Voice is important for me when I translate.
When I got texts, I always (unconsciously) imagine
the suitable voice for the texts.
I do quite a lot of marketing translation, and each
company, brand or promotion has its own human-like characteristics. Some
companies specify the tone of the texts, but that's not enough for me. I need
to set its voice in my head from its character, specification etc. Stable?
High? Comforting? Energetic? Sultry? Fun? For example, if it's proper texts for general public,
I pull up goody-goody type of voice. And when I translate, I make that voice
read my texts in my head and see if it's natural.
Sometimes I get to do some voice script translations,
like audio guide and tutorial. They give me plain scripts, and later they
record with voice actors. In this case, when the final version comes out I can
compare with the voice I imagined and voice they chose. And that's fun. (And
yes, sometimes annoyed.. :)
