“It was a luck of a lifetime to meet.
My song's rhythm rises and falls, full of blessings.”
—MAN-F3's introduction, also referencing her demo "Yīshēng zhī Xìng"[1]
Qing Su (青溯), also known as MAN-F3, is a Mandarin Chinese vocal developed and distributed by Dreamtonics Co., Ltd., and released as an AI voice database for Synthesizer V Studio in December 2021.
Her voice provider was unrevealed, but was confirmed to be an experienced singer in Qing Su's first livestream.
Concept[]
Since MAN-F3's introduction, Dreamtonics wanted the voice database's name to directly mean or reflect the concept of "dream". The company hoped that Qing Su would become every creator's hearty expression, to express each other's lives in the passing time. She was described to be an extension of one's dreams.[2]
Like Saki, Qing Su was intended to be treated as an official voice database or an indispensable "reference-level" type of singing voice, representing Dreamtonics's brand quality.[3]
Etymology[]
Upon introduction, MAN-F3 was known through only her codename. In the description of her first demo, Dreamtonics announced they were launching a contest to decide her final name. It was requested that her name directly contained "Meng" ("梦"; "Mèng"), which translates to "dream", or that it reflected the meaning of "dream".
The winning name, "Qing Su", was created by Shi Shu Jishi Chang (诗书济世长), who accompanied its meaning with a poem.[4] The poem references Xu Zhimo's "Taking Leave of Cambridge Again", specifically the following lines: "To seek a dream? Go punting with a long pole, (寻梦？撑一支长篙，); Upstream to where green grass is greener, (向青草更青处漫溯,); With the punt laden with starlight, (满载一船星辉，); And sing out loud in its radiance. (在星辉斑斓里放歌。)"
Shi Shu Jishi Chang explained that Qing Su represents people's courage to explore their dreams farther and deeper, similar to her soft yet firm voice. Dreamtonics followed up in their own comment that the name was a "quiet and beautiful dream-seeking image". It was described "Like a pole roaming in the sea of the mind, it ripples in the heart with one wave and one stroke, and it lasts for a long time. At the moment of the birth of a far-than-expected imagination, it was across the blue night sky and chasing for a moment, finally pour out the condensed feelings in the chest, echoing the world".[5]
In reference to the poem, "Qing" (青; Qīng) means "green" or "green grass", which was noted by Mouzhize in Qing Su's livestream that it was a color close to the Synthesizer V UI's theme, to which Kanru Hua agreed. "Su" (溯; Sù) means "upstream". It is inspired by the poem's line: "Upstream to where grass is greener". Together, her name (青溯) is also a homonym for the phrase "to say everything (that is on one's mind)" (倾诉).
Qing Su's name is rendered in kana as "チン・スー".[6]
Appearance[]
Like Saki, rather than having an official human-like avatar, Qing Su is represented by an abstract symbol, the letter Q, which is drawn from the first letter of her name in romanization. The Q is mainly dodger blue with hints of purple, the color scheme likely stemming from Dreamtonics's logo colors. It is square-shaped with a straight and rectangular tail. Characterization is left to the song producers themselves rather than towards the product, so Qing Su is open to any form of visual interpretation, allowing the producer to decide what they would like her to look like.
Voice Libraries[]
- Qing Su AI (Synthesizer V Studio), December 1, 2021
Additional Information[]
Marketing[]
When MAN-F3 was introduced through her first demo, Dreamtonics announced that they would like users to give the next generation of virtual singers a name that only belonged to them. For MAN-F3, Dreamtonics requested three things: the name had to be two to three Chinese characters long, it should contain the word "dream" ("梦") or reflect the meaning of "dream", and that to participate, users were to share the video and reply with their selected name. The contest ran from October 14 to October 31, with the winning name set for announcement on November 5. The winning participant would be presented with a set of Synthesizer V Studio Pro and MAN-F3's library. The name was created by Shi Shu Jishi Chang (诗书济世长).[7]
During Qing Su's pre-order period, a raffle was launched for five users to potentially win a copy of Synthesizer V Studio Pro and Qing Su's voice database. Participants had to follow Dreamtonics's account and forward the announcement post. Winners were selected on December 1. For users who already bought Qing Su, they were entitled to a full refund of their purchase.[8]
Like Saki before her, Qing Su was treated as an official or standard vocal for the engine, where she could be found in demonstrations of Synthesizer V Studio and its AI capabilities. This also meant that she would be among the first vocals to be equipped with the latest engine updates. Qing Su was the focal voice of marketing Synthesizer V Studio 1.4.0, which featured the new Auto Pitch Tuning command[9], and shortly after, she was the demonstrative voice for the "Synthesizer V Studio Quick Start" video on bilibili.[10] She was also one of the vocals featured for version 1.5.0, which introduced Cross-lingual Singing Synthesis.[11] On September 1, 2022, she was featured in the Chinese version of the 1.7.1 tutorial video, which introduced Voice Version Selection.[12]
Similarly, Dreamtonics began uploading tutorial videos that were suited for new users of Synthesizer V Studio since October 17, 2022. Qing Su's voice was featured in the bilibili versions of the series' first and second videos.[13][14]
Dreamtonics opened their own Taobao store as part of their updated sales model for the Chinese market. Regarding overseas users, Qing Su would be available through other means, but the details were not yet specified.[15] On February 4, 2022, the international Dreamtonics store was opened and supplied Saki and Qing Su, as well as brand new releases Ryo and Kevin.[16][17] On June 13, 2022, Dreamtonics announced that they launched a new official store for the Chinese market built on WeChat's Mini Program. Users would be able to purchase the Synthesizer V Studio Pro editor and Dreamtonics' vocals through the application in a convenient manner, enjoying the automatic real-time distribution shopping experience. From June 13 to July 13, users were able to take advantage of unlimited 10% off coupons in the new store.[18] It was later clarified that the decision to open this new shopping option was made due to Taobao's new restrictions on the sales of virtual goods as of April 2022, especially for restrictions on shipments without logistics since virtual goods would need to be delivered via email.[19] Qing Su was made available through AH-Software Co. Ltd. on October 7.[20]
