my favorite vocal synths 😁

22 Dec, 2025

i’m bored. these are based mostly on how well they balance good design and vocal performance. some synths have nothingburger designs (or none at all) but amazing voices, others have amazing designs but a voice that leaves no impression on me. some of these types might slip thru the cracks if i rlly like them for one reason but i generally wanna keep this list fairly compact.

only editors i particularly care about are vocaloid, utau, and synthesizer v, the big three. im not that familiar with the cevio or voisona library or any of the niche editors that have like one star character. again, wanna keep things compact. everything outside of the three will be shoved in a misc section.

(also everyone will be organized based on debut software, though all appearances do play a role in my list)

vocaloid

• kagamine rin. my og favorite. i haven’t listened to some stuff with her or drawn her in a while, times have just changed. but straight up that is a good design + i love her v4x power library. every time i feel compelled to pirate vocaloid 5 i always download her (unfortunately these are too storage-demanding for my tastes. i found a pretty good bootleg utau of her power voice anyway)
• hatsune miku. it doesn’t matter how much bland scramble merch she gets or how overexposed she is, she’s still an icon with another good design. am a fan of her dark and solid appends, especially in the hands of pinocchiop and rishie p respectively. she’s the other one i try to pirate vocaloid for. unfortunately i haven’t been able to find a good utau port of her solid voice :-(
• otomachi una. specifically spicy, because ya know… strong loud voice. her spicy design is a travesty i find cute, and i don’t think her v6 or synthv incarnations top it even if they’re a bit cleaner (v6 was close, but where’s the red or magenta?). i do have an utau port of her :3
• hibiki koto. design is peam, really beautiful color distribution. my praises extend mostly to her later synth v incarnation which i have had experience using. i like her lower register compared to other feminine-presenting banks, yet it still has a delicacy and elegance that i like.
• gumi. another “basic” one but like she’s kinda done it all. one million designs, kinda mixed but her general vibe is a very dorky retro look that you can’t replace. her voice is recognizable and was a huge touchstone for the english scene with her dedicated english bank. her synthv bank is also quite good (it’s growing on me, but i do like its smoothness), i just hate the minty fresh blue they keep putting on her designs for synthv. knock it off!

synthesizer v

in case it wasn’t obvious enough with my mentions of pirating vocaloid, yes i do the same for synthv and have actually used its library hands-on. i’m never spending a dime on my vocal synths.

(do your own research if you want to look into pirating vsynth editors safely)

• eleanor forte. her standard and ai banks sound different yet the same character, so she’s like the only standard bank i actually bothered to download. i love her design and her voice, super elegant and mature!! i should draw her more. and i wanna listen to more music with her!
• solaria. another icon!!!!! her voice is another one i associate with strong, solid performances. i really fell in love with her after discovering zynthesiren’s metal covers using her for the vocals, she works well for the genre that i did not expect. i need more of her. i need more of her NOW!!!
• anri. i’m actually a teensy bit mixed on her in practice. i do think her design and art is cute but her origins library is a bit too soft and restrictive for the uses i tend to call her for. like her range feels quite small. these problems were addressed in her later arcane bank which has a lot of voice colors that deliver on that solidness that i look for (though she might have.. too many?? why does anri jun and noa all have a billion voice modes).
• nyl. that’s solaria’s bestie right there!! i’m very impressed by their vocal range and styles. starry court was billed as eclipsed sounds’ “genre fluid” collection of vocals, and wow nyl really has the range to back that up. i need to NEED to find more music with them. also… the design is so good. purple and space theme ?! come on.
• yi xi. obviously the ever popular rice design isn’t technically official but is so tied to the fan perception of this otherwise faceless bank that it has to count for something in my design opinions. it’s just good! and i like how androgynous and raspy her voice gets. butcher vanity is the normie hi xi song ever but it’s freakin GOOD. i love her. love herrrr
• kevin. i love his lower range, especially with more breathy parameters (don’t really care for his more high-pitched nightcore voice he’s sometimes associated with). i don’t have a set design on him that i consider the one and im not interested in making one myself, so he might be the one truly faceless ‘loid on this list (to me). he is the voice claim for my oc xane.. which also counts for something….

utau

oh boy where to start this library is massive.

• kasane teto. another iconic icon. just straight up good. when i was first getting into utau i was surprised at how much options for voice colors she had available. her utau incarnation sounds a bit younger and very tinny, while her synthv bank is older (because the voice provider literally aged lol) and more mature, making her actually seem 30 which i enjoy. i do like her synthv bank enough and it has really bolstered her foothold in the english community by giving english producers a teto that can easily sing in english, though i wish more big hitter songs utilized her utau bank. especially since again its pretty solid in its own right, even if it started as a joke! daidaidaikirai would have been so much better if it used utau teto…
• gekiyaku. my first utau obsession -w- as i will mention to every vocaloid fan i come across, i loved her so much that i made her a little cover album for a school project, hell yeah. design is so good (and she has so many!) and her voice has that POWER i love in my vocal synths. and her softer more sensitive banks are no slouch either. i don’t really care for her vocaloid bank (and was happy to see her utau get an update, even if it was just one that integrated multiple different voice types into one with no new recordings), i think the jankiness of utau play a role in her power.
• hoshino hanami. the first english voicebank i got my hands on when starting utau. i was disappointed to find out how much features her english bank was missing compared to her japanese one (multiple pitches and voice colors) before learning that each pitch and color of english vccv takes approximately 80 million years to complete. though not as decked out as other english banks, i like her sweet voice and her design is so cute. if nothing else, she gets a legacy pass for being one of the first to get me into utau.
• axis og06. i love studio ogien’s collection! axis is one of the few with a english bank (not counting the beta arpa banks most of the group got) so i gravitated towards her first. i love her design (tbf i love literally, LITERALLY all of the ogienoid’s character designs) and mature tone !!! great for harmonies :)
• theia og03. another studio ogien one but i gotta double dip because her new monarch bank really impressed me. soft feminine tone with versatility thanks to the additional void colors. purple bonus points. and the butterfly motif?? so good. one of those utauloids that i really wanna draw.
• adachi rei. i ain’t forgetting about her. she’s been rising in popularity for good reason. i’m kinda shocked at how decent her english arpasing bank is. even if it’s hard to understand at first listen, i gotta give credit to its clarity despite the artificial gimmick. her design is super cute and im obsessed with the robot irl. i’m very happy she is seeing life on vocaloid :)
• can i count kandyloid. i think she’s getting pretty good now (im gonna make a poast about her one day the development journey was fun!!)

misc misc misc

thinking about it… i think the only ones i can immediately shout out and put on The List are rose (cevio) and selena (voisona). powerful ladies, yes yes. i have a soft spot for selena especially since i’ve been a fan of oktavia for a while so seeing her in vsynth form, one that captures her amazing singing voice so well, AND her excitement in the announcement video, is just joyful to see. I NEED TO FIND MORE SONGS WITG HER!!!! EVEN COVERS!!! GUH SO GOOD. the space motif is also worth noting….

that’s all, im gonna get back to lying in bed -w-

#list #vocaloid