how did you get into Vocaloid?

[Memory]

i've wanted to make this since now Vocaloid (specifically the Cryptonloids and Gumi) have gone mainstream, and there's a heap of new stuff going on now

i myself am pretty much an older fan, so i came from the online community, and Project DIVA Arcade videos

Touhou was mentioned since back then, if you liked Vocaloid/UTAU or Touhou, you were almost expected to like the other lol, because many people would like both of those things!

i know there's been several covers involving Gumi more recently, and some songs (like ECHO) have broke into the mainstream at this point, plus i know she's pretty common with remixes involving other producers too?

[shapezncolourz]

not sure if this counts as online community or other, but i was introduced through animation memes!! the first vocaloid song i listened to was amygdalas rag doll - ghost & pals ft. oliver because of the trypophobia meme, and the song, producer, and voicebank are all some of my faves in their respective categories!! :D

[sozasax]

Otomania's Ievan Polkka cover. I first learned about it around '08-'09, but the first producers that made me genuinely invested in the scene were wowaka (through Rolling Girl) and Neru (World Domination How-To). I don't really know anything about new or up-and-coming producers though XD

[bingus_baby]

My first song was Yowamushi Montblanc! I found it in a Flipnote, and then I looked up the song and went down the rabbit hole... I think I discovered Bad Apple at the exact same time, or at least within a couple months. I quickly became a fan lmao

I was pretty into the more mainstream stuff until I hit high school and went deeper down the rabbit hole and learned more about UTAU. I always knew about Teto, but didn't go much deeper than that. And ever since, I'm doing deeper down that rabbit hole every single day...

[Memory]

My first song was Yowamushi Montblanc! I found it in a Flipnote, and then I looked up the song and went down the rabbit hole... I think I discovered Bad Apple at the exact same time, or at least within a couple months. I quickly became a fan lmao

I was pretty into the more mainstream stuff until I hit high school and went deeper down the rabbit hole and learned more about UTAU. I always knew about Teto, but didn't go much deeper than that. And ever since, I'm doing deeper down that rabbit hole every single day...

oh wow! that's actually really interesting 

i know i'm young, but i was on YouTube near nonstop when i was a kid (especially like ~2014-2016) and i quickly got super into Vocaloid. less so UTAU, but VOCALOID definitely, but i love the idea of UTAU.
i guess to this day i'm still a fan of FOSS stuff and GNU/Linux, so i do definitely prefer more doujin/indie Vocaloid rather than mainstream stuff lol
i still like many of the popular characters, though my favs with them aren't really mainstream usually :P

i think, i connected the dots - i got into it from watching YouTube videos of Project DIVA PVs and possibly official PVs. and especially me repeating some song names (like Coward Mont Blanc lol) then that's kinda already something.
though, the tracks i remembered especially were Double Lariat, No Logic, ODDS&ENDS, Ai Kotoba, Gigantic Girl, Chain Girl, Hello Planet, Toeto, Do not be afraid you're alright, HAKUMEI, possibly World is Mine, and maybe Coward Mont Blanc.
there are some i'm still not sure of, like Just be Friends, Cantarella, Cat Food, Heartbreak Summit, I=Nightmare, Love Logic, Face it you look so cool, glow, From Y to Y, Dear, Dear Cocoa Girls, Yellow, Meltdown, and probably a whole lot i probably listened to then lol

[bingus_baby]

so i do definitely prefer more doujin/indie Vocaloid rather than mainstream stuff lol

(preface, you don't need to read this whole thesis I just. needed to yap for a minute, I had coffee)

Same tbh... I feel like most popular producers kind of fell into boring patterns, such as Deco, which drove me to look for smaller artists with fresh styles. I don't say it much, since all my friends adore Deco's newer stuff ;; (One didn't even know Ghost Rule or Hibana, only Vampire and newer) But I lowkey don't like his newer stufF! It's catchy, but it feels like he distilled everything that made his previous songs big hits into one style. It's very formulaic and every song sounds the same. Telepathy is the worst offender so far, and no one talks about it :sob: I also don't care much for the Yowamushi Montblanc remake, it's... lemme just stop myself there lmao

This isn't to rag too much on Deco, I love me some Rabbit Hole, but it's a good example of a bigger problem with vocaloid as a whole! ShoujoISM's video on the "Mesmerizer Effect" sums it up quite well. (Watch her other stuff too hehe) As an artist who got hooked on Vocaloid for the artistic value and emotional lyrics, it's disappointing to see producers make songs for the algorithm. Gabi Belle has make a couple videos on this, but for music as a whole. It's not just a vsynth problem, it's a bigger issue than just a couple Deco songs!

