When I was a child, I watched sci-fi movies, and the robot in it had an unshakable rule, that is, to change all the tones to one. This may be one of our earliest “stereotypes” of robots.
But it is unexpected that decades later, AI robots can imitate human speech to be indistinguishable from true and false – not only talking, but even AI singing, can make you deeply doubt your ability to distinguish.
Just recently, another AI virtual singer became popular. She is Luya from iFlytek.
Luya officially announced its official debut on August 26, 2022. With big eyes, pink ball head, energetic and cute image, and fashionable and cool clothing styles, it is easy to inspire people’s love.
As a virtual singer, Luya not only has a cute and playful image, but also has excellent singing skills. You can feel her latest solo single “The Shimmer in the Mist”:
Listening to this sweet timbre, this emotional singing voice, this smooth and natural ventilation and pitch change, if you don’t know in advance, is it difficult for you to imagine that this is sung by AI?
Synchronized with this new single is the news that Luya will join hands with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She will enter the “Music Engineering Department – Xunfei Music Joint R&D Center” of Shanghai Music, participate in the research and development and learning of “AI + Music”, and explore more possibilities for AI to empower music.
This can’t help but make people more interested in the stories behind Luya.
Behind the singing voice that is comparable to a real person, there is a strong technical guarantee
In recent years, there have indeed been many “virtual digital people” around us. Most of them have stunts, or can draw and write poems, or can sing and dance, and become “new generation idols”. Luya is the first AI virtual singer of iFlytek. In terms of “singing skills”, Luya is definitely outstanding and special among many virtual singers. After all, the iFlytek behind her has always been known for its powerful AI voice and language technology.
In addition to the “Glimmer in the Mist” just mentioned, Luya also released another single earlier, called “Polaris and Meteor Shower”, which also achieves the singing effect comparable to that of a real singer, with a refreshing voice that is easy to match. The smart singing method, to use the words of netizens: “It’s like ice cream in summer, which makes people feel happy”.
In addition, on Luya’s social account “LUYA does not eat braised duck”, you can also see other works she sings. The singing is elegant and beautiful in ancient style, fresh and mellow in folk songs, and electronic and funny.
When you listen to these works of Luya, I believe that you will be amazed and ask questions:
What magic did iFLYTEK cast to make Luya’s singing so natural and resonant?
Here we might as well explore the advanced AI voice technology behind Luya.
The first thing to be clear is that Luya is different from many virtual singers who use real voices.Her tone is entirely created by AI, rather than the voice of a real person. That is to say, the fresh voice you hear is truly unique to Luya, and it is also Luya’s unique label.
So, how does AI make Luya’s singing so natural and comparable to real singers?
simply put,It is to use AI to enable debugging and determination of the target sound system, as well as operations such as sound conversion, and then integrate the adjustment of expert experience.Luya will be able to “sing as much as you want” with a beautiful sound that is unique to her.
In this way, Luya’s rendition of songs not only has a strong “Luya quality”, but the sound quality is also quite natural and full of emotion.
At the same time, there is also an advantage that the voice of real people will be unstable and often difficult to adapt to various music styles, while Luya’s voice can adapt to various styles and is more stable and guaranteed.
So we can see that in the “LUYA Don’t Eat Braised Duck” account, Luya can easily handle various music singing styles, and his voice singing and expressiveness are very stable, and he is a proper “strength singer”.
In short, based on such a strong set of technical support, Luya can naturally win more people’s love with its remarkable “sense of technology” and stable and high-quality “singing strength”.
Not only does she sing well, Luya also has a role that you can’t expect
Although Luya is the first AI virtual singer of iFLYTEK, it is not the first time iFLYTEK has done the use of AI to empower music.
In 2019, iFLYTEK established an independent iFLYTEK music business line. In 2021, the iFLYTEK music label held its first industry-wide press conference. During this period, iFLYTEK Music used AI technology to make music judgments, such as judging the rising space and trends in song promotion, or judging song plagiarism, music appreciation, creation, etc., and thus formed its own model of iFLYTEK Music. In addition, they also use AI technology capabilities to empower the music market industry chain, such as copyright management, music market dynamics and singer information supervision, and song promotion and settlement.
Luya is another exploration attempt of iFLYTEK Music in the field of AI + music. Unlike the previous one, which mainly focused on music brand marketing, artist brokerage services, and operations, Luya’s debut this time undoubtedly carries more missions to empower music with AI. , and will also explore and apply to deeper areas of music.
In other words, as an AI virtual singer, the significance and mission of Luya’s debut is not only to show the outside world that she can sing well, but more importantly,She can make her own unique contribution to the development of the music field。
For example, the cooperation between Luya and Shanghai Conservatory of Music is a further exploration attempt in the field of AI fusion music. With Luya’s learning and evolution in Shangyin, she will further extend from singing to AI-assisted lyrics, composition and other fields in the future, and will also use her abilities to conduct fusion experiments with different types of music styles together with Shangyin, such as using technology The methods match songs of similar styles, dismantle chords and melody trends, and integrate tracks, etc., so as to promote the innovation and expansion of music in terms of basic theory and creation.
In short, such a virtual singer can provide huge possibilities and imagination space for the collision of music and technology in the future. With the wings of AI, music art will have a new driving force for innovation, and the technology behind Luya will also be due to Combining with the depth of art and continuously evolving, this is the spark that collided with each other.
Of course, for Luya, having a beautiful and moving singing voice, full of vitality, fresh and pleasant image, coupled with the powerful technology behind it and the possibility to promote the development of music art, these characteristics also make Luya become a new generation of virtual idols. Great potential.
Moreover, Luya itself also has a wealth of “personality” elements. For example, she is a talented girl with a bright and quirky personality. Her dream is to create a black technology that makes everyone happy and happy. She also has a loyal companion lying down duck.
And Luya’s musical talent and ability came from a mistake in a technological experiment. She and Lying Duck were involved in a magical musical space, which is full of musical energy. Luya bravely sings and dances, and can transform the musical energy. Transform into vitality energy, gain happiness and joy…
Knowing these stories makes Luya appear more three-dimensional and more accessible to ordinary audiences. Idols in reality are always flat, we can only see from a distance, not so much that Luya will become a new generation of idols in the future, it is better to say that Luya will become a music partner who each of us can communicate with her at any time and share happiness with her in the future.
Finally, the “metaverse” has almost become the consensus of people on the future of technology, and “virtual human” is the basic element of the metaverse. The emergence of Luya also allows us to further see that in the future metaverse era, “virtual singers” should be able to What kind of existence and image. The era of the metaverse is still far away, but Luya has used a virtual identity to bring us real happiness and feelings.
Epilogue
In the story, Luya entered the magical music space she called “Lutopia”, and since then embarked on a growth journey of gathering vitality with music and bringing happiness and joy to everyone.
Just like our expectations for AI technology, we hope that technology can create happiness and bring happiness to human beings. That’s how Luya was born.
And her journey is still going on, what kind of works will Luya use to move us, and what kind of performance will surprise us? I believe that friends who know and like her singing will be full of expectations.Return to Sohu, see more