VOCAL SYNTHESIZERS
Vocal synthesizers are a type of program that is basically a virtual voice; like a digital instrument, you type in the notes and lyrics, and the voice you use sings it for you! A voice provider for the voice (sometimes given a name and character design, sometimes not) records all the syllables in whatever language the voice is meant to be in, and the program puts it all together so it can form words, phrases, and sounds. In whatever program you use, you can "tune" the voice by manipulating the note bends, vibrato, gender (how deep or high the voice is), and many other effects to make the voice sound different. You can also edit phonemes in a word or syllable. In fact, you can make a voicebank meant for one language sing in another through phoneme editing, but it can be complicated and limited.
Vocal synths as we know it first started by Yamaha with their program Vocaloid, which is the most recognizable because a certain Hatsune Miku and other popular Japanese voicebanks originated there. Also, there is Utau, a free to use software that allows you to make your own voicebank! Voices like Kasane Teto came from that. However in recent years more programs have become available, often beating out Vocaloid in quality or price; Synthesizer V, developed by Dreamtonics, has been groundbreaking for using AI to make their voices smoother, more realistic, multilingual and higher quality in general. There is also Cevio, which is really popular in the Japanese vocal synth sphere. There's so much variety in what programs and languages you can use!
Vocaloid has been around since the early 2000s, and has left a huge impact on internet culture. Hatsune Miku is a cultural icon, everyone knows her. And some songs that are really really popular came from vocal synths! You know that Nyan Cat song? Yeah, that's a Hatsune Miku song (though the most popular version is actually sung by the Utau Momone Moko)! Tons of other popular songs like Rollin' Girl, Lagtrain, Ievan Polkka, and more got popularized because they're Vocaloid songs!
MY THOUGHTS
Vocal synths encompass SO MUCH of my interests. Music? Check! Characters you can project onto and draw? Check! Fun technology to play around with? Check! Every aspect of vocal synths is interesting to me. Personally, I'm not very into the "anime" part of Vocaloid; sure, there's a lot of Japanese content (because vocal synths are very popular in Japan) but I have zero interest in anime and I only listen to a few Japanese producers. I love vocal synths because of the huge community they've fostered, that spans so many people and programs and so many forms of expression... graaah there's so much to it that I love! Vocal synths are really cool! It's one of my biggest interests, and I love telling people I get to use the real Hatsune Miku.
Like most people on the internet I was exposed to Vocaloid / Hatsune Miku pretty early on. I don't know what my first ever Vocaloid song was I heard (I have a feeling it was Echo by Crusher), but I was aware of who Miku was in elementary school (I thought she was from some anime. Common misconception, lol). I even got a Nendoroid figure of her as a gift before I knew what Vocaloid was, because I thought she looked neat. But in 2018 I finally figured out what Vocaloid was; I had actually two seperate instances within the span of a month where I discovered a song that happened to be a Vocaloid song. First, I found a Splatoon parody of the song Law Evading Rock by Neru; the parody is called Law Evading Toon, it's by 96Neko and it's very silly! I thought the song was a banger so I looked it up and discovered the original. I'd say that this was really what dragged me into the Vocaloid rabbit hole. What also solidified my interest was that I found one of those Rollin' Girl animation videos (specifically it was this Undertale one) which featured an English cover of the song. I then looked up the original, lo and behold... it was Vocaloid again! These two situations made me just look deeper into Vocaloid- baby's first Vocaloid phase, yay! At the time I mostly listened to English covers of songs (like the stuff by JubyPhonic and Rachie). That, or I listened to English songs (such as stuff by Ghost) or covers of popular English songs (shoutout to v3xman, his covers are super entertaining!). My favorite vocaloid was Oliver, so I think that's pretty telling of what side of Vocaloid I was into at the time.
