What's with the alphabet soup…? ADR, VO, OS, Automatic Dialog Replacement, Automated Dialog Replacement, Looping, they all have one thing in common - a good vocal booth.
ADR; Automated/Automatic Dialog Replacement (depends who you ask); Looping, is the process of re-recording lines originally delivered by the actor on set. What ever you call it, it's done in a vocal booth, where the actor watches their original performance on video and tries to match the emotion, delivery and lip-sync of the original scene. It’s a lot to expect and it can be tricky to get it right.
VO is voice over. While it is recorded in a vocal booth like ADR, it is not lip synced. That doesn't mean the timing is not important for VO, it can be critical! If your voice actor gives you a 40 sec.read for a 30 sec. spot, well, "Houston, you've got a problem".
OS or "Off Screen" is dialog spoken by characters in the diegetic space of the story, but not visible on screen while speaking - a character that calls out from around the corner for instance. Like ADR, OS must have the "sonic feel" of the original environment. For that reason it's often recorded on set, but when added as an afterthought it's important to record OS clean and dry - no echoes. To do that we need a good vocal booth with absorbent acoustics. OS recorded dry can be further processed to "fake" the diegetic environment. OS dialog that is not recorded in the original environment or in a dry booth, will be difficult or impossible to match to the picture.
Most post production dialog recording needs a quiet, acoustically dry environment so we built one here in our studio. Having a good vocal booth is an extra benefit when you post your audio with Doghouse Productions. If you need ADR, VO, or OS it’s all in house under one roof. That means greater efficiency and lower cost to you!