For creators: make language content without the editing marathon

Language content looks effortless on screen: a clip with the words and their meaning laid over it, captions in two languages, a quick “how would you say this?”. Behind it is an evening of transcribing, translating, typing out vocabulary and timing captions by hand. RainbowSay does that part live, while your footage plays or while you talk — you record the screen, or take the text and the subtitle file into your editor.

Four things it gives you:

• The sentence breakdown — translation, vocabulary with readings, a grammar note and a word-by-word highlight, on a card you can screen-record.
• Live captions in two or more languages, over your video or over your own voice, in your colors.
• Transcripts and SRT files from every saved session.
• Speaking sessions for “watch me practice” videos.

The sentence breakdown, ready to record

Play your footage in any app and run a Listening session. At the end of each sentence the card arrives already unpacked: the original sentence as it was spoken, the translation, the vocabulary in the order the words appear — each with its reading and meaning — and one grammar note about the most useful construction in the sentence.

The reading is the pronunciation spelled in the script of your output language. With English as the output that means romanized: ashita for 明日, nǐ hǎo for 你好 — the line your viewers pause the video for.

Then press Original. The sentence replays exactly as it was said and the text lights up word by word, like lyrics. That is the shot.

Recording it. The card is an ordinary window that floats over your video, full-screen included, so whatever you record your screen with — the macOS screen recorder, QuickTime Player, OBS — records the card along with the footage. A few things make the take cleaner:

• Make it fit your frame. Drag the grip in the card’s corner: sideways for width, up and down for text size. Drag the card by its top row to place it. Window opacity sets how much of the video shows through.
• Hide the buttons. Set Settings → then Overlay → then Main overlay → then Appearance → then Controls to Auto-hide and the card shows only its content until you point at it.
• Point at a word. Hover a word in the sentence and its reading and meaning pop up, its vocabulary row lights up, and so do the matching words in the translation. Click to pin the highlight while you talk about it.
• Choose your audience’s language. The Output language decides the language of the translation, the glosses, the grammar note and the script of the readings. It doesn’t have to be English — see Languages.
• Pause, or don’t. By default the player pauses at each sentence, which gives you room to explain and an obvious place to cut. Turn Auto-pause off (sentence detection) and the cards roll by as a running translation instead.
• Voice or no voice. The translation is spoken aloud, and your recording will hear it. Prefer silence under your own voice-over? Turn Speak translations aloud off for text-only cards; the Original replay and its highlight stay.
• Thin breakdown? The small ↻ next to Original redoes it for the same sentence.

Missed a take? Every sentence is saved with its audio. Open it on the Dashboard’s Sessions page — the same card, the same replay and highlight — and record it from there.

Captions in two languages, live

Subtitles float a transparent caption window over whatever is playing: the Original line — a live transcription of what is said — and a translation in each language you chose, streaming as the words are spoken. Record your screen and the captions are in the picture.

• Your look. Text size, window width, text and background color — or no background at all, just outlined text — and a separate color pair for every language: Subtitle appearance. Drag the window to where your layout needs it; it remembers the spot.
• One language per window. Pop a language out into its own window and place it separately — the original under the speaker, the translation at the top of the frame.
• Translation only, or transcription only. Turn off Show original line to show just the translations. Want only the transcription on screen? A session needs one subtitle language to start; hide that language with its eye button and the Original line is all that shows. The hidden language keeps running and is still saved.
• How many languages you can show at once depends on your plan: one on Free, up to three on a paid plan. See Pricing.

Over your own voice. Talking to the camera, teaching on a livestream, recording a podcast? Choose Microphone as the source and the captions follow you: your words on the Original line, the translations under it, while you speak. Caption your own voice has the steps.

Transcripts and SRT files for your editor

Every Subtitles session is saved on your Mac as a time-marked transcript with its translations, whether it listened to your video or to your microphone. To turn one into subtitle files:

Copy transcript, in the same menu, takes a language’s plain text — for your script, the video description, a blog post or a worksheet for your students. More on the page itself in Review saved subtitle sessions.

In the saved session you can also listen to each translation (Listen to on the transport bar), which helps you judge how a dubbed version might flow.

Watch me practice

A Speaking session makes good television. Hold Space, say a sentence in the language you’re learning, release — and the card shows what it heard you say, the translation back into your own language, the vocabulary you used, and one note: your most important mistake with the corrected phrase, or, when there’s nothing to fix, the pattern you used best.

• It’s honest. The transcript is what a listener would have understood, and there is no score to game — “day 30 of Korean” shows real progress, mistakes included.
• Replay your own voice next to the translation, then ask the chat for a more natural phrasing and say it again. The second take is the payoff.
• Every attempt is saved with its audio on the Sessions page, so day 1 is still there to cut against day 100.

The same session is a rehearsal room when you’re about to record in a language that isn’t your first: say your lines, check that the translation that comes back is what you meant, fix the one thing the card points out. The practice routines work on camera too.

Learn the phrasing before you script

Writing a script or captions in another language? Listen first to how native speakers say the same thing. Run a Listening session on a few videos from your genre, stop on the lines that sound right, and ask the chat what makes them work — register, slang, regional flavor, what a more formal version would be. Every line you stopped on stays in your history with its audio: a private swipe file of real phrasing.

Extra credit for creators

Email us with a link to your public channel, blog or profile and we’ll add extra free credit to your account, so you can try it on a real project before choosing a plan. Details on the Pricing page.

Next

Back to the guide overview, or download the app and try it on your next video.