But then, in 2020, I had a huge fixation on vocal synths! This time, it started with Miku herself; I would watch the Miku Expo and Magical Mirai concerts on loop and really took a good listen to JP Vocaloid music I didn't listen to much prior. For my birthday that year my gifts consisted of many Miku related items- a plushie, Project Diva Megamix, books and keychains. But then, I got into Utau and SynthV after I realized "wait, I can download those myself"! So for the entire month of July I made many Utau covers. Then in August I made a ton with SynthV. It eventually faded, but it got me into the programs themselves and how vocal synths work. As a result, now I use a bunch of programs and have several years of experience!
If you're wondering what vocal synth programs I currently use, here's the list: Piapro Studio (v4x edition), with Hatsune Miku. I use OpenUtau for all Utau related projects- I used to use Utau-Synth on Mac but it hasn't been updated in years, and OpenUtau is just so much better in general. I also use SynthV R1, and SynthV Studio Pro!
FAVORITE SYNTHS
I enjoy a LOT of vocal synths, but here are my absolute favorites! I love to talk about them whenever I can!
Gender: Feminine
Release Date: August 31, 2007
Favorite Bank: V4 English
Favorite Cover: Instant Crush
MIKU MY BELOVED!!!! Some people say she's overrated, but I strongly disagree. I think all the love that the world has given her is incredibly justified. This is THE Miku, THE cultural icon herself! She's one of my favorite characters ever. I think something about the fact that she can be whatever you make her, she can act any sort of way and sing any kind of song... something about it really clicked with me. Miku is anything, everything, but she is always undeniably Miku. I see Miku as a positive spirit of creativity and unity between people, I mean, she's the thing that's brought such a huge community together! Plus, I just see her as a positive character overall; everyone who says her personality would be mean is so wrong. She is the type of person to be optimistic and a bit silly all the time, I think.
I am lucky enough to actually own Hatsune Miku! I have all her V4 voicebanks, including her English. It's a little hard to cover JP songs with her (because most of the time, if she didn't already sing them, there's already a cover). However, I like using her to cover unconventional English songs. Miku is the best type of Vocaloid for those types of covers, in my opinion.
Gender: Feminine
Release Date: August 18, 2018
Favorite Bank: R1 Standard
Favorite Cover: A Thousand Years
Even though Hatsune Miku is my favorite vocal synth, I cannot deny how important Eleanor is to me! When she released, she was a HUGE game changer for the vocal synth community, especially the English community! For the time she was a huge step up compared to Vocaloid's english banks (and really she still is)! And though Dreamtonics has made even more progress with their AI banks on SynthV, the original Eleanor will always be my favorite. Her voice is really unique to me- she doesn't feel too mature or too young, she's really clear, and her design is super cool (albeit a little complicated)! She was actually one of the first vocal synths I've ever used; when SynthV R1 was first released, I made a friend of mine download the program so I could play with her. Eventually I was able to download her myself, of course!
I have both her R1 and SynthV Studio standard lite banks! (I do not have her AI bank, it's too mature for my preferences...) I like how she sounds in R1 more than her standard in SynthV Studio. It's not a HUGE difference but I almost exclusively use her R1 bank. Regardless I love you Ellie you're so scrunkly at all times yayayay
FAVORITE PRODUCERS
ARTIST: Pinocchio-P
FAV SONGS: Yozurina, All I Need Are Things I Like, Slow Motion, Ultimate Senpai, Because You're Here, Kick Ass *Literally, The World Hasn't Even Started Yet
Pinocchio-P is my favorite JP producer; he's got such a unique style in his works that it really drew me into his music! I LOVE his tuning (especially in songs like Nice To Meet You Mr. Earthling and Common World Domination), and I also really love his art and music videos he makes. Some of his newer stuff has been hit or miss (God-ish is kinda boring in my opinion) but overall I like to listen to his stuff. I always say he's my favorite producer when people ask me because I feel like most people know his stuff more than English producers. Also, I love that he sings in his own songs alongside Miku! I think that's something not enough producers do, and it really makes his stuff stand out in that regard.
