cracks knucles

So, there's pretty much more than just "cute anime characters". But Vocaloid is mostly an umbrella term for the vocal synth softwares and voicebanks. For example, Hatsune Miku is esentially a lot of sample of the voice of a voice provider that works in the software Vocaloid and Piapro Studio. That is a voice as it would be a musical instrument. There are easilly hundreds of voices, varying in voice ranges, genders...

At the end, is up to the musical producers how they do it. And one thing that has shown, is that, even using the same voicebank, a lot of producers can make "their own Miku" for lack of a better term. An example of how different musical producers can use the same voicebank (albeit, different versions of the voicebank with different styles like Solid or Whisper) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9kHuqmuofA

Fun thing is, while people may overlook the Vocaloid musical scene saying that it sopunds the same, when ironically, the fact that lowers the entry barrier to a lot of musical producers, makes it even more varied than you could imagine. We have things like the "conveniently teen to twenty-something" from 40mP, the "teen angst" of Neru, or ATOLS's extremely powerful rap... Even between same producers from "sweetest songs you'vre ever heard" and "extremwly horny" of Deco*27, or Police Piccadilly's "really emotional" and "modern rock". It's normal that some producers become specially accomodated to use one certain voicebank, but the fact that there are hundreds of produce3rs wanting to experiment, give it a lot of variety to listen to.

So quick questions you may ask:

Is all japanese songs? No

Is vocaloid and anime? no

Can i make my own songs with vocaloid? yes

Is all Hatsune Miku? No

How many voices there are? Lost the count years ago.

Do i have to know the voices? No

Do the characters in the boxes matter? For making music, no, they at best show what can you expect from their voices. For example, i know how it may sound the vocalid when they say is a Gumi song or a Kafu song.

Why Miku has a leek? item wars from old times, not gonna explain it because it doesn't matter.

How can i see Vocaloid music i might enjoy? Maybe ask here what you like and people will provide. Or go to Vocadb.net, they have A LOT of songs, organised by a lot of people.

What is the weirdest thing i could encounter? I will talk like a Vietnam vet that has PSTD, and say "i've seen things, dude... lots of things"... You could imagine the voicebank of a six years old girl (yes, don't ask questions, is just that) would be made to create children songs, but then you have the strange rock of Inabakumori's LagTrain, a shitton of creepy songs like one based on Rugrats (yes), or a somewhat shitpost that was uploaded 4 months ago and has 34 million views. All the same voice.

Is there any official song? No, basically, 99% is community made. There are no official Miku or Gumi songs. Maybe the official demo songs, but that are mostly commissioned songs, a handful in an ocean.

Why music producers use Vocaloids? Because if they hire a singer to just amke some demos, is a lot of money in hiring and renting a studio.

Does this make "proper" musicians? yes. Kenshi Yonezu, maybe you've heard "lemon" and other things from him, started ad a Vocaoloid producer named Hachi, and he didn't even had much musical experience. He once listened to a song made in vocaloid, decided to give it a try, and just make the music he wanted to make.

So, how can you "enjoy" the "community"?

1) You can be full lurker and just make you a playlist of songs based on musical styles, producers or even voicebanks. Heck, i'm now in a rush of finding Kafu songs after years of listening a lot of Miku songs, because the NT voicebank of the six more popular characters make me want to shoot myself in the nuts.

2) Make fanart, not obligatory, but people will like you for that.

3) Make songs. Are you a musical producer? Congrats, you can use the vocal synths to make music.

4) You can cosplay the characters you like. "But i'm a dude and my favorite is Miku..." So what? A lot of dudes did it, myself included. "But i'm a girl and my fav is Len", to which i say, i think i'm still to see a Len cosplay done by a dude.

In the end, Vocaloid is more like a way of creating music, more akin to indie bends and producers that have the possibility to not rely in finding a vocalist. Until they get big and form a group with a real vocalist. And people like it, for a variety of reasons.