VOCALOID Your first vocaloid + suggestions for beginners

[Ibis]

I know there is a similar thread like this for your first UTAU voicebank, but I figured that your first Vocaloid voicebank might have a couple of extra factors to it, such as cost, ease of use, or being received as gifts/ hand-me-downs. While some people will just buy their favorite and only ever use that one, some people might have bought a specific Vocaloid that they planned on practicing with before they ever bought their favorites. Or maybe their favorite changed. There is a variety of factors to this, which is why I wanted to make a separate thread.

For the benefit of the people who are planning on maybe purchasing Vocaloid in the future, or already have it and just want a new bank to work with, please leave any voicebank suggestions below if you have any (best for beginners, best for experienced users, unique banks, underrated banks, etc.)

 

[cafenurse]

My first Vocaloid was Daina, I bought her because Dex and Daina had just come out and zero-g had a sale on them (I was young and unaware that zero-g is literally always having sales, so i thought this offer was irresistible). 2014 through 2016 were honestly, in my rose tinted nostalgic opinion, the happiest and best years of vocaloid for me so I was literally so psyched to get a voicebank and dex/daina/ruby/cyber diva were all a huge deal to me. I actually bought her before I had the v4 editor. I was banking on getting it for christmas (and i did, yaaay!)
Actually, getting my first vocaloid was a really huge deal to me. I grew up loving and being obsessed with it, it was my number 1 interest in life since the sixth grade. But as a child with no money, an 100 dollar voicebank seemed totally out of my reach, and I grew up in poverty so the likelihood of receiving one as a gift was low. My friend and I made a little shoe box to store money in and decorated it with vocaloid drawings to save up for our first vb. Sadly her sister stole the like...30 dollars in there, lmao. But looking back it was so adorable how passionate of a dream it was of mine. At the time I had dreamed of buying a huge collection of vocaloids, but nowadays I actually only want a few because I feel bad having ones I don't reach for often (i almost only use gumi at this point, since im not really interested in doing covers anymore)

i dont have too much to say when it comes to suggestions because ive yet to use a voicebank i consider easy to use, LOL. but i wanted to share my humble vocaloid-collecting beginnings

 

[Ibis]

My first Vocaloid was Daina, I bought her because Dex and Daina had just come out and zero-g had a sale on them (I was young and unaware that zero-g is literally always having sales, so i thought this offer was irresistible). 2014 through 2016 were honestly, in my rose tinted nostalgic opinion, the happiest and best years of vocaloid for me so I was literally so psyched to get a voicebank and dex/daina/ruby/cyber diva were all a huge deal to me. I actually bought her before I had the v4 editor. I was banking on getting it for christmas (and i did, yaaay!)
Actually, getting my first vocaloid was a really huge deal to me. I grew up loving and being obsessed with it, it was my number 1 interest in life since the sixth grade. But as a child with no money, an 100 dollar voicebank seemed totally out of my reach, and I grew up in poverty so the likelihood of receiving one as a gift was low. My friend and I made a little shoe box to store money in and decorated it with vocaloid drawings to save up for our first vb. Sadly her sister stole the like...30 dollars in there, lmao. But looking back it was so adorable how passionate of a dream it was of mine. At the time I had dreamed of buying a huge collection of vocaloids, but nowadays I actually only want a few because I feel bad having ones I don't reach for often (i almost only use gumi at this point, since im not really interested in doing covers anymore)

i dont have too much to say when it comes to suggestions because ive yet to use a voicebank i consider easy to use, LOL. but i wanted to share my humble vocaloid-collecting beginnings

That's honestly cute a sweet little story, especially the part about the shoe box. I know it's so common to hear stories of kids going out of their way to save up for very expensive things they want (lemonade stands, lawn mowing, car washing, dog, walking), and I guess the fact that you went so out of your way to get even one bank struck a cord within me. Shame the money got stolen, but I'm glad you can have some voicebanks of your own now! I can only wonder what voice you would have gotten if you managed to save up the money. Honestly, whoever it was they probably would been your ride-or-die since you put in so much work into saving for them. Thanks for sharing!

