Hello everyone, this is Infoholic, and happy release day for Ying Can! We’re thrilled to finally share her with you and hope you’re just as excited to welcome her into the vocal synthesizer world.
As promised in our quarterly update, today we’re releasing Ying Can’s dedicated development blog. In this post, we’ll explore her origins, how she evolved into the character you see today, and what lies ahead for her in future updates and projects.
2021: The Beginning
In 2021, I returned to the vocal synthesizer community after a year-long hiatus brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and personal burnout. While I truly valued the time away, the world of vocal synthesis continued to call to me. Gradually, I made my return to the fandom and pursuing projects.
At the time, one particular piece of software had caught my interest, and I had hoped for Chorical to work with its creator for a voice library. The vision was to create a youthful-sounding Mandarin Chinese voicebank that would serve as a general mascot for the platform. I designed the initial character myself — you can see some of the early sketches below!
Afterward, I commissioned the incredibly talented Toeknee to bring the design to life in a finalized illustration. We were all thrilled with how it turned out. Unfortunately, due to limitations in scheduling, resources, and timing, the original project could not move forward. The character and her artwork were set aside — shelved indefinitely, but never forgotten.
2023
As time passed, it felt like it would be a shame to let this character design go to waste — wouldn’t it? When we slowly began to rebuild our capabilities, we revisited the project and started to re-imagine what it could become. Since the original concept had never progressed beyond the design stage, there were many possibilities.
We decided to give the character a name: Caixin (彩昕). Our idea was to adopt her as a general-use mascot for our activities in China, with an AI voice library as well! While this wasn’t a top priority at the time, it remained a recurring topic throughout the year.
In fact, if you’ve been following Chorical for a while, you might remember a 2023 teaser we posted featuring a pink silhouette. That was Caixin in her earlier form!
Around that time, we also began discussions with a talented singer from Taiwan who we hoped could bring Caixin’s voice to life. Although production had yet to begin, we stayed in close contact, until she unfortunately had to step away due to health-related reasons.
2024
In 2024, things had become a whirlwind here at Chorical. While we’ll go into more detail in SELENA’s dedicated development blog, Chorical was accepted into the VoiSona third-party ecosystem at the start of the year. With this milestone, all other projects — including Caixin — were placed on immediate pause. The early development of SELENA demanded our full attention, requiring extensive planning and coordination. There simply wasn’t room to pursue additional projects simultaneously.
However, as SELENA neared completion, we began exploring possibilities for future vocalists, especially those in languages beyond English and Japanese, and how they would function within the VoiSona environment.
Thanks to the generosity of Techno-Speech, we were given the opportunity to preview an unreleased voice library, which was a Mandarin Chinese female vocalist. We were very impressed with the quality as well as the charm the vocal possessed. Evaluating these libraries gave us valuable insights as we planned the next steps in our Color Spectrum Series, which was our original intention behind the evaluation.
Not long after, Techno-Speech approached us, asking if we, or any companies we knew, might be interested in releasing this voice library under our brand. For such a beautiful voice, why should it remain locked away and unheard?
That was the moment Caixin came back into focus. We proposed her concept to Techno-Speech, and after discussion, we mutually agreed to bring her to life; aligning the unreleased voice library with our original character design and vision. Although Caixin doesn’t fit the Color Spectrum Series, she strongly reflects Chorical’s core values of increasing representation. and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible within the VoiSona ecosystem. With our prior experience in the Chinese vocal synthesizer community, we felt confident we could give her the platform she deserved with some time and care.
A New Beginning
After finalizing our agreement, we began assembling all the pieces necessary to launch this new vocal. The first major step was re-evaluating the character’s name. While her original name had a lovely sound, it no longer matched the direction we envisioned for the voice. After many conversations with close friends and trusted collaborators, we settled on a new name: Ying Can (瑛璨).
Composed of characters that evoke brightness and shimmering beauty — like polished jade, iridescent bubbles, or the glow of pearls — the name reflects the carefree, radiant, and delightful nature we wanted this singer to embody.
To avoid confusion with our Color Spectrum Series and SELENA, we also made the decision to work with a different illustrator for Ying Can’s final artwork and concept design. This allowed us to incorporate subtle tweaks that better aligned with her personality and role as a standalone mascot character. After a few months of collaboration and preparation, the finalized design your eyes can see now was produced.
We felt strongly that an April release was most fitting, reflecting Ying Can’s spring-like personality, and coinciding with National Boba Day on April 30th as a charming nod to her bubbly, cheerful essence.
While there were some hiccups in the rollout, including delays in our originally planned merchandise due to factors beyond our control, we’re proud of how far we’ve come, and we’re working hard to resolve these in due time. This launch wouldn’t have been possible without the passion and support of everyone involved.
Looking ahead, Ying Can will serve as a general-use mascot for Chorical in China, and we’re actively developing new content around her: including songs, illustrations, and more!
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting Ying Can and Chorical.
With love,
Infoholic