Studio VOXYZ

Vocals that soar above the clouds!

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Kikyuune Aiko 3510 Demo Song: “The Art of Holding Up” by nostraightanswer

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There’s only one week left in the Mikoto Studio crowdfunding campaign, and Aiko’s official demo has been released! Written and produced by nostraightanswer, this emotive pop ballad features her in-development v0.3 AI voice on the v0.5 version of Mikoto Studio.

With the crowdfund approaching its end, I thought I might write down a few thoughts!

I was first approached by Expressive Labs’ founder, Layetri, back in 2023 with the offer of bringing Aiko to a commercial platform. I was immediately on board, as I’m always thrilled to see new developers enter the vocalsynth space and I want to support these projects whenever I can! Despite a few setbacks (primarily being unable to record through most of 2025 due to my surgery) it’s been a fascinating experience hearing her develop over the last couple of years, from her first few crunchy unintelligible phonemes to her current state.

I’d like to thank Jay again for creating such an incredibly fun design for Aiko 3510! I know I’ve said it time and time again, but I adore how it borrows aeronaut/pilot motifs from Akio, as it gives her a more coherent theming overall and helps her to fit in well with the rest of the ELEMENT MiSinger cast while still maintaining core aspects of her character and original look.

Art by redfish

I’d also like to thank Lupin for an absolutely beautiful demo song! Truthfully, this demo also came as a surprise! I was aware of a few things behind-the-scenes – I knew what Aiko sounded like at this development stage of course, and I knew which producer(s) might be involved, but I was watching with fresh ears alongside everyone else in the premiere and that made it even more exciting. Lupin did an amazing job with the composition and I think it showcases Aiko’s range wonderfully. Her voice has a lot more natural tonal variance than in UTAU, and I’m so pleased to hear that difference! I’m truly hoping she’ll be accepted alongside her UTAU just as Teto is, and I plan to continue to use both side by side myself once I have her in hand also.

(To reiterate the point, I want to reassure everyone that this is not the end of concatenative Aiko! I have been given full blessing by ExpressiveLabs to continue working on her alongside this project!)

And with that, the final thanks I’d like to give are to Aiko’s fans and users. I cannot emphasize enough how grateful I am that she’s loved by so many people. I truly never expected anything of this sort when I was first recording the Wikipedia hiragana table on an inbuilt laptop mic under a blanket 17 years ago, and it still boggles my mind when I’m approached by people in the fandom who tell me that they encountered Aiko back in their youth as one of their first entry points to the UTAU fandom. Thank you so, so much, and I hope you continue to enjoy Aiko for as long as can keep creating her and creating with her!

Health and computer updates + new stuff!

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Hi, all! I’m certainly much later than I should have been posting a formal update here, but I figured better late than never.

First off, the health stuff: as of this September, I am officially cancer-free! I had a successful thyroidectomy back in May, my throat recovered over the next few months, and in September I had radioactive iodine to kill off any remaining thyroid cells and to detect if anything had spread via my lymph nodes (since one was found to be partially compromised during surgery). Most recently, my full body scan came back 100% clear!

As for my voice, I have finally and thankfully made a full recovery there as well. I’m not certain how much of my recording issues prior to surgery were from stress alone, or if the nodule (which was found to be 3cm during removal 😱) was pressing against my larynx or something, but either way my high range is more solid than it’s been in a very long time! I do seem to have lost a little off my low end, though it isn’t anything too drastic. Aiko recording has resumed and will be going strong through the rest of the winter. At my current pace, I am now aiming for an end of January release for my three current projects (Atmosphere JP & EN, DeepVocal and TalQu).

Sadly, though several attempts were made at recovering the data lost from my catastrophic laptop HDD replacement, I was unable to salvage any prior files. This mean I have completely lost any WIP voicebanks and USTs/VSQs/etc. that I was working on, including Chiyoko CVVC, Akiko CVVC, and several others. However, my voice providers have all said they are ready and willing to rerecord when possible!

Kikyuune Aiko Plushie Campaign & New Stickers!

