What is audio localization and how does it differ from audio engineering? In this Localization Podcast mini-clip, Yago Sagrado from Keywords Studios will explain it to us.
Andrej Zito
When we talk about audio, maybe you can speak for games or maybe you can even speak like in audio localization, in general – what actually belongs to audio localization besides voiceover?
Yago Sagrado
It kind of is an ongoing discussion. You know, because audio localization, in terms of audio, when audio development ends, and when audio localization start is a bit of a blurry line. Of course, if you’re adapting something, you’re going to know, it’s localization. And if you’re creating something, it’s development. But maybe you’re creating some assets for localization. Because maybe, for example, given a character that has a, you know, strong voice effect, or you have to mix some effects in the, in a cinematic, for example, most of the times you’re giving the assets to work with but the mix is on your own. So the final makes this kind of a thing you’re doing. So you’re giving assets, but you’re not really just adapting them, you’re creating a mix and your kind of own. So the lines are blurry, I would say of course, dubbing is clear audio localization, but then you have post production. For example, post production is also part of the localization process mixing QA of the audio files. I would say that is still localization but as deeper you go within the audio engineer role, so what those guys do, the lines get a little bit blurry because they may be creating some stuff on their own to, to add to the localized product, but yeah, it has to be very similar to the original.
