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I posted a gigantic list of free VST plugins two weeks ago, the post was awesome, and I am glad you guys loved it.
On this page, you will find a list of ten best free and paid autotune VST plugins you can download and use for free in your various Daw Software.
Autotalent (Windows) A Basic but effective real time Auto Tune Plugin for Windows. Auto-Tune Evo (Windows) A quite complicated but thorough Vst for Pitch Correction. KeroVee by g200kg (Windows) Great Visual interface (similar to GSnap) Pitch Correction VST. KeroVee – Windows. KeroVee is a free autotune VST plugin that supports only Windows. One of the main features of this plugin is that you can use MIDI to guide your vocals to tune in to the exact key you want. The unique feature of this plugin is called “nuance” which basically gives an option whether you want to keep the vocal’s natural.
Before you start tweaking the knob on various autotune plugins, I think we should understand the basics of what autotune VSTS does, if you have an idea about that, skip this section, and if you are a newbie just getting into knowing how things work first, then continue reading.
Page Contents
- What is an Auto-Tune?
- 4) Melodyne (Paid)
- 2) Waves Tune (Paid)
- 1) Auto-Tune Pro (Paid)
Autotune Vst2
What is an Auto-Tune?
Autotune is an audio processing VST that is used to correct an inaccurate pitch in vocal tracks or perhaps used to modify or alter pitch in performances, music instruments, and or vocals.
In a simple term, It is used for automatically tuning an off-key or off-pitch sequence, allowing vocal tracks to be perfectly tuned.
When You Should use Auto-Tune
As a singer, you would notice that when you try to sing outside of your comfortable range (range of notes you are physically capable of producing), you sing out of tune.
In this case, you might want to use an autotune plugin to fix that, if necessary. Also, you might use the tool, if you struggle to record multiple takes.
Note: Do not use an autotune plugin on too plenty of pitchy vocals; The best thing to do in this scenario is to take a lesson and practice to sing better.
In my opinion, you do not necessarily have to use an auto-tune plugin on vocal if it sounds great and less pitchy, this is just a preference!
Auto-tune can also be used on a wide load of sounds from an instrument, to getting a type of effect (T-pain effect), enhancing vocal expressiveness, and so on.
Let’s count down from the good to the best!
10) KeroVee (Free)
This is a pitch correction VST plugin tool and has strengthened to support natural pitch correction.
This tool is handy and can perform different and various types of voice effect, for example, a conversion of the male voice to a female voice and vice versa.
KeroVee comes bundled with useful parameters for the effectiveness of the auto-tuning process, Parameter includes:
- Scale Button: This is for specifying the scale you want to tune. Setting a wrong scale would result in an awful result, in a simple sentence, Know your scale before you go into this one
- TuneSpeed: This will allow you to set the speed of correcting the pitch.
- Nuance: This is one of the best and lovely parameters, you can use this to set a fine vibrato of the original sound, use this to create all sorts of weird effects.
- Amount: Set to zero (0) if you want no correction, setting to 100 will result in full correction of the pitch
- and many more parameters like Transpose option, master volume, etc.
System Requirements
- A compatible host program that supports the VST formats
Download KeroVee Auto-Tune Plugin
9) X42-Auto-Tune (Free)
This is an auto-tune plugin that is developed to correct the pitch of a voice when going out of tune.
Its main function is for the correction of tune in vocal range, although it can and may be used on some instruments.
It as a pretty cool and friendly GUI, parameters included are Tuning, Bias, Filter, Correction, offset, and pitch error meter.
Download X42 Auto-Tune Plugin
8) Graillon (Free)
This is an autotune VST plugins designed and developed by Auburnsounds. This plugin is superb in the way it handles pitch correction.
It not only supports pitch correction but supports the generation of throat sounds, making octave sounds, enriching, and enhancing vocal expressiveness.
Also, there is a pitch shift parameter that transposes vocals up and down in octaves and semitones.
System Requirements
- Available as VST, VST2, AAX, and Audio Unit plugin for macOS and Windows platform.
Download Graillion Auto-Tune Plugin
7) GSnap (Free)
This is an autotune plugin developed by Graham Yeadon of Gvst, Gsnap is one of my favorite autotune plugin, and I use it to create a specific type of effect.
GSnap was designed to automatically detects when a voice is pitchy, that is, when a note is off-key, it would indicate red, and when in tune, it would indicate green, interesting!
However, if you want to achieve a not to perfectly tuned voice, I would suggest you use it with subtle settings.
Extreme settings can create sounds like famous Daft-Punk, T-pain, or Char effects, if this is what you are looking for, go with this setting.
