KAITO
"KAITO (カイト) is a Japanese VOCALOID developed originally by Yamaha Corporation and distributed by Crypton Future Media, Inc.. He was one of the 4 known "Project Daisy" vocals. His VOCALOID3 update was developed and distributed by Crypton. He was initially released in February 2006 for the first VOCALOID engine. There has since been a second installment developed for the VOCALOID3 engine dubbed KAITO V3. His voice is provided by the famous Japanese singer, Naoto Fūga (風雅なおと). The product's name was invited to be chosen by the public, and "KAITO" was selected from among the applicants, which was Shu-tP's offered idea. One of the reasons why his name "KAITO" was selected was because it would be easy for non-Japanese speakers to pronounce, and it looked fitting with the name "MEIKO" when they were put next to one another. KAITO's codename was "TARO"; it likely came from "Yamada Tarō (山田太郎)", a placeholder name for male characters and the Japanese equivalent to "John Smith". KAITO is often mistakenly called "Kaito Shion" or "Shion Kaito", particularly by overseas fans. "Shion" was a fan-created term used to refer to him during the 2007-2009 period. Due to its common sighting, it is still incorrectly used by fans as his family name even as of the most recent VOCALOID engine release. Officially, the character is known just as "KAITO"; he has no family name or surname." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"The original release of both MEIKO and himself was noted for their lack of marketing. Aside from a DTM MAGAZINE article, he appeared in the April 2006 issue, he had no other marketing as attention turned to VOCALOID2 in early 2007. At the time, VOCALOID was not expecting much in the way of sales. The prospect of MEIKO and MEIKO receiving updates being impossible post-VOCALOID and it was expected that Hatsune Miku would take over their roles going into VOCALOID2. Due to the state of the market VOCALOID was being released into at the time, there was no plan to update the pair and VOCALOID2 was expected to see a similar fate to VOCALOID. Despite this, the act of putting a character on the boxart was popular, though the image was not of KAITO originally. The act of putting a character on the boxart was carried over to following VOCALOIDs to encourage creative activities by individuals, expanding the characters based on each user's individual needs. Some focus was given to the older engine, but only after VOCALOID2 had gained popularity, with basics such as tutorials produced where there was once not anything at all. KAITO's V3 release repeats many aspects of what made the CV series popular, and he was already due a series of "beginners guides" in magazines such as DTM before release. " -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
ACHIEVEMENTS
-First Japanese male vocal ever released
-Only VOCALOID voicebank announced as a "failure"
-Subject to a sudden opinion change around
-Most popular VOCALOID voicebank
-Last VOCALOID voicebank produced
-First VOCALOID voicebank to be updated
-First male bilingual VOCALOID.
-Was used in the oldest known VOCALOID related song ever released
-First VOCALOID by Crypton to be updated to VOCALOID3
Fun Fact: KAITO was initially a commercial failure but despite this, he is currently one of the most popular male Vocaloids!
KAITO MY BELOVED I love him!!! He is one of my top five fave Vocaloids of all time right next to MEIKO. Actually, I closely associate the two with the other so Its a bit hard for me to seperate them like Rin/Len :P Despite KAITO and MEIKO getting more love in the recent years, I still feel like KAITO is seriously underminded esp when hes tuned well!! His tuning by Mitchie M, even as a minor vocal in "Seraphim on The Ring" is the best I've heard. I could really go on about KAITO (Along with everyone else here) but lately with how often I listen to "Doctor Funk=Beat" hes always rivaling MEIKO for my fave 1# spot Joking mostly, MEIKO will always have my heart
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GAKUPO
"Camui Gackpo (神威がくぽ Kamui Gakupo), is a Japanese VOCALOID developed and distributed by Internet Co., Ltd. as Gackpoid (がくっぽいど Gakuppoido), which was initially released in July 2008 for the VOCALOID2 engine. There have been additional installments developed for the VOCALOID3 engine in July 2012 and for the VOCALOID4 engine in April 2015. His voice is provided by GACKT, a male Japanese singer, songwriter, actor, and musician."
-The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"In the Japanese fandom, he was slow to gain popularity due to a lack of demand for male vocals at the time of his release despite the high profile of his provider. Eventually, Gackpo gained popularity due to an increased interest for male vocals and Gackt's fame. Male VOCALOIDs had not been developed for a long time, indicated by the failure of KAITO's release early on in VOCALOID's life circle. In mid-2010, he was reported to be on par with Crypton Future Media in terms of popularity. However, GUMI had overtaken him. Though he has always been among the most popular VOCALOIDs, post-VOCALOID2 vocals have overtaken his popularity. In VOCALOID3, he was often among the top 10 VOCALOIDs and is more often in the latter half (position 6-10). At times, he failed to make it into the top but still managed to maintain a popularity within the top 15. He still is considered among the most popular Internet Co., Ltd VOCALOIDs, often the second most popular regardless of his stance with other studio-made vocals. This is most notable as he and Lily were the only other VOCALOIDs known to be considered for an English update when Noboru was asked."
