An Xiao

**An Xiao** (Simplified Chinese: 岸晓; Traditional Chinese: 岸曉) is a Mandarin Chinese vocal developed and distributed by Dreamtonics Co., Ltd., and was released as an AI voice database for *Synthesizer V Studio* in May 2022.

His voice provider has not been revealed.

## Concept

Like previous Dreamtonics vocals before him, An Xiao was intended to be treated as an official voice database or an indispensable "reference-level" type of singing voice, representing Dreamtonics's brand quality. Dreamtonics hoped that An Xiao's singing could help creators capture the fleeting hearts and bring the emotions between the melodies one by one.

### Etymology

"**An**" (岸; *Àn*) means "bank", "shore", "coast", or "waterfront", while also meaning "high" or "lofty". "**Xiao**" (晓; *Xiǎo*) means "dawn" or "daybreak", while also meaning "to know" or "to understand", even "to let someone know", "to make explicit", or "to make clear". Combined, his name could mean "dawn on the shore", and with considerations to his demo song, it may convey the meaning of hopes and expectations.

An Xiao's name is rendered in kana as "アン・シャオ".

### Appearance

Like previous Dreamtonics vocals, rather than having an official human-like avatar, An Xiao is represented by an abstract symbol, the letters A and N, which are drawn from the first part of his name in romanization. The letters are yellowish orange with hints of purple on the A and N and hints of a darker orange on the N. The A is more of a boxy shape and the left side of the N is shorter than the right. Characterization is left to the song producers themselves rather than the product, so An Xiao is open to any form of visual interpretation, allowing the producer to decide what they would like him to look like.

## Voice Libraries

* An Xiao AI (*Synthesizer V Studio*), May 4, 2022

## Additional Information

### Marketing

Like previous Dreamtonics vocals, An Xiao was treated as an official or standard vocal for the engine, where he could potentially be found in demonstrations of Synthesizer V Studio and its AI capabilities. This also meant that he would be among the first vocals to be equipped with the latest engine updates. An Xiao was one of the focal voices of marketing Synthesizer V Studio 1.6.0, which introduced the new Vocal Mode feature. After release, he was featured in the Chinese version of the 1.8.0 introduction video, specifically used for the section featuring the new Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DPM) function.

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

Unlike previous Chinese Dreamtonics vocals, Qing Su and Mo Chen, An Xiao's name was not chosen via contest and there was no pre-order period. He was suddenly introduced with one demo and released on May 4, 2022 with no prior announcement. He was made available on the official Dreamtonics international store and Taobao simultaneously. 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. An Xiao 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. An Xiao was listed as one of the eligible vocals for this contest.

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

### Reputation

An Xiao's character status
**Reaction**

As a vocalist without an official character, this allowed producers and fans to create their own for An Xiao, resulting in a variety of designs. His voice was also noted to sound professional, well done, realistic, and was met with overall positive and impressed reactions.
**Impact**

As a Dreamtonics product to demonstrate the capabilities of Synthesizer V Studio (specifically Synthesizer V AI), An Xiao 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. He 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.
**Miscellaneous**

* The first song featuring An Xiao to reach one million views was a *Lobotomy Corporation* parody cover of "Bǎi Zhàn Chéng Shī" by A Quan Jun LIN and Wangpai-P on December 29, 2023.

**Achievements**

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

## References

1. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/656356910789820482
2. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/岸#Definitions
3. ↑ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/曉#Definitions
4. ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/press/ah-soft/20221007.html
5. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1s84y1v7UJ/
6. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1AT411B73K/
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/dreamtonics\_en/status/1521791929092292608
8. ↑ https://t.bilibili.com/671200609838301200
9. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv17082866
10. ↑ https://www.ah-soft.com/press/ah-soft/20221007.html
11. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv17237015
12. ↑ https://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309404844858597835082
13. ↑ https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1k84y1S7Lm/