It’s been talked about for a while now — different genres of voice acting are trending back toward in-studio work, and the post-COVID grace period for remote recording is quietly winding down. Don’t get me wrong, remote recording has been proven to work. It opened doors for a lot of voice actors who don’t live in hub cities, and I’m one of them. My career started in Phoenix. Until I can make the living expenses work in a hub city, I primarily record from my home studio and travel to LA when a job calls for it. I’ve recorded commercial campaigns for brands like Garmin, Bet365, 7-Eleven, entire characters in video games like MOUSE: PI For Hire and Causal Loop — all from my home setup.
But this isn’t a post about what remote recording can do. It’s about a specific genre where remote is losing ground, and why I decided to go find out firsthand.
What is ADR, Anyway?
When most people think about dubbing, they think anime. And when voice actors talk about it, we call it ADR — Automated Dialogue Replacement — or localization. It’s a form of post-lay, meaning the voiceover is recorded after the visuals are already locked in. You’re matching your performance to picture.
Anime dubbing is probably the most recognized form, but ADR shows up everywhere. Shows like Money Heist and Squid Game were localized through live-action ADR. Games like Final Fantasy VII Remake, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Persona 5 were localized to English the same way. It’s a massive category of voice acting work — and a highly technical one.
Today, we’re focusing on anime.
Why I’ve Always Cared About This
I love anime. I’ve always got a show going — right now I’m carving through Kill Blue on Netflix, though I’m almost done with it and could use some recommendations before I finish (hit me up on socials, please). Long before I was a voice actor, I was watching anime with English dubs, inspired and honestly a little envious of the people getting to do that work.
Not too long ago, I said screw it. I’m with a major agency now — why not ask about anime auditions? Turns out my agents were happy to help. They receive auditions from studios like Bang Zoom! on a regular basis and offered to send some my way.
Bang Zoom! is one of those credits you’ll find all over anime if you watch the end titles. It’s a name that carries real weight in this industry. So when that door opened, I went to their training platform — Adventures in Voice Acting — and booked the next anime dubbing workout they had available. It happened to line up with a trip I already had planned to LA, so the timing was perfect.
I wanted to plant a seed with Bang Zoom!. But I also wanted to answer a question that had been nagging at me: if in-studio dubbing is supposedly where things are heading, what is it actually like?
How Anime Dubbing Works (And Why It’s Hard)
Before we get to what I found out, some context — because dubbing is not as simple as “say the line and we’ll animate to it.”
In an anime dub, the script has already been written and the animation is already rendered. Your job is to match your performance to what’s happening on screen. That means you’re tracking three things at once: timing, character physicality, and the acting itself.
Then there are the flaps.
The mouth movements in the original animation are synced to the Japanese performance. When a script gets localized into English, skilled writers do their best to translate the original lines in a way that honors both the meaning and the lip movement patterns. But Japanese and English don’t share the same cadence — some things take longer to say in one language than the other — so there’s always a degree of creative fitting happening. The writers get it as close as they can, and then you, the director, and the engineer work together in the session to close the gap the rest of the way.
In practice, the session goes like this: you’re played the scene with the original Japanese performance as a reference. Then you get the scene again — this time with three beeps leading up to your character’s line, setting you up to come in on the imaginary fourth beat. You’ve got two screens in front of you: one with the script, one with the visuals. You perform the line, the director gives notes, and the engineer does what I can only describe as wizardry in the control room to get the take to lock. Then you move on to the next line and do it again.
There’s also the band method — a scrolling line of text that you follow along with syllable by syllable, almost like karaoke. A lot of actors swear by it. I don’t have enough experience with it yet to speak on it in depth, but I hope to.
What Remote ADR Actually Looks Like
Up until this workout at Bang Zoom!, most of my ADR experience was remote. I’ve done it a few ways.
Remote live sessions involve a director and engineer on a call, sharing the visuals to you over a platform like Source-Connect or Zoom. Sometimes the director is wearing both hats — directing and engineering simultaneously — while also making on-the-fly script adjustments to get the flaps to fit better. On your end, you’re fighting latency, trying to hit your timing without rubber-banding (starting late but compensating so you land on time), and spending mental energy mapping out the flaps before your line comes up. All of that cognitive load competes with the actual acting.
