Behind the Voice - Michael Marshall

Key Takeaways

[Music] my name is Michael Marshall I'm based in Melbourne Australia I'm a voice actor have been so since uh 2018 and I'm the voice of Daniel James and Joseph on 11 Labs I'm loving every minute of us the biggest one's Daniel and I can't believe how much Daniel has taken off I um went into 11 Labs yesterday actually and I wasn't logged in and the voice that comes up now to test 11 Labs it's Daniel and I can't believe it Daniel was the voice that I wanted people to relax with not so much a News Bulletin but more an weekly show where we explore the latest trends breakthroughs and the people shaping the future of technology that was what I wanted for Daniel someone who you could listen to and go oh that's smooth I decided to make him a news presenter the Australian prime minister was locked in the cupboard at Parliament House for at least 3 hours whilst the key was being found Joseph is one of those reporters who you would get the tension the drama as the politician drops his pencil and the government grinds to a winding screeching halt I listened to a podcast called living blindy and what a was basically saying was you can put text into this and it would come back with a human sounding voice not like a screen reader which can be very robotic so I was very very intrigued and I was astounded by the way it was reading this back and I I worked out sort of on my own that if there are humans doing this voices maybe they need more humans so after a couple of months I decided to write to them and say listen I'm an Australian I'm a voice actor I sent them a couple of demos and they said this is good they said we'd like you to make some voices and that's how I started to be perfectly honest probably honestly a little bit of income getting a good remuneration which is very hard in this industry being disabled is a have very expensive um it's an expensive undertaking I wouldn't recommend it a screen reader on Windows can be $3,000 straight in get a company like 11 laps so I go hey we value the content and time you put in um was very refreshing for me who is disabled I'm certainly not saying it's a poor me thing there is a certain amount of planning that you need to work out and how you're going to get there in terms of AI you don't need to be going around to a studio effectively job this is something I can be a part [Music] of there was a bit of angst especially with unauthorized use of voices and that kind of thing and I understand that but things like voice cloning is so good for understanding like translating from one language to another doing all that sort of thing before you just dismiss it at least have a look at it you know and they pay you well they're nice they they they prob they put up with me for one thing they put up with my inan questions so before you dismiss AI in general just have a deeper look cuz you never know like me you might find that little niche that you've been looking for that I didn't quite have until I collided with 11 labs you know you've really got nothing to lose and everything to gain just have a go you know before 11 I had days where I sort of thought gez I haven't got much on and then you know there were that I was quite depressed and I sort of thought what am I going to do and then I heard about 11 Ms and so it it has changed my outlook I and I think now because I'm doing something you know I'm I'm recording something I feel useful I feel like I'm doing something to help people if if people can use the voices for whatever they want to use them for I'm doing so I feel I feel valued I can say that 11 Labs has been a seismic shift in the way I think in terms of everything in my life absolutely [Music]