WORLD IS MINE

Vocaloid is a voice synthesizing software released in O'four by Kenmochi Hideki of the Yamaha Corporation that uses recorded vocals of voice actors or singers that users can make a melody and lyrics with on a piano roll to simulate singing. Voicebanks (Typically avalible in English, Japanese, and Chinese) are the voices used to create the songs and are typically paired with drawn avatars- Or Vocaloids to represent each one. The most famous of this bunch are Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin and Len, Megurine Luka, Megpoid GUMI, Camui Gakupo, and KAITO. Every few years Yamaha makes new versions of the Vocaloid software and there are currently six with the most recent edition coming out in twenty twenty two, with a myriad of video games- Most noteably Project Sekai Project DIVA.

Nico Nico Douga was the website that skyrocketed Vocaloid into popularity, with a user posting their animation of a "super deformed" or "Hachune Miku" Hatsune Miku spinning around a leek and singing her cover of the Finnish song Ievan Polkka- The flash clip becoming so popular people decided to launch Hachune figures into space in O'nine. Though I'm sure most people out there know what Vocaloids are, I'm going to share why I'm so drawn to them, how I got into them, my favorite songs, and other synth software such as UTAU, SYNTHv, and misc TTS software.

Why are you into Vocaloid?

The synthesized voice medium is an incredibly interesting one to me and though I do not know the intracies of the software used to make one, nor the ins and outs of music production, it sparks a sort of admiration in me in the way my favorite genres of music or singing styles do. It's always fun to see the endless covers of songs I enjoy by other vocaloid producers or outside sources be covered into Vocaloid... The robotic feel of earlier voicebanks is incredibly charming and the near human sounding ones of the new ones just blow me off my feet!! The Vocaloids themselves I also really like! I enjoy how they're mostly blank slates the fans themselves have made personalities for... My favorites are Big Al, Miku, Luka, Rin&Len, V Flower, Kaito, Una, and more probably.

The community is a large aspect of my attraction to Vocaloid. I don't typically enter the realm of Vocaloid enthusiasts, but the music videos people have made of the characters are always INCREDIBLY creative. They range from being absolutely tear jerking to fun & lively to really funny or dark or just. Impressive or are just really nostalgic to me. Here are my favorite MVs!~

DEATHBODY - GHOST a synthv

DESERT THEATRE - KIKUO

IT'S ANOTHER MAZE HERE - KIKUO

DANCING SAMURAI - MATHRU

SERAPHIM ON THE RING - MITCHIE M

Why are you into Vocaloid?

In the distant year of not right now, I stumbled across an Animal Jam Music video titled "Alice of Human Sacrifice" and enjoyed it. The quality wasn't the best, but the song is what drew my attention. With that, I went down a rabbit hole of various Alice of Human Sacrifice music videos (None of which actually had the vocaloids singing LMAO), most of them featuring Miku, Meiko, Kaito and Len and Rin. I was soo curious about them, like if they were from some sort of anime or suchother.

My first few Vocaloid songs I can remember is probably World Is Mine (Trumploid)*[A UTAU but it counts as my gateway] - GinjaNinjaOwO , Drop Pop Candy - Reol , Ievann Polka - Otomania , Ghost Rule DECO* and 【ボカロ7人で】東京電脳探偵団 / Tokyo Dennou Tanteidan (?) - Polyphonic Branch. Tokyo Dennou Tanteidan by Polyphonic Branch was most certainly How I got so deeply into Vocaloid. I was completely obsessed with the song for about a month and it was the first song I ever listened to when I got Spotify.

【ボカロ7人で】東京電脳探偵団 - Polyphonic Branch

From Polyphonic Branch I branched out into OTHER Vocaloid producers, such as Kikuo, MARETU, GHOST, Mitchie M, DECO*27, Crusher-P, Junky, Giga, Mushi-P, wowaka, Circus P, Haci, Owata-P, Dennoko-P, Utsu-P, CosMo@Bousou-P, and MASA Works DESIGEN-.

Brain Revolution Girl - MARETU

Kikuo, MARETU, GHOST, and Dennoko-P are easily my favorite Vocaloid artists. MARETU was a huge part of my life a few years back, in which I would literally only listen to his music. As an already heavy metal enjoyer, his metal, rock, or unfittingly upbeat instrumentals paired with the dark yet sweet sounding vocals of Miku was/is sooo amazing to me. If I recall correctly, my first songs from him were Brain Revolution Girl and White Happy. I used to imagine the lyrics in English in my head because I didn't understand Japanese at the time then read the English captions to see if my guesses were correct. MARETU's musical style has always been admirable to me, and my favorite songs from him are probably White Happy, i'm high, Coin Locker Baby, Born Before, Darling, S.I.U, Forced Obedience, Let's name the P names, and Prankish Tom (From his non-Vocaloid album, FRIED EYE.) Go check 'em out! His songs comforted me alot during darker periods of my life, and the consistent themes of heartbreak, pregnancy, romantic failure and child abuse are fascinating to me! Also his MV cover styles... The words forming an image are sick. Though people call Kikuo an artist with upbeat music but depressing lyrics, I disagree to a T. There is a strong amount of misery in Kikuo's works, but Maretu is the true victor of this title to me. His music feels like someone trying to push down the pains and trauma of life by drenching themself in false optimism, their true feelings only seeping through in the harsher drums and guitar and the lyrics. The only songs that stray off this are (SA/rape warning) Forced Obedience and Before I was born , with the former being pure rage and the latter being empty and hollow, like the first protagonist can no longer take what is happening with her and the second has given up hope.

