How Hollywood is Using Voice Cloning with Respeecher AI

Respeecher uses deep learning (AI) techniques to produce high quality synthetic speech.

The company was launched in 2018 by Alex Serdiuk, Dmytro Bielievtsov and Grant Reaber. In March 2020, Respeecher received $1.5 million in startup funding from ff Venture Capital, Acrobator Ventures, ICU Ventures, Network VC, and several angel investors. A year later, the company launched the beta of Voice Marketplace, a democratized version of Respeecher’s tech available for small creators. In September 2021, Respeecher was awarded with an Emmy for their work on In Event of Moon Disaster.

Since then, the team at Respeecher has worked on the following projects: The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian (synthetic voice of young Luke Skywalker), Aloe Blacc’s tribute to Avicii (cross-lingual Avicii’s singing voice cloning), collaborated with 72andSunny, NFL, Digital Domain on the Super Bowl commercial (voice of Vince Lombardi / 2.1B impressions), Disney’s Obi-Wan Kenobi Series.

In February 2022, Respeecher team, most of which is in Ukraine, navigated through the full blown Russian invasion and managed to have no disruptions in operations. The company continues to grow, employ their fellow Ukranians and support their home country.

In this Podcast, Allan McKay interviews Alex Serdiuk, Co-Founder of Respeecher, about the AI technology of synthetic speech; leveraging it in the fields of entertainment, medicine and investigative journalism; Respeecher’s work on The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian and so much more!

EPISODE 392 — HOW HOLLYWOOD IS USING VOICE CLONING WITH RESPEECHER AI

Hi, everyone!

This is Allan McKay. Welcome to Episode 392! I’m sitting down with Alex Serdiuk, the Co-Founder of Respeecher. We talk about the technology of synthetic speech and leveraging it in the field of entertainment, medicine, investigative journalism.

Alex and I talk about:

• The history of Respeecher;
• Technology of synthetic speech and its challenges;
• Leveraging synthetic speech in the field of entertainment;
• De-aging the voice of Luke Skywalker;
• Using synthetic speech in the medical field;
• Using synthetic speech in documentaries and investigative journalism;
• Translation using Respeecher technology;
• Collaborating with Chris Ume and Metaphysic AI;
• Respeecher’s work on The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian;
• The process of creating synthetic speech;
• Ethics of AI;
• The challenge — and the victory! — of working during the Russian invasion of Ukraine;
• Speak Ukrainian by Respeecher.

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Now, let’s dive in!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FROM ALLAN McKAY:

[01:26] Have you ever sent in your reel and wondered why you didn’t get the callback or what the reason was you didn’t get the job? Over the past 20 years of working for studios like ILM, Blur Studio, Ubisoft, I’ve built hundreds of teams and hired hundreds of artists — and reviewed thousands of reels! That’s why I decided to write The Ultimate Demo Reel Guide from the perspective of someone who actually does the hiring. You can get this book for free right now at www.allanmckay.com/myreel!

[47:14] One of the biggest problems we face as artists is figuring out how much we’re worth. I’ve put together a website. Check it out: www.VFXRates.com! This is a chance for you to put in your level of experience, your discipline, your location — and it will give you an accurate idea what you and everyone else in your discipline should be charging. Check it out: www.VFXRates.com!

This podcast episode was initially published in Allan Mckay’s blog