Minus

## Minus (Yongye)

* AI
* Standard

> “On the banks of the starry river, the long night is endless.”
> —Tagline on Yongye Minus's software icon.
>
>

**Minus**, also known as **Yongye Minus** (永夜Minus), and prior to November 2023, **Xingchen Minus** (Simplified Chinese: 星尘Minus; Traditional Chinese: 星塵Minus) or **Stardust Minus**, is a Mandarin Chinese vocal developed and distributed by Beijing Photek S&T Development Co., Ltd., and was released as a Standard voice database for *Synthesizer V Studio* in September 2020. She is part of the MEDIUM⁵ cast.

Minus was expected to receive a private Standard-trained AI voice database for *Synthesizer V Studio* known as "Xingchen Minus Synthesizer V Plus", but no development information was provided. She instead received a full AI voice database in December 2023.

Her voice provider is Sawako Sui Hua Zi, a Chinese singer.

## Concept

For Minus's logo, a shape known as the dodecahedron is present next to her name and is part of the seventh stroke of the "夜" character. In the spiritual meaning of Metatron's Cube, the dodecahedron represents ether. Ether was noted to have been kept secret or treated as the secrets of the universe. It could be referred to as "the source of all things that arise in Space and Time" or "God's Spirit". This shape in general was what was believed that "surrounds Earth and the other four solids combined". Prior to November 2023, the dodecahedron was seen in the third stroke of the "星" character.

Not much is known about Minus, but she has relations to the MEDIUM⁵ cast and potentially derived from a single being known as ZERO who possessed Metatron's Cube. She is described as a villainous character according to Ddickky.

According to the official Dreamtonics webpage for Synthesizer V Studio, Minus was described to have an impression of a calm, introspective, and inquisitive girl.

### Etymology

The whole concept for **Minus** is currently unknown, leaving no explanation for the "Minus" part of the name.

The other part of her current name, **Yongye** (永夜; *Yǒngyè*), can be interpreted as "perpetual night" or "eternal darkness". This new name was officially adopted for her on a promotional video published by Beijing Photek on bilibili on November 24, 2023. For her AI voice database software, her logo officially presents her as "Yongye Minus" (永夜Minus; *Yǒngyè Minus*).

Minus was formerly known as "**Xingchen Minus**" (星尘Minus; *Xīngchén Minus*) and "**Stardust Minus**". "**Xingchen**" (星尘; *Xīngchén*) means "Stardust" in Chinese and is taken from the VOCALOID Xingchen. "Stardust" is the official English name as it appears on the VOCALOID's boxart, numerous promotional material, and is utilized on the official social media accounts.

### Appearance

* Standard
* AI

Minus bears a striking resemblance to Xingchen but is depicted to be a darker form, with most of her outfit consisting of black and purple. She wears what appears to be armor and a cape. Unlike the members of MEDIUM⁵, Minus debuted and released with what may be her design for the upcoming *MEDIUM⁵ 2050* (五维介质2050) game while all of the other members have separate game concepts to their normal synthesizer design. She carries a scythe as a weapon.
In terms of physical characteristics, there are some other notable differences between Minus and Xingchen. Minus wears a dark visor that covers her eyes. It was later revealed in Napstina's concept art that she has purple eyes while Xingchen's are yellow or gold. In addition, while Minus wears a similar hairstyle as Xingchen's, her hair is much paler and is closer to white while Xingchen's is closer to periwinkle. The ends of her hair were styled as more of a straight-cut. In xiao Ye You Xi's game concept art, it was more apparent that Minus has very pale skin in comparison to Xingchen and the other MEDIUM⁵ characters. In this concept, she also has pale purple fingernail polish.
INFORMATION PENDING

## Voice Libraries

* Xingchen Minus Standard (*Synthesizer V Studio*), September 10, 2020
* Xingchen Minus Synthesizer V Plus (*Synthesizer V Studio*), Unreleased; Conceptual only
* Yongye Minus (*Synthesizer V AI*), December 17, 2023

## Additional Information

### Marketing

Minus was introduced as a mysterious girl who had relations to the MEDIUM⁵ cast and bears a striking resemblance to the VOCALOID Xingchen, though no thorough information about her was given. She would be making an appearance in the *MEDIUM⁵ 2050* game, where she was noted to be more of a villainous character. Over time since her Synthesizer V Studio release, she was featured in official merchandise, such as posters, buttons, and albums.

