DeTranslator: How It Works (Explainer & FAQ)

What DeTranslator does

DeTranslator removes the translated passages from an audio or video recording, leaving the original speaker clean and intact.

To be precise about what the output looks like: the translated passages are cut out entirely. The interpreter's audio and, for video, the matching picture are removed together, so you get back one continuous recording that is shorter than the input by the length of the removed passages. Nothing is muted in place: there are no silent gaps and no frozen or blacked-out video where the interpreter used to be.

The problem is a specific and common one: a recording (a sermon, a lecture, a conference talk, a dharma talk) has a live interpreter, or several interpreters into different languages, who take turns with the original speaker, translating each passage in the speaker's pauses, so every voice ends up on the same audio track. Removing the interpreted passages by hand means manually finding and cutting each one, which can take hours for a single recording. People who search for a way to do this automatically are consistently told it's "near-impossible once mixed into one track," and no off-the-shelf tool does it. DeTranslator automates that removal.

Will this work on my recording?

DeTranslator works when the voices take turns. That is the usual pattern in consecutive interpretation: the speaker talks, pauses, and an interpreter renders that passage in another language before the speaker continues. We find each interpreted passage, whichever language and whichever interpreter it belongs to, and cut it out on the timeline, leaving the original speaker continuous.

It does not work on a dubbed or voice-over recording, where another voice is mixed on top of the original speaker and the two are talking at the same time. DeTranslator cuts on the timeline; it does not separate voices that occupy the same moment. On that kind of recording, cutting a passage would either leave the voice-over in place or delete the original speech underneath it, so the result would not be what you want. If your recording is a dub or voice-over like that, this is not the right tool and you should not upload it.

A little overlap where the voices briefly cross is fine and expected: the design keeps the original speaker intact even if that means a short residual sliver of an interpreter's voice survives at an overlap. The line is simple: turn-taking works; a full simultaneous dub or voice-over does not.

Getting started

DeTranslator is live: create a free account, upload your file, and you will see the exact price for that file before you are asked to pay anything. See How it works for the full step-by-step flow.

Pricing: how a quote is generated

The price is based on the duration of your uploaded file, calculated as:

quote = the greater of $5, or $29 per hour of input audio/video duration (rounded up to the nearest cent)

In plain terms: we charge $29 per hour of the file's length, with a $5 minimum charge on any job. A few examples:

This formula is fixed and the same for every customer who pays per file: there is no negotiation and no hidden fee. Your first whole video is half price, once per customer, but not for an account that has, or has paid for, a monthly plan. The minimum applies before the first-video half. The monthly plans below are published the same way. You see the quote before you commit to anything, based on your file's actual duration.

How capture works: for a card payment on a file you upload or link on your account, when you confirm the job, a hold is placed on your card for the quoted amount and you are not charged yet. The charge is only captured after your file is processed successfully, and the amount captured is never more than the quote. If processing fails, the hold is released and you are not charged.

Can I process 5 minutes for free?

The first 5 minutes of one file are free, once per account. No card is needed. That free result starts with a short voice, and the video has a small corner mark. A paid result has neither.

Can I keep more than one language?

You can get up to 3 extra versions of the same recording. Each version keeps another language. Each one costs half the usual price of that recording. Extra versions are not available with a monthly plan.

Can I pay by invoice or get a quote?

Yes. For a file you upload or link on your account, you can pay by invoice before the work, and the work starts when it is paid. You can ask for an invoice up to a week after the upload; for a link, at any time. You can print a quote for the person who pays. Public bodies and schools, and customers who have paid us before, may be able to pay after delivery. You can also pay for such a file by card: a hold is placed, and the card is charged only after the file is processed successfully. If it fails, you pay nothing.

Can I use a YouTube link?

Instead of uploading a file, you can paste a YouTube link. You confirm that the video is your organisation's or that you have permission to have it processed. The price comes from the length of the video. The video is downloaded only when the work starts.

How do monthly plans work?

You choose 4, 10, or 25 hours of recordings a month. The Weekly plan is 4 hours. It suits one service of 1 hour each week. We recommend 10 hours. It suits one service of 2 hours each week, with hours left for extra talks. Pay the Stripe invoice. The plan starts when you pay. Hours are used only when a file succeeds. If it fails, hours come back and nothing is charged. Yearly billing is two months free: you pay for 10 months and get 12.

What happens to hours I do not use?

Unused hours move to the next month only. They add to that month's hours. After that next month they expire, and they do not move again.

What if a recording needs more hours than I have left?

The hours still in your plan are used first. Hours beyond the plan are charged at your plan's own hourly rate, on a separate invoice, and only if the file processes successfully. If processing fails, plan hours come back and the extra invoice is not charged. In one month of your plan, extra hours at that rate are no more than your plan's monthly hours (4, 10, or 25). A file that needs more extra hours than that is priced at the pay as you go price. While an invoice for extra hours is unpaid after its due date, extra hours are not available at your plan rate. A file that needs extra hours is priced at the pay as you go price until that invoice is paid. Files that fit inside your remaining plan hours are not affected.

How do I pay, and can I cancel?

Stripe emails an invoice, and you pay it on Stripe's page. The plan starts when the first invoice is paid. The next invoice arrives a week before the paid time ends. If a renewal is not paid by the end of the paid time, plan hours stop. If you pay it later, a new paid time starts on the day you pay, with that month's hours only: unused hours from before do not move to it. If it is still unpaid 30 days after the paid time ended, the plan ends. You can cancel at any time on the account page. There are no more renewals, and hours you already paid stay usable until that paid time ends.

Turnaround expectations

Files are usually ready within one to three hours. In our own testing, a 2-hour recording takes about 1 hour.

This depends on the queue and on load, so we do not promise a fixed turnaround time. If your job is time-sensitive, email support@detranslator.com before uploading and we will tell you what to expect.

The quality promise

DeTranslator is built around retention-first removal: the design goal is to keep speech in the language you choose fully intact, and to find and remove all speech that is not in that language. Any number of interpreters can be involved: a talk relayed turn by turn into French and German, for example, comes out as the speaker's own language alone in one pass. Retention comes first, even at the cost of an occasional small residual sliver of non-target speech surviving in genuinely overlapping speech.

An automated quality measurement is recorded for every job. If a result has a fault on our side (words cut, the interpreter left in, a broken file), write to support@detranslator.com within 14 days. We fix it or refund you. The 14 days start when the result is delivered, as our Terms of Service say.

Supported formats

Uploads are audio or video files, up to 6 hours long per file. Most common audio and video formats work. If yours is unusual, try it (paying by card, you are charged only after your file has been processed successfully) or email support@detranslator.com first and we will check.

Supported languages to keep

You pick the language you want to keep from a list of 72 languages built into the product today: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian, Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Shona, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tsonga, Tswana, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Xhosa, Yoruba, and Zulu. English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, and Russian are shown first in the upload form as the most common choices; the rest are listed alphabetically.

Data handling and privacy

Processing a file requires sending audio to our transcription partner AssemblyAI as part of the pipeline. Uploaded files are automatically deleted 30 days after you upload them, and processed results are deleted 30 days after your job completes; job metadata (without the media) is kept for accounting. See the full Privacy Policy and Terms of Service for the complete detail, including how to request deletion of your account and data.

How to get started

Create a free account, upload your file, and you will see the exact price for that file, calculated from its duration, before you are asked to pay anything. If you pay by card, you are charged only after your file has been processed successfully.