Musician who lost voice to motor neurone disease is now able to sing again

A musician diagnosed with motor neurone disease who lost his voice due to the condition has been able to sing again.

Patrick Darling, 32, a composer and performer since his teenage years, received his MND diagnosis at 29.

Before his illness, Mr Darling was the lead singer of the Irish folk group The Ceili House Band.

However, MND gradually robbed him of his ability to sing and left him capable of speaking only a few words.

But a breakthrough came with the use of advanced artificial intelligence, which allowed Mr Darling to perform during a live show in London.

Mr Darling, who communicates via assistive technology, previously created a digital replica of his speaking voice using software developed by ElevenLabs.

Building on this, the firm’s AI music generator allowed him to transform recordings of his past performances into a singing voice that is virtually indistinguishable from his original.

This remarkable technological feat enabled him to return to the stage, captivating an audience with his recreated voice.

At an event on Wednesday, Mr Darling took to the stage with Ceili House Band guitarist Nick Cocking and violinist Hari Ma for the debut performance of Ghost Of A Man I Never Met.

Mr Darling composed the music using ElevenLabs and combined the score with original lyrics he wrote himself.

This was the first time he had been been able to perform with the band since his diagnosis forced him to retire.

Mr Darling, 32, from Bristol, said: “I’ve been a musician and a composer from the age of 14.

“Being predominantly self-taught, I learnt to play bass guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, melodica, mandolin and tenor banjo.

“Singing has always been my biggest love and I’ve spent most of my musical life performing live in various bands.

“Sadly, due to my motor neurone disease, I have completely lost the ability to sing and play my instruments.

“Losing my ability to sing had a deeply profound and devastating effect on me. But the ElevenLabs singing voice that we’ve created is wonderful and definitely sounds like me.

“The technology created by ElevenLabs changes lives. It provides hope, support and meaning to people in ways that you can’t fully appreciate unless you’ve lived it yourself.

“All I can say is thank you.”

His family, who had not heard him sing since the effects of his MND diagnosis, were in the audience to watch his performance.

ElevenLabs’ technology enables users to take previous recordings of natural speech or sound from any audio source and generate accurate digital replicas of their own voice.

Speech therapist Richard Cave, who worked closely with Mr Darling to design his AI voice, said: “Motor neurone disease is a devastating illness, especially for people like Patrick, who started experiencing the disease at an unusually young age.

“I’ve worked with MND patients for many years, and rarely do we see developments that make such a huge difference to the lives of patients as we have with voice AI technology.

“The quality of ElevenLabs’ voices is unmatched.

“Working with Patrick to give him back his singing voice after a lifetime making music has been an absolute privilege, and watching the song performed on stage with a live band is a moment I’ll never forget.”