MEDIUM⁵ 2050 promotional imageMinus's 1st official album: *Quadimension X-1*
On occasion, Beijing Photek would host tuning competitions and paid music production courses for users to participate and attend. These would feature all of Beijing Photek's vocalists, including Minus.

### Reputation

Minus's character status
**Impact**

Like Muxin before her, Minus's voice database was only made available on Beijing Photek's Taobao shop, making it difficult for overseas users to purchase her if they had no knowledge of how to navigate and use the site. All of the previous vocals before her and Muxin were made available on Animen's ANiCUTE shop, which was friendlier to use for overseas fans.

Although specific vocals have not been mentioned, Ddickky noted that the commercial sales of their voice databases have never been so profitable, leading to a lack of motivation, especially for the creation of AI voice databases of the cast members introduced in Synthesizer V and Synthesizer V Studio.
**Miscellaneous**

The first song featuring Minus to reach 1 million views was "Jīng Què", an original by Ta Ku and Ran Yu You, which occurred on July 22, 2021.

## References

1. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/607304690576678463
2. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/771690836003913744
3. ↑ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/695380056155095054/1084001776069525515/Screenshot\_2023-03-11-14-25-20-306\_com.png - "ai声库是和星尘ai一起推进的，去年就同时邀约了生源，这点资金我也完全没问题。只是有些声源会担心ai抢饭碗，有些声源单纯有点拖…而对我而言，商业策略角度现在出声库并不是很好的时机，所以我也只能做到过俩月去催一下，不至于急道周周催天天问。于是结果如你所见，但不出意外不是过于拖的话，今年minus和赤羽应该可以吧。"

"不过另一点是，不光声源觉得ai和自己太像，我也觉得如果这么像声源而非角色之前的声库。不是很合适。星尘一定要做是因为v4性能过于差，所以硬顶着声音变化的反对也做了。而其他几个角色是sv2带拼接式，性能过得去，那做了ai产生与星尘类似的声音变化风波，在外加商业角度（卖声库）不是那么挣钱，你能理解我逻辑了吧。"
4. ↑ https://jelila.wordpress.com/tag/spiritual-meaning-of-metatrons-cube/
5. ↑ https://alyssayeager.com/blog/2014/10/16/metatrons-cube-art-math-and-life
6. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/av42960488
7. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1tX4y157aF
8. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/529100285376487554
9. ↑ https://dreamtonics.com/en/synthesizerv/
10. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Qu4y1w7YR/
11. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/513030553568983648
12. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/595083945257636743
13. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/771690836003913744
14. ↑ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/695380056155095054/1084001776069525515/Screenshot\_2023-03-11-14-25-20-306\_com.png - "ai声库是和星尘ai一起推进的，去年就同时邀约了生源，这点资金我也完全没问题。只是有些声源会担心ai抢饭碗，有些声源单纯有点拖…而对我而言，商业策略角度现在出声库并不是很好的时机，所以我也只能做到过俩月去催一下，不至于急道周周催天天问。于是结果如你所见，但不出意外不是过于拖的话，今年minus和赤羽应该可以吧。"

"不过另一点是，不光声源觉得ai和自己太像，我也觉得如果这么像声源而非角色之前的声库。不是很合适。星尘一定要做是因为v4性能过于差，所以硬顶着声音变化的反对也做了。而其他几个角色是sv2带拼接式，性能过得去，那做了ai产生与星尘类似的声音变化风波，在外加商业角度（卖声库）不是那么挣钱，你能理解我逻辑了吧。"
15. ↑ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/695380056155095054/1084001780926525450/Screenshot\_2023-03-11-14-25-45-806\_com.png - "回复 @覆雪繁花 :这个还是等快出了看情况才能定，不过基本应该是类似星尘ai的直接卖新的，因为和之前拼接式完全是不同技术工作量和投入成本上也完全不相干，所以会是大几百重新卖，这也是我觉得不好卖商业上不太合适出的一个原因"