Vocaloid
Welcome to the Vocaloid/Vocal Synth Shrine! This is my most intense special interest, and I've been a superfan for over a decade now! Vocaloid has had a massive impact on my life, from career decisions to creative inspirations to blooming friendships and relationships. Because of the storied history I have with vocal synths, this will likely be the longest and most comprehensive shrine on the site.
What is Vocaloid? What are vocal synths?
If you have never heard of Vocaloid before, I'm honored to be the one to enlighten you! For a quick and dirty introduction, I'd start with this video. It packs a lot of information in a few minutes. Otherwise, if you just wanna keep reading, that's cool too.
Vocaloid is a vocal synthesizer product developed and released by Yamaha Corporation in 2004. Much like how you'd use a digital synthesizer to create sounds of a trumpet or a piano, these are made to mimic human singing. Using actual recordings of human voice actors or singers, these samples are then compiled into an individual library called a voicebank. To make the voicebank sing, users must input the lyrics and melody by placing each note on a piano roll interface, and lyrics are entered on each note. The software also allows changing of tone and pronunciation of syllables or adding vibrato. As of June 2025, there are six versions of the Vocaloid program, each one adding new features and voices. Vocaloid 1 only had support for English and Japanese, but Vocaloid 3 added support for Spanish, Chinese, and Korean as well. The most recent version of the software, Vocaloid 6, has added AI support for additional vocal clarity and dynamicism.
Vocaloid is not the only vocal synthesizer product on the market. Synthesizer V, Utau, CeVio, Crypton's NT, and Voisona are all similar softwares with their own quirks, benefits, and disadvantages. All of these programs, including Vocaloid, are vocal synths. Many people use Vocaloid as a catch-all term for all vocal synth software, and while this is technically incorrect, I am also guilty of this. If I am referring to things like "the Vocaloid community," I probably mean "the vocal synth community." If there is an important distinction that needs to be made for a certain synth, I'll try to specify wherever possible.
That being said, you might be wondering "What's the big deal? This is computer software. Sounds kinda boring." And in theory, it does sound a little nerdy. But what does attract many people isn't the actual softwares, but instead the mascots. Many of the voicebanks for these softwares are represented by anime character mascots. Having a character to visualize the voice can make the software seem much more realistic. What's a pop star's voice if she doesn't have a face to show off to a crowd? This brings us to...
Hatsune Miku
Hatsune Miku is the mascot character for the Hatsune Miku voicebank for the Vocaloid 2 engine. Released in 2007, she is not the first Vocaloid and not even the first one developed by Crypton Future Media. However, her release was cause for a sudden boom in popularity for Vocaloid. She is responsible for bringing Vocaloid into mainstream Internet circles, but mainstream music as a whole. She has grown to international fame, having concerts all over the world, collaborating with notable brands, thousands of pieces of merchandise, and being featured in commercials, animes, and talk shows. Fans cosplay her, play rhythm games featuring songs with her voice, draw fan art, and collect figures like any other popular anime character. And all without having a real personality or even single person behind her. She is software.
Rather than fans consuming content provided to them by just one person or company, most of the content of the Vocaloid community is created by the community itself. Anyone can make a song, animate an MV, or create art of Miku. According to Crypton, she is 16 years old, 158 centimeters tall, and has long blue turquoise pigtails. That is all the "canon" we have, and even then these can be flexible. She can be whatever or whoever you want. I've seen fan arts and cosplays Mikus with hijabis and transgender pride flags. There is official merchandise of Miku as a baby and a music video of Miku as an elderly woman. She is a blank slate of a character, which allows people from all walks of life to project onto her and interpret her however they feel. And the best part is Crypton is 100% cool with it.
Miku is the embodiment of the Vocaloid community and the creative power it holds. While her official concerts are put on by the companies responsible for her, every song that is performed was created by a different person. Every note and lyric is tuned by a different producer with their own tuning and instrumental style. Each piece of merchandise, official or fan made, is created by a unique artist. Everything is created by fans. Fans who love Miku and want to keep making her as real as she can be.