System Requirements
- Available as VST format (32/64bit) for windows only
Download Gsnap Auto-Tune Plugin
6) VisualVox (Free)
A lightweight intonation correction VST plugin, that comes bundled with pretty cool features like:
- Producing a perfect vibrato effect
- Know when your voice is pitchy and when you are in tune
- Ability to fit a voice into a rhythm by stretching, cutting and also a cut and paste option alongside
- Ability to create an artificial polyphony from a single voice, e.g. multiple voices,
- and many more features.
Why do we need an autotune plugin? To automatically correct off-key vocals back in-line, count on Visualvox.
System Requirement
Autotune Vst
- Compatible with a VST host system
Download VisualVox Auto-Tune VST plugin
5) MAutoPitch (Free)
With over 50,000 downloads every month, we should crown MAutoPitch the best free autotune VST Plugin.
This free pitch-correction tool is one of the most downloaded, and it is designed for vocals, and other monophonic instruments. It features a scalable and resizable GUI and also lets user chooses between knobs, sliders, and buttons.
The primary goal of a good VST plugin or tool, in general, is to deliver outstanding results in performance and also capable of handling larger processes, MAutoPitch isn’t far from that.
With the ability to handle not only mono and stereo signals but also mid/side encoding for stereo field processing.
Also, it provides high audio quality performance, and uses 64bit audio processing to handle any sample rate (e.g. 192Khz), it is not advisable to go above that, these are just tip of the iceberg of what MAutoPitch can do, it is robust and a great free autotune VST plugin you should lay your hands on.
System Requirements:
Windows
Autotune Vst Free
- Windows Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 (32-bit or 64-bit)
- VST / VST3 / AAX compatible host (32-bit or 64-bit)
- Intel/AMD processor with SSE2 support
- Always use 32-bit plugins in 32-bit hosts or 64-bit plugins in 64-bit hosts!
Mac Os X
- Mac OS X (10.7 and newer, 32-bit or 64-bit)
- VST / VST3 / AU / AAX compatible host (32-bit or 64-bit)
- Intel/AMD processor with SSE2 support
Download MAutopitch VST plugin
4) Melodyne (Paid)
I said this earlier, using pitch correction on a bad vocal track would give an undesirable result, great singers make mistakes and this is where the tool comes in handy if and only if needed.
Melodyne is one of the best paid autotune plugin out there. It is designed to work with vocal tracks, percussion, sound effects, and different kinds of sounds you might think of.
It features:
- Manipulation of notes, harmonies, melodies, grooves, rhythm, editing intonation, and even with polyphonic instruments (e.g. piano or guitar: each note) Crazy right!
- Automatically detect the tempo, scale and tunning of a sound
- Beautiful GUI design, and also user-friendliness,
- and many more features you should check out.
Price
Melodyne comes with a hefty price tag of €699 for the complete Melodyne bundle, Melodyne editor €399, Melodyne assistant €249 and Melodyne essential €99.
System Requirement
macOS
- Intel Dual Core processor (Quad Core or better recommended), macOS 10.6.8 and 10.11.x to 10.14
- 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended)
Windows
- Intel or AMD Dual Core processor (Quad Core or better recommended), Windows 7, 8.1 or 10 (64-bit recommended), ASIO-compatible audio hardware
- 4 GB RAM (8 GB or more recommended)
Activation
- Activation Computer-based or iLok USB dongle (2nd or 3rd generation), Melodyne 4 essential only computer-based. Internet access is required for activation.
3) ReTune (Paid)
To be honest, auto-tune is mostly used for correcting pitches, some users do not even know pitch correction is a single feature in auto-tune plugins.
It can be used to create a broad sorts of effects on vocals and instruments or sound effects.
ReTune is an autotune plugin developed by zplane, and it can be used to nudge off-key notes to the nearest semitone, and also supports controls such as the sensitivity of the pitch corrections, smoothing of pitch and more useful features such as:
- Real-Time Processing: It can be used during live performances on stage and in the studio.
- Automatically detect input key using zplane’s TONART V2
- Presets for major/minor scales, chromatic scale, church modes, and gypsy
- Allows the use of controls for pitch detection sensitivity, transient levels, and pitch contour smoothing,
- and many more features.
System Requirements
- Compatible with AAX, AU and VST host system
- A minimum of 2Ghz and 4gb ram minimum.
2) Waves Tune (Paid)
Waves Audio Ltd is one of the biggest, trusted, and leading company in audio-related software. Let’s take a brief description of the types of wave auto-tune VST plug-ins.
