( AP )  , With some help from artificial intelligence, country music star Randy Travis, celebrated for his timeless hits like” Forever and Ever, Amen” and” I Told You So”, has his voice back.
In July 2013, Travis was hospitalized with popular cirrhosis, a disease that attacks the brain, and afterward suffered a injury. In the years that followed, the Country Music Hall of Famer had to retrain how to move, magic, and read. His family Mary Travis helps him with interviews because a situation called dementia limits his ability to speak. It’s also why he has n’t released new music in over a decade, until now.
” Where That Came From”, which released Friday, is a rich acoustic song amplified by Travis ‘ instantly recognizable, heartfelt vocal voice.
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Cris Lacy, Warner Music Nashville inc- president, approached Randy and Mary Travis and asked:” ‘ What if we could get Randy’s voice and recreate it using AI?,'” Mary Travis told The Associated Press over Zoom next week, Randy smiling in agreement proper following to her. ” Well, we were all over that, so we were thus excited”.
” That speech was all I always wanted to hear again since the day of my strokes.”
To begin the process, Lacy sought out London-based developers to develop a custom AI model. The result was two models: One with 12 vocal stems ( or song samples ), and another with 42 stems collected across Travis ‘ career — from 1985 to 2013, says Kyle Lehning, Travis ‘ longtime producer. Lehning and Lyning settled on Scotty Emerick and John Scott Sherrill’s music” Where That Fell From,” which they co-produced and cherished for years. He thought it would best express Travis ‘ distinctive outspoken style’s society.
” I never actually thought about another song”, Lehning said.
Once he input the demo vocal ( sung by James Dupree ) into the AI models, “it took about five minutes to analyze”, says Lehning. I was the first person to hear it, so I was relieved that someone had brought a lens. And it was beautiful, to me, how nice it was kind of right off the bat. It’s hard to put an equations around it, but it was definitely 70, 75 % what you hear now”.
He claimed that there were some aspects of the saving that were not true to Randy’s efficiency, so he began editing and expanding it with expert Casey Wood, who had also worked carefully with Travis for a while.
The couple altered issues like vibrato speed or slowing and relaxing statements to fit their own individual preferences. ” Randy is a laid- up singer”, Lehning says. ” Randy, in my opinion, had an old soul superior to his words. That’s one of the things that made him distinct, but also, apparently comfortable”.
That was a requirement for his outspoken performance on” Where That Brought From.”
” We were able to really strengthen on it”, Lehning says of the AI saving. ” It was emotive, and it’s still emotional”.
Mary Travis says the “human element”, and” the people that are involved” in this task, separate it from more wicked purposes of AI in music.
” Randy, I remember watching him when he first heard the song after it was completed. It was wonderful because at first, he was surprised, and then he was very somber, and he was listening and studying”, she said. He therefore placed his head over, and his eyes began to drool. In those three hours of hearing his voice once more, I believe he experienced every sentiment possible.
Lacy agrees. The charm of this is that, she says,” we’re doing it with a message that the world knows, has heard, and has found comfort in.”
” But I think, only on people words, it’s a really genuine need. And losing someone’s words, who you were connected to, is a huge loss. Having them up is a wonderful gift.
They also hope this music will help spread awareness about the positive work that AI can do rather than the obscene practices that so often make headlines. We’re hoping to achieve a standard, Mary Travis says, where credit is due where credit is due, and where artists have power over their voice and work.
Next month, over 200 artists signed an opened letter submitted by the Artist Rights Alliance non- profit, calling on artificial intelligence tech companies, developers, platforms, electronic music services and platforms to quit using Iot” to infringe upon and devalue the rights of individual artists”. Musicians who co- signed included Stevie Wonder, Miranda Lambert, Billie Eilish, Nicki Minaj, Peter Frampton, Katy Perry, Smokey Robinson and J Balvin.
But, now that” Where That Came From” is around, will there be more unique Randy Travis music in the future?
” There may be others”, says Mary Travis. ” We’ll see where this goes. This is such a international country. There’s possibly more on the ocean”.
” We do have other songs”, says Lacy, but Warner Music is being as careful. ” This is n’t a stunt, and it’s not a parlor trick”, she added. It was crucial to have a track that honored him.