 

[peaches2217]

Oliver was my first Vocaloid, because he was the cheapest of the ones I wanted most at the time! 0/10 Do Not Recommend for beginners. Honestly I don’t know if I’d recommend him to anyone. I love him but good LORD he’s poorly-made.

My second was Rin/Len V4X, which I ABSOLUTELY recommend for beginners! Len V4X Power is to this day one of the easiest VBs I’ve ever worked with, and Rin V4X Sweet was similarly simple to get the hang of. I’d put the rest of their Japanese V4s in the Intermediate category, but I absolutely recommend them as a whole to beginners.

One I never see recommended is Nemu, but in spite of her unique tone, she’s very beginner-friendly. She reacts predictably and consistently and doesn’t suffer from any notable audio issues.


For English, I recommend both Avanna and Kaito V3 English for beginners! Avanna’s a given, and one that gets recommended frequently, while Kaito’s neutral tone and relaxed pronunciations make him easier to handle than other non-native English banks. (His Japanese banks lean more intermediate, but they’re still good to have around, especially as you hone your skills!)

I personally find Miku V4 English easy to work with, but others consider her difficult, so I tentatively recommend her to newbies. Thankfully she has a trial on Sonicwire, so you can give her a go before committing!

Speaking of Miku, she’s frequently recommended for beginners, but I see her as more intermediate as well. Her voice can sound flat and thin pretty easily, especially on her Original, Dark, and Solid banks. It’s not to the extent that I’d dissuade newbies from purchasing her if they really want to, because she offers a lot of variety and I love her to pieces, but it’s something to keep in mind!

 

[IO+]

I suggested to use something that free.
I would pick Synthesizer V and there is a 3 voicebank of choice to play with. The first one is Eleanor (english) second is genbu (maleJPN) third is renri (femaleJPN) i tried all of these and they'all great.

OpenUTAU is maybe the second choice for me, the voicebank of choice would be gahata meiji and yamine renri, these two are well known for their quality, and the editor itself is great. Although, they update very frequently so this might give user quite a hassle with crash, dropout and lagging issue, but dev is very active so... yea, openutau is trustworthy.

Third recommend is NEUTRINO, but i don't think this is good for new user, they quite complicate to setup and understand, it is a purest form of neural singing synthesis, with an amazing singing behavior, they don't even have UI to work with (read music xml files).

 

[Scarlet Illusion]

My first Vocaloid(s) were Rin and Len's V4x voicebanks! I genuinely can't remember if I bought them myself or if they were a gift but I remember being so excited to get them! I probably spent hours trying to tune them and even tried (emphasis on tried lmao) to make a song with them and uh... it was certainly... a song. Definitely the song of all time. I didn't know much Japanese years ago so I had to keep looking at the dictionary for words to use and it was probably consisted of unnatural and broken Japanese! After that I just went back to making covers because that's where most of my joy in working with vbs comes from.

In terms of beginner voicebanks, Rin and Len are good. I didn't know anything about tuning Vocaloid back then but my first time tuning them wasn't extremely painful. Rin can be a little fickle but as Peaches said before, Len's power voicebank is really great to work with.

Gumi's V4 Power voicebank (NOT Native) is very easy to work with. I spent a lot of time working with her trial and she sounds good with basically anything I do. If I still used Vocaloid often enough to justify buying her, I'd purchase her in a heartbeat.

Also, I definitely don't recommend Miku's Japanese to beginners. She tends to sound rather flat most of the time and can be hard to get good results out of. I've owned her for literally four years but I don't touch her because she's frustrating to work with. (I'm sorry for slandering our queen fjhjkg)

Miku's V4 English is superb, though. I wish I knew more English songs to cover with her or I'd use her all the time. 10/10 would definitely recommend.

