ASTERIAN

* Physical
* Digital

**ASTERIAN** is an English vocal developed and distributed by Eclipsed Sounds, LLC, and released as an AI voice database for *Synthesizer V Studio* in December 2022.

He is voiced by Eric Hollaway, an American voice actor and octavist singer.

## Concept

Similar to SOLARIA's concept theming around the "sun", ASTERIAN is themed around the "moon".

### Etymology

Eclipsed Sounds is not strict on pronunciation, but internally, they pronounce his name as "[ah] [s t eh r] [iy] [ih n]".

Regarding the name choice, Eclipsed Sounds decided not to give him a moon theme for it simply because all of the moon-related names did not suit the voice or were currently in use and trademarked by other synthesizers and VSTs. In addition, many sounded "cheesy" compared to SOLARIA and SAROS (who was in development at the time but already had a name decided upon). ASTERIAN's name was changed more times during the concept phase compared to the other two vocalists.

"ASTERIAN" derived from "Asterion", meaning "starry" in Greek. It is also the name of a river god of Argos. Eclipsed Sounds thought the atmosphere of the name was more important than the literal meaning and suited the vocal's warm tone.

### Appearance

Similar to SOLARIA, ASTERIAN's theme is based on the moon. He has dark brown skin, long black twists fastened with many golden clasps, a rough beard and mustache, and sparkling violet eyes. His fingernails are painted a shiny deep blue. He is adorned with much jewelry, including gold rings, headband, bracelet, and glove. He wears a black short-sleeved button-up shirt under a blue and purple galaxy-themed vest. The collar of his shirt is lined with gold, and accessorized with tie-like chain of gold circles and crescent moons, with one crescent encircling a smaller purple one, likely showcasing the phases of the moon. His vest is lined with a gold pattern, much like the one on SOLARIA’s dress. The buttons are shaped like stars. The fabric inside of the gold design is dark purple. His blue and purple cape is stylized after a galaxy, with shining stars glowing on the fabric. It is fastened by a leather belt held together by a gold clasp bearing an intricate design. The same pattern on his vest decorates the hem, giving the appearance of coattails. His pants are white with a gold star-shaped button and gold rings on the pant legs’ hem. His shoes are golden loafers.

In response to a fan's question, Eclipsed Sounds noted that ASTERIAN went through a few concepts but the final look was settled fairly quickly. The basic idea was the same as SOLARIA in creating a unique look with a more modern silhouette but blending into fantasy aspects. The early concept art could not be shared due to it being done as an internal paint-over from a non-stock photograph. The hairstyle was decided immediately to be twists to match the signature look of Eric Hollaway. The hair length was decided to be long in order to direct the design toward fantasy and to add an aspect that was opposite of SOLARIA. The gold colors were kept with the blue theme to show that the Eclipsed Sounds vocals were equals rather than "downgrading" the rarity of metals and to add warmth to his overall color scheme to match his voice. Silver metal was noted to wash out his color scheme and deem him less interesting. Parts of the designs were done as opposites to SOLARIA as well, such as the metalwork laying on top of her design and was more decorative while ASTERIAN's metalwork acted more as the "bones" of his clothes. SOLARIA's armor pieces were also more functional in nature while his was more decorative and similar to jewelry.

Further notes were provided with the launch of ASTERIAN's "Eclipsed Design" contest in July 2023. ASTERIAN's design was said to mirror SOLARIA's and was meant to represent a harmonic opposite, making them balanced as a pair. Examples included SOLARIA's light-to-dark vertical gradient while ASTERIAN's was meant to be opposite, his armor pieces being more decorative and placed opposite from hers, his longer hair, his crown flat against his head, and having hair jewelry compared to her large single piece. Both vocalists' clothing were a blend of modern pieces filtered through a mythological lens.

