kikyuune aiko 3510

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

05.08.2026 by MystSaphyr Leave a Comment

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.

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!

Happy 15th Anniversary, Kikyuune Aiko!

07.10.2024 by MystSaphyr Leave a Comment

Illustration by Lovesick Hospital (sketch), MystSaphyr (lines) and AxelCode (colors).

I’m pleased to announce that as a part of her 15th anniversary celebrations this year, Aiko will be joining the first generation of AI vocalists for Mikoto Studio!

“Kikyuune Aiko 3510” (as it will be called to distinguish it from her UTAU voicebanks, which will continue to be developed alongside this new project) features a brand new design by ExpressiveLabs character designer Jay Dawson (aka Lovesick Hospital). I’m super excited to be working with ExpressiveLabs and I’m looking forward to seeing how Aiko develops as the engine improves and more training data is added to her model!

And please note, I have not at all forgotten about Aiko’s Nimbus, Cirrus and Stratus UTAU voicebanks (collectively called “Atmosphere”). I have 3 out of 6 voicebanks totally recorded, and Aiko’s Arpasing banks are currently being developed in cooperation with Chorical LLC., who are assisting with some modified reclists and oto.ini configuration. While I’d originally aimed to have all of Aiko’s new UTAU banks released on her anniversary date, as usual I bit off slightly more than I could chew. However, I will be posting 1 or 2 demos per month leading up to November 12th (my own birthday) which is the new planned release date. As promised, this release will include a physical edition, previews of which will be dropped in the coming months. The first demo featuring Nimbus Arpasing should be uploaded in the coming days!

Along with these voicebank demos and physical package progress, each month I’ll also be revealing 3 pieces of Aiko standing artwork I gathered from fellow artists that will be packaged with her anniversary voicebanks. This first month’s featured artists are LucaBGT, MewKwota, and Chiguma!

There are 15 pieces in all, and I’m so excited to share them with everyone!

As a reminder, I’ll be attending ConnectiCon this month from the 18th to the 21st, where I’ll be presenting a vocalsynth panel and also selling some merch in the Artist Colony. I’ll have Aiko enamel pins, signed prints featuring her 2020 character artwork, Aiko 3510 buttons, and I’ll have a Mikoto Studio postcard featuring the ELEMENT vocalists illustration from this article as a freebie. Of course I’ll have plenty of other goodies in a few other fandoms, so please feel free to stop by if you’re attending the con! After the con is over, the pin, print and buttons will all go live on the VOXYZ Shop.

Last but not least, as I believe it should be obvious, the Studio VOXYZ website has gotten a major overhaul. We are on a new (and significantly faster) web host, and the overall site has been completely redesigned from top to bottom.

So here’s to the Year of Aiko — I can’t wait to share more of what I’ve been working on over the course of the next few months!