Waves Tune is an auto-tuning plugin developed and designed for pitch correction, and for correctly tuning to a natural taste for creative effects.
There are three types of Waves Tune:
1) Waves Tune Real-Time,
2) Waves Tune and
3) Waves Tune LT.
Waves Tune Real-Time – It can be used during a live performance on stage or performance in the studio, or perhaps for pitch-correcting pre-recorded tracks. Hence, it works in Real-time mode.
Waves Tune – It can be used for pitch-correcting pre-recorded tracks at a greater level of detail, also has a more robust tool for editing pre-recorded track, while Waves Tine Real-Time doesn’t have that.
Waves Tune LT – This is a lighter version of the Waves Tune with basic editing tools for a starter.
Prices
Waves Tune comes with a price tag of $ 119, Waves Tune Real-Time is tag $49, and Waves Tune LT is tag $29, learn more and buy here:
System Requirements:
Mac
- Intel Core i5 / i7 / Xeon
- 8 GB RAM
- 8 GB free disk space on the system drive
- Operating System – 10.11.6 – 10.14
Screen Resolution
- Minimum: 1024×768
- Recommended: 1280×1024 / 1600×1024
- USB displays are not supported as the primary display.
Windows
- Intel Core i3 / i5 / i7 / Xeon / AMD Quad-Core
- 8 GB RAM
- 8 GB free disk space on the system drive
Operating System
- Windows 7 with SP1 64 bit
- Windows 8.1 64 bit
- Windows 10 64 bit
Antares Autotune Vst
Screen Resolution
- Minimum: 1024×768
- Recommended: 1280×1024 / 1600×1024
Learn more and buy here: Waves Tune
1) Auto-Tune Pro (Paid)
Auto-Tune pro is a plug-in developed by antarestech, and it has been undergoing a lot of changes for the past 20 years.
It includes auto-mode and graph mode, auto-mode is for real-time intonation correction, while graph mode is for detailed and time editing.
This program has been used by the most iconic and popular music producers – T-pain, Cher, Daft-punk, to mention few.
Auto-Tune has been more powerful with the invention of Auto-Tune Pro, more comfortable to use than ever before.
Antares added an automatic key detection with the new Auto-Key plug-in, now better and easier to use.
Also, it is designed in such a way that allows a user to naturally correct pitches, humanise for more transparent and low Latency mode so a user can perform in real-time without distracting delay.
Price: $399
System Requirements
- Requires iLok Version 2 or Version 3. not compatible with iLok Version 1
- Mac- Supports AAX Native (64-bit only), VST3 (64 and 32-bit), and Audio Units (64 and 32-bit)
- Windows – Supports AAX Native (64-bit only), and VST3 (64 and 32-bit)
Any suggestions on the Auto-tune plugins listed above? drop your messages below and let’s have discussions on what you think about this list, don’t forget to share this! 🙂
Useful Related posts:
Here’s the complete list of the best free autotune VST plugins updated for 2021:
For more software goodies, check out our huge list of 250 free vst plugins.
1. Graillon 2 – Best Free Autotune Plugin (Auburn Sounds)
Graillon 2 is hands down the best free autotune VST on the market.
Here’s why:
It’s a simple, efficient & easy to use autotune plugin that comes in either VST or AU formats, meaning you can use it on both Mac & Windows.
Not only has it got a beautiful GUI that you’d see on most paid plugins, but the results it produces are nothing short of phenomenal – especially as it’s free and for most autotune plugins you are paying above $100.
With Graillon 2, autotune is as simple as putting the plugin on your audio track & turning on the ‘pitch correction’ module. There are also a tonne of controls for Graillon 2 that you can use to effortlessly fine tune your vocal sound further.
For instance, if you wanted more accurate results, you could lock Graillon 2 to a particular set of notes, or scale. You could also use the formant shifting to preserve the original tone of your performance, while still transposing it.
You can get both natural and artificial results out of Graillon 2 &, thanks to the wide range of controls, the creative possibilities are endless.
With Graillon you can Bitcrush, alter the Dry/Wet, change the pitch, preserve the formants, lock to a key & even have a tonne of fun with Pitch-Tracking modulation (which is unique to Graillon).
Whether you want to make throat like, robotic sounds, enrich a vocal performance, or even use it for sound design on instruments – Graillon 2 can do it all.
To get your hands on Graillon 2’s pitch correction VST, just head to the Auburn Sounds website & download the free edition!
2. VOLOCO – The Best for Creativity
Voloco is 2nd on the list because of it’s sheer simplicity & wide range of incredible sounding presets, that are useful in any situation.