-The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
ACHIEVEMENTS
-First VOCALOID to be voiced by a major singer in Japan
-First INTERNET Co., Ltd VOCALOID
-First of INTERNET Co., Ltd's "VOCALOID Artist" series
-First male INTERNET Co., Ltd VOCALOID
-First male VOCALOID4
-First INTERNET CO., Ltd VOCALOID to be updated to VOCALOID4
GAKUPO :D He was one of the first Vocaloids I discovered outside of the Cryptonloids and I literally went thru every search result for "Dancing Samurai" seeing as I had that song stuck in my head for months. Hes also my theme for my Firefox browser at the time of writing this! ^o^ Check it out here :]
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BIG AL
"BIG AL is an English VOCALOID developed and distributed by PowerFX Systems AB., and was released in December 2009 for the VOCALOID2 engine. His announcement was on January 21, 2007 and his provider during that time was Michael King. After another period of development, his voice bank was redone by voice actor Frank S., whose last name cannot be revealed due to privacy reasons. BIG AL's believed original codename is "RONIE" due to sightings of it alongside "JODIE", Sweet ANN's codename. There was also a third unknown provider during the "RONIE" period prior to Michael King, but the version voiced by the unknown provider was cancelled for undisclosed reasons." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"Like Sweet ANN, BIG AL's original boxart bore similarities to early 20th-century movie posters, depicting him as a monster morph of Elvis. The new box art was more of a loose representation of such a monster and was aimed more towards the VOCALOID fandom than ANN was, marking a switch in focus for PowerFX from solely that of professionals. Unlike Sweet ANN, BIG AL was not geared up to be reviewed by normal means (software reviews) and relied more upon the VOCALOID fandom to promote and use him, building on the growing interest in English VOCALOIDs that was now occurring. While a MySpace page was made for Sweet ANN's promotion, BIG AL did not have a social networking outlet. " -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
ACHIEVEMENTS
-First male vocal by PowerFX
-First English male vocal in 6 years
-First English male vocal for VOCALOID2
-First male VOCALOID to have a box art redesign
-First English VOCALOID to receive voicebank upgrade
-First male English VOCALOID to receive voicebank upgrade
-Inspired the term "BIG AL's syndrome"
BIG AL!! I love this guy!! I think hes the most underrated on this list. I actually really like his and Sweet Anns old box art. Although I don't dislike their new ones, I did like the older appearance of their old ones and I think it really set them apart. With more optimizations
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GUMI
"GUMI (グミ) is a Japanese VOCALOID developed and distributed by Internet Co., Ltd. as Megpoid (メグッポイド) which was initially released in June 2009 for the VOCALOID2 engine. There have since been three installments developed for the VOCALOID3 engine, one that includes an update of the VOCALOID2 voice bank. She was updated to the VOCALOID4 engine in November 2015. Her voice is provided by Filipino-Japanese singer and voice actress Megumi Nakajima (中島愛; Nakajima Megumi). "Gumi" is a childhood nickname of Megumi Nakajima. The software name, "Megpoid", was taken from the provider's name "Megumi." The second half, "poid", is a combination of "ppoi" (っぽい: resembling) and "loid": "like Vocaloid". The full implied name of this product is "Megumi-like Vocaloid." Less experienced overseas fans often mislabel GUMI as a "Megpoid" rather than a "VOCALOID" and sometimes dismiss that she is a VOCALOID entirely. Another notable mistake is labeling her name as "Megpoid Gumi" or "Gumi Megpoid". This is due to the confusion between the software package's name and the name of the VOCALOID mascot. The same issue occurs with Camui Gackpo and his software Gackpoid." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"GUMI originally did not have much marketing, but since gained enough popularity for further possibilities. She is Internet co, Ltd's most successful VOCALOID and since the launch of VOCALOID3, has seen an increase in merchandise." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
ACHIEVEMENTS
-First female VOCALOID from Internet Co. Ltd.
-One of 3 voicebanks used by the robot HRP-4C.
-First VOCALOID from Internet Co. Ltd to be upgraded to VOCALOID3.
-First Internet Co. Ltd. VOCALOID to get an Extend.
-First Internet Co. Ltd. VOCALOID to get an English voicebank.
