The document that holds a generated cast together
Almost every arrangement documented here leaves the pairing between a person in the story and a voice to a production. That means the cast list is a file somebody maintains, and its contents differ with the mechanism. As of 2026-09-12.
| Mechanism | What the list holds | What goes wrong without it |
|---|---|---|
| A character object | Which project the character lives in | A lost object with no way to rebuild it |
| A reference clip | The file, the trim and the date | Silent drift across a season |
| A speaker label | The spelling, used identically | An exchange routed to the wrong face |
| A voice identifier | The id, and which supplier it came from | A valid call and the wrong person |
Inclusion rule. Documented mechanisms for attaching a voice to a character, and what each requires a production to record. Order. Alphabetical by mechanism.
1The platform holds a voice, and never holds the casting
Even the strongest arrangements here store a voice rather than a casting decision. A voice object with an id is durable and anonymous; something outside the tool has to say which character it belongs to.
The exception is a character object that carries its own voice, and even there nothing published says how to reconstruct one that is lost. Recording what created each character is the only insurance available.
2Different mechanisms need different columns
An identifier needs the id and its supplier. A reference clip needs the file, the exact trim and the date it was chosen. A label needs the spelling. Keeping one spreadsheet shape for all of them loses whichever detail the mechanism actually depends on.
The date is the column most often omitted and the most useful in a year. A voice that shifts is much easier to explain when the record says when each decision was made.
3Keep it beside the visual reference, not apart from it
Cast continuity is one problem. Splitting the picture half and the sound half across two systems guarantees they drift, because one gets updated and the other does not.
A single per-character record holding the appearance reference, the voice mechanism and the dates is the smallest thing that works. It is also the artefact that makes moving to another platform possible at all.
4Where the published detail is logged
What is described above is how the techniques work in general. Which models document which of them, in whose words, is kept in the speech controls table with a date on every field.
- The binding column — where each vendor says a voice lives
- Filing the clip — the discipline a clip needs
A mechanism note rather than a documented field. Nothing here is attributed to a model, and nothing here is a claim about one. The sourced material is on the speech controls table. Related: Writing the lines, Dub or regenerate.