You can choose from 8bit, Daft Punk style vocals & a tonne of other wicked sounding presets that will spice up your audio.
Unlike the other free autotune plugins, Voloco adds a bit more than just autotune to your audio signal. For instance, the Daft Punk & 8bit modes add LFO volume modulation & gate like effects to your vocals – instantly making them sound awesome.
Originally Voloco was only available on iPhone & Android, but now you can download it as a VST or AU pitch correction plugin for Windows or Mac.
Voloco has been designed specifically for that Cher/T-Pain like sound, & is better used as a creative tool, rather than to clean up your vocalists takes.
Like with the other plugins on this list, you can lock to a scale, change the key from major to minor & also change the amount by which Voloco pitch corrects your audio (kinda like a dry/wet control).
Check out this wicked video of the mobile version below (the plugin has a similar capability).
It’s not the best free autotune VST, but Voloco is definitely worth downloading for creative purposes, rather than clinical mixing alterations.
You can download it from the Voloco website.
3. MAutoPitch Autotune (MeldaProduction)
MAutoPitch is a pitch correction plugin by MeldaProduction, that just had to be on our list.
Check out our full, in-depth review of MAutoPitch for a bigger overview of why it’s so good.
Even though we’ve placed it 3rd, don’t let that fool you. MAutoPitch is an extremely capable autotune VST plugin, offering almost the exact same pitch correction features as Graillon 2, but with a bit extra included.
These extra tools can make it a slightly better choice for ease of mixing, as it includes an automatic gain control, limiter & stereo width adjustment. But, it’s a pain to install.
MAutoPitch comes as part of a free suite that contains 37 separate effects, analyzers, eq’s & a load more. Although you’re probably thinking “that’s awesome! more free plugins!”, it’s an annoying process to remove all of the bloat that you don’t want.
It also slows down download time.
If you do want the full suite, a lot of the MeldaProduction range are extremely good free plugins that can help improve your mixes. But, a lot of the time, having that many plugins, just gets in the way of what you’re supposed to be doing – making music.
MAutoPitch, however sits in that very sweet spot of being extremely simple to use, while not restricting any essential features & sounding great.
It has everything you’d need & should expect in a free autotune plugin, with options to lock to a certain scale, & automatic pitch detector, Dry/Wet knob, formant shifting, a preserve formants knob and more.
Formants shifting is a pretty wicked feature that MAutoPitch has over Graillon 2. By shifting the formants, you can make your sound deeper & more masculine or the other way around. If you alter this too much though, it will sound plain awful.
With everything considered, MAutoPitch is a great pick up for people looking for a free pitch correction plugin that’s simple to use & has an intuitive GUI.
You can use MAutoPitch in AU or VST formats, meaning that it’s both Mac and PC compatible.
Pick it up this free pitch correction device, from MeldaProduction’s website as part of their 37 free creative FX plugins pack.
4. GSnap
This was the first pitch correction tool to be offered as freeware to producers & audio engineers out there.
GSnap is an extremely clever auto tune VST plugin that has the unique ability of being able to ‘snap’ to MIDI that is fed into it.
What does that mean?
Imagine a scenario where you want to auto tune the vocalist, but you’re not sure what key you need to be locked into, or when you choose a scale – it just sounds a bit off.
Here, you can use the MIDI from another element in the track.
So, for instance, take the synth line, the chord data, or anything else & GSnap will tune your vocals to the notes that are being played in that section.
It also works on any other piece of audio that you want to tune.
GSnap has a pretty simple interface & is easy to use + understand. Unlike the other free autotune plugins on this list, it shows you how much it’s correcting the notes by. This is shown in red & green.
Red = orginal
Green = adjusted
But unfortunately, it doesn’t have any option for formant shifting, or preserving the quality through formants. This is something that is found in both Graillon & MAutoPitch.
One thing that GSnap does have, that the others don’t, is a vibrato control. This can be pretty cool if used correctly in certain situations.
GSnap is a great pitch correction VST to try out and add to your collection. It’s available to use in VST formats on the GVST website.
5. X42 Autotune
X42 Autotune is a freeware VST plugin that has been based on the ZITA-AT1, which is a linux based autotune plugin.
X42 brings this free plugin from linux to VST and AU format, allowing you to use it on a Windows or a Mac machine for you productions.
The main difference between the X42 and the other plugins listed above, is that it’s better used in a situation where you need a bit of fine tuning, rather than a full Cher-like robotic sounding voice.
It has most of the controls you’d expect on a free version of autotune, but comes with some added benefits over the ones above (also some drawbacks we’ll explain later).
