Saturday, August 3, 2024

What's In A Voice?

They Were Brought To Life


Picture this.

You are there, in the out of doors. You and five others. You're all wearing generalized gear of some form. For one of your party of five, that's a canvas robe. Hot and musty. For a couple others, their scale and chain armour covers their piecemeal padding, it too wet with sweat arising from days travel under the sun and nights in the open, asleep under the light of thousands of stars.

On this morning, after having been awake for more than six hours, you find that you and your four companions have remained stationary, not accomplishing much of anything while you wait for some unknown. 

Whether it be a sign from nature. An omen. A coincidence or paradox of sorts. Something that signals the path forward is open, for whatever has been motivating your voyage thus far is now ceased. As if the gods had lost interest and were now elsewhere concerning themselves in their personal matters. 

Their dinner or toiletry perhaps.

And then, out of nowhere, Khalid, an out of his element warrior, and husband of the Druid Jaheira suddenly speaks

Upon hearing his light-hearted mockery of your time idle, you begin to laugh, as you sit in front of your computer.

You've been committing some of your hard earned spare time in the progress of a game, and this spoken audio dialog has given life to one of the characters with whom you travel. Not only that, there are three others who all add to this humourous moment with their own commentary on your idle time.

Two dimensional masses of pixels that move across the screen at your direction, have suddenly expanded into your world, having spoken directly to you as if with a persona of their own. That mass pixelized artwork has suddenly come to life, all thanks to the wonders of the voice actors who gave them as such.

The laughter you experience in that moment sticks with you for the rest of your life and when you remember them in the future, its no different a feeling than the recall of long lost friends.

Before They Were Pixel Art


Decades earlier, on a CRT based television screen, you watched as animated puppets, with friendly names like Mrs. Piggy, Gonzo and Kermit the Frog all spoke their lines of dialog, each of their voices distinct and memorable, as much so if not more than the characters with whom those voices were associated. 

As you watched, these Frankenstein-esque golems ie puppets, were somehow alive despite being crafted of fabric latex and plastic. When you first heard them speak, your sense of disbelief was suspended and they suddenly came to life.

Permanent Waves

Decades before the CRT screens that we used to call television, there were electromagnetic wave receiving contraptions called radios. In the 1970s, families used to huddle around these devices as stories via the spoken voice of performers brought them to life. Each of their characters memorable, as their voices. Despite the fiction from whence they were contrived, they were as real as anyone else thanks to their voice.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, radio shows like Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy brought Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and in the case of this BBC television show, Slartibarfast to life. This was in a time when there were no images corresponding with the characters, and in essence, it was voice that brought those characters to life.

Many years earlier, a particularly crafty and ambitious producer/director with his radio production of one of Herbert George Wells' great works, paralyzed and terrified an entire nation with nothing but the ambition of a good story teller, a great story, and the talent of great voice performers.


The Voice Today

The relentless progress of technology and the ever persistent pressure of economy and throughput has always been one of the most transformative aspects of society and humanity.

The ability to produce fire, led to tribal structure and the taming of elements. The invention of the wheel led to simple machines. The domestication of animals led to the cultivation of fields and transport. The cultivation of fields led directly to civilization and the armed forces.

As these humanity transforming technologies became part of our lives, so did those that kept our stories alive. Dyes allowed for painting and pictography. Animal hair brushes eventually led to the quill and then the pen. With each advancement, the skill and artisanship of the previous generation became outmoded or transformed. Older artisans either adapted and grew into the new tools, or they abhorred them and faded into obscurity, the heroes of the generations of artists to come.

As much so, the lyre and the mandolin one day became the acoustic guitar, and the commoners figured out a close proximity of the language of music that was previously the property of the educated and wealthy. Music advanced and grew in ways that it otherwise wouldn't have without its spread into the hands of the untrained. There was great resistance to this fact, but in the end, the acoustic guitar became a very popular form of entertainment.

Years beyond, and after the work of those like Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and of course Nicolai Tesla, and the electric guitar was born. This new amplified instrument could bring guitar performances to much larger venues and seeded many different movements of musical style.

