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Vocalsynth music recs

Page updated: 18 May 2025

See also: my archived Vocaloid music page from 2020

I've been a fan of Vocaloid/vocalsynth music since 2010-2011 or so, and it's still something I listen to all the time to date. This page is dedicated to my favourite songs and producers!

I know a lot of people think vocalsynth and immediately think J-pop and J-rock (ie. Deco*27 and whatever else bland ass shit blows up on Tiktok or whatever kids are on -- and yes, I'm a hater), but I'm actually more into electronic-ish music, EDM, and just kinda weird music (especially the grating kind). I love when producers distort the vocals to make the synths less human and more robotic, or otherwise make good use of the fact that they don't have a human vocalist. However, I'm pretty open to all kinds of music and I'll really listen to anything if it catches my interest.

Side note: LiterallyHifumi has done a much better overview of the current landscape than I could ever care to in this year of the lord, so please feel free to check out their page also!

events I've been to

I've been to a handful of in person events now!! It's pretty awesome getting to see this stuff live, and watching videos online really doesn't prepare you for the real thing.

my history

(Totally not lifted from my old 2020 page)

iirc my first intro to vocalsynth (still called Vocaloid at the time) was, uh... an old Tumblr post where someone did a Homestuck version of MachigeritaP's Dark Woods Circus. Yep. Anyway, as a result I initially became familiar with the "Vocaloid horror" subgenre, which were usually featured around telling stories with spooky edgy themes.

Since I was probably 11-12ish at the time, I didn't really understand how to download just the music so I used to download the whole videos and put them on my iPod so I could listen on the go lol.

I've compiled a list of songs that I remember very well from this era, and compiled them in a playlist with the original videos (if they're still up): here!

It's probably good to note that a lot of videos on Youtube from this era of Vocaloid music were unauthorised reprints, had inaccurate translations, and did not credit the actual producers (usually songs were just credited as "Hatsune Miku" or w/e voicebank had been used). This whole landscape has really changed in the past 10 years -- a lot of producers now use Youtube to publish their own content, and viewers can now often add subtitles to the official videos instead of having to reupload with hardsubs.

voicebanks

I'll probably expand this out a bit later, but here's a quick list of my favs:

songs

I could probably go on with a list of my favourite songs forever since the supply is never-ending, so I decided to make a Dreamwidth journal for this purpose that I'll update sporadically. Otherwise, here's some favourites from the past few years:

2025

Nothing yet lol, I've mostly been listening to J-core so far this year...

2024

producers

ちゃぁ (Chaa)

My all-time favourite Vocaloid producer, who was active from 2008-2013 or so. Most well-known for the classic Fear Garden, they mostly used Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Rin, and Megurine Luka.

Mostly experimental electronic music with a lot of strange sounds and sharp noises that hurt my ears (see pain killer below). I saw a comment by Koinuko on Neocities regarding Fear Garden stating "[...] it's not as much of an easy listen as it used to be, since the instrumental (and Rin herself, honestly) are a little grating" and I really do think that's the best way to describe the majority of Chaa's music in general.

Fear Garden

Favourite songs:

  • Fear Garden
  • pain killer
  • acutecare

    • cosMo@暴走P (cosMo@Bousou-P)

    Active producer who's been around since 2007. He's known for extremely fast, high energy songs that usually use Hatsune Miku. He's also one of my current favourite producers! He's currently my #2 artist after Chaa.

    cosMo is one of those eternal producers who's been around forever, though I didn't really start actively listening to his music until Strange Document 2020. He's done a bazillion classics like The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku and Intense Voice.

    Sadistic.Music∞Factory (Remake The second phase)

    Favourite songs:

  • Noisy Crazy Girl
  • Machine Gun Poem Doll
  • YAMINABE!!!!

    • sasakure.UK

    Yet another artist I've known about forever, but only started actively listening to in the past few years. I probably first became familiar with him through Project Diva, because he had a number of songs that made it into the games.

    未来イヴ (2023) is my favourite album from him and another one of my favourite vocalsynth albums ever -- it just has so many good songs, and I LOVE IT SO MUCH AAAAAGGHHH.

    Future Eve

    Favourite songs:

  • X.E.N.O
  • AMARA (The Great Intelligence)
  • Future Eve
  • TONDEMO-WONDERZ

    • kiichi

    Another old "weird" artist like Chaa, but a lot of his works are still more chill and melodic. Being from the same era, he's been on a number of compilations with Chaa, but he's actually still active...ish, just not really doing vocalsynth music anymore.

    I'm actually kinda meh on his newer stuff, it's not really anything close to what he used to do.

    Banshee Strikes

    Favourite songs:

  • 8.24 (reprise)
  • Fluticasone
  • Francium
  • Love Love Nightmare

    • ユギカ (yugica)

    One of my current favourite modern Vocaloid producers, active from 2021 to present, though they don't upload terribly often. They mostly use MEIKA Hime and Mikoto.

    I spent a long time without anything that really ever filled the void left by Chaa's music, but I randomly heard Gasou thanks to YT autoplay one day and was immediately drawn in, because this was the sound I had wanted to find for so long. Yugica's music isn't nearly as intense or grating, but the husky vocals and harsh instrumentals are pretty damn close.

    III

    Favourite songs:

  • paralysis
  • diFrail
  • distressed
  • Caprice Cast

    • 鬱P (Utsu-P)

    I think I got super into his music in 2020-2021 or so? UNIQUE (2021) is one of my favourite vocalsynth albums of all time -- there's just SO many fucking awesome songs on it, I have countless plays on this one. IT'S SO GOOD.

    However, despite that being the peak of my Utsu-P listening, I've known about him for a long time -- the first song I ever heard from him was Allegra (which is still a banger) somewhere between 2011-2013, and I also became familiar with Poster Girl's Prank (which is also still awesome) some time later after it came out in 2013.

    OGRE

    Favourite songs:

  • Anti-Digitalism (GREATEST SHITS ver)
  • Hyper Reality Show
  • Death of the Law
  • ATARI FRONT PROGRAM
  • Not Photogenic
  • OGRE

    • ¿?shimon

    Semi-active producer who hasn't done a ton of songs, but each one is a banger nonetheless. He user Flower and self-covers a lot.

    Dr. Copy

    Favourite songs:

  • 182.
  • nisemononingen40gou
  • Strange
  • Lucifer

    • other producers worth your time