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!
