Voice!

September 18th, 2021| Topic: RaMbLeS | 1

Val Kilmer, the actor of numerous films, including Top Gun (Iceman, 1986), Batman (Bruce Wayne, 1995), and Prince of Egypt (Moses, 1998), lost his characteristic raspy voice in 2015 after surgery for throat cancer.

About a year ago, he got it back!

Said the voice immediately recognizable as that of Kilmer, in a YouTube video posted last month:

My voice as I knew it was taken away from me. People around me struggle to understand me when I’m talking.”

Sonantic, a UK-based software firm that clones voices for actors and studios, helped Kilmer to speak again. Far more genuine sounding that Siri or Alexa, the technology employed AI to digitally restore Kilmer’s voice.

Zeena Qureshi, CEO and co-founder of Sonantic:

TWe like to think of it as Photoshop for voice, where you can go in and touch up little areas.”

All they need is at least three hours of audio, and they can recreate a voice within 24 hours!

Due to movie licensing restraints, Sonantic had to make do with just 30 minutes of audio of Kilmer’s voice, pulling samples from old footage. They created a script based on the material, linked the audio and text together in “short chunks” and ran the data through their “voice engine” algorithms, which actually learn to speak by listening to the recordings.

The result was a text-to-speech program Sonantic says can mimic Kilmer’s projection levels and emotion. The voice software can read lines of text aloud, supposedly capturing Kilmer’s former subtleties in speech, expression, and tone.

Audio deepfake!

Sonantic says its product is not meant to replace actors. The firm’s website declares;

Our product can reduce production timelines from months to minutes, yielding compelling, lifelike performances for games and films with fully expressive AI-generated voices, that could cut down on the number of hours human actors are paid to perform in-studio.”

Kilmer loved it!

Sonantic’s software masterfully restored my voice in a way I’ve never imagined possible.”

It may not be throat cancer, but we tend to lose our voices often, or at least the joy therein.

Yahweh, how many my adversaries have become!
Many [are] rising against me.
Many [are] saying about my soul,
“There is no deliverance for him in God.”
Psalm 3:1–2

Leaving us only to raise our voices to God:

But You, Yahweh, [are] a shield about me;
my glory, and the One who lifts my head.
With my voice, to Yahweh I called out,
and He answered me from His holy mountain.
I—I lay down and I slept;
I awoke, for Yahweh—He sustains me.
Psalm 3:3–5

That was at night. But it could also be in the morning.

To my words give ear, Yahweh,
consider my groaning.
Attend to the sound of my cry for help,
my King and my God,
for to You I pray.
Yahweh, in the morning, You hear my voice;
in the morning I lay [my petition] to You and wait.
Psalm 5:1–3

God hears, even when we “lose” our voices!

In my distress I called upon Yahweh,
and to my God I cried for help.
He heard my voice from His temple,
and my cry for help before Him [His face] came to His ears.
Psalm 18:6

And then … He gives voice!

And Yahweh thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High gave forth His voice,
hail and coals of fire.
Psalm 18:13

Voice restored!

Bless our God, peoples,
and make heard the voice of His praise—
The One keeping our souls in life
and does not let our feet slip.
Psalm 66:8–9

SOURCE:
MSN