## Voice Libraries

* ASTERIAN AI (*Synthesizer V Studio*), December 2, 2022
* ASTERIAN AI Lite (*Synthesizer V Studio*), October 20, 2023

## Additional Information

### Marketing

As part of ASTERIAN's introduction on his webpage, he was noted to be a vocal that was "hard-to-find", reaffirming Eclipsed Sounds' commitment to creating diverse vocalists. Content creators were encouraged to post their work using the hashtag *#SynthV\_ASTERIAN* to share their works on social media. ASTERIAN's voice provider, Eric Hollaway, also created his own YouTube playlist for works featuring ASTERIAN.

According to the Eclipsed Sounds FAQ page, the reason why ASTERIAN had a character image to represent him was because it was considered a tradition to do so within the vocal synthesis community. They also noted that having an associated image of a person made it clearer that the software is a virtual singer, giving an idea of what the voice may sound like before listening.

In 2023, from April 13 to April 15, Eclipsed Sounds had a booth at the NAMM Show where people could try out their vocalists, including ASTERIAN.

On May 27, Eclipsed Sounds announced that ASTERIAN received his own Spotify artist profile. An "Eclipsed Design" contest and a song contest were also planned for the future. The design contest officially launched on July 19 and was announced to end on September 1. The winning design would become part of official content.

### Reputation

ASTERIAN's character status
**Reaction**

Upon reveal, there was much excitement toward the release of ASTERIAN based on the sound of his voice as his illustration was not yet shown. The user base often commented that he had a voice type that was rare within masculine voice synthesizer options, especially for the English language, with some users noting that most of the current lineup had trouble reaching very low notes, even for the deeper-toned ranges. Overall, the user base was glad that Eclipsed Sounds acknowledged the need for ASTERIAN's type of voice. This was also acknowledged in an April 2023 DTM Station article, where it was noted that his voice type and range wasn't heard often in the singing voice synthesis world. ASTERIAN's design was very well received as his appearance was also considerably needed within the voice synthesizer lineup overall.
**Impact**

In an interview with Taylor Hennessy, the CEO of Eclipsed Sounds, conducted by DTM Station in April 2023, regarding ASTERIAN's and SOLARIA's sales, Taylor replied that unlike in Japan, most people from the United States and Europe were not as familiar with singing voice synthesis software, and most have not heard of Synthesizer V or even VOCALOID. She admitted that the company was struggling, but they were proud that the software's quality was on the same level as professional recordings. They believed if the quality and fun of Synthesizer V can be conveyed, it would be appreciated by many people. Tomohide Ogata from AH-Software Co. Ltd. added on that despite Taylor's comment regarding slow sales, there was rapid sales growth in the United States and Europe since the previous year, giving the impression that there was a gain in momentum.
**Miscellaneous**

* ASTERIAN is currently the AI voice database with the most number of Vocal Modes available, with the total being nine.
* The first song featuring ASTERIAN to reach 1 million views was "SCAPEG♾AT", an original by GHOST, which occurred on April 26, 2023.

**Achievements**

* First male Synthesizer V character and voice database from Eclipsed Sounds.
* First male AI voice database to have a Lite version.

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/eclipsedsounds/status/1592248352804331520
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/eclipsedsounds/status/1592357213313847297
3. ↑ https://eclipsedsounds.tumblr.com/post/719574824113029120/oh-hi-first-congratulations-for-the-release-of
4. ↑ https://eclipsedsounds.tumblr.com/post/719578639503638528/a-few-questions-i-have-about-asterian-im-looking
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://www.eclipsedsounds.com/post/asterian-eclipsed-design-contest
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/eclipsedsounds/status/1592277702396227584
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/EricHollawayVO/status/1599827362962497536
8. ↑ https://twitter.com/eclipsedsounds/status/1646570434148835329
9. ↑ https://www.eclipsedsounds.com/post/asterian-for-synthesizer-v-studio-demos-range-vocal-information
10. ↑ https://www.eclipsedsounds.com/post/solaria-sundial-illustration-contest-results
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 https://www.dtmstation.com/archives/60933.html

## External links

* Character Page
* Eric Hollaway's ASTERIAN YouTube playlist
* ASTERIAN Spotify artist profile