 

[ikaroll]

My first Vocaloid was SONiKA, and as much as I love her, I'd only suggest her to people who want to start with Vocaloid but don't want to spend a whole lot (since zero g's sales make V2s a lot cheaper)

She's not HARD to work with (in fact, she's my favorite english Vocaloid to use). It's just a bit more work than ideal to get her to sound clear.

Rana is a good japanese vb for beginners (though, she was made to be a beginner vb so that's not really a surprise lol).

Macne Nana's vbs are REALLY FUN to work with and I recommend them wholeheartedly. (Petit I don't really have any opinions on because....it's just higher pitched Nana)

Dex is....something, I'll say that. A lot more work to make clear than SONiKA, but a lot clearer than base Avanna.

Miku V4x is really expensive for what you get, I would NOT recommend her to beginners. Miku English is really good though, I will admit that (luckily you can buy that separately :) )

Gumi's V4 Power voicebank (NOT Native) is very easy to work with. I spent a lot of time working with her trial and she sounds good with basically anything I do. If I still used Vocaloid often enough to justify buying her, I'd purchase her in a heartbeat.

Agreed on Gumi Power V4 being a good vb. She has a lot of clarity on her own without a ton of adjustments (at least from my experimentation)

Oliver was my first Vocaloid, because he was the cheapest of the ones I wanted most at the time! 0/10 Do Not Recommend for beginners. Honestly I don’t know if I’d recommend him to anyone. I love him but good LORD he’s poorly-made.

If I had the chance to mess around with Oliver before I bought him, I probably would not have lmao. He's Vocaloid's problem child for sure.

 

[Ibis]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I really am happy that you could give some suggestions for new users. Honestly, with how many people use Miku, I would have never have guessed that their V4 Japanese bank would have been hard to tune, or that Oliver was hard to work with, but hey, that's what this thread is for.

I really do like @IO+ 's suggestion on starting with a free vocal synth, especially if you aren't planning on getting Vocaloid for a while. This is especially true for any fans that can't afford Vocaloid, but still really want to make songs. Trust me, making songs can be a great coping mechanism, or even just something you do as a hobby. Plus, if you get Vocaloid in the future, you'll already know a little bit about how to use vocal synths. I'm not trying to put down anyone that really wants the vocaloid engine in particular, but hey, there's no harm in trying out a free program before you really commit to that.

 

[morrysillusion]

i started using vocaloid in 2014, and got v flower as my first voice, purely because i was enamored with her immediately. i had also seen people make japanese voices sing english and decided "oh yeah, i can probably do that". many would say (and with my experiences now too) flower is probably not the best voice to start with lol. but i was determined and flower became my main voice ever since- lots of learning her quirks has since allowed me to use her with ease, but by no means would i recommend her as a first lol.

that being said if i had the choices of free synths like we do now, i would have used them first. but Utau was... kinda the only thing, and it confused me a lot back then, and i had little attachment to the voices so i didnt make it my first thing to use. you def dont need to stick with free ones but, a lot of vocal synth kind of generally work the same, so its a great way to practice for those completely new to them overall!

but in terms of beginner friendly vocaloids i would suggest, if we're not talking about all available vocal synth programs... i admittedly never used many voices outside of flower and a few others but based on what i have used:

miku english is pretty good and reliable i think, and many seem to think the same!

imo i found fukase to be pretty easy to use, his japanese banks and english ones are all very high quality. but of course, his voice comes with some specific TOS troubles if you were to consider his for original music to sell so that is a turn off.

avanna is quite easy imo and while shes a bit old now, i think shes still unique and special enough to consider.

i hear rin, len, rana, and macna nana are all pretty beginner friendly too but i havent used them myself!

 

[Ibis]

i started using vocaloid in 2014, and got v flower as my first voice, purely because i was enamored with her immediately. i had also seen people make japanese voices sing english and decided "oh yeah, i can probably do that". many would say (and with my experiences now too) flower is probably not the best voice to start with lol. but i was determined and flower became my main voice ever since- lots of learning her quirks has since allowed me to use her with ease, but by no means would i recommend her as a first lol.

