Feng Yi

> “
> I want to sing a song to you,
> Sing the message you carved on the table;
> I want to sing a song of you,
> Sing the message you wrote on the wall.
>
>
> I am your past time,
> I am your unspoken heart,
> I am your distant homeland,
> I am the echo you are about to knock.
>
>
>
> ”
> —Introduction prior to debut
>
>

**Feng Yi** (Simplified Chinese: 沨漪; Traditional Chinese: 渢漪) is a Mandarin Chinese vocal developed and distributed by Dreamtonics Co., Ltd., and released as an AI voice database for *Synthesizer V Studio* in May 2022.

Her voice provider has not been revealed.

## Concept

Like previous Dreamtonics vocals before her, Feng Yi was intended to be treated as an official voice database or an indispensable "reference-level" type of singing voice, representing Dreamtonics's brand quality.

Prior to her debut, the vocal was introduced with a small poem that was themed around echoing one's inner feelings or unspoken heart. This was followed by a sentence that said that every thought, feeling, heartfelt wish or inner voice (心声) should have its own echo. After her debut, Feng Yi was described to have a melodious voice that lingered for a time, echoing in one's heart. Dreamtonics hoped that Feng Yi would be able to sing and burst out the deep and most moving emotions in the works written by creators and that the melodies could endlessly reverberate in the hearts of listeners like ripples in water.

### Etymology

"**Feng**" (沨; *Fēng*) references the "sound of water" or a "pleasant sound". The word is typically used to describe the melodious sound of music. "**Yi**" (漪; *Yī*) is part of and can be the short form of "lianyi" (涟漪; liányī), meaning "ripple". Her name references the concept of her voice rippling or reverberating in the hearts of listeners.

Feng Yi's name is rendered in kana as "フォン・イー".

### Appearance

Like previous Dreamtonics vocals, rather than having an official human-like avatar, Feng Yi is represented by an abstract symbol, the letters F and E, which are drawn from the first two letters of the first part of her name in romanization. The letters are icy blue with hints of a darker blue and orange and are the same height. Characterization is left to the song producers themselves rather than the product, so Feng Yi is open to any form of visual interpretation, allowing the producer to decide what they would like her to look like.

## Voice Libraries

* Feng Yi AI (*Synthesizer V Studio*), May 27, 2022

## Additional Information

### Marketing

Like previous Dreamtonics vocals, Feng Yi was treated as an official or standard vocal for the engine, where she could potentially 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. Feng Yi was one of the focal voices of marketing Synthesizer V Studio 1.6.0, which introduced the new Vocal Mode feature. Her Peking "Opera" Vocal Mode was pointed out specifically as it was a particular tone that was previously uncharted by singing synthesizers according to Dreamtonics. After release, she was one of the demonstrative vocals for "High Dynamics Voice Model" (HDVM). On September 1, 2022, she was featured in the Chinese version of the 1.7.1 tutorial video, which introduced Voice Version Selection. On February 28, she was featured in the technical demo for future Cantonese Chinese support in Synthesizer V Studio where she was heard singing a self-cover of "Gùshì de Zuì Jiéwěi" in Cantonese via Cross-lingual Singing Synthesis. In July 2023, she was featured in the demonstration for "Enhanced Pitch Generation with RLHF".

Similarly, Dreamtonics began uploading tutorial videos that were suited for new users of Synthesizer V Studio since October 17, 2022. Feng Yi's voice was featured in the bilibili version of the series' second video.

Like An Xiao before her, Feng Yi's name was not chosen via contest and there was no pre-order period. The vocal was hinted through an introduction on May 25, 2022 with no mention of gender or base language support. On May 26, the name, gender, and base language were revealed along with a single demo. Feng Yi was meant to be released simultaneously on the official Dreamtonics International Store and Taobao on May 27, however, the international release was delayed to May 29. 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. 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. Feng Yi was made available through AH-Software Co. Ltd. on October 7.

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. Feng Yi was listed as one of the eligible vocals for this contest.

On December 9, 2022, Dreamtonics announced that Feng Yi, Saki, Qing Su, Ryo, Kevin, An Xiao, 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.

### Reputation

Feng Yi's character status
**Reaction**

As a vocalist without an official character, this allowed producers and fans to create their own for Feng Yi, resulting in a variety of designs. Her voice was also noted to sound professional, well done, realistic, and was met with overall positive and impressed reactions, especially in regard to her Peking "Opera" Vocal Mode's performance, which had a tone that was considered uncharted by singing synthesizers.
**Impact**

As a Dreamtonics product to demonstrate the capabilities of Synthesizer V Studio (specifically Synthesizer V AI), Feng Yi was considered to be one of the default or reference vocals used for tech demos, allowing for producers to compare and understand the differences per update. She had a professional feel 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 as a whole.
**Achievements**

* One of the first Mandarin voice databases to be distributed by AH-Software.

## References

1. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/664135912618196995
2. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/664507057928405015
3. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv16804044
4. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/沨
5. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/漪
6. ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/press/ah-soft/20221007.html
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/dreamtonics\_en/status/1530097881063260160
8. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYey-utSIyw
9. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1cT411E7a4
10. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV17e4y1Y73E
11. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcJU0Wq-u7w
12. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKwGR08kCSk
13. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1o24y1k7Qu/
14. ↑ https://twitter.com/dreamtonics\_en/status/1530095500795707392
15. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/671200609838301200
16. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv17082866
17. ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/press/ah-soft/20221007.html
18. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv17237015
19. ↑ https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404844858597835082