-First Internet Co. Ltd. VOCALOID to have a video game starring the VOCALOID itself.
-One of the first VOCALOIDs to be upgraded to VOCALOID3 (along with VY1)
-One of the first 4 VOCALOID3 vocals released for the engine
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LILY
"Lily (リリィ) is a Japanese VOCALOID developed and distributed by Internet Co., Ltd., done in collaboration with Avex Management Co., Ltd and YAMAHA Corporation, and was initially released in August 2010 for the VOCALOID2 engine. There has since been a second installment developed for the VOCALOID3 engine and dubbed V3 Lily. Her voice is provided by the Japanese female singer, musician and performance artist, Yuri Masuda (益田祐里; Masuda Yuri). She represents Yuri's anime-persona or avatar for anim.o.v.e.'s releases. Lily is one of the few VOCALOIDs outside of those made by Crypton Future Media to have referenced the most popular Internet Memes. As part of her marketing, two figurines were made, one of them being her with a railway sign that referenced "Ievan Polkka" while the other one was her with a bee. -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
ACHIEVEMENTS
-First VOCALOID sold by Internet Co., Ltd, and not to be part of their main series
-First VOCALOID that appeared in a commercial Music Video
-First VOCALOID to be an already existing character
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AKITA NERU
"On October 14 of 2007, when the Miku-movement was on the rise beyond expectations, a Japanese TV station suddenly broadcasted a program that stereotyped Miku users as "anime freaks without stable work experience". Three days later Miku's pictures became unsearchable on main search engines such as Google and Yahoo! Japan, and in the following two days, Miku's article was deleted from the Japanese Wikipedia." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"This news became widespread or "flamed up" (炎上した) on 2ch bulletin boards with the rumor that an advertising agency which had a strong influence in the Japanese music industry was behind the series of "anti-Miku negative campaign" in an attempt to purge Miku and indie musicians from the music trend. Then numerous comments were posted which denied the rumor or "put off the fire" (消火する) followed by the phrases "飽きた、寝る。" (Got bored. Going to bed.) or "寝る、お前らも寝ろよ。" (Gonna go to bed; you should too.). Yet those comments drew nothing but negative responses from 2ch netizens. The contributors were branded as "puppets of the agency". The netizens joked about the "puppets" and made a spoof character for these posts as "Akita Neru"." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"Google and Yahoo! Japan announced that the search failure was a technical problem and had nothing to do with the advertising agency or the TV program. The Wikipedia page removal was the result of copyright violation, which also had no relation to the agency. Still the rumor about the "Miku-hating agency" persists within the Japanese fandom presently." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"On April 1, 2008, Crypton adopted Neru as an official derivative character of Miku." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"Smith Hioka, an illustrator, finalized the concept art of Neru and she came to represent the tsundere culture of VOCALOID." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"Neru officially has no defined voice, however this has not prevented users from attempting to give her one. In some cases Neru has the voice of a boyish-sounding girl, while some people have assigned her to Miku's default voice, but in a higher octave. Although people use the higher pitched voices as a representation of Neru, her voice has been portrayed in -Project DIVA- 2nd as being a lowered version of Miku. Another suggestion also uses Rin. This was first used in Nanameue-P's HONEY PV, Neru has a singing voice that better matches her aesthetics. " -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
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YOWANE HAKU
"Haku was originally made as a representation of songs that use Hatsune Miku but ended up sounding awful. In such cases, the makers of such music would then proceed to whine about how their work never received attention and later moved on to whine when criticism stated their work was dull and boring, or was posted quite late when few people were on Nico Nico Douga. Haku became popular and her creator Caffein later established other characters following the same procedures, each representing a different aspect of failure within the Vocaloids." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"Some fans have tried to give her an actual voice using Miku's voice and manipulating it to sound depressed, through methods like down pitching her. These were later also switched to the Miku Appends as some such as Miku Append Dark produced the desired results much easier or a manipulation of MEIKO's voicebank. When speaking about songs and PVs that feature Haku singing, it has been pointed out by some fans that if one succeeds at producing a "bad" song, then no failure was met in the process. There are a small number of fans who disapprove of such songs because it can be considered a contradiction to the point of Haku's existence being based on failure. This in particular is also aimed at the Haku songs that end up sounding "good" as Haku was meant to be far from this ideal. However, whatever songs that come out in her name are subject to the interpretation of the producer, whether they follow Haku's depiction of failure or not." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"While she was conceptualized to originally be a Miku user, Caffein states it is not a problem to think of her as a failing Vocaloid, or a co-worker, or the lady at the small candy shop etcetera. In essence, Caffein does not object to alternate depictions of Haku." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