Honestly, I don't think it's that bad to have your first vocaloid be your favorite. While it is nice to have one that is easy to learn, if you only ever plan on using one bank for basically everything, it might be beneficial to start with them so you can learn the quirks of the voicebank. If you are ever going to buy one vocaloid, you're probably attached enough to sit down and learn how to use them properly. Though, for people who do want to use a variety, I do reccommend a starter bank.

that being said if i had the choices of free synths like we do now, i would have used them first. but Utau was... kinda the only thing, and it confused me a lot back then, and i had little attachment to the voices so i didnt make it my first thing to use. you def dont need to stick with free ones but, a lot of vocal synth kind of generally work the same, so its a great way to practice for those completely new to them overall!

Honestly, it's a luxury that there is so much variety now. Back then there really was only vocaloid and UTAU, which poses a problem when Vocaloid is a several hundred dollar program and UTAU has a pretty steep learning curve. As much of an UTAU stan I am, I really wouldn't recommend UTAU if you don't really like any of the voicebanks or don't like tuning your tracks. And getting Vocaloid is a big investment to make, especially for a beginner.

 

[RawBeansP]

my first vocaloid was Oliver. my mom bought him for me the week he came out in 2011. the V3 editor wasn't even available in english yet, and we didn't know how to buy it, so I was stuck with the tiny V3 editor for a year before my mom got me the full editor in 2012 (I think from PFX?? it's been a decade man lol). twas not a fun start lol. Also i didn't know how to turn off the reverb he was defaulted to for like 2 years.

oliver gave me hell even after i got the full editor. i had no idea what i was doing, and back then there weren't any guides online to help me navigate. i also was terrified of talking to people on the internet so it wasn't like i was involved in the community. Oliver was very muffled and difficult to use. and it took me a while to really appreciate him and his quirks. Even now with a lot more resources and better understanding of the software, Oliver is unfortunately outdated with little to no support from PFX. And due to how inaccessible V5 can be, between the price and the UI, i don't think Oliver is a good starter Vocaloid. def more for intermediate users, like you've been doing vox synth stuff for a while now and know what you're doing

i feel like the cryptons are generally good starters. they all have multiple banks including at least one in english each. i feel like rin/len V4X gives the most bang for your buck and has a lot of coverage. cryptons also have the popularity behind them so you're more likely to gain more traction with any of their names as opposed to like anon and kanon lol

Avanna was my go-to for starter recommendation for Engloids. I still stand be her having one of the highest quality and clarity of any english vocaloid, but her being a native engloid on V3 sets her back as somewhat outdated, similarly to Oliver, except that her company still actually gives a shit

I think Fukase is a good starter, if you like him and don't plan on making money using his voice. I think Gumi English is fairly decent too. A little buggy yeah but like she's the most popular english voice bank for a reason lol

I think for JP only i'd reccomend the Zola Boys, lots of flexibility. Lumi is good too with her clarity and how much easier it is to manipulate her phonemes to sing in english. Chika i think is good for beginngers for similar reasons. I like Tianyi JP a ton, she's very cute and clean and has a couple voce banks you can mess with

one thing i like to tell beginners is that it really does matter which vocaloids you like, bc if you like the vocaloid you're working with you'll have a much easier time than working with one randomly recommended to you that you don't really like. a nice Venn diagram of What Vocaloids I like and What Vocaloids People Recommend could be helpful lol

 

[Ibis]

Oliver was my first Vocaloid, because he was the cheapest of the ones I wanted most at the time! 0/10 Do Not Recommend for beginners. Honestly I don’t know if I’d recommend him to anyone. I love him but good LORD he’s poorly-made.