There were those who resisted this technology, claiming that the guitar was no longer an instrument, but a device, and yet those who transitioned to this revitalized instrument, became very popular in the music to come.

Technology and tools of the story teller ever changed and advanced. Soon pianos had spawned analog synthesizers, and then their digital counterparts, and not long after that, samplers.

Meanwhile, all of this time and through these advancements, the same technology that had advanced synthesizers had also advanced the microphone (for vocal performances) and Rack FX.

A vocal performer could now sound as if they were performing in a Cathedral, Concert Hall or Stadium. They could perform with the sound of a unison chorus, or a guitar's flanger.

As digital technology grew, a solitary vocal performance could produce a multitude of voices. A crowd cheering. A vocal chorus or choir, complete with pitch correct harmony, keyed via MIDI. This vocal technology continued to grow until, one day, software could produce nearly any vocal performance by way of instructed direction.

However, even that advance was not a threat to existing vocal performers, whose instrument is literally a part of their body. As organic as their own beating hearts, and powered by the organic elasticity of their lungs.

Singers, and voice performers alike were still safe until this one technology arrived. Recently.

Like the scene in James Cameron's legendary Terminator, where Arnold Schwarzenegger's killer Cyborg from the future is able to vocally mimic Linda Hamilton's character Sarah Connor's own mother's voice enough so to fool her. A few years later in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Arnold's T-800 Model-101 would use the same ability to save Sarah's son, John Connor.

This technology to mimic or to learn from the vocal qualities of a singer and vocal performer arrived in the last year in a degree where the unique sound of a performer's voice is now at threat of being available to anyone via software. Ironically, this same technology arrived around the same time that deep fake video and face swapping technology has been cluttering the internet with videos depicting situations involving real people that did not occur in reality.

Now, I could once again state that technology is a tool and what deems it a problem is determined by how its used. Nobody bans knives when the fact is that they can be used just as much to gut your enemies as to spread peanut butter on bread. A hammer can be a weapon, or more commonly, a tool of construction.

Our voices are unique to us each, hence why they were used for a time as a means of identity recognition. However, our technology has progressed to the point where that aspect of our biological uniqueness can be borrowed by software, giving anyone with that software the ability to use our voice for their purposes, as much so as deep fake related technology is used to repurpose the faces of celebrities and icons for purposes to which they've not consented such use of something so unique to their being.

Visual And Vocal Performers Are Under Threat


Some of my favourite vocal performances come from Animation, from film houses like Pixar and very much so Anime, from Japan, Korea and China. Their vocal performers are very popular, both those of Pixar, and those of the Anime nations I've mentioned. Each vocal performer brings an aspect of their being to the characters they portray and that in essence helps to bring those characters to life.

When Pixar films are translated for distribution in Southeast Asia, the voice performers who perform the character dub are also often very popular, as much so with their own domestic Anime performances, and so there's an audience draw associated with specific voice performers and their specific voices and this is also the case when Anime is dubbed for Western audiences. I can't watch a single episode of Ghost In The Shell unless its the vocal performers with whom I'm familiar, and they've been with the movies and series since the 1990s, having built careers that span numerous anime series and countless video games. Their voice is their brand, and a huge market channel for their clients.


With software that can mimic or train to mimic the voices of specific voice performers, their brand is under threat, and the value of the uniqueness and the vocal acting talents of these performers is at risk. I fear that the generations to come might lose out on this organic aspect of story telling, despite the fact that I am one of the most staunch supporters of technology and its merits as a progressive tool of artistry every where.

Ultimately, there has to be a limit where it concerns the branding of a person's visual image, and their voice, the last bastion of our character, uniqueness and flaws as part of performances is at stake, as much so as the livelihood and well being of a generation of vocal performers who've made a world of difference in my life and I'd be willing to bet, the countless lives of those whom they've inspired.

