Ask anyone who has lost someone what they miss most and it is often the voice. The particular way they said your name. Their laugh. The sound of them reading aloud. It is also one of the first things memory lets go of. Photographs keep a face, and almost nothing keeps a voice.
The simplest thing: record them
The most reliable way to preserve a voice is to record it while you can. A phone captures it well enough. Record them telling a story, reading a favourite passage, or just talking about their day. Even a few minutes is something. If you are recording a life story interview anyway, you are preserving their voice at the same time.
Bringing a voice to their story
Technology has reached the point where a person’s voice can be recreated from a short sample and used to narrate new words in their own voice. Chapternity offers this for audiobooks, so a life story written from someone’s memories can be narrated in the storyteller’s own voice.
The effect on families is considerable. A grandchild who never met their great-grandmother can hear her life read in her own voice. You keep not just what someone said, but the sound of them saying it.
Doing it ethically
Recreating a voice is powerful, and power asks for care. We believe voice cloning should only be used with clear consent, and for the purpose the person would have wanted, which is narrating their own true story in their own words. It should never be used to make someone appear to say things they did not, and the family should always know exactly how and why it is being done.
Chapternity can narrate any life story as an audiobook, read by a professional AI narrator or recreated in the storyteller’s own voice, always with consent and always in service of their real story.
Frequently asked questions
- Can you recreate the voice of someone who has died?
- Yes. From a recording of their voice, AI voice cloning can narrate new words in their own voice, and Chapternity offers this for life story audiobooks. We only do it with the family’s clear consent and to narrate the person’s own true story, never to fabricate things they did not say.
- How much of a voice recording is needed to clone it?
- A relatively short, clear sample can be enough for a convincing result. The best source is a calm recording of the person speaking naturally without background noise. If you can, record a loved one reading aloud while you have the chance.
- Is it respectful to recreate someone’s voice?
- It can be, when it is done with consent and care, to read their own words and help a family remember. We believe it should never be used to make someone seem to say things they did not, and the family should always understand exactly how it is being used.
Explore more guides or read about life storys.