If I had the chance to mess around with Oliver before I bought him, I probably would not have lmao. He's Vocaloid's problem child for sure.

my first vocaloid was Oliver. my mom bought him for me the week he came out in 2011. the V3 editor wasn't even available in english yet, and we didn't know how to buy it, so I was stuck with the tiny V3 editor for a year before my mom got me the full editor in 2012 (I think from PFX?? it's been a decade man lol). twas not a fun start lol. Also i didn't know how to turn off the reverb he was defaulted to for like 2 years.

oliver gave me hell even after i got the full editor. i had no idea what i was doing, and back then there weren't any guides online to help me navigate. i also was terrified of talking to people on the internet so it wasn't like i was involved in the community. Oliver was very muffled and difficult to use. and it took me a while to really appreciate him and his quirks. Even now with a lot more resources and better understanding of the software, Oliver is unfortunately outdated with little to no support from PFX. And due to how inaccessible V5 can be, between the price and the UI, i don't think Oliver is a good starter Vocaloid. def more for intermediate users, like you've been doing vox synth stuff for a while now and know what you're doing

So apparently you aren't supposed to start with Oliver...

 

[PearlStarLight5]

My first Vocaloid was Sonika, I got her in the Zero-G summer sale last year. Back then, I was only using Utau, Alter/Ego, and SynthV Basic, and apprehensive of spending any money on Vocaloids because I wasn't sure yet if it was worth it. I took a chance on Sonika because the sale made her cheaper than a video game, plus she happens to be my second favorite Vocaloid after Luka (funnily enough I got Luka V4x the following Christmas).

I absolutely agree with recommending free synths to beginners. Utau and Alter/Ego are very different from Vocaloid though, but Alter/Ego is good to try if you're thinking about getting Chipspeech (same company and they seem similar to use). If anything, I highly recommend SynthV Basic because it's not a timed trial. Even if you need years to learn it, it won't expire. I also recommend Vocaloid trials. V2 and V3 trials come with trial versions of their respective editors, and V4 trials work in the Piapro Studio V4x trial. Most of them last for 2 weeks, but the Hatsune Miku trial is 39 days. They can also work as a way to test compatibility on your computer, since V2 is not supported on 64-bit systems, but I was able to use the Nekomura Iroha V2 trial to ensure that it works on my system before I bought Sonika.

As for individual voicebanks, I've had an easier time using Luka English than Miku English, but that's an unfair comparison because I used Miku English back in a time I didn't know what I was doing. Besides this, I find Sonika easier to use than Luka since Luka has this V4 garbled effect that Sonika doesn't have. However, some additional effort is necessary to ensure that Sonika doesn't sound too muffled or straight up mumbling.

Overall, I don't know from experience which Vocaloids are best for beginners, except Zola Project. I've used their trial, and all 3 of them are very high-quality. I consider buying them someday.
In terms of deals however, I do recommend starting with Zero-G Vocaloids. They're like, 40 bucks when they go on sale and Prima, Sonika, and Tonio come with the V2 editor, Avanna with Tiny V3. Dex and Daina require already owning V4, Piapro Studio for V4x, or V5. If not Zero-G Vocaloids, all Crypton Vocaloids come with a full editor (Piapro Studio) and a DAW (Studio One Artist edition (my copy of Luka came with Studio One 5 Artist edition, which allows me to use other plugins like Alter/Ego. Not sure if it's because that's the latest or because I already had Studio One 5 Prime)).

 

[Ibis]

I also recommend Vocaloid trials. V2 and V3 trials come with trial versions of their respective editors, and V4 trials work in the Piapro Studio V4x trial. Most of them last for 2 weeks, but the Hatsune Miku trial is 39 days. They can also work as a way to test compatibility on your computer, since V2 is not supported on 64-bit systems, but I was able to use the Nekomura Iroha V2 trial to ensure that it works on my system before I bought Sonika.

I completely forgot about the free trials! It's a shame they only apply to some Vocaloids, though. If you have are thinking about getting Vocaloid, and the one you want to use has a free trial, I would absolutely recommend doing their trial to make sure that they're really the one you want. Judging from other people's responses, some people will end up buying Vocaloids that don't really work as expected, so yes, do the free trials! I would wait until you're ready to actually buy Vocaloid first though. It would be a shame to use up that trial way before you buy the editor.