Whenever I feel flustered and tired from a hard day, and take a time out to relax, there has never been a moment where I didn't recall the vocal performance for the character Khalid from that video game all those years ago. I hear that and I laugh every single time, never feeling a tinge of guilt when I stop to take a break.

My life... our lives are full of moments like that one and not just from the most modern story telling medium, but from cartoons, Anime, puppetry (Muppets for instance), from our GPS devices that narrate our path to a multitude of other devices to which we can now talk, asking for a good joke, or an insightful anecdote. Most all of these moments were and are possible because of memorable vocal performances. Their brand and uniqueness should be protected as their own legally, and I'm certain that the best of these performers will be at the forefront of technology, working hand in hand with it, knowing that the uniqueness of their brand is being protected.


Imagine Baldur's Gate without Imoen?

Or Baldur's Gate 3 without Shadowheart? Or Lae'zel?

Unreal Tournament and now The Finals, without the announcers?

The detective work and tactical insights of Motoko Kusanagi and Batou?

The wisdom of Yoda?

The obsession of LOTR's Gollum?

The remarks of Laura Croft?

"In time, all these memories will be lost. Like the sound of a single a voice in the midst of a crowd of thousands..."
(to borrow metaphorically from Rutger Hauer's epic last lines from his role in Blade Runner)


Hypocrisy Or Economics?


Now you might think of me as being a hypocrite, especially with my recent embracing of voice performance technology, that allows me to create voices for use in my upcoming media and story telling projects, but I contend with that assumption, not to mention that I've been using face swapping technology for much of my recent artwork

I render a 3D image from character models of my characters in Daz Studio, and the final image is then brought into a face swapping tool, where I use the more recently designed 2D face designs for my characters. I find that doing it this way gives the final render a very lifelike appearance, but in essence, I'm not stealing anyone else's face or voice though in some cases, I'm certain giving certain appearances a tribute. The brand of an actor's face or a vocal performer's voice is out of the question, but maybe someday their brand may find its way willingly and through good business to my content.


When you're developing a story telling brand, and introducing vocal performance as an aspect of your production craft and are operating on a (very) limited budget, utilizing software to create vocal performances is necessary, so long as there is no "ripping off" of the vocal brand of specific vocal performers. Don't forget that many fledgling studios (mine included), are also covering subscription services and API purchases in addition to software and hardware tools to keep their studios going.

With professional vocal performer voices, you're bringing an entire essence of being into your characters, that associates your characters with the brand of the vocal performer. If you are a small budget limited studio, chances are you won't be able to afford the benefit of their branding and professional experience, not to mention you're still building an audience, and its that audience that will eventually get you to the point where you can afford to hire professional voice talent, and benefit from their experience in character development.


I consider that my work building the voices for my characters using software, will eventually culminate in reference material for the voice acresses and actors that I hire to perform in the (not so distant?) future and believe me, there is nobody that is looking forward to working with the voice acresses that will give life to Heylyn Yates (Ai Yuanlin Ying), Alicia Westin, Monique Defleur, Aikiko Tanaka, Mila Ren Dubel, Shaela Sheowellyn, Nelony Ardbloem, Zheng Ni Wong, Kori Jonglyu, Walton Norler, Bryce Maxwell, Steven Briggs, Trey and all the others...


Until then, and into the future, vocal talent performers and the brand their voice entails should be legally protected as technology moves ever closer into the territory of their identity based brand.


See you on Monday August 6, with more content from Shhhh! Digital Media

Nobody took anything from me related to Southeast Asian culture or replaced it with anything else. I'm still Shhhh! Digital Media and very much red black, red white and red yellow, an Atheist leaning towards Buddhism and Taoism. Hate isn't love and love isn't hate and my own love interest is Southeast Asian as she always has been and I don't live or work at Heyworth House and no blue team for me. I'm smart enough and strong enough without them, though Disney is alright. I am not a member of Salvation Army and I am not "Ting N" from Heyworth House.

I am Brian Joseph Johns and this is Shhhh! Digital Media at https://www.shhhhdigital.com or https://www.shhhhdigital.ca in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701.











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