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UTAU
In March 2008, Ameya/Ayame released UTAU, a free, advanced support tool shareware software that was free-to-download from its main website. UTAU (歌う), meaning 'to sing' in Japanese, has its origin in the activity of "Jinriki Bōkaroido" (人力ボーカロイド, Manual Vocaloid), where people edit an existing vocal track, extract phonemes, adjust pitch, and reassemble them to create a Vocaloid-esque singing voice. UTAU was originally created to assist this process using concatenative synthesis. UTAU is able to use WAV files provided by the user, so that a singing voice can be synthesized by introducing song lyrics and melody. It comes with AQUEST's voice synthesizer "AquesTalk" for synthesizing the voice samples of the default voicebank, Utane Uta (also nicknamed Defoko (Defoko meaning 'Default Girl' in Japanese)) on UTAU's initial launch, after which the generator deletes itself. Voices made for the UTAU program are officially called "UTAU" as well, though they are colloquially known as "UTAUloids", a reference to VOCALOID. They are also called "voicebanks" (more common in English-speaking areas) and "(voice) libraries" in Japan. A myriad number of voicebanks have been developed by independent users. These voicebanks are normally distributed directly from their creators via internet download, but some are sold as part of commercial projects." -The Wikipedia page for Utau
Despite this being a Vocaloid page, I'm going to include the classic Utau trio since I feel Vocaloid and Utaus community is heavily interwined and Teto has even been featured in official Project Diva games and concerts.
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UTA "DEFOKO" UTANE
"Uta Utane is the default vocal and first vocal released for UTAU. Uta's voice was derived from the voice synthesis software AquesTalk. Because she is the default voicebank in the standard-issue UTAU installer, she is also known as Defoko. Uta, Teto and Momo were the first 3 UTAUloids to be publicly released, with Uta being the very first. They are often collectively referred to as "The 3 UTAU Girls"." -The Utau Fandom Wikia
"Uta is a Japanese robot with the appearance of a young female humanoid. Her birthday is allegedly February 5, which was the beginning of the UTAU project in 2008. She has a cool and friendly personality, but her alleged bullying towards Momo makes her unpredictable. She appears lonesome and melancholic. Her eyes are usually half opened." -The Utau Fandom Wikia
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KASANE TETO
"Kasane Teto (重音テト) is a Japanese UTAU who was originally created as a troll "VOCALOID" by fans. Her surname 重音 (Kasane) literally means "heavy sound" or "overlapped sound;" while these interpretations are widely accepted among fans, TWINDRILL (Tetos Association) has not released any announcements about the meaning of the name. Her name テト (Teto) comes from Tetopettenson, a parody song of Le Beau Tambour. Although her voicebank is only for use in UTAU, many people still mistake her for a VOCALOID. Her voice provider is Mayo Oyamano." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
"Following the rising popularity of Hatsune Miku, "Vippers" (Vip News Bulletin@2ch users) schemed a troll "new VOCALOID release" as an April Fool's joke. Sen (線) provided the rough sketch and Nobuyo Oyama, a spoof for Doraemon's former voice actress Nobuyo Oyama, provided the vocal. The Teto project continued after the troll campaign, and her vocal was recorded again for the use on UTAU, which vocal synthesis software was released two months earlier. UTAU and Teto were both unnoticed among VOCALOID composers at first, but during the last half of the year of her release several creators started composing songs for Teto, causing her fame to be established during the following year. The voice provider's name reading was then changed to Mayo Oyamano (小山乃 舞世 Oyamano Mayo) to avoid unnecessary confusion. Teto was given official acceptance to piapro on April 1, 2010, and to Project DIVA on October 10, 2011." -The Vocaloid Fandom Wikia
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MOMO MOMONE
"Uta, Teto and Momo were the first 3 UTAUloids to be publicly released. They are often collectively referred to as "The 3 UTAU Girls." Momo became widely known in the West due to her cover of the now infamous Nyan Cat song. In small circles on YouTube she is known as "Pinku"." -The Utau Fandom Wikia
"Momo is a Japanese robot with there appearance of a young female humanoid. She is designed as a maid and housekeeping robot, but she can also sing. Her attitude is described to be sincere, obedient and shy; she also does things in her own pace. She is also sensitive so she can be happy, mad, sad, etc by the influence of just little things. Momo can exert giant strength for 5 minutes when attacked (despite her frail look). She is also fast, and makes things perfect but a weak drinker. She can detach her head from her body (however she hates it when other people detaches it), and can also communicate with electronic devices natively (presumably by electrical signals). Also, Momo stutters when she is nervous." -The Utau Fandom Wikia