 

[AmazingStrange39]

I've been a Vocaloid fan since 2015, so I got to see Luka, the Kagamines, and Miku get their V4 releases. However, I didn't get into using vocalsynths until around 2018 (I cut my teeth on RenoidPlayer and Sinsy and eventually was able to move into UTAU and SynthV once I had access to a PC).

I got my first Vocaloid in June 2021, and that was the Hatsune Miku V4X Bundle. Many say she's expensive for what you get but I'm really happy with her AND the feature-rich DAW she comes with (didn't use to be so feature-rich, thank you PreSonus for Studio One 5). I'll post my recommendations on each of her voicebanks:

Original: Super smooth-operating and easy-to-use, handles pitch editing REALLY well. Very bright and clear, pronunciation isn't as wonky as in V2 or V3 (some prefer the odd accent though, e.g. how she pronounces "ki" like "kei" and "mi" like "mei"). Unsurprisingly handles EVEC the best. Very much recommend.
Dark: Not quite as breathy as V2 or V3 dark; vowels are clearer. Nice mature airy tone, can be very expressive. Not quite as user-friendly as Original, Soft or Solid (mostly due to lacking EVEC; not bad to use overall) but has a more realistic and emotional tone. I recommend if you can use her in the right context. Her tone is super pretty but EVEC is very tempting.
Sweet: VERY VERY quiet. PLEASE boost the volume of this girl. Adorable and innocent tone, fairly similar to Kaai Yuki. One of the further voicebanks from Original in tone. I recommend if you don't mind having to boost her a bunch in a mix.
Soft: Actually has a normal volume, unlike Sweet. Gentle, mellow and ladylike tone; similar to Dark she can be made to sound very emotional. Closest Append to Original in tone, and similarly easy to operate, partly due to both of them and Solid all having EVEC features.
Solid: I've historically thought her tone obnoxious, but I'm warming up to it. A bit nasally, with open vowels and an overall clear and powerful sound. Fairly similar to Original with a deeper timbre. I've become more fond of her upon realizing she's a LOT of fun to use- also FAR from the pain to mix Sweet is (xP). Seriously, she's a blast. Handles EVEC and growl really well. Recommend.
English: For a JP-EN voicebank, she is fairly easy to use, and has a bright, cheery tone with a decent amount of power to it. She's close in tone to Original, maybe a bit huskier. Her accent is very noticeable though, but she doesn't really make an effort to hide it, unlike V3. Handles L sounds better and has clearer and less wonky, though also less English-adjacent, vowels. Handles growl really nicely. Probably the best Japanese-accented English voicebank I know for beginners, besides maybe Fukase or Kaito. (GUMI is known to have great pronunciation, but her voicebank is also very wonky, notorious for broken transitions and would probably cause a lot of frustration to a new producer.)


My second Vocaloid was AVANNA, whom I bought on my birthday that same year, Aug 17 2021. I don't use her NEARLY as much as Miku, but her tone is super pleasant as is her Irish accent. I do tend to find her voice quite deep so I often use gender factor on her. A native-accented voice like her is refreshing when you're like me and work with non-native-accented voicebanks a lot.


My third and final Vocaloid was Hatsune Miku V3 English, whom I bought secondhand that same month. I know she's not V4, but I'm very fond of her and recommend her to experienced producers (you can't buy her standalone firsthand anymore though). She has a very pleasant low, husky tone, doesn't have that "V4 garble" an above user mentioned (she and AVANNA both have a cool "V3 twang" going on though), and though her accent is notoriously strong (and her tone can be a bit nasally or "froggy" like Kaito), it can also sound pleasant- I especially like the way she pronounces certain consonants; some vowel combinations are nice while others can sound warped and wonky and she has a tendency toward an intrusive-R habit (which V4 almost got rid of, I think it lingers from time to time). Sounds less "flat" than Miku V4 and can be quite expressive; her vowel sounds are also closer to American English than V4 which at times (at least for an American like me) can be beneficial. Of course, she is notorious for her accent on L-related sounds and I can confirm that there are struggles. I strongly recommend her to experienced producers because she can produce nice results in the right environment, but not to beginners who will probably struggle using her.