Added features include:
- Bias – allows your vocal to go off-tune more than usual. This is helpful when you don’t necessarily want the vocal to snap exactly to your MIDI input & make it sound more natural.
- Offset – adds an offset -2 or +2 semitones on the pitch correction. This means the vocal can go out a few semitones.
- Filter – sets the amount of smoothing on the autotune.
XS42 also has a nice pitch error meter, that shows you how the vocal is reacting with the autotune & includes a MIDI input, so you can lock vocal takes to a specific scale.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the ability to shift formants or preserve them (like with the other free plugins) & the interface isn’t as nice.
However, if you want light, natural autotune – this does a great job.
You can download this free pitch correction tool over on X42’s website.
6. Autotalent
Autotalent is a free autotune VST plugin that was created by Tom Baran, which has a pretty comical name & tagline “pop music in a can”.
It includes pretty much everything you’d expect it in a pitch correction plugin, and most of the features found in the previously listed autotune plugins on this list.
However, Autotalent is slightly worse than the others because it can only be used to process mono signals. When stereo is selected, it just duplicates the same setting from the left channel into the right channel.
You can use Autotalent for Cher & T-Pain like effects, to change the key your melody is written in, from Major to Minor or vice versa, make your voice sound robotic using chiptune, to add vibrato and more.
The GUI is pretty basic and honestly doesn’t look the best. The usability of the plugin is also flawed as opposed to the others on this list. Autotalent still produces that autotune sound you’re looking for extremely well – it’s just not as good as the above.
Autotalent is available to download for Windows & Mac from the VSTFREE website.
It was also originally only available for Linux, and can be found over on Tom Baran’s website.
7. BeatLab Autotune (Ableton)
Don’t let this being low on our list fool you. The only reason we included it lower is because of it’s lack of compatibility for any other DAW than Ableton.
It’s a simple Autotune plugin that can give some incredible results.
It has all the features you’d expect like, being able to lock to a scale, having a dry/wet control & amount knob & correction settings.
The one drawback of using this is, it might be a bit too basic if you’re looking for something to have full control over.
BeatLab’s autotune comes as part of a free Max4Live pack, which you can download on Ableton’s website.
It’s a pack of pitch & time machines that comes with a range of other wicked plugins that you can use creatively for sound design.
Auto-tune Vst Settings
Budget Autotune VST Plugin Recommendations
Although free autotune VSTs are great, sometimes they just don’t cut it, & can’t give you the results you want without introducing audio artefacts, & a load of other stuff you don’t want in your recordings.
In this instance, it’s better to look at some alternatives to those eye watering free autotune devices.
Here are some budget options to take a look at:
- Antares AutoTune Access (basic version of their pro range)
- Soundtoy’s Little Alterboy (creative autotune)
- Waves OVox (vocal synth)
What Is Autotune Used For?
It’s for people who can’t sing…
Just joking.
Autotune is essentially live pitch correction for an audio signal of your choice. It’s commonly used on vocals to get a pitch perfect sound, but can be used on a number of instruments, melodies or chords.
It’s mostly a mixing tool that helps to even out recordings that aren’t entirely in key, by pitch shifting them in real-time.
You’ve probably heard autotune used in most Hip Hop & Trap chart toppers. This is the most common use for autotune, but isn’t the only area you will see it getting used.
It might come as a shock to you, but pitch correction is an extremely useful engineering tool for even the best singers, & is used in a lot more music genres than you think.
“Quite frankly, [use of Auto-Tune] happens on almost all vocal performances you hear on the radio”.
(Marco Alpert, Antares Audio Vice President)
You can find autotune being used on Indie music, Rock, RnB, Pop and so many other genres, because it’s an extremely useful tool. When a vocalist gives an incredible performance emotionally, but the pitch just isn’t perfect, using autotune can ‘save’ the performance from sounding out of key, and keep that much needed emotion in.
In short?
Autotune is used to put out of key performances in the right key, by pitch shifting in real-time.
It’s an audio processor that was originally introduced in 1997 by Antares, & was exclusive to their Auto-Tune Pro plugin.
Since the advancement of technology, & the improvement of audio plugins, you can now get some pretty awesome free versions of autotune VSTs.
Final Thoughts
Here’s the essential list of the best free autotune plugins updated for 2021:
Whatever you need autotune for, this article is a great place to start. It covers a range of awesome, free autotune VST plugins that you can use in your mix sessions or for creative sound design.
Whoever you are, we’re certain there’ll be an autotune plugin you’ll grow to love with time & lots of affection.