Addavox User Manual

Important: While Addavox's AI can localize videos into another language, human verification is essential. At minimum, have a native speaker review the output. For best results, engage a professional linguist, voice artist, or language service provider skilled in video localization.

Create Account and Login

Introduction

This guide will walk you through the process of creating your Addavox account and logging in to access the platform's features.

Step 1: Access Sign In

  • Navigate to Addavox.com
  • Click on the Sign In button in the navigation area

Step 2: Sign Up Process

  • Click on Sign up at the bottom of the sign-in screen
Sign Up Link Location
  • Complete the sign-up form with the following information:
    • First Name
    • Last Name
    • Email Address
    • Password
    • Confirm Password
Sign Up Form
  • Review and agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
  • Click the Sign Up button to complete your registration

Note: Make sure to use a valid email address as you'll need to verify your account.

Step 3: Email Verification

  • After clicking Sign Up, you'll see a screen prompting you to verify your email address
  • Check your email inbox for a verification message from Addavox
  • If you don't receive the email:
    • Check your spam folder
    • Click the Resend Email button to have another verification email sent

Important: You must verify your email address before you can access your Addavox account.

  • After confirming your email, click the Log In button
  • You will be automatically logged into your new Addavox account
  • The Home screen of the Addavox app will appear, where you can begin using the platform

Regular Login Process

For all future visits to Addavox, follow these simple steps:

  • Visit Addavox.com
  • Click the Sign In button
  • Enter your credentials:
    • Email address
    • Password
  • Click Sign In to access your account

Tip: Make sure to keep your login credentials secure and never share them with others.

Getting Help

Help Email

  • Click on the Help menu on the left
  • Fill out the email template, including screenshot, and hit Send Report.
⌥ + ? | Alt + ?

Load Help Modal - Opens and closes the help modal to send a message to Addavox about any issues you may be having.

Speech grouping

Interface Hot Keys

⌘ + ? | Ctrl + ?

Load Hot Keys Modal - Opens the Hot Keys modal. Close it by either:

  • Clicking the 'x'
  • Clicking the 'Got It'
  • Pressing ⌘ + ? or Ctrl + ? again

Create Teams/Organizations

Introduction

Each person who signs up for Addavox has a personal account and they can localize videos in their personal account. When an organization wants to have multiple people work on the same project together they need to create a Team or Organization to create projects and manage projects collaboratively.

Step 1: Access Settings

  • On the Home screen, click the Settings menu item on the left
Settings Menu Access

Step 2: Create Team

  • Under Create Team, click on Create
Create Team Button

Step 3: Name Your Team

  • Enter your Team Name
  • Click Create
Name Team Dialog

Step 4: View Your Teams

  • In Settings below Create Team, you will now see your new organization
  • You can create as many different teams or organizations as you need
View Teams List

Note: You are automatically setup as the Account administrator, but that role can be changed later, if needed.

Step 5: Switch Between Teams

  • When you create a new Team or are asked to join a Team, click on your avatar in the top right
  • You will see your Teams in the dropdown menu
  • Select the Team you want to work with
  • You can now create projects under that team
Team Selection Dropdown

Step 6: Invite Team Members

  • Return to the Home screen
  • Click on Members in the top menu
Members Menu
  • Click on Invite to Team to add team members
  • Enter the user's email address
  • Select their role from the following options:
    • Account Administrator: Has all rights to add users in any role and create new administrators
    • Account Manager: Can create projects, approve them using company funds, and add users who can work on projects
    • Account User: Can work on any projects as a Transcriptionist, Linguist, or Voice Artist
Invite Team Member Dialog

Important Notes:

  • No one is charged for having an account to work on any project. They can perform their work at no cost to them or you for them being in the system.
  • If invited users don't have a personal Addavox account yet, the system will email them and invite them to create an account to join your team.

Creating a Project

Introduction

This guide will walk you through the steps to create a new project in Addavox, from starting the project to uploading your files and selecting processing options.

Tips for Video Upload

Videos can be large and upload speed depends on your internet connection and file size. Here's a helpful tip to optimize your workflow:

You can reduce the size of your video before upload without affecting localization quality. When complete, you can download individual assets (like language soundtracks or subtitle files) and add them to your original movie.

Upload Time Example:

  • Upload speed: 40 Mbps (fairly fast)
  • Original 142 GB .mov movie:
    • Size in megabits: 142 GB × 8,000 = 1,136,000 megabits
    • Upload time: 1,136,000 megabits ÷ 40 Mbps = 28,400 seconds
    • Hours to upload: 28,400 seconds ÷ 3,600 = 7.89 hours
  • Reduced 10 GB .mp4 version:
    • Upload time: approximately 34 minutes

Pro Tip: We recommend transcoding high-bitrate MOVs to MP4 with H.264 or H.265 before upload to your app for dramatically reduced file sizes with preserved or near-identical quality. Fine-tune bitrate and ensure original resolution/frame rate. This is an industry best practice for remote video collaboration and will improve uploading performance significantly.

Step 1: Start a New Project

  • Click the Home or Manage menu options or the Addavox logo.
  • On the right side of the screen, click the New Project button.
New Project Button Location

Step 2: Name Your Project

  • Enter a name for your project in the field provided and press Enter or click Next.
Project Naming Screen

Step 3: Select Source Language

  • When the Select Source Language box appears, choose or enter the language of your source video.
Source Language Selection

Step 4: Upload Your Video

The Upload Video box will appear.

Upload Video Interface

You can either:

  • Drag and drop your video file(s) into the upload box, or
  • Click inside the upload box to browse and select files from your computer.

Step 5: Choose Tasks to Perform

Select the tasks you want Addavox to perform. Available options include:

  • Transcription
  • Foreign Subtitles
  • Foreign Audio
  • Lip Sync Coming soon
Task Selection Interface

Step 6: Select Target Languages for Foreign Audio

  • By default, you will see languages supported by AI Mimic and Synthesized Voices (indicated by 'AI' in the select box).
  • Each AI supported language has 2 possible icons:
    • Synthesized voice icon Synthesized voices
    • Mimic voice icon Mimic voices
  • To view all available languages and dialects for human voiceover, deselect (click) on the AI icon on the right in green.
  • You can select multiple languages to localize your video.
  • When done hit Next button.

Note: If you have a voice artist who speaks any dialect or language, their voice can also be altered with AI to mimic any speaker in your video for all languages or dialects.

Language Selection Interface

Step 7: Review Cost Estimate

  • Addavox will calculate the estimated cost based on your selections and the length of your videos.
  • If you are only creating subtitles, you will see that this service is free.
  • If you selected voiceover, you would see a breakdown of each video, its length, and the associated cost.
  • If you have enough credit in your account and agree to the charges, click Approve to continue.
  • You can hit Back if you would like to go back to the New Project screen and adjust the project.

Important: Your account will be debited the quoted amount once you hit Approve.

Cost Estimate Screen

Step 8: AI Processing

On the Manage screen:

  • After you click Approve, it will begin AI processing.
  • Your files will begin uploading and processing.
  • Processing time depends on the number and length of your videos.
  • Addavox's AI processes are much faster than real-time playback.

Note: Addavox automates many manual localization tasks during this processing phase. While this may take some time, you don't need to keep your browser open. Feel free to close the browser and return later when processing is complete.

Credit Approval Screen

Step 9: Processing Complete

  • When the Setup and Transcribe automated AI task indicators turn green then you can click the video name or Edit Video link to begin editing.
Processing Screen

Tips

  • You can change the name of the video file later on the Home screen.
  • You can always return to Manage to monitor progress or make changes.

Edit Transcription

Introduction

This lesson will guide you through the process of editing and cleaning up transcriptions in Addavox. You will learn how to identify speakers, refine the transcription text, and adjust subtitle settings for clarity and accuracy.

Step 1: Access the Transcription Editor

Once your project is loaded, click the Edit Video button located above the progress tiles and columns to open the transcription editor.

Accessing the Transcription Editor

Step 2: Identify and Assign Speakers

Important Note: Editing of speaker avatars, gender, and names can only be done in the Transcribe editor. They can't be changed in Translation or Lip Syncing. You have to return to Transcribe in the editor to make any changes.

  • In the Setup process AI has attempted to separate the different voices and identify faces that are speaking. It will try to label the speakers with the faces in the top right corner of the video.
  • If you need to change the face, draw a square around the speaker's face on the video frame. After you draw it, you can move it and resize it and then press Enter.
  • You can also click on the avatar and it will place a box on the screen for the avatar. You can drag it into place and change the size by dragging the corners in and out. Press Enter to set it.
Drawing face square
Moving and resizing face square
  • If you know the name of the speaker, you can click on the name to enter the speaker's name and hit Enter.
Entering speaker name
  • If the AI didn't get the gender right, you can click the gender icon and select the correct gender for the speaker and hit Enter.
  • The system will automatically assign this speaker to subsequent segments until you indicate a new speaker.
  • When the AI doesn't get it right or doesn't identify all the speakers, you can click on the New Speaker button.
Adding new speaker
  • If the AI has identified the wrong speaker, you can select the correct name from the dropdown menu when a different person speaks.

Why this matters? Proper speaker identification ensures accurate translation and voiceover, and keeps the transcription organized.

Step 3: Clean Up the Transcription

  • Review the transcription text and edit as needed.
  • The text edit window is below the video in a ticker tape approach to sync up with the video and audio.
Text edit window
  • Keep speech grouped into whole sentences or complete utterances. If a speaker pauses or changes thought, break or combine segments accordingly.
  • Making sure that each segment has the right timing makes the voice over task much easier to complete and the lip dubbing more accurate.

Important: Accurate speaker identification and sentence grouping will save time in translation and voiceover steps.

Note: You can use the following Hot Keys in cleaning up the transcription. There are two modes when transcribing the video. You can only use specific hot keys when you are in the proper mode.

Hot Keys for Video/Audio Mode

To Enter Video/Audio Mode:

Click on the sound wave in any segment

Available Hot Keys:

  • Spacebar Pause / Play
  • Click + Drag Shift Segment Left or Right - Click on the center of the sound wave segment and drag
  • ⌘ + ←/→ | Ctrl + ←/→ Move Segment - Click outside the segment left or right, then hold Command key and use arrow keys
  • ⌥ + ←/→ | Alt + ←/→ Shift Segment Start/End Markers - Select and drag the Segment Marker, or click a point and use Option with arrow keys

Hot Keys for Text Editing Mode

To Enter Text Mode:

Click on the text in any segment

Note: When you click on any word in the text, the audio file will also sync up to the time of the word and you can play the audio from that point forward.

Navigation Hot Keys:

  • Shift + Spacebar Play & Switch to Video Mode
  • Tab Move to Next Word
  • Shift + Tab Move to Previous Word

Focused Text Editing:

  • Double-click Zoom in on Segment
  • Esc | Return Exit Zoom in on Segment

Segment Management:

  • Return Split Segments - Place cursor in front of the first word of second segment

Note: This will capitalize the first letter of the second segment and if no other punctuation is present will add a period to the end of the previous segment.

  • Delete Merge Segments - Place cursor at the beginning of the segment you want to merge with previous
  • Shift + Click then Delete Delete Segments - Select segments with Shift + Click. The segment borders will turn red. Then hit delete to remove them.
  • Click + Drag + Release Create Segment - In the audio wave form where there are no text segments, you can click drag from top left to bottom right, over the audio wave form. If you hold it before you release it will play the audio so you can hear it to confirm placement. This will create a new transcription for any segment deleted or missed in the original transcription run.

Word Management:

  • ⌃ + Space | Ctrl + Space Preview Word - Select a word and then hold Control + Spacebar to see and hear the word played
  • ⌘ + ←/→ | Ctrl + ←/→ Shift Word - Select a word and then hold Command + Left Arrow or Right Arrow key to move the whole word left or right in time and hear the word spoken
  • ⌘ + ←/→ | Ctrl + ←/→ Move Word Start Time - Select a word and then hold Command + Left Arrow key and it will move the cursor to the start of the word. Repeating Command + Left Arrow key will continue to adjust the time and play the word so you can hear when the sound of the word starts. With the cursor at the beginning of the word you can also adjust the start time to the right to find the start of the word sound with the Command + Right Arrow key.
  • ⌘ + ←/→ | Ctrl + ←/→ Move Word End Time - Select a word and then hold Command + Right Arrow key and it will move the cursor to the end of the word. Repeating Command + Right Arrow key will continue to adjust the time and play the word so you can hear when the sound of the word ends. With the cursor at the end of the word you can also adjust the end time to the left to find the end of the word sound with the Command + Left Arrow key.

Step 4: Adjust Subtitle Length Settings

  • At the bottom center of the video screen, use the slider to set the maximum number of characters per subtitle.
Subtitle length settings
  • This setting helps the system automatically break up longer sentences for easier on-screen reading.
  • The system will always try to break subtitles at natural points, such as word breaks and the start of a sentence or utterance.

Translation and Voiceover Editing

Introduction

This lesson will guide you through the process of editing and cleaning up AI translations and voice dubbing in Addavox. You will learn how to edit the translation and adjust it to not only convey the meaning of the content but the intent of the spoken word along with the time available for the translation.

Unlike document translation, linguists that do video translation and voice over know that they must match the timing of each utterance to the source. This requires paraphrasing of some content to either make it shorter or longer to fit the time available. Addavox includes AI to assist with the paraphrasing as well as many of the other tasks.

Like everything else in Addavox the AI is there to assist the linguist and voice artist, not replace them. Most AI is automatic or initiated with a simple hot key. Learn the hot keys as they will help you do the work much faster and with higher accuracy.

Step 1: Access the Translation and Voiceover Editor

  • Once the transcription is complete, make sure it is done before you do translation you can switch to the Translation Editor in the left menu.
Translation Editor Menu Selection
  • As soon as you select the Translate view a new line will appear below the transcription and the AI will start translating.
Translation View with Audio Waveform
  • If you have selected to do voiceover also an audio sound wave for each segment will also appear and your voiceover options will appear in the left panel.

Step 2: Setup the Sound Mixer

Only if you have selected Voiceover during setup:

  • On the far right of the transcription/translation/voiceover bar there is a mixer you can click and pull out.
Create Editor View Dialog
  • When you click on it, it opens to let you select which sound waves you want to have played while you are playing the audio.
Editor View Creation Confirmation

The 3 channels include (from left to right):

  • Background Audio
  • Original Voice(s)
  • Translation
  • The 'S' represents 'Solo'.
  • The 'M' means 'Mute'. It is usually a good idea to select the M-mute button for the Original Voice(s).
  • You can also adjust the volume of any track as needed.
  • Once set, you can click on the icon and close it down.
  • The mixer settings only affect playback and preview of the audio. They have no effect on the final audio mix.

Step 3: Setup Voiceover

Only if you have selected Voiceover during setup

  • On the far left you can select which voice over option you wish to use and adjust individual segments as needed.
Video Transcription Interface

There are 4 options for voiceover:

  • Synthesized Voices

    Synth voices are available in many languages and dialects for both male and female voices and are pre-built voices.

  • Mimic

    Mimic attempts to clone each speaker's vocal qualities and then emulate them speaking the foreign language.

  • Human Voice

    When selected Voice will let a Voice Artists record segment by segment their voice over. They can record it and re-record it as many times as they see fit to get it right.

  • Human Voice Mimic

    When you select Voice you will have another option with the 'V' or 'Voice Mimic' button. When selected it revises the Voice Artist's recording to mimic the original speaker's vocal qualities while maintaining the emotion and performance of the professional voice artist.

    ⌃ + V | Ctrl + V Toggle Voice Mimic on/off

Language Options

  • Select language – In the top left is a drop down of the languages you selected when you setup the project and you can switch languages.
  • Add Languages – In the top right is a plus symbol '+'. By selecting it you can add additional languages to translate and do voiceover. If you select a language, it will tell you how much the new language will cost and seek your approval. Hit the 'x' to cancel adding a language, if needed.

Voice Selection

Below the voiceover options is a drop down for the voices:

  • Synth - It will list the voices available for Synth. When selected it will generate an audio for the segment, and you can play it to see if it is the voice you want. Once selected it will keep that voice for that speaker unless you switch it.
  • Mimic – Will show the name of the speaker as it was setup in the Transcription. If the wrong speaker is selected, you can change it and it will generate a new audio cloning the new voice. It will automatically generate the cloned voice for each language.

Note: Addavox is designed to only mimic a voice speaking a different language. We have taken precautions to not let mimic be used for deepfakes or other nefarious uses.

  • Voice – If you do multiple recordings, you will see each listed in the drop down so you can select your preference.

Note: Although Mimic and Synth voices attempt to emulate the emotions and natural sound of speech, they don't always emulate the original speaker's performance. Professional Voice Actors are best suited for this task.

Audio Controls

  • Normalize ⌃ + N | Ctrl + N – If you select the 'N' button it will normalize the audio wave.
  • Volume – Segment by segment you can adjust the volume.
  • Base – Segment by segment you can adjust the base.
  • Treble – Segment by segment you can adjust the treble.

Step 4: Edit the Translation and Voice over

  • Like in the Transcription Editor you will edit the translation in the ticker tape like window just below the transcription for each segment.
  • Because the AI automatically does the voiceover while you update the translation you can edit the voiceover with the translation to make sure it is well dubbed.

Hot Keys

There are 2 modes for the Translation / Voiceover editor:

Video / Voiceover Audio Mode

Space

Pause / Play Voiceover – Select the soundwave and hit the Spacebar.

⌃ + F | Ctrl + F

Force Reload of Audio – Will force the AI to regenerate the target audio.

Shift Voiceover

  • Select the sound wave on any segment and drag it left or right to move it to the right time.
  • You can also select a point outside the segment and then hold the Command key and hit the Left Arrow and or Right Arrow to move the segment's start or end to that moment in the timeline.

Adjust Voiceover Length

  • Compress – Click on the waveform and hold the Option key while dragging left to shorten the time.

Note: You should ONLY compress or expand the audio a little as doing it too much will cause the voice to sound too slow or too fast.

  • Expand – Click on the waveform while holding the Option key and drag right to stretch the audio.

Adding Pauses

  • Short Pause – Enter a 'comma' after any word (Note: commas will appear in subtitles)
  • Long Pause – Switch to Transcription Editor, split sentence with Return key, adjust timing, then return to Translation editor.

Translation Edit Mode

Double-click

Zoom in on Segment – When done editing hit Return to close.

Return/Esc

Exit Zoom in

⌘ + ← | Ctrl + ←

Summarize or Shorten Translation

⌘ + → | Ctrl + →

Expound or Lengthen Translation

⌘ + ↑ | Ctrl + ↑

Back Translate the Translation

⌘ + ↓ | Ctrl + ↓

Recopy Source to Target

⌃ + ⌫ | Ctrl + Del

Delete the Reference to the Audio

Interface Hot Keys

⌃ + C | Ctrl + C

Show / Hide Audio Controls

Show/Hide Audio Controls Interface
⌃ + S | Ctrl + S

Reload Subtitles

⌃ + N | Ctrl + N

Toggle Normalize on and off

⌃ + M | Ctrl + M

Toggle Mixer in and out

⌃ + V | Ctrl + V

Toggle Voice Mimic on and off

⌃ + D | Ctrl + D

Download Segment Audio

Step 5: Human Voice Over

Only if voiceover and Voice selected for recording

How an actor says their lines is an important part of their performance. Most AI voices sound natural and are good enough these days to fool many. However, the AI voices, even with clones are not good enough yet to recreate a person's theatrical performance. This is where Human Voice Artists come in.

  • If you have elected to use Professional Voice Artists, they can complete their recording in Addavox, and the final performance will be mixed automatically at the end.
  • First, select Voice in the Voice controls on the bottom left.
  • Select the segment you want to record.

Recording Hot Keys

⌃ + U | Ctrl + U

Upload a Recording for the Segment – You can upload a recording if you prefer instead of recording directly in Addavox.

⌃ + R | Ctrl + R

Arm the Segment Recorder – Put your cursor in the segment. This will put a little dot in the top right corner of the segment, and if it is flashing red, it is ready to record.

Red Dot Ready to Record
Space

Start and Stop Recording

  • Punch In/Out: Place the cursor to the left of the segment and hit the spacebar. When the timeline reaches the start of the segment, recording will automatically start. It will automatically stop recording as the timeline passes the end of the segment.
  • Record Voice Manually: Place the cursor WITHIN the segment. Hit the spacebar to start recording. Hit the space bar again to stop recording.

Publish and Download Videos

Introduction

Addavox automates creating all the final assets including the final videos for each language. After you have completed all the tasks, the system can build all the final assets you may need.

Step 1: Select Assets

  • Select the assets you want to generate by clicking the checkboxes in front of each option
  • You can choose from:
    • Source language assets
    • Any completed language assets
Asset Selection Interface

Step 2: Build and Download Assets

  • Click the Build button to start creating the assets automatically
  • Wait for the build process to complete
  • Once completed, click the Download button

Note: The Download function takes all the completed assets and compresses them into a single ZIP file for easy downloading.