Sanctuary

List of games enjoyed by the webmaster

Rpgmaker games

Yume Nikki
.flow
END ROLL
Witch's Heart
IB
1bitheart
Hello Charlotte
Noel the mortal fate
OneShot
OFF
The Gray Garden
LiEat
Alice Mare
Witch's House
Angels of Death
LISA the painful

General

All Valve games
Project Diva F 2nd
Fran Bow
The Liar Princess and the Blind Prince
Persona 3-5
Ace Attorney Series
A Rose in the Twilight
Inscryption
Slay the Princess
Presentable Liberty
Silent Hill 2
Rule of Rose
Needy Streamer Overload
Steins;Gate
Don't Starve
Dead by Daylight

What is VOCALOID?

VOCALOID is commonly an umbrella term referring to a voice synthesizer sampled from human vocals, most commonly from singers or seiyuus in the Japanese industry; however, there are also VOCALOIDS that originate from all over the world, such as South Korea, England, America, Spain, and China. They are typically used as a singer in most songs, usually due to the fact that the producers themselves wish to not sing or cannot sing - essentially a tool for up-and-coming musicians who don't have a vocalist available for whatever reasons it may be.

Thanks to the vocal synths, professional musicians such as Kenshi Yonezu, who was formerly known as Hachi, REOL, and supercell (ryo), have become very prominent figures in the J-Pop industry. As such, VOCALOID tends to be seen as a "stepping stone" for aspiring musicians who want to make a splash in the industry by dipping their toes first, starting with VOCALOID.

VOCALOID has become a part of otaku culture and the early/late 2000s internet, with its first steps having been taken in NicoNicoDouga before eventually moving to YouTube, capturing the hearts of soon-to-be western fans as well. The main appeal of VOCALOID at the time was that these seemingly fictional mascots became "idols" or "figures" of their own by the community alone - it was simply given to the internet, and in turn, the internet turned VOCALOID into a massive success. Given this success, Crypton, who made Hatsune Miku, MEIKO, and KAITO at the time, was met with a lot of advertisement and offers from a lot of companies, which pushed it further and further into the mainstream, such as television.

The special thing about VOCALOID, which many people enjoy, is that it consists of just the community's contributions. The songs were a product of upcoming musicians, which was met with attention on NicoNicoDouga. A tool that was meant to help people produce their own songs became a cultural phenomenon of its own and became a way for people to become professional musicians but also make fan-made MVs and make stories for these songs by animations - which was noticed, so MikuMikuDance was made to further help the storytelling through the usage of the VOCALOID mascots that people enjoyed using.

So rather than one overseer dictating what VOCALOID is and what it should be, it's essentially a large collaborative project for anyone who wants to participate if they wish to.

That's the magic of VOCALOID.

Questions

Q: Where are the songs from/Is this song made by a VOCALOID?
A: The songs are made by each individual producer, there's no big company behind most songs nor are the mascots behind any song, they're just a tool.
Q: Do the characters have a canon age/personality/are they vtubers?

A: No. They're mascots, which means they're simply a visual suggestion for how the voice synthesizer looks. The age and personality is up to the interpreter.

Q: Is VOCALOID AI/promoting general usage of generative AI?

A: Mostly no. The voices are synths sampled by real people with real voices and careers. The song compositions are by the producers, and not by a machine. It may seem like it has some correlations with AI, but it doesn't. It's something that promotes human creativity and efforts - not by machines.

While there are some voicebanks in the current modern era of VOCALOID that has AI technology (VOCALOID AI/Cevio AI/etc), that's just smoothening pre-existing voice samples to make them sound more realistic. The voice samples are still from real people and were made with consent from the voice providers with the company.

If the voice provider in question isn't comfortable with having an AI voice bank, they can just say no and the process of it being made will end (as this is what the singer, KAF, did for SynthV KAFU because she thought the voicebank smoothened with AI sounded too much like her.) thus it cannot be deemed unethical AI, even if AI technology is used. VOCALOID, or well, the voicebanks and the way they are produced in general leans extremely towards ethical human artistic expression.

Q: What does the "P" stand for?

A: Producer!

Personally recommended songs

I will try to keep this diverse and range from niche to popular and name each producer only once. ...and yes, they will be mostly late 2000s/early 2010s music. Oops.