Slovenská sporiteľňa does more than offer financial services for the nation of Slovakia. The bank is pursuing the goal to raise optimism of Slovaks in these times of crises. The bank inspires people to believe in future of Slovakia and its prosperity. To do so, Slovenská sporiteľňa needed the voice of an iconic personality to breathe life into their marketing initiatives.
Imagine the surprise of hearing the voice of a beloved icon long after their last words were spoken. This seemingly impossible feat became a reality when Respeecher joined forces with Slovenská sporiteľňa. Together, we utilized AI-driven voice synthesis technology to revive the voice of Július Satinský, a legendary Slovak comedian, actor, and writer.
The biggest challenge, however, was that Július Satinský passed away in the early '00s and could not personally lend his iconic voice to the short movie.
The Magic Behind the Voice and Overcoming Obstacles
Reviving renowned voices of the past, such as Luke Skywalker in Mandalorian, Vince Lombardi for Super Bowl LV, or even Richard Nixon for the Moon Landing Disaster speech, is what Respeecher excels at.
However, when the Zaraguza agency approached us, they expressed some skepticism. Initially, the production team was unsure if there were any high-quality AI models of the Slovak language available, and they were also concerned about the poor quality of the original recordings of Satinský’s voice.
It quickly became evident that our Emmy Award-winning crew had a new challenge in this groundbreaking project of resurrecting Satinský's distinctive voice. Several obstacles stood in our way, including training the AI model in the Slovak language and then working with the analog recordings from the 1990s.
First, we obtained permission from Satinský's family and the voice rights holders. Then, we carefully selected 40 minutes of clear audio content from hours of old voice recordings to train the AI model. The samples' quality was less than ideal since they predated modern digital recording technology.
After two weeks of intensive training, the model mastered the phonetics and unique Slovak sounds of Satinský's voice. Then, Respeecher applied the AI-generated voice of Satinský to the recording of the popular contemporary Slovakian voice actor Michal Hudak. Following a few rounds of feedback-driven edits, the final version was sent for approval.
A Triumph in Voice Synthesis
The project was a resounding success, as Satinský's relatives confirmed that the AI-generated voice closely resembled his. This achievement showcased the potential of AI-driven voice synthesis to preserve iconic voices of the past so that people today can experience the charisma and charm of these legendary personalities.
"To be honest, I was worried up until the last minute and didn't believe that my father's voice could be used in a project like this. When they sent me the record and I played it for the first time, I had goosebumps running down my spine — it was my father's voice, just as if he was with us today. It wasn't just a similar voice — it was his voice!" said Lucia Molnár Satinska, Satinský's daughter and proprietor of his voice.
The Results
The successful recreation of Július Satinský's voice is a testament to the power of AI-driven voice synthesis. When used ethically and with proper consent, this innovative technology delivers immense value in preserving history and enhancing creative content, bringing legends back to life for generations to come.
The short movie was published on YouTube in October 2022, and within half a year, it enjoyed almost 3 million views and was highly acclaimed by Slovakian viewers. Thanks to the Július Satinský's voice the advert has become the most known banking ad in five years. You can watch it for yourself here:
AI-Driven Voice Synthesis Brings
Július Satinský Back to Life
Thanks to Respeecher's state-of-the-art, AI-driven voice synthesis technology, the voice of one of the most celebrated Slovak actors, Július Satinský, was brought back to life for Slovenská sporiteľňa's campaign. This is a feat made possible by voice revival technology, ethical voice cloning, and the wonders of using AI in preserving iconic voices for creative projects.
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Magic Behind the Voice Revival
Respeecher is the pioneer in AI-driven voice synthesis, returning the voices of legends to life for applications such as films, series, and commercial spots. Slovenská sporiteľňa campaign partnered with Respeecher-an absolutely unique collaboration-aiming to revive hope and positivity in Slovakia through bringing back the voice of one of the most cherished comedians and actors in Slovakia, Július Satinský, who died at the beginning of the 2000s. This would be employed as the voice of a big ad campaign to recreate his timeless charisma among new generations.
It was not an easy task: his voice had been captured in analog records from the 1990s, and restoring those to digital was a real challenge. But because of the very specific sounds and phonetic features of the Slovak language, finding an AI model that could voice Július Satinský's speech accurately needed a truly sophisticated approach. However, combining the right modern voice revival technologies with ethical voice cloning practices, Respeecher did what was impossible.
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Overcoming the Obstacles in Voice Synthesis of the Slovak Language
Creation of a top-notch AI voice model for such a low-resourced language as Slovak presented peculiar challenges. Among Slovak voice synthesis challenges, a guarantee that the AI model would precisely reproduce specific phonetic features of Július Satinský working with analog quality digitized from older recordings.
Over such obstacles, permission was obtained by Respeecher from the family of Július Satinský for cloning his voice. Then, the team manually chose 40 minutes of good audio from the hours of old recordings to feed into the AI model. Poorly recorded, the recordings required Respeecher's engineers to laboriously restore the audio and make sure it captured Július Satinský's iconic voice. After two weeks of heavy training, the AI model was emulating his voice with perfect clarity, to be applied to new recordings by contemporary voice actor Michal Hudak.
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Ethical Voice Cloning and Preserving Iconic Voices
Respeecher's ethical voice cloning approach was key to this project. Permission was sought from Július Satinský's family and the voice rights holders in advance-a very important step in making sure this was done responsibly. Respeecher's team proved that AI-driven voice synthesis can serve as an effective tool for preserving voices of the past for creative endeavors while remaining within the bounds of ethics.
Thanks to Respeecher, AI for voice restoration technologies illustrate that Július Satinský can live digitally to enrich creative content, allowing new generations to love him. It also gives ethical cloning of the voice and brings back voices, but it never distorts the character and integrity of personalities with legendary voices.
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Impact of AI Voice Restoration to Advertising
The AI restoration of Július Satinský's voice for Slovenská sporiteľňa's campaign has become an instant hit. The ad, which hit YouTube in October 2022, went viral and reached almost 3 million views within half a year. The ad received high acclaim from viewers in Slovakia, with comments like being very emotional after hearing the voice of Július Satinský again.
Thanks to Respeecher's voice restoration technology, Slovenská sporiteľňa campaign became the most recognizable banking advertisement in the country in five years. This project proved not only the power of AI in preserving iconic voices but also that digital audio recreation is not the least factor in the modern advertising landscape. This campaign really proves how valuable AI-driven voice synthesis can be as a marketing tool in opening communications on a much deeper, emotional level between a brand and audience.
This is an ideal case of AI in preserving iconic voices and giving them a new lease on life, making them capable of inspiring and engaging generations in ways that were unimaginable before.
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