Onto the new stuff! I am currently holding a 100-piece limited preorder campaign for an official Kikyuune Aiko plushie! She’s roughly 10″/25cm tall (about the size of a crane game prize plush) and features removable jacket, skirt and wrist cuffs so that she may swap out to different, similarly-sized plush and doll outfits! Preorders are open through the end of the month on my Ko-Fi shop (US only) and my Etsy (international only, excluding EU). The campaign includes an optional set of merchandise, including keychains, buttons and stickers, which may be purchased as a bundle with the plush or separately/individually. These items will ONLY be available during this period.

I have also added a set of peeker-style vinyl stickers to my shop featuring both Aiko’s UTAU and her Mikoto Studio designs! This is the first step of the eventual itasha-ification of my new car, a blue Kia Soul I ended up having to purchase after a tree fell on my old one last month. (It. Sure has been a year.)

As always, your continued support is much appreciated! I’ll be posting regular #Aikoplush campaign updates on here and on my Bluesky as the campaign progresses and production continues!

Kikyuune Aiko 14th Anniversary + Slipstream VCV Release

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HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY AIKO! I’m pleased to announce the release of Aiko’s 4-pitch Japanese VCV voicebank, named “Slipstream”! The voicebank is now available to download on Aiko’s page, with Google Drive and Mega mirrors.

This voicebank is one I’ve been sitting on for some time now, I recorded it back in 2019 but never got around to finishing it (so it goes) until now. Many thanks to Tom (@text_to_death) for the oto work! It was the last voicebank I recorded using my Blue Yeti, and my first completed VCV. She functions quite well with moresampler and takes to the tension (Mt) flag like a dream. This was also my first cover using OpenUtau, and I can safely say I’m never going back.

I apologize that I haven’t been super active recently. It’s been a rough couple of years, but I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things. Please expect vocalsynth updates to be posted directly here or to my YouTube channel as community posts rather than to my Twitter. For various reasons, I’ve decided to stick to my social media hiatus for a bit longer. Being off of my main account has been a welcome breath of fresh air for my mental health and I’d like to keep it that way. If I used to promote my vsynth work entirely through this website and YT, then I can go back to that just like old times!

Downloads fixed!

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So the other day, I was alerted to a 404 error on the Google Drive embed on Aiko’s page. Turns out I’d accidentally deleted my voicebanks folder from Google Drive while doing some cleaning. Whoops!

All my voicebanks are back in Drive where they belong, accessible here.

I’m in the process of revamping the download pages for all VOXYZ voicebanks, starting with Aiko. Each download will now have a brief, basic raw-rendered sample (using moresampler) and banks will be hosted on both Google Drive and Mega.nz. Aiko’s UTAU downloads page is fully updated to the new layout.

In addition, I went through Aiko’s banks and did some housekeeping. Changes include:

  • dropping numbered versions for banks past ACT1-3 (frankly, they’re confusing and obsolete)
  • re-otoing and re-aliasing all old banks prior to CVVC (because why not)
  • removing outdated information from character.txt (though I left in the old art!)
  • including the “Whistle” VB with her CVVC banks, rather than having it be standalone
  • merging the “Omake” folder into CVVC EN since that’s what it originally was recorded for

Her CVVC banks also may have some minor oto tweaks that I’ve done over the years, so it may be beneficial to download the updates!

I’m also currently in the process of editing her Wiki pages and will make a tweet once that is done. Please bear with me!

YanHe & Bilibili!

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I’m happy to announce the latest addition to my voicebank collection, and my first Chinese VOCALOID: YanHe! I’m super excited since she’s been on my wishlist ever since she was first released, but I was always a little intimidated at getting a voicebank for a language I’m not at all familiar with. However thanks to help from Xue and UG, I’m getting the hang of things!

As of posting my “I Am Here” cover with YanHe, I’ve also officially started using my Bilibili account! Everyone’s been super welcoming so far, 谢谢!

LipSync, MMD & VCV!

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Aiko’s first VCV demo, “Dance! VR Dance!” has been posted to YouTube and NND, and it also features a new LipSync model drawn by chorvaqueen! This is specifically RockLoud (as usual) and contains the same 4 pitches as her CVVC (G3, C4, F4 and A4). The A4 pitch is still missing some sounds, but I am planning to do a private beta test once her oto is complete so I can know what to rerecord when quarantine ends.

In addition, pianomanjojo on YouTube has created an edited TDA model for Aiko! It has excellent physics and 2 different eye types.

Both models can be downloaded from Aiko’s profile!