Best Vst Plugin Companies
Check It Out At Plugin Boutique. To sum it all together, all these noise reduction plugins come with their very own unique features for you to explore and work with. The iZotope RX 6 tops them all since it meets all the high standards of what a noise reduction plugin should possess. It’s flexible, fast, and convenient to use. Ozone Imager V2 is probably one of the best free VST plugins as it allows a music composer to have full control over the width of the sounds. The tool has three different vectorscope meters that instantly.
If you’re looking to give your tracks a warm, vintage vibe, RC-20 Retro Color by XLN Audio is the best VST plugin for you. It recreates the feeling of old recording equipment and adds life and texture to any audio source. RC-20 comes loaded with several presets and also includes a “magnitude” knob that allows for intricate FX adjustments. Vital (Basic) is a free complex spectral warping wavetable synth plugin developed by Matt Tytel, and maybe one of the best releases of this year. Vital is available for Windows and macOS in VST, VST3. Working with virtual studio technology (VST) plugins is tremendously convenient, but a lot of the best VST plugins out there are very expensive. If you're looking to expand your library of VST instrument (VSTi) plugins, or tweak your mixes with some great effects or MIDI effