Setting up a Japanese voice
- Record 5 to 15 seconds of a native Japanese speaker, in standard Tokyo Japanese or the regional speech you want.
- Set the voice's Language to Japanese.
- Test with every character's name, a number with a counter, and a loanword.
Kanji readings: write kana when in doubt
Before Japanese text is read, its kanji are converted to kana using a dictionary. That works well for everyday words, but many kanji have several readings, and names have many more:
| Written | Possible readings |
|---|---|
| 今日 | きょう (today), こんにち (these days) |
| 上手 | じょうず (skilful), うわて (superior) |
| 日本 | にほん, にっぽん |
| 健 | けん, たけし, たける as a name |
If a word or name comes out with the wrong reading, write it in hiragana (or katakana) in the script. The voice then reads exactly what you wrote. Keep a list of the names you've written in kana, so every script spells them the same way.
Writing Japanese for the voice
- Punctuation for pauses: 、 for short pauses, 。 to end sentences. Long lines are split at 。！？.
- Numbers and counters: readings change with the counter (一本 いっぽん, 三本 さんぼん, 六本 ろっぽん). If one comes out wrong, write the number and counter in kana.
- Dates and times: 四日 is よっか, 二十日 is はつか; check them, or write them in kana.
- Loanwords in katakana: write English words in katakana (アイフォン for iPhone) to control how they're said. Latin letters are unpredictable.
- Small kana and long vowels: っ, ゃ, ー change sounds; keep them exact.
- Speaker names: when pasting
Name: linedialogue, put an ordinary colon (:) after the name, not the full-width ：, or the line won't be given to that voice.
A passage to record
何週間も前から録音したいと思っていたので、さっそく始めます。静かな夜で、コーヒーも入りましたし、やっと自分の時間が少しできました。どんなふうに聞こえるか、試してみましょう。
"I've wanted to record this for weeks, so I'll start right away. It's a quiet night, the coffee's made, and I finally have a little time to myself. Let's try it and hear how it sounds."
A dialogue to test with
さくら: もう着いたの？八時から待ってるんだけど。
はると: ごめん！道がすごく混んでて。
さくら: まあ、来てくれたからいいよ。注文しようか。Games, anime and visual novels
Japanese character voices are central to games, visual novels and animation. For those, record each character's sample in their typical register, and see visual novels and animation. Always have a native speaker review the takes.