[article] voice replication system is being touted as hip-hop's next big thing

[nmskalmn]

Excerpts

Coming soon to a cell phone or iPod near you: hip-hop stars such as Mary J Blige and TI rapping in flawless German, French, Japanese and Spanish.

A proprietary new speech-conversion system can produce their voices in any language spoken in the lucrative global markets where their music - as well as the clothing, ringtones and other lifestyle extensions of their brands - is sold.

The system, called Voxonic, can replicate a specific voice in any desired language. It's already used in limited applications, including film dubbing and corporate communications.

"We think we're on the edge of something big," Harrell said last month in New York. "The amount of revenue this can generate is unbelievable."

Harrell then plugged his iPod into a speaker system and played Baby, by the rapper Fabolous, switching between English and French. Other than the change in language, there was no discernible difference between the two recordings. Harrell also played Bring 'Em Out, by TI, first in English and then in Spanish, to similar effect.

Read the article: Rap your earphones around this

[micster]

I want to hear the sample ...

[immel]

I didn't read the entire article, but it sounds really freaking insane. As the article mentioned... I can't imagine the revenue, were talking about sick amounts of money here...

[xiaou-xijiang]

^I can't even imagine... (but I also want to hear it for myself)

[No_Doubt]

That's really interesting. I'm curious to hear samples as well. Imagine an Ayu album in English. Pretty spiffy.

[xiaou-xijiang]

Originally Posted by No_Doubt

That's really interesting. I'm curious to hear samples as well. Imagine an Ayu album in English. Pretty spiffy.

*goes to ayu heaven* XD (I can't imagine any of her songs in english though...it'd be kinda weird. but cool too)

[boogieordie]

If it works well enough it'll probably put lots of voice actors out of work considering tv shows and movies will no longer have to be dubbed by different actors. We'll see.

Not sure how it would work in rap though. Rap is all about meter and rhyme, well, so is all music. Translate it and it doesn't necessarily work to the music or rhyme at all.

[Lumix]

Wooooow.. O__O that's really interesting & exciting! Thanks for sharing!

[spookshow]

I'm interested to hear how these translated songs sound

I can't help but wonder how this will affect the music industry -- if any regular person gets their hands on this translator thingo and, say an ayumi cd they could then create an ayumi album in english and sell it, right? i'm interested to see how they stop that from happening

[Zeke.]

That is so kewl and funny! I remember an episode of RUGRATS where Angelica used a megaphone to replicate her moms voice and other adults voices to order things of the phone, lol...

[cybermoomba]

I'd like to hear a sample too

I can't imagine how it would sound

[AyuGAME]

wow so interesting
i want to hear ayu song with ayu voice in english
but its just for hip hop eh?! but i can't believe it

[Dustie]

Originally Posted by AyuRocks

If it works well enough it'll probably put lots of voice actors out of work considering tv shows and movies will no longer have to be dubbed by different actors. We'll see.

Not sure how it would work in rap though. Rap is all about meter and rhyme, well, so is all music. Translate it and it doesn't necessarily work to the music or rhyme at all.

Exactly. You made all the points I could come up with so far. I think music is such a specific envorinment when sounds really need to be perfected and any minor flaws in that whole technology would easily eliminate it from any widespread usage in voice recording works. In casual speech such as movies, or radio for example, I guess it might work out way better. But we'll see.