Technology has played a key role in the voiceover field and every now and then, we come across something that jolts the industry. We either get excited or shocked over the implications that this new piece of technology could have on the industry. Often, the concerns are exaggerated.
That’s happening again, thanks to Adobe. The software behemoth, mainly popular for applications such as Illustrator and Photoshop, has come out with another application that could completely change the way we look at the various aspects of recorded speech.
The project is officially called Project VoCo, while colloquially it is being referred to as “Photoshop for voice”. The name isn’t an exaggeration at all. If you’ve already seen the preview, you know that the name is apt. The remarkable application allows users to edit recorded speech the same way Photoshop is used to edit images.
The application was previewed at the Adobe Max 2016 Software Expo just a week ago. Zeyu Jin, a researcher from the Princeton University, gave audiences a demonstration of what the application was actually capable of.
Scary Yet Wonderful
Audio editing applications already exist, but, they currently only allow us to splice, copy or cut bits and pieces of sound waves. VoCo goes beyond that. It relies on an algorithm to actually dissect and reassemble recorded speech. Adobe has not offered specific details about how VoCo works, but, there seems to be a lot going on.
Adobe states that the application can actually impersonate the person speaking by recording phonemes and even adding words in the speaker’s voice. To put it simply, with VoCo, it is now possible for someone to record your voice and use that recording as a reference to create new recordings of sentences and words that you never spoke.
Currently, there are glitches in the playback, but, the application is only in the prototype phase. It would be safe to assume that its capabilities will only improve as the development process progresses.
Implications
Adobe believes that the new application will be an excellent creative tool that will simplify how content creators produce audio. The company states that VoCo will make it easier for content creators to create audio without having to carry out repeat recordings. This will save plenty of time and effort, as words can be taken out or inserted at will into the recorded audio.
However, there are those who believe that VoCo is more of a problem than a solution. Dr. Eddy Borges Rey, a media lecturer at the University of Sterling, states that Adobe has been irresponsible in creating an application that clearly carries ethical implications. He believes that the application will be misused just as image editing applications have been misused time and again. Voice recordings are often used as evidential material and VoCo just might change the way we now deal with them from a legal perspective.
There is also the possibility that content creators will stop depending on voiceover artists for narrations. VoCo will make it possible for them to use famous voices and recreate fresh narrations in those very same voices. In other words, it will become possible in the near future to “design” your own narration.
ABOUT ROBERTA –
Roberta is a Professional AND award Winning International Voiceover Actor, as well as an accomplished on-camera actress and spokesperson. She lives in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area and is the owner of Roberta Kennedy Voice Talent and RK Productions, Inc.
She voices for companies around the world using her state of the art, broadcast quality studio. She’s hired for commercials, web demos and explainer videos, product infomercials, documentaries, promo/imaging, political ads, e-learning videos, podcasts, guided real estate tours, telephony/IVR projects, high profile corporate presentations, video games and character animation.
Her voice is described as: playful, contemporary, compelling, commanding, inviting, sultry and smooth. A hip edge with sophistication, bold, warm, interesting and engaging are also commonly used adjectives to describe her voice.
Her home studio is equipped with ipDTL, ISDN and phone patch capability with lightning fast turnaround times! A voiceover talent with over 20 years of voiceover acting experience, she offers a full range of voiceover services at highly competitive rates & will work with your budget to help you promote your business to new levels of excellence!
To request a personal quote or audition and/or to review more of her credits & demos, feel free to visit her website: www.robertakennedy.com – or mail her at roberta@robertakennedy.com. You can even give her a call on (408) 313-7202.