On that note, I won't just make fun of Deco. (He's just the most popular, easy scapegoat) So, let me raise up some producers I really like!! Here's a playlist I made for a friend that I specifically picked out more uncommon songs for! (Plus a few popular ones that I just LOVE, and a few covers snuck in.) I tried to keep most songs under 1 mil views, unless they were older and not talked about as much recently, or unless I just really wanted to add them lmaooo

For other UTAU stuff, Rev was pretty much the gateway drug for me. At the time, around 2017 I think, his stuff was non-stop in the algorithm and I was obsessed. I still regularly think about his Unknown Mother Goose cover lmao, it was TOO GOOD!!!

I AM SO SORRY I WROTE A DISSERATAION BUT none of my friends are quite as brain rotted as me so I haven't had anywhere to dump all this lmao

[Junebug]

Meltdown.


This is not the first Vocaloid song I listened to, I couldn't possibly remember what it would've been since it bleeds into my memories of watching NND reuploads on Youtube, but it's probably the most iconic from my adolescent era of being really into Vocaloid. I used to know all the memes, know all the popular Utauloids, watched all the famous music videos, and a fair bit of more obscure ones that I'm not sure whether still exist on Youtube.

But Vocaloid has changed and I think that was inevitable. The internet itself changed and the incentives around Vocaloid aren't too great for its long term relevance. Basically, it's useful for composers to have a singing machine, but it's not as prestigious as having an actual singer for their songs. So eventually the big Vocaloid producers would get their break, enter the mainstream, and then become mainstream musicians who'd collaborate with vocalists when they needed to. This is basically what happened with Supercell, for a high profile example. For me Vocaloid was at its best when it was more like a toy people played with, to make music and tell stories through that music with low stakes when it came to viewer engagement. But money inevitably changes the quality of everything and I think it's no match for the celebrity media machine.

[Scootarooni]

oh gosh, I'm kinda an oldhead. I was on youtube watching uploads of anime (back when that was allowed but one episode would be split in 15+ parts LOL) and the re-uploaded World is Mine fanmade PV by Rak showed up in the recommended sidebar. I was an anime-obsessed kid so of course I clicked on it...and soon enough I was down the rabbit hole! I remember this and NOA's fanmade PV for Melt were pretty common entryways into Vocaloid back in the late 2000s. At least on youtube!

I think what really caught my attention and made me absolutely hyperfixated on vocal synths to this day was the storytelling and discussions about mental health. Daughter of Evil/The Evillious Chronicles, Alice Human Sacrifice, Alluring Secret ~Black Vow~, and Rolling Girl to name a few off the top of my dome.

I also remember going down rabbit holes watching MMD cup reuploads on youtube what a wacky time! Here's one of the normal ones I remember watching back then.

[XEmoCatX]

I think I found out about Hatsune Miku by finding a video on YouTube in 2013, showing a girl making a Miku wig. I found out about other vocaloids by playing Project Mirai demo on 3Ds when I was younger. That’s how I got into it.

I also seen MMDs videos too.

[fablefound]

oh wow, this thread makes me feel kinda old... i actually found out about vocaloid through someone mentioning it in a forum i used to roleplay on (it was attached to a virtual pet game, lol). specifically, they mentioned dark woods circus. (cw it's kinda morbid/ableist of the "circus freakshow" flavour, but like, from the late 00s so nothing too traumatic) this would've been, oh, around 2012 or so...?



it's amazing how quickly that totally changed my interests. i listened to nothing but nightcore and vocaloid for most of my teens.

[serenefork]

When I was 8, one of my older friends showed me MMD and the enthralling nature of learning that I could make my own animations with cute anime girls was mind blowing, and THEN they showed me the songs. Not only did Miku dance, she could sing? And had her own voice? That was so mind blowing as a child that Vocaloid/UTAU/ other voice synths have stayed with me ever since.