The Voice: Humanity's Unique Medium

This thesis is an exploration and analysis of the human voice in the context of our current technological landscape. Through technologies such as music-based vocal pitch correction (AutoTune, Melodyne), and vocal synthesis (VOCALOID, SynthesizerV, Emvoice) the voice is seen as an influential and integral part of both music and general auditory creation. With the recent introduction of Artificial Intelligence and machine learning into auditory creation and production spaces, voice synthesis and artificial vocal generation has started to become part of the digital norm. This research begins to uncover what consequences such technologies produce when they are widely adopted and how they will affect the human species as well as the human voice as a unique medium, potentially rendering the human voice obsolete in comparison to more “perfect” digital reproductions.