German and English voice for social, written for the mouth

German runs 15 to 20 percent longer than English for the same content, so a 30-second English script becomes a 35-second German read. Most suppliers solve that by rushing the read or re-cutting your picture. I rewrite the script to the timing of the cut you already have, which is why the writing is part of the work and not a line item on top of it. The rewrite: Copy written to be read on a page fails in the mouth. Compound nouns get broken apart, stacked subordinate clauses get unstacked, figures are written the way they are spoken because a reader hesitates at a numeral and the hesitation is audible. Then the script is timed against your cut and trimmed until the last word lands on the last frame instead of over it. If the copy is untouchable, this is not the right supplier; a script nobody may edit is a script that will need the picture changed. Casting: A standing roster of voices I have actually worked with, booked properly. Native German and native English. Alternates for the opening sentence are recorded in the same session, because the hook is where reads differ most and the difference is worth having in the edit rather than as a re-booking fee three weeks later. Regional reads: Hochdeutsch as the default, and a light Austrian or Swiss German read when the placement is AT or CH. A Hochdeutsch VO in a Swiss feed does not offend anyone. It just quietly costs you the assumption that the brand is local, which was the reason for the spend. What you receive: 48 kHz 24-bit WAV, dry and unprocessed, so your editor can rebalance against a music bed nobody has chosen yet. A mixed version at minus 14 LUFS integrated with true peak under minus 1 dBTP for feed placements. Hook alternates as separate files. An SRT transcribed from the recorded read rather than from the script, because the two diverge and captions that contradict the mouth are worse than no captions. Buyout: Term, territory and media named in writing. Twelve months, DACH, paid social is the standard, and it is quoted that way from the start. Perpetual and worldwide cost more and appear as their own line rather than buried in a rate, because the alternative is finding out in month fourteen that half your live library is unlicensed and the voice has changed agencies. What I refuse: Cloning a voice, including your founder's, without a signed and paid licence with an expiry date on it. Recording a script I have not been permitted to rewrite. A batch of forty reads by Friday, which is a marketplace order, and marketplaces do it cheaper and about as well. Not included: No video editing, no music licensing or sound design beyond the voice stem, no long-form dubbing or ADR, no telephony and IVR prompts, no audiobook or e-learning narration. If you need a voice matched to existing footage that is already locked and cannot move by a single frame, say so before booking, because the rewrite is what makes this work and a frame-locked cut removes it. Who this is not for: Teams who need the read tonight. Brands whose German copy has already been signed off word for word by legal and cannot change, since the entire value here is in changing it. How it runs: You send the cut and the English or German source copy. I return the rewrite with timings marked and a note on what I changed and why, you approve the words, then it is recorded. Revisions are on the read, not on the script, once the script is signed.