I Must Defend Defoko UTAU On the Internet

A couple days ago, Kasane Teto, originally a UTAU, got an AI voice for the program Synthesizer V. This is a pretty big deal.

Kasane Teto has been around since 2008, and she was designed as a “VIPPERloid” (AKA a fake VOCALOID), so to see her almost transcend VOCALOID in a way, made some very emotional (me…). To put it bluntly, her Synthesizer V voice fucking rocks. It’s amazing, clear, and still manages to be Teto, which I’m really happy about. I was really hoping that they don’t take the “UTAU-ness” and her origin has a April fools joke completely away from her. I feel like it gives her so much charm. And then I started thinking about another UTAU with quite some charm…

So, in March 2008, a month before Kasane Teto is created, Ameya/Ayame releases UTAU. It won’t become really popular until Teto is made, but it does have one voice, named Utane Uta, or, Defoko, as fans call her. Her nickname translates to “Default Girl” (I’ve seen some claim “Default Child” as well), and it fits, as shes the default voice that comes with UTAU when you first download it. She is also a 100% synthetic voice, meaning she hasn’t been voiced by an actual human.

This fact is probably why she isn’t well liked- or the root of why, at least. She may be the default, but she isn’t easy to work with by any means, and it’s hell to try and make her sound clear. Shes crunchy and sounds like shes singing to you through a payphone that just barely survived a hurricane and I absolutely love her. It adds so much character to each song she sings, and honestly just getting her able to sing is so impressive on the artists part. It’s like the remains of a VOCALOID, broken and forgotten, or maybe an old windows vista computer. I really don’t think she gets the love she deserves.

That being said, I don’t think she needs a Synthesizer V AI voice, or an official VOCALOID voice bank to get that (she never would, anyways). Kasane Teto was a VIPPERloid, to get a voice bank is simply the natural progression, especially after becoming so popular. Defoko isn’t, though. And thats okay! I want her to live on in all her robot-and-barely-holding-on-payphone glory! She’s the remains of a time when voice synthesizer weren’t exactly so clear.