DARLING (COVER) - akem

UTAU covers were also a big part of how I got into Vocaloid! UTAU is basically Vocaloid but free and you can make your own voicebanks, the most noteable ones being TETO, Neru, and the girl who sung the nyan cat song. The cover of DARLING with Darling by akem, S.I.U with Dex by Chinjireta, and Ghost Rule with Teto by Teto Chan's are some I remember off the top of my head, though there are hundreds of different covers i've listened to, as most times I prefer them to the original works.

Kikuo is another artist I deeply enjoy, with my introductory songs to his music most likely beeeiiiing... Erm... Let's go to Heaven, Gommene Gommene, Aishite Aishite Aishite, or You are a Stupid Child. Kikuo is incredibly popular there's nooo way you've been on the internet without listening to Aishite Aishite Aishite/Love Me, Love Me, Love Me at least once. It's not my favorite, but it's popular for a reason! The MV is 2 die for. 1

Aishite, Aishite, Aishite

The way he captures desperation and cold sadness with his instrumentals and the soft tuning of Miku's voice is enjoyable each and every time, especially whenever he branches out into incorporating afro-beats and Carribean steal drums in Voices of Svahaa, The Good Child and the Fox Spirit, and Hole Dwelling which is a rare sight in most Vocaloid songs. The crunchy glass sounding music he creates that reek of melancholy is just sooo good. Many of his songs I really adore but Breaking Things into Pieces, The Good Child and the Fox Spirit, XxX Cat, Hole Dwelling, Let's Go to Heaven, Emptiness, Emptiness, Emptiness, Keep Going! Keep Climbing! Up the Tall Tower!, It's Another Maze There, Don't Look at Me in That Way, and Gomenne, Gomenne. Gomenne was a song I listened to constantly while flea marketing and I didn't learn the lyrics for a while, under the presumption it was happy- I could never be more incorrect. Learning what the lyrics were brought the song itself closer to me, and it quickly rose up to my favorite Maretu song.

A few years back, Kikuo collaborated with vocalist Hanatan to create original songs or cover his preexisting ones under the name "Kikuohana." The songs I remember being apart of this collab being Desert Theater, O Light, Keep Going! Keep Climbing! Up the Tall Tower!, It's Another Maze There, Wolf Boy, The Unhappy One's Daughter (?), Paper Doll, Red Ridinghood's Wolf, Rolling, Rolling, Tumbling Along, Eyes Full of Cracks, and something people would laugh at(?), With the most wellknown song being O Light.

Desert Theater

To me, the Kikuohana project is some of Kikuo's BEST output. Unlike Kikuo's Miku tuning which is emotional yet devoid of feeling and full of lingering sadness, Hanatan's voice going from deep and somber to high and emotional and desperate or playful is some of the besssttt shit ever It's so good. Kikuo's instrumentals are crazzyy and the MVs and artwork goooo. Please listen to Hanatan's work. My favorites of this batch are O Light, It's Another Maze There, Paper Doll and Desert Theater but honestly they're all stellar in their own right!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the dearest Vocaloid songs to me is Humans are Disgusting by Dennoko-P, who you may have heard of from their song "DAI DAI DAI KIRAI/I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU." . Their music is so lovely & comforting to me.. The jazz & breakcore influences in some of their songs are so good in the ears. Humans are Disgusting beeeesst you will listen to every Dennoko-P album. The speed changes in Humans are Digusting are soo charming this song means alot to me. It's so goood. Miku here sounds like a chorus of children which is such a nice touch.

UTAU & SYNTHV

Utau by Ameya/Ayame and Synthv by Dreamtonics are both voice synth softwares like Vocaloid but different. UTAU can have virtually any voice (as long as they aren't Vocaloid.) used for the voicebanks with Defoko as the UTAU you can use on download. The software is in Japanese so if you don't understand it you have to workaround. Synthv is a newer software that also uses ai in their voices, and honestly are the most human sounding voice synths I've ever heard. You can get the lite version for free and use Solaria & Elanor Forte for English and I don't remember the free ones in Japanese. If you buy the actual software, you can buy and use any of the avalible voicebanks. You may be familiar with Teto or Neru of UTAU as I mentioned earlier, or Kevin, Mai, Asterian, Elanore Forte, Teto (*their synthv versions) or Solaria of Synthv. H-Loids are also a thing and are typically used for erotic content (The H for ecchi or hentai) but the voice samples can be manipulated into horrifying screams which ROOOOCK. I'm not well versed on H-loids and all I know is Riyona. Example of this

ASTERIAN

I love the diversity of UTAU and Synthv, with UTAUs sounding more robotic in a charming way and Synthv nearly sounding human. I myself have messed around with both softwares, and really enjoyed using Solaria in Synthv! Though, I got a bit lazy setting my Utau up so I could use it in english, so I stopped... Hopefully I'll pick it up someday, though! I think the wide variety of voices within these two programs are their biggest strongsuits, plus being able to use your own or a voice from a different source like singers or television allow for so much creativity! So many synthv/UTAU covers are dear to me LOL but the cover of Lagtrain using the voice of DECtalk Paul by Arbitraire Turvy is seriously the besssst listen to my favorite UTAU cover ever OK? Or I frown

LAGTRAIN

Some of my favorite UTAU/Synthv covers or ogs I haven't talked about yet.

So, why get into voice synths anyway?

It opens up an entirely new gateway of music for you to discover. Like any genre or medium, ultimately it's just a good idea to branch out into new types to see what you may like! If you dig it and can't find the appeal, that's fine. But if you do, that's also fine! There's thousands of different artists you can discover and even more voicebanks you can use to create your own music. Have fun exploring !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Deuces, Gyro!

The Vocaloid Database

The Utau Database (jpn)

Utau Tutorial

Synthv Basic Tutorial

VOCALOID

Why are you into Vocaloid?

Why are you into Vocaloid?

UTAU & SYNTHV

So, why get into voice synths anyway?