第2194期:Country Singer Randy Travis Releases AI Song after Stroke

An American country music star has used artificial intelligence to make music again, years after suffering a stroke. 一位美国乡村音乐明星在中风多年后再次使用人工智能创作音乐。 

Randy Travis is 65 years old. He was a popular country music performer in the 1980s and 1990s and won several Grammy awards during his career. But in 2013, he went to the hospital with a heart problem and later had a stroke. The stroke made it hard for Travis to speak. He has not made music since his stroke – until now. 兰迪·特拉维斯今年 65 岁。 他是20世纪80年代和90年代流行的乡村音乐表演者，在他的职业生涯中多次获得格莱美奖。 但2013年，他因心脏病入院，后来中风。 中风使特拉维斯说话变得困难。 自从中风以来，他一直没有创作音乐，直到现在。 

On May 3, Travis released a new song with the help of artificial intelligence, or AI. It is called Where That Came From. Nashville, Tennessee songwriters Scotty Emerick and John Scott Sherrill wrote the song. 5月3日，Travis 在人工智能（AI）的帮助下发布了一首新歌。 它的名字叫《从哪里来》。 田纳西州纳什维尔的词曲作者斯科蒂·埃默里克和约翰·斯科特·谢里尔创作了这首歌。 

Cris Lacy is co-president of Warner Music Nashville, the company that produces Travis’ music. Lacy said she contacted Travis’ wife Mary and asked “What if we could take Randy’s voice and recreate it using AI?” 克里斯·莱西 (Cris Lacy) 是纳什维尔华纳音乐公司 (Warner Music Nashville) 的联合总裁，该公司为特拉维斯 (Travis) 制作音乐。 莱西说，她联系了特拉维斯的妻子玛丽并询问“如果我们可以采用兰迪的声音并使用人工智能重新创建它怎么办？” 

“We were all over that, so we were so excited,” Mary Travis said about the chance to hear her husband’s voice in a new song. “All I ever wanted since the day of the stroke was to hear that voice again.” “我们都沉浸在这一切之中，所以我们非常兴奋，”玛丽·特拉维斯谈到有机会在一首新歌中听到她丈夫的声音时说道。 “自从中风那天起，我唯一想要的就是再次听到那个声音。” 

Lacy talked with computer programmers in London about making an AI system that could recreate Travis’ voice. They produced two models. One model used 12 vocal samples from Travis’ career and the other used 42 samples. There was a lot of material to work with; the singer’s first big record, Storms of Life, came out in 1985. 莱西与伦敦的计算机程序员讨论了如何制作一个可以重现特拉维斯声音的人工智能系统。 他们生产了两种型号。 一个模型使用了 Travis 职业生涯中的 12 个声音样本，另一个模型使用了 42 个样本。 有很多材料可供使用； 这位歌手的第一张大唱片《Storms of Life》于 1985 年发行。

Travis’ long-time music producer is Kyle Lehning. He said Where That Came From was a song that fit Travis’ way of singing. When Travis was at the top of his career, he was known for a more traditional kind of country music. It was a contrast to the pop-country songs that were popular in the late 1980s. 特拉维斯的长期音乐制作人是凯尔·莱宁。 他说《Where That Came From》是一首适合特拉维斯演唱方式的歌曲。 当特拉维斯（Travis）处于职业生涯的巅峰时，他以更传统的乡村音乐而闻名。 这与 20 世纪 80 年代末流行的流行乡村歌曲形成鲜明对比。 

Lehning talked about the process of making the song. First, another singer recorded the song in what is known as a “demo.” Then the AI system analyzed the song and applied Travis’ voice to it. 莱宁谈到了这首歌的制作过程。 首先，另一位歌手以所谓的“演示”形式录制了这首歌。 然后人工智能系统分析了这首歌并将特拉维斯的声音应用到其中。 

“I really wish somebody had been here with a camera,” Lehning said about the experience of watching the computer apply Travis’ voice to the song. “And it was stunning, to me, how good it was … right off the bat.” “我真的希望有人带着相机来到这里，”莱宁谈到观看电脑将特拉维斯的声音应用到歌曲中的经历时说道。 “对我来说，这真是太棒了……立刻就变得多么好。”

Lehning said some parts of the sound created by the computer were “not authentic to Randy’s performance.” Lehning worked with Casey Wood, a recording engineer who knew Travis well, to get it right. 莱宁表示，计算机产生的声音的某些部分“与兰迪的表演并不真实”。 莱宁与熟悉特拉维斯的录音工程师凯西·伍德合作，以确保其正确。 

The two music professionals used sound parts from both vocal models. They made changes to the speed of some of the sounds. Lehning said Travis is “a laid-back singer,” so they had to slow down some parts. They wanted to keep an “old soul quality” in Travis’ voice. 两位音乐专业人士使用了两位声乐模型的声音部分。 他们改变了一些声音的速度。 莱宁说特拉维斯是“一位悠闲的歌手”，所以他们不得不放慢一些部分的速度。 他们希望特拉维斯的声音保持“古老的灵魂品质”。 

Lehning said they were able to improve on the AI version. And Mary Travis said the final version of her husband’s song is much different than what happens when a computer programmer uses AI to create something without permission. Lehning 表示他们能够改进人工智能版本。 玛丽·特拉维斯 (Mary Travis) 表示，她丈夫歌曲的最终版本与计算机程序员未经许可使用人工智能创建某些东西时发生的情况有很大不同。 

She called the producers’ and engineers’ work on the project “the human element.” 她将该项目的制作人和工程师的工作称为“人的因素”。 

She added that her husband had a thoughtful look on his face when he first heard the song. “I think he went through every emotion there was in those three minutes of just hearing his voice again,” Mary Travis said. 她补充说，当她丈夫第一次听到这首歌时，脸上露出若有所思的表情。 “我认为，在再次听到他的声音的那三分钟里，他经历了所有的情绪，”玛丽·特拉维斯说。