 

[AmazingStrange39]

Thanks for the replies, everyone! I really am happy that you could give some suggestions for new users. Honestly, with how many people use Miku, I would have never have guessed that their V4 Japanese bank would have been hard to tune, or that Oliver was hard to work with, but hey, that's what this thread is for.

I really do like @IO+ 's suggestion on starting with a free vocal synth, especially if you aren't planning on getting Vocaloid for a while. This is especially true for any fans that can't afford Vocaloid, but still really want to make songs. Trust me, making songs can be a great coping mechanism, or even just something you do as a hobby. Plus, if you get Vocaloid in the future, you'll already know a little bit about how to use vocal synths. I'm not trying to put down anyone that really wants the vocaloid engine in particular, but hey, there's no harm in trying out a free program before you really commit to that.

I don't find Miku's V4 Japanese voicebanks all that bad myself. I think she's got a nice clean, clear sound. You can try her Original bank for free if you wanna see for yourself and decide. If not V4X I'd recommend Miku V3 if you can find her- I traded my V4 for V3 for a while (I traded back though) and she's pretty nice. Oliver seems a bit inflexible to me; AVANNA is somewhat similar in style but cleaner, clearer and more flexible.

 

[Ibis]

I've been a Vocaloid fan since 2015, so I got to see Luka, the Kagamines, and Miku get their V4 releases. However, I didn't get into using vocalsynths until around 2018 (I cut my teeth on RenoidPlayer and Sinsy and eventually was able to move into UTAU and SynthV once I had access to a PC).

I got my first Vocaloid in June 2021, and that was the Hatsune Miku V4X Bundle. Many say she's expensive for what you get but I'm really happy with her AND the feature-rich DAW she comes with (didn't use to be so feature-rich, thank you PreSonus for Studio One 5). I'll post my recommendations on each of her voicebanks:

Original: Super smooth-operating and easy-to-use, handles pitch editing REALLY well. Very bright and clear, pronunciation isn't as wonky as in V2 or V3 (some prefer the odd accent though, e.g. how she pronounces "ki" like "kei" and "mi" like "mei"). Unsurprisingly handles EVEC the best. Very much recommend.
Dark: Not quite as breathy as V2 or V3 dark; vowels are clearer. Nice mature airy tone, can be very expressive. Not quite as user-friendly as Original, Soft or Solid (mostly due to lacking EVEC; not bad to use overall) but has a more realistic and emotional tone. I recommend if you can use her in the right context. Her tone is super pretty but EVEC is very tempting.
Sweet: VERY VERY quiet. PLEASE boost the volume of this girl. Adorable and innocent tone, fairly similar to Kaai Yuki. One of the further voicebanks from Original in tone. I recommend if you don't mind having to boost her a bunch in a mix.
Soft: Actually has a normal volume, unlike Sweet. Gentle, mellow and ladylike tone; similar to Dark she can be made to sound very emotional. Closest Append to Original in tone, and similarly easy to operate, partly due to both of them and Solid all having EVEC features.
Solid: I've historically thought her tone obnoxious, but I'm warming up to it. A bit nasally, with open vowels and an overall clear and powerful sound. Fairly similar to Original with a deeper timbre. I've become more fond of her upon realizing she's a LOT of fun to use- also FAR from the pain to mix Sweet is (xP). Seriously, she's a blast. Handles EVEC and growl really well. Recommend.
English: For a JP-EN voicebank, she is fairly easy to use, and has a bright, cheery tone with a decent amount of power to it. She's close in tone to Original, maybe a bit huskier. Her accent is very noticeable though, but she doesn't really make an effort to hide it, unlike V3. Handles L sounds better and has clearer and less wonky, though also less English-adjacent, vowels. Handles growl really nicely. Probably the best Japanese-accented English voicebank I know for beginners, besides maybe Fukase or Kaito. (GUMI is known to have great pronunciation, but her voicebank is also very wonky, notorious for broken transitions and would probably cause a lot of frustration to a new producer.)