ARTIST: KIRA
FAV SONGS: Monster, Ladylike, Digital Girl, GETCHA!, 4Blood, Machine Gun, Intergalactia, I Do What I Want
KIRA. Oh my GOD, Kira is SO GOOD. Like, words can't describe how much I admire his music. His tuning in English is AMAZING, his songs are produced so well it's on par with modern pop music. I wish he was mainstream because no one ever knows his stuff, but like, I swear people would eat his stuff UP!!! His stuff never fails to impress me with each new song. I'm kinda glad to see he's been doing non-vocal synth stuff for VTubers and stuff, but I'm only interested in his vocal synth music.I was into his music as long as I've been a Vocaloid fan; there was an animation meme to his song Monster (which is how I found him) and I would listen to the song religiously in 2019. Then I just listened to the rest of his discography... genuinely so impressive how he's been doing this stuff!
ARTIST: CircusP
FAV SONGS: Ten Thousand Stars, Right As Rain, Misery Loves Company, Metronome, What I Need, Detrimental, Wrong + Right, How To Pretend, Insanity
CircusP is such an iconic figure to me in the Vocaloid sphere; his English tuning is really impressive, but it makes sense, because he's been in the community for so long and has really improved over the years! Personally I really like the variety he has in his songs; I guess pop is the best way to describe it but I feel like he's been really experimental with stuff lately, especially on his album CMYK (which is so good you guys all need to listen to it when you can). I've been following his newer music releases for a while now, and I think he just keeps getting better and better! Not to say his older stuff isn't good, they're absolute classics, I just am more into his newer stuff. Stream Misery Loves Company NOW!!!!
ARTIST: GHOST
FAV SONGS: Scapegoat, Pathological Facade, Appetite of a People Pleaser, Colorbars, Broadcast Illusion, Honey I'm Home, Aura
Ahhhh, Ghost. Their music is very, VERY distinct. Like, REALLY distinct. They've been a staple of the English vocal synth community for many years, thanks to their now-defunct Communications series of songs. As much as I am a little tired of English producers always emulating this type of genre, I am not shy on admitting that I do love Ghost's stuff! Their art is really cool, they have very interesting stories they tell in their music, and their music style is incredibly unique. I commend them for really shaking up the game when it comes to English vocaloid songs! Though their old stuff is definetely super good, I also really enjoy some of their new stuff they've been making with SynthV. It's like a new era for them and I think their new music has been super consistently good!
FAN ART GALLERY
Because I've been a fan of vocal synths for so many years, I have a LOT of fanart I've made over time!
July 2023; Fanart for this cover of Cool Patrol! This video changed my life
May 2023; Miku, Miku oo ee oo
May 2023; Crossover time >:)
April 2023; Art for my cover of Detrimental with Luo Tianyi and Asterian!
May 2023; My redesign of Eleanor Forte's outfit because it's so complicated LOL!
September 2023; Project Voltage literally made me insane
July 2023; This is how I draw Miku!
April 2023; Art for my cover of Goodbye Ms. Flower Thief with Qi Xuan!
November 2022; Art for my cover of Creative with HICO and Kazehiki! Still super proud of this one.
July 2023; Art for my cover of Birdhouse In Your Soul with Hatsune Miku!
August 2023; Sticker I made for myself :)
May 2023; My design for Solaria!
November 2022; Gekiyaku my beloved!!! I drew this after finally being able to get Utau to work on my computer again.
August 2020; Art I made for my cover of The Making Of A Chimera with Eleanor Forte. The cover isn't public, as I plan on re-making it someday! I tried emulating Ghost's art style for this drawing.
July 2020; Fanart for the song Digital Girl! It's such a bop
June 2020; I tried using watercolor brushes with Fukase!
January 2021; Art I made for my cover of Two Faced Lovers with Gekiyaku!
November 2020; Art for my cover of Broadcast Illusion with Kazehiki!
June 2020; Miku icon I made for myself!
January 2021; Art of all the Kuzutokaze Utaus for a cover of the song Stëpper!
November 2020; Art for my cover of Ladylike with Gekiyaku!
July 2020; Kazehiki drawing, I don't remember what it was for but I like the colors.