Dub Mode

Dub Mode in The Choicer Voicer: How It Works

Dub Mode is one of The Choicer Voicer’s core game formats, and it plays very differently from the main judged studio. Instead of chasing a score clip by clip, you’re recording a full voiceover performance that gets stitched together at the end. Here’s what actually happens when you play it, and what you need to know before jumping in.

What Makes Dub Mode Different

In the standard studio, a clip plays, you perform, and a judge panel scores you immediately. Dub Mode drops the live scoring entirely. Instead:

  • You can retake any performance as many times as you want.
  • You are not allowed to listen back to your recordings until the entire dub is finished.
  • Once every sample in the pack has been performed, the game plays your recordings dubbed directly over the pack’s included video, in sync with the original timing.

This turns Dub Mode into more of a performance exercise than a competitive one — you’re aiming for a finished “dubbed cut” of a scene rather than a high score.

Dub Packs Are Required

Regular voice packs won’t work in Dub Mode. You need a dub pack specifically, which pairs timestamped audio samples with an OGV video file. If you want to build your own, see the separate guide on creating dub packs.

Freestyle Dub Mode

Alongside the standard, scripted Dub Mode, there’s a Freestyle variant built for looser, unscripted takes rather than following a fixed set of lines. Recent updates added a few quality-of-life touches specifically for this variant:

  • A caption box with icons showing whether a clip is currently playing
  • A toggle to turn that visual assistance on or off, for players who’d rather perform without on-screen cues
  • Sorting options for organizing clips, including a straightforward chronological sort

Character Filtering in Multi-Character Scenes

If a dub pack’s scene has more than one speaking character, the pack creator can tag samples by “dub character.” As a player, this lets you choose which character (or characters) you actually want to voice. Any character you don’t select keeps its original audio in the final playback — useful if you only want to dub one role in a scene rather than every line.

Backing Tracks

Some dub packs include a separate _backing_track file — leftover music or ambient noise that the original creator isolated from the dialogue. If a pack has one, it plays underneath your recording automatically, which makes the final dub sound closer to the source material instead of dead silent behind your voice.

Known Issues (Early Access)

The Choicer Voicer is still in early access alpha, and Dub Mode has had some rough edges reported by players and acknowledged by the developer:

  • Solo Dub Mode occasionally becoming unavailable after an update, sometimes showing as an “unfinished mode” depending on the game’s compatibility settings.
  • Audio and video sync varying by machine — some setups produce clean, well-synced dubs, while others report the video side of a clip not lining up correctly.
  • The broader microphone recording bug that affects the whole game, not just Dub Mode. It’s most often tied to surround-sound audio setups and is a known limitation of the Godot game engine rather than something specific to The Choicer Voicer’s code. Test your microphone with the free “No Gameplay Demo” before relying on Dub Mode for a session.

Tips for Better Dub Mode Sessions

  • Record in a quiet room — since you can’t hear your takes until the end, clean audio on the first pass saves you from surprises later.
  • Take advantage of unlimited retakes. There’s no scoring penalty for doing a line five times before moving on.
  • Pay attention to on-screen timing cues (or the Freestyle caption box) to keep your delivery roughly aligned with the scene.
  • If a scene has multiple characters, decide ahead of time which role you’re dubbing so you’re not caught off guard by character filtering.