My second Vocaloid was AVANNA, whom I bought on my birthday that same year, Aug 17 2021. I don't use her NEARLY as much as Miku, but her tone is super pleasant as is her Irish accent. I do tend to find her voice quite deep so I often use gender factor on her. A native-accented voice like her is refreshing when you're like me and work with non-native-accented voicebanks a lot.


My third and final Vocaloid was Hatsune Miku V3 English, whom I bought secondhand that same month. I know she's not V4, but I'm very fond of her and recommend her to experienced producers (you can't buy her standalone firsthand anymore though). She has a very pleasant low, husky tone, doesn't have that "V4 garble" an above user mentioned (she and AVANNA both have a cool "V3 twang" going on though), and though her accent is notoriously strong (and her tone can be a bit nasally or "froggy" like Kaito), it can also sound pleasant- I especially like the way she pronounces certain consonants; some vowel combinations are nice while others can sound warped and wonky and she has a tendency toward an intrusive-R habit (which V4 almost got rid of, I think it lingers from time to time). Sounds less "flat" than Miku V4 and can be quite expressive; her vowel sounds are also closer to American English than V4 which at times (at least for an American like me) can be beneficial. Of course, she is notorious for her accent on L-related sounds and I can confirm that there are struggles. I strongly recommend her to experienced producers because she can produce nice results in the right environment, but not to beginners who will probably struggle using her.

I honestly loved hearing about all of the different voicebanks here. I have to admit, I was curious about the different expressions vocaloids used, having only ever used multi-expression Utauloids. I'm glad that even though you only have a couple of vocaloids, you could really go into depth about them in case anyone is planning on buying the same ones. It's always nice to hear someone who's so passionate about their favorites! I think that the Miku bundle could really be a great choice for someone who's planning on using Miku often, and in different ways (which is, fortunately, a lot of people). It was also nice to hear about your experience with Miku V3 english. I'm always hearing that she's a little bit different from the V4 english, but I didn't know much outside of the extra focus on the accent.

And I keep hearing all of these great things about Avanna! It's honestly so great to see some light shown onto them.

 

[AmazingStrange39]

I honestly loved hearing about all of the different voicebanks here. I have to admit, I was curious about the different expressions vocaloids used, having only ever used multi-expression Utauloids. I'm glad that even though you only have a couple of vocaloids, you could really go into depth about them in case anyone is planning on buying the same ones. It's always nice to hear someone who's so passionate about their favorites! I think that the Miku bundle could really be a great choice for someone who's planning on using Miku often, and in different ways (which is, fortunately, a lot of people). It was also nice to hear about your experience with Miku V3 english. I'm always hearing that she's a little bit different from the V4 english, but I didn't know much outside of the extra focus on the accent.

And I keep hearing all of these great things about Avanna! It's honestly so great to see some light shown onto them.

Yeah, if you listen to them both there are significant differences in tone and accent but also things that connect them. Sometimes V4 will actually do something that reminds me of V3, haha. Like a habit she hasn't quite broken yet.

And yes, I love AVANNA. I don't use her often because Miku is usually more suitable to my needs but I'd love to use her more. Definitely one of the best Engloids out there- and very cheap too! (Also comes with over 40 breaths for some reason...this lady likes to BREATHE)

 

[AmazingStrange39]

BTW I just found the message with the code for Miku V3E the person I bought her from sent me, so I remember when I got her now.

Miku V4X: June 6, 2021
AVANNA: August 17, 2021
Miku V3 English: August 20, 2021