Favorite Vocal Synth Characters
Hatsune Miku
Vocaloid, Piapro Studio
Original Release: August 31, 2007 - Voice Provider: Saki Fujita - Age: 16 - Sex: Female - Height: 158 cm - Weight: 42 kg
Favorite Version/Voicebank: Vocaloid 2
I don't care if it's basic to have Miku be one of my all-time faves!! She's incredible!! Hatsune Miku was released for the Vocaloid 2 engine on August 31st, 2007 by Crypton Future Media. Despite common misconceptions, she is not the first Vocaloid ever, and not even the first Vocaloid released by Crypton (MEIKO and KAITO pre-date her). She was the first voicebank released as part of Crypton's "character vocal" series, which is why she has the "01" tattooed in red on her left arm. Her release was 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.
To many, including myself, Miku is the symbol for the vocal synth community's love and passion for creating. Her aspect of being a "blank canvas" character allows all kinds of people to resonate with her. I've seen little kids and older women dress up as her at conventions. Hundreds of artists have used Miku as inspiration to show their love to their own countries and cultures.
MEIKO
Vocaloid
Original Release: November 5, 2004 - Voice Provider: Meiko Haigo - Sex: Female
Favorite Version/Voicebank: Vocaloid 1 and Vocaloid 3
MEIKO is a Vocaloid released by Crypton Future Media on November 5, 2004. Originally debuting on the Vocaloid 1 engine, she was the first Japanese voicebank to be released on the software. While her popularity never took off the way Miku's would three years later, MEIKO established many trends that would go on to shape the way Vocaloids were marketed. For example, MEIKO was the first Vocaloid to have an official avatar associated with the software, having a unique character illustration as her box art. (This is notably different compared to the stock imagery or lack of characterization all together for the box art of V1 English Vocaloids.) MEIKO is also believed to be the most popular voice of the Vocaloid 1 era. Much of Vocaloids early promotion of new products came from "DTM Magazine," a publication focused on "desktop musicians." With the magazine's 80% male demographic, it established the popularity and preference of feminine vocals among producers.
While today MEIKO is regarded as the least popular Cryptonloid, she's one of my personal favorites! I'm a big fan of her more mature tone and classic V1 songs like "Change Me" and "Nostalogic" reflect a woman that is unashamedly powerful and sexy. I'm not sure when or how MEIKO entered my top favorites, but I remember her 15th anniversary spotlight at Magical Mirai 2020 really sticking with me. I cried during her performance of "Change Me," as it was the first MEIKO song I'd ever heard. Over the past few years, Magical Mirai concerts have been making more of an effort to show off the other Cryptonloids aside from Miku, so it's been exciting to see the others get more time in the spotlight.
Kasane Teto
Utauloid, Synth V, TalQ
Original Release: April 1, 2008 - Voice Provider: Mayo Oyamano - Age: 31 - Sex: Chimera
Favorite Version/Voicebank: Sakebi (VCV Utau Bank), Synth V
The story of Kasane Teto is one that has always fascinated me, even before the release of her Synthesizer V voicebanks in 2023 and massive boost in popularity since then. Kasane Teto was originally conceived as an April Fool's joke in 2008 by users on the "Vip News Bulletin" board on 2chan. The trolls behind the joke, referred to as "Vippers," created promotional art and even a website with a download link. An original voicebank for Kasane Teto was released for the Utau program with voice samples provided by Mayo Oyamano. Despite starting as a joke by Internet trolls, something amazing happened. People fell in love with Teto. Kasane Teto and the Utau program went largely ignored at first, but began to increase in popularity during the latter half of 2008 thanks to several producers creating songs with her voice. On April 1st, 2010 she was accepted to Piapro, a song-sharing website for vocal synth creators, and the following year she made an appearance as a character in the Project Diva series. Like many Vocaloid characters of the time, the community gave her a character item (French bread) and made her into a "chimera."
On April 2, 2023, fifteen years since her initial release, Twindrill, the company responsible for Kasane Teto, announced that the character would be receiving a set of voicebanks for the Synthesizer V software. Not only did this improve her vocal quality and clarity overall, but also allowed for cross-lingual compatibility. She was released later that month to overwhelming acclaim from producers and fans alike. Her popularity, which was relatively stable during her Utau years, skyrocketed into the mainstream, and the view counts of songs using her voice rival those with Miku.