Self-recorded ADR is another beast. I did a fun version of it recently — working with Kai Moosmann from Mirebound Interactive to record an update announcement for Causal Loop, where I went off-book and added incidentals that lined up with the visuals. That was screwing around on a passion project and it was a blast. But self-recorded ADR on a real job means setting up your own beeps, managing your own playback, syncing your own visuals, and essentially functioning as your own director, engineer, and actor simultaneously. It’s a lot of juggling — and it will absolutely get in the way of your performance if you let it.
What Changed When I Was Actually in the Studio
At the Bang Zoom! workout, I walked into the recording stage a little nervous. I’d picked an advanced-level script without fully knowing what I was in for. But the remote experience came through for me — I dialed into the character from the first line and we had a genuinely fun session working through the scene.
Then came the last line. It was longer than everything before it, and I could feel myself shifting into remote-actor mode: watching the flaps closely, working out the rhythm in my head, planning my attack. I was trying to take some load off the team in the control room the way I would’ve had to do remotely. It pulled me partially out of the performance.
After everyone had their session, we all gathered in the control room and watched our scenes played back. The director gave individual feedback.
Mine was simple: trust your team.
The professionals in that control room were handling the logistics. That’s their job. When you’re behind the mic in a real studio, your only job is the performance. I’d brought remote-actor habits into a room where I didn’t need them — and it cost me something on that last line.
So Is In-Studio ADR the Future?
Yeah. I think so. And I say that as someone who’s built a career working remotely.
Studios were recording anime in-person before COVID — and many of those that shifted to remote did so out of necessity, not preference. Crunchyroll made headlines in 2022 when they confirmed a return to in-studio recording in Texas after producing dozens of remote dubs during the pandemic. That was one of the clearer public signals that the industry was snapping back.
You get a better product in-studio. The process is simpler for everyone, the talent pool in major hubs is strong, and the quality ceiling is higher when the actor isn’t splitting their focus between performance and logistics. That’s not a knock on remote talent — it’s just the reality of how the workflow differs.
That said, remote ADR isn’t going away. There are always projects operating on tighter budgets. Distance is sometimes insurmountable. And plenty of studios still need capable remote talent who can execute cleanly without hand-holding. But the work that was comfortably in-studio before COVID? That’s going back. And sooner rather than later.
What You Can Do If You’re a Remote Talent
If you don’t live in Dallas–Fort Worth, Los Angeles, or another ADR hub, that’s not automatically a dead end. Here’s what I’d actually focus on:
1. Lock in your space
If you’re going to make a case for remote work, your audio has to be unimpeachable. You’re not going to replicate a room where they’ve spent five figures on cable alone — but you can get your signal chain clean enough that it’s not a liability. I got mine to a LA studio-competitive level for under $5k. If you need help, my good friend John Montoya with LemonToast Media is an expert at helping remote actors get their home studios up to snuff.
2. Get trained
There are coaches who specialize in remote ADR and can walk you through the mechanics and give you real reps. Find one. And while you’re at it — don’t forget the acting. That’s the job. The technical stuff is learnable; your performance is what gets you hired and called back. If you’re looking for a good ADR coach, I recommend Anthony Rodriguez. He’s great to work with and really helped me tighten up my remote dubbing process.
3. Build your remote credits
Experience compounds. Every remote ADR job you complete makes you faster, more efficient, and more capable the next time. Get the reps.
4. Be willing to travel — and have a plan
The more I’ve had to get to LA on short notice, the more I’ve thought through exactly how I’d do it. Be honest with yourself: sometimes the cost of getting there doesn’t make sense against the rate. That’s a real calculation you’ll need to make. But sometimes it does, and having the answer ready in advance means you can say yes faster — which is often what studios care about more than your area code.
The Bottom Line
In-studio dubbing is more natural. The division of labor makes sense. The actor acts, the professionals handle the rest. Going into that Bang Zoom! workout, I wasn’t sure whether my remote experience would translate — and it mostly did, except for the one moment I forgot to just be the actor.
If you’re a primarily remote talent and anime dubbing or ADR localization is something you want to pursue, it’s not out of reach. But it’s going to require real investment — in your craft, your space, your flexibility, and your willingness to show up when and where you’re needed.
And if you’re already in a hub city? Book a workshop or workout with Bang Zoom! Seriously. There’s no substitute for actual mic time in an actual room with actual professionals. You’ll learn something.