YouTube auto-dubbing: how to turn it off, and how to dub in your own voice
YouTube now dubs many videos automatically with AI, and the dubbed track often plays by default in your language. Some viewers like it; many want the original voice back. Creators, in turn, find their channel speaking languages they never recorded, in a voice that is not theirs.
This guide explains, according to YouTube Help, how automatic dubbing works, how viewers and creators can turn it off, and how to dub a channel in your own voice instead.
What automatic dubbing is
YouTube says automatic dubbing is enabled by default for eligible creators. Videos in English can be dubbed into about 20 languages, and videos in most supported languages can be dubbed into English; some languages use expressive speech that copies the speaker’s pitch and intonation. Dubbed videos are marked auto-dubbed in the description. YouTube lists matching the dubbing voice to the original as a known issue.
Turn it off as a viewer
YouTube lets viewers set preferred audio languages and switch between the original and the dubbed track for any video. In the player, open the settings (the gear icon), choose Audio track and pick the original language. YouTube Help does not describe a single switch that turns dubbing off for every video, so set your preferred languages to the ones you understand.
Turn it off as a creator
On a computer, in YouTube Studio go to Settings, then Channel, then Advanced settings, and uncheck Allow automatic dubbing; save. In the YouTube Studio app on Android, tap your profile picture, then Settings, and under Content tap Automatic dubbing to switch it off. To review dubs before they go live, choose Publish manually; on a computer the video’s Languages page lets you preview, publish, unpublish or delete dubs. A deleted dub cannot be republished.
Dub your channel in your own voice
If your viewers want other languages but you want to keep your voice, train it once: record a clean phrase of 5 to 10 seconds, create a voice in the studio and train it; training on your own NVIDIA graphics card is free. Translate your script, then install the free SuperClonica engine with python -m pip install superclonica-cpu and run superclonica --text-file script-es.txt --voice my-voice.json --lang es --normalize --output dub-es.wav, changing only the language. It runs offline in 31 languages, and the voice keeps a trace of your accent. If your channel can add audio tracks on the video’s Languages page, upload the file there.
Videos YouTube will not dub
According to YouTube Help, videos longer than 120 minutes, videos with little or no speech, unsupported or undetectable languages, speech that is too fast and copyrighted content may not be dubbed. Experimental lip sync, which alters the speaker’s lip movement, is available only to select channels.