices sentences as a whole, then fits them into the timing of the original. Lines that were shortened or sped up are tagged in the script and coloured on the timeline. Open those first: they are the ones where the translation was longer than the original slot. Shorten the line by hand if it sounds rushed.

8. Subtitles, brand and export

Decide whether subtitles are burned in, add your logo or corner text, and choose a video size. These only change the export, so you can change them later with a free re-export. See How to add subtitles in another language.

9. Check on a phone before you publish

Watch the result the way your audience will, on a small screen with the volume at a normal level. Listen to the first thirty seconds, the numbers and the names. Read the subtitles. If something is off, fix the line and generate again: only the changed part is voiced again.

10. Publish honestly

Say that the voice is synthetic where the law or the platform requires it, and consider saying it anyway. Translate the title and the description. Upload the SRT as a subtitle track if the platform takes one, so viewers can read as well as listen. Keep the original-language video available.