Minus

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Minus
Character information
Species	Primitive goddess
Gender	Female
Pronouns	She/Her
Item	Regular Dodecahedron, Scythes
Technical information
Type	Synthesizer V Studio
Language	Mandarin Chinese
Voice Provider	Sawako Sui Hua Zi
Concept	xiao Ye You Xi
Illustrator	ATDAN
Release date	September 10, 2020
Group	Quadimension
Company	Beijing Photek S&T Development Co., Ltd.

Minus, also known as Xingchen Minus (星尘Minus) and (since November 2023) Yongye Minus (永夜Minus), is a Mandarin Chinese Synthesizer V Studio voice database developed by Beijing Photek S&T Development Co., Ltd.. She is part of the Medium⁵ cast and was released in September 2020. She received a Synthesizer V AI version in December 2023.

She is voiced by Sawako Sui Hua Zi.

Concept

For Minus's logo, a shape known as the dodecahedron is present next to her name and is part of the third stroke in the "星" 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".

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.

Etymology

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.

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

Yongye (永夜; Yǒngyè) can mean "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).

Appearance

Minus bears a striking resemblance to VOCALOID 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 game "Medium 2050" 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. 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.

Relations

• ZERO - Originator
• Xingchen - Fellow MEDIUM5 vocal
• Haiyi - Fellow MEDIUM5 vocal
• Cangqiong - Fellow MEDIUM5 vocal
• Shian - Fellow MEDIUM5 vocal
• Chiyu - Fellow MEDIUM5 vocal
• Muxin - Fellow MEDIUM5 vocal

History

During the Synthesizer V Studio Release Presentation, Beijing Photek confirmed that they were developing a new female voice database. She was expected to be released in the second half of 2020, but due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a specific date could not be given at the time. On August 1, 2020, Ddickky, the founder of Beijing Photek, noted that a demo for "minus" would be available later on August 12. Napstina, the company's annotator, confirmed that minus was the female voicebank that was hinted in the initial Synthesizer V Studio presentation.

Minus made her debut on August 12, 2020. A design for her was shown in her first demo and uses the concept for the Medium 2050 game. Her alternative name was confirmed to be "Xingchen Minus" (星尘Minus), but she was not voiced by Chalili due to major contractual issues that prevented Quadimension to record Xingchen and ZERO for Synthesizer V. Instead, she was voiced by Sawako Sui Hua Zi.

On August 28, Minus was made available for pre-order. Her final design was illustrated by ATDan and she was expected to release on September 10.

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 MEDIUM 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.

Voicebanks

• Xingchen Minus Standard (Synthesizer V Studio), September 10, 2020
• Yongye Minus AI (Synthesizer V Studio), December 17, 2023

Reputations

Impact

Like Muxin before her, Minus's voicebank was only made available on the 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.

The first original song to reach 1 million views featuring Minus's voice was "Jīng Què", which occurred in July 2021.

Trivia

• December 8 is officially recognized by Quadimension as a "Day of Celebration" (属庆祝日) for Minus (Yongye). It is unclear if this is to be regarded as her official character birthday, however, it should be noted that Xingchen's character birthday, August 12 (8/12), is the numerical opposite of this date, December 8 (12/8).

External links

Articles

• Synthesizer V Wiki