Vocaloid

Not pictured: More than three quarters of the cast.[1]

Vocaloid (a portmanteau of "vocal" and "android") is a series of music synthesizing programs created by YAMAHA Corporation. The program is separated into two parts; the editor, which is used to process any voicebank chosen by the user through their input, and the various voicebanks, each with their own unique voice traits for different user taste or purpose. Using a Vocaloid sounds simple enough, as the user simply has to type lyrics and adjust the melody of the song they're creating; however, fine-tuning is necessary to reach better, more natural-sounding results.

There are currently 70+ different Vocaloid voicebanks[2], with the engine itself having had multiple overhauls over the years to increase end product quality. The voicebanks in particular have become popular; due to their more or less blank state with little (if any) official background, fans have gotten into creating their own personalities and interpretation of them. Fanmade characters also exist, with some even gaining recognition from the higher-ups. The UTAU software also helped bringing many fanmades into life.

In The New Tens, Vocaloid has taken major steps in the entertainment industries, with live concerts (done with projections, in the style Gorillaz and the 2012 2Pac concert), video game crossovers, collectible figure lines, and even race car sponsors. Of course, there are also adaptations of the works related to Vocaloid, such as the manga Hatsune Mix and the OVA adaptation of the song Black★Rock Shooter and the multimedia franchise that is Kagerou Project.

The producers CosMo, Deco 27, and Mothy have their own pages, as does the band Supercell and the music-video-making software Miku Miku Dance.

Note: The following is only for tropes related to official Vocaloid materials. For character-related tropes for each voicebank, go here. For tropes on song, fanon, and other fan works, go here.

Tropes used in Vocaloid include:
  • Adaptation Expansion: Hatsune Mix is a closer-to-home example. Other than that, there are the adaptations of the various song projects made using Vocaloid.
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: The "modules" you can obtain in the Project Diva games.
  • Animated Actors
  • The Cameo:
    • Miku's first anime appearance was one of these in Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, as one of the people auditioning to be Meru's voice.
    • Due to SEGA partially owning them, Miku and Luka have appeared in Phantasy Star Online 2 as guest stars in the lobby concert.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: The earlier Japanese Vocaloids had one dominant color associated with them; with the influx of new Vocaloids and more companies bringing in more varied character designers, this concept has been mostly abandoned.
  • Cover Version: If the song you're thinking of exists, they've probably covered it.
  • Crossover: Several times over the course of the year.
  • Fundamentally Female Cast: There are many more female vocals than male ones.
  • Kayfabe Music: At live concerts; while the band is played by real people, the "lead singer" is an animated projection.
  • Loads and Loads of Characters: Even back in the V2 generation, there were quite a number of voicebanks available. By the time V3 ended, the number had almost tripled, and by the time V5 rolled in, there were more than 70 unique voicebanks.
  • Loads and Loads of Loading: The PSP versions of Project DIVA games are plagued with this, especially if you have the DLCs installed, as they need to check the license every time the list of DLC items are loaded.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: The design of the voicebanks is one of the reasons why Vocaloid is so popular.
  • Only Six Faces: It's easy to guess a voicebank's origin company or designer by their character style, which can lead to this for larger companies such as Crypton.
  • Ridiculously-Human Robots:
  • So human, in fact, that you'll soon forget that they're robots. Some designs even look outright organic.
    • Several examples such as Piko and Miki downplay this; both have robotic joints and the former has what appears to be an equalizer and a USB-like tail.
    • Some Vocaloids defy this, depending on their background info; some are stated as not being robots.
  • Virtual Celebrity
  1. ↑ Clockwise from the top, then to the middle: IA, Aoki Lapis, Lily, Galaco, SeeU, Mew, Yuzuki Yukari, Ring Suzune, CUL, Akikoloid-chan, Tone Rion and GUMI.
  2. ↑ (and that's not counting Updated Rereleases or multiple characters that count as a single product)
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