Adachi Rei
UTAU, A.I.VOICE
Original Release: October 12, 2019 - Voice Provider: None - Age: Ageless - Sex: Female
Adachi Rei is a vocal synth character with her original voicebank releasing for the UTAU engine on October 12, 2019. Unlike most vocal synths, Rei does not have a human voice provider. Instead, her vocals were completely computer-generated within Audacity to create her trademark choppy robotic voice.
After successfully building a life-sized Hatsune Miku robot in 2017, missile39 would make his next project based on an original character. On Feburary 15th, 2017, a successful crowdfunding campaign would help the construction of this new robot, whose name would be Adachi Rei. An UTAU voicebank was to be created to go with the robot and two years later, this voicebank would be released. A "REPLIVOICE" voicebank, powered by the text-to-speech program A.I.VOICE, would be successfully crowdfunded and released in 2021. She would have her UTAU bank to sing and a REPLIVOICE bank to speak. Other ports and upgrades to Rei's pre-existing banks have been made by fans with permission from missile39.
Being the newest vocal synth character out of my favorites list, I don't have a lot of nostalgia with her. However, her robotic tone feels like a callback to many older vocal synth songs about being artificial and inhuman. The improvements in major commercial vocal synth engines like Vocaloid and SynthV have caused them to focus on realism and clarity, and while that isn't a bad thing, it can erase that imperfect digital charm. Adachi Rei feels like a breath of fresh air in a scene that is dominated by the idea of humanity and perfection. She's not human. She's a robot. And she wants to sing, too. "Machina Mori" is an album that explores this theme and was what ultimately put Adachi Rei on this list for me.
Megpoid (Gumi)
Vocaloid, Synth V
Original Release: June 26, 2009 - Voice Provider: Megumi Nakajima - Sex: Female
Megpoid is a vocal synth developed by Internet Co. and first released for the Vocaloid2 engine on June 26, 2009. Her voice provider is Megumi Nakajima. While "Megpoid" refers the the software product, the more common name "Gumi" refers to the character associated with the voicebanks, which comes from Megumi's childhood nickname. Because of the timing of her release, she initially couldn't compete with Crypton's "Character Vocal Series." However, the next few years cemented her popularity as the most popular non-Crypton Vocaloid. Gumi has since become the Vocaloid character with the most voicebanks with a whopping 18 across V2, V3, V4, and V6. She has the second-most out of any commercial vocal synth product with 23. Her V3 English voicebank, released in 2013, was well-received by overseas producers.
Gumi was my first favorite Vocaloid when I got into the community. She was cute, had a great voice, and my favorite color at the time was green. A lot of songs that featured her felt cool and kickass, like "16 Bit Warz" and "Donut Hole." Edgy songs like "Crystalline," "Wildfire," and "ECHO" dominated the English scene at the time.
Otomachi Una
Vocaloid, Synth V
Original Release: July 30, 2016 - Voice Provider: Aimi Tanaka - Age: 11- Sex: Female
Otomachi Una was one of the first vocal synths that I was actively in the fandom for when she released. She was created by Internet Co., the same company behind Megpoid (Gumi) and Kamui Gakupo. While many of Internet Co.'s new character releases wouldn't come as close to the success of Gumi and Gakupo, Otomachi Una was a hit upon release, thanks to her cute design, high-quality voicebanks, and popular demo songs. Her initial Vocaloid 4 release consisted of two voicebanks: Sugar, a cute and sweet-sounding voice, and Spicy, a strong and energetic voice. The names "Sugar" and "Spicy" may be a reference to the classic nursery rhyme about little girls being made of "sugar, spice, and everything nice." These voicebanks are not only very high-quality, but also beginner-friendly for producers. Otomachi Una has achieved popularity that rivals Gakupo and Gumi and has performed in live concerts along them.
Una has an eel theme, as "unagi" is the Japanese word for "eel." She wears a hat named "Ottoman Bo" which changes facial expressions to match Una. I personally like to headcanon that Una talks to Bo as if they are a stuffed toy. Bo is only "real" to Una, while others around them just see a silly hat.