Respeecher

Respeecher is a speech synthesis company using proprietary artificial intelligence software for creative, educational, health, and cybersecurity applications. Founded in February 2018 by Alex Serdiuk, Dmytro Bielievtsov, and Grant Reaber as a start-up company^[1] based in Kyiv, Ukraine^[2] Respeecher worked with Skywalker Sound to deliver artificial voices of Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker and James Earl Jones as Darth Vader for the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The Respeecher team completed their work on Vader's voice under Russian bombardment in the invasion of Ukraine.^[1]

History

Luke Skywalker

Respeecher uses archival recordings of a "target voice" to train their proprietary artificial intelligence system, and the lines of a "source speaker" are transformed in a new, replicated voice.^[3] Respeecher chief technical officer Dmytro Bielievtsov recalled that Lucasfilm learned of the company's technology and reached out to it after "someone posted about our tech in an internal sound engineering chat."^[2] With Mark Hamill reprising his role as Jedi Master Luke Skywalker in The Mandalorian's second season finale, December 18, 2020's "Chapter 16: The Rescue," Respeecher altered Hamill's voice to be in line with his younger voice, as heard in 1977–1983's original trilogy.^[4] Respeecher again used Hamill's voice to synthesize the young Luke Skywalker's voice for The Book of Boba Fett's February 2, 2022 episode "Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger."^[5]

Darth Vader

James Earl Jones' retirement

"Why did I do it? It's a big honor to work with Lucasfilm, and I've been a fan of Star Wars since I was a kid. Even if it's war, there's no excuse for you to be the troublemaker of what you loved from childhood."

―Respeecher artist Bogdan Belyaev^[6]

James Earl Jones, who voiced Darth Vader in his mechanized suit in the original trilogy, recorded a brief line for the 2019 sequel trilogy film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker with Matthew Wood at Skywalker Sound. Wood recalled that Jones mentioned winding down his Star Wars role, and during the production of director Deborah Chow's television series Obi-Wan Kenobi in the United States, Skywalker Sound hired Respeecher to produce Vader's voice using archival recordings of Jones' portrayal of the character.^[6]

Matthew Wood presented James Earl Jones with Respeecher's work. The veteran actor formally consented for his archival voice to be synthesized for Lucasfilm productions such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he additionally provided advice and guidance on the use of his artificial voice, with Wood describing him as "a benevolent godfather." Deborah Chow, Wood, and the Respeecher team stayed in frequent communication over creating Vader's lines, including changes to them and additional fine-tuning of what Wood estimated as "50 lines" and thus "almost over 10,000 files."^[6] While undertaking the task, Respeecher prepared for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine as part of the Russian regime's war against Ukraine, which started in 2014.^[2] Although Matthew Wood began to pull back on his requests for Respeecher in the days leading up the expected assault, the Ukrainians' attitude, Wood recalled, was: "Let's work, let's work in the face of this adversity, let's persevere."^[6]

Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Working in the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, synthetic speech artist Bogdan Belyaev rushed to finalize Vader's voice for sending off to Skywalker Sound on February 24, 2022. Ukraine was attacked by armed forces from Russia and Belarus on that day, and Belyaev worked even while he and his family sheltered in their bathroom from Russian missiles. Other Respeecher employees in the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv worked from their own apartments' corridors or refuges such as a theater or a small, brick-built shelter. Hearing news from Ukraine in the United States, Matthew Wood was concerned about the Ukrainians' well-being and did not want their work to put them in additional danger. Respeecher chief executive officer Alex Serdiuk said that he hoped more people would recognize the company's economic, social, and technological contributions and hear about Ukraine's struggle and resilience.^[6] Bielievtsov was pleased with Respeecher's preparations to keep employees safe while delivering the Star Wars project and remarked that the Russian invasion delayed other projects by "up to a day."^[2]

Respeecher's efforts on Darth Vader's voice feature in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The third episode was released on June 1, 2022 on Disney+,^[7] and Respeecher staff in Kyiv gathered to watch Vader's first appearance in the series. The team also called Belyaev to cheer for him, as after he had completed his work on Vader, he volunteered to help fellow Ukrainians in Lviv who were displaced by the war. James Earl Jones' family told Matthew Wood that they were pleased with the work on Vader's voice.^[6] Respeecher also worked on replicating the Hungarian version of Darth Vader in the space of around two weeks in 2022,^[8] based on iconic voice actor Lajos Kránitz's Hungarian dubbing of the character prior to his passing in 2005.^[9] Kránitz's two sons worked as recording engineer and dubbing director for the Hungarian localization of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, and they gave legal permission for their father's voice to be processed. The "voice cloning" took longer than usual due to the poor quality of the original samples, but it was made in time to resurrect Kránitz's voice for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.^[8]

Aside from achieving Hollywood and gaming credits and winning film, television, and advertising awards, Respeecher has invested in other content creation applications, cybersecurity, the ethical development of artificial intelligence,^[1] and healthcare, such as helping laryngectomy patients speak with their natural voices in 2022.^[2] In the same year, Respeecher engineers also contributed to developing Ukraine's "Zvook" acoustic detection system that identifies active missiles, helicopters, drones, and jet fighters.^[10] In 2023, Mark Hamill voiced the English-language version of the Ukrainian "Air Alert" app by other technology developers as Luke Skywalker, warning about incoming bombardments.^[11]