On June 24, 2022, Dreamtonics announced its first creation contest in collaboration with AH-Software, Animen, AUDIOLOGIE Co., Ltd., and Eclipsed Sounds, LLC with three competition areas: originals, covers, and cross-lingual synthesis. Creators were encouraged to submit their work regardless of language restrictions. Prizes included cash distribution from bilibili, digital copies of certain Synthesizer V voice databases, and the physical boxed copy of ANRI. Qing Su was listed as one of the eligible vocals for this contest.[21]
On December 9, 2022, Dreamtonics announced that Qing Su, Saki, Ryo, Kevin, An Xiao, Feng Yi, Yuma, Natalie, Mai, Cong Zheng, and Xuan Yu officially have their own artist association profiles on NetEase Music. Creators can use the profiles to add to their published songs, providing a more unified retrieval method and higher exposure rate for the works. Dreamtonics would provide assistance services to creators at no charge and would not obtain any income belonging to the artist when associating their works with the singer profiles. Based on NetEase Music's policies, creators needed to provide relevant proof of purchase to NetEase Music's customer service in order to associate a virtual singer with their works, thus, screenshots of receipts would need to be prepared in advance. NetEase Music's customer service would then confirm the request and forward it to Dreamtonics, who would approve the requests within five business days upon receiving them.[22]
Reputation[]
As a Dreamtonics product to demonstrate the capabilities of Synthesizer V Studio (specifically Synthesizer V AI), Qing Su was considered to be one of the default vocals used for tech demos, allowing for producers to compare and understand the differences per update. She had a professional feel in accordance to her voice provider, who was stated to be an experienced singer, and made for a good starting AI voice database, which was especially praised for sounding realistic and helped gauge interest in this type of voice database for Synthesizer V Mandarin Chinese vocals.
On February 4, 2022, Dreamtonics posted a newsletter about Qing Su's international release. Within it, they noted that she had won the love and attention of creators from all over the world with her unique vocal style and outstanding singing performance, especially after the release of Cross-lingual Singing Synthesis, where producers used her in both English and Japanese. There was much expectation for her to be available overseas as soon as possible, with anticipation for opening up more possibilities of music creation with her vocals. Dreamtonics was determined to further improve sales channels and narrow the distance between themselves and creators.[23] On March 25, when introducing MAN-M2 (later to be known as Mo Chen), Dreamtonics noted that looking back on Qing Su's release, they had witnessed a new vitality brought to the Synthesizer V community. Along with the addition of Cross-lingual Singing Synthesis, the increasingly rich choices were constantly expanding the new possibilities with each song.[24]- First Synthesizer V to have their name selected from a contest.
- First Mandarin Chinese voice library to be released by Dreamtonics.
- First Mandarin Chinese AI voice library to be released.
- First female Mandarin Chinese AI voice library to be released.
- First voice database to release solely as AI only.
- One of the first Mandarin voice databases to be distributed by AH-Software.
References[]
- ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/588128773997860383 - While the introduction is more poetic and difficult to translate into English, its straightforward meaning is "I was lucky to meet you in my life. My singing is full of my blessings to you."
- ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/589618406099412524 "Dreamtonics 真诚希望青溯能够化成每一位创作者的心声，倾诉出彼此的日起夕落、欢聚别离。"; "Dreamtonics 期待未来继续与各位延展梦想。"
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV11f4y1u7Sw
- ↑ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/695380056155095054/906152860583100416/unknown.png
- ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/589618406099412524 "如同于心海中撑杆漫游，一挥一划间在心田涟漪荡荡，经久不息。在远超预期的想象诞生的瞬间，是跨越青蓝色的夜空，不停追逐的怦然一瞬，终得将凝结于胸的情愫倾诉而出，回响天地。"
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/press/ah-soft/20221007.html
- ↑ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/695380056155095054/906152860583100416/unknown.png
- ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/595148335399419261
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/av379046065
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yL4y1J7E2
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De4cnZkl5pQ
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV17e4y1Y73E
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV17e411V76q/
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1o24y1k7Qu/
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv14232094?spm_id_from=333.999.0.0
- ↑ https://twitter.com/dreamtonics_en/status/1489436803858046976
- ↑ https://twitter.com/dreamtonics_en/status/1490318738373378051
- ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/671200609838301200
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv17082866
- ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/press/ah-soft/20221007.html
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv17237015
- ↑ https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404844858597835082
- ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv15113512
- ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/641498050565505064