The translation feature in Descript allows you to easily translate your transcript into different languages. You can also dub your original speech into another language using AI Speakers. The translate feature also lets you generate translated closed captions (.srt) and transcripts, enhancing the reach and impact of your videos.
Supported languages for translated captions | |||
---|---|---|---|
English (US) | Latvian | Romanian | Chinese (Mandarin) |
Japanese | Korean | Greek (Beta) | Hindi (Beta) |
Catalan | Finnish | Lithuanian | Slovak |
Croatian | French (FR) | Malay | Slovenian |
Czech | German | Norwegian | Spanish (US) |
Danish | Hungarian | Polish | Swedish |
Dutch | Italian | Brazilian Portuguese | Turkish |
Getting started
If you also want burned-in captions translated, we recommend adding a captions layer first. Otherwise, your translation will only generate a translated transcript with closed captions (.srt).
- Navigate to the Underlord panel.
- Under the Repurpose section, choose Translate.
- Select the desired language for your translation. For example, if you want to translate to German, choose "German". You can also select multiple languages by clicking the check box next to the languages you want to translate into.
If you go back for more translations, we’ll mark any languages you’ve already generated with a green dot.
If you submit a new translation for one of the existing languages, it will overwrite it with a new version. This will also overwrite any corrections you’ve made.
- You can also dub speech using AI Speakers. This feature allows you to select AI voices for each speaker in your transcript. The AI will then generate speech in the selected language using the selected AI Speaker. Please remember that dubbing into multiple languages at once will deduct your remaining dubbing time per selected language and that Descript will only dub the script audio and that any audio from other layers will be preserved in their original language.
Currently, dubbing is supported in the following languages:
English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Hindi, Polish, Czech, Dutch, Romanian, Turkish, Greek, Danish, Malay, Finnish, Hungarian, Norwegian, Slovak, Croatian, Swedish, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, and Korean.
For business and enterprise users, the following languages will also have the benefit of our native-sounding AI speaker voices which are designed specifically for their language: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Dutch, Hindi, Turkish, Swedish, Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, and Korean.
These can be found in the Recommend section when choosing what AI Speaker you want to use for dubbing.
You can dub into any Legacy v2 stock AI Speaker or authorized custom AI speaker. If a custom speaker in your project is not authorized for AI speech generation, you will not be able to select it.
- Once the translation is complete, you will be shown the translation, and if your plan allows, you can make adjustments to your translation. If you already have an existing translation, you will be notified that if you choose to translate into that language again, it will replace the old one and overwrite any manual corrections.
Previewing translations
Once the translation is complete, you can playback the translated script and preview each section.
If you have selected to dub any translation, you may need to wait for the AI speech to generate before being able to playback the dubbed media. The text "Generating speech " will note this," where the playback button is.
Note that translated captions layers will appear in the video preview at the bottom of the modal. However, if you don't have a captions layer applied to some part of the video, you won't see any newly translated captions in the video preview either.
Important Tips
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Accessing Translations - Click on the language menu and then the language to open the translation. You can also select New translation to open the Underlord panel and start a new translation.
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Additional Options - If you open the menu next to the language name, you will find a few options to help manage your translations. Re-translate the composition, copy a direct link to the translation, export the translated content, or delete the translation if needed.
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Manual Syncing - Translations do not automatically sync with edits to the original composition. If you make changes to the original transcript, you must re-translate. Note that this will overwrite any manual corrections you've made since you last translated into this language.
Making adjustments (Business and Enterprise plans only)
You may need to make minor adjustments to ensure accuracy. You can playback the translated script and preview each section to make the necessary corrections or timing adjustments by moving words or sections of text around.
Also, remember that if you make any corrections to dubbed content, you will be prompted to regenerate the audio before playback is available.
Remember that project edits can only be made from the Original view of the composition. If you're viewing a translation, you will need to switch back to the original view to edit the video or base transcript. After editing the original, re-translate to propagate updates to the translated versions.
Publishing Your Translated Content
After finalizing the translated script, click Publish on your original composition at the top right. Here, you can export or publish your translation.
- Under Publish or Export, choose one of the languages you have generated (e.g., German) to ensure your video is published in the appropriate language.
- If you would like to bulk export multiple translations at once, you can do so via the export tab. Select Export, then choose which translations you want to export from the language dropdown, then click Export.
- If you would like to export a translated transcript or a .srt file, you can do so in the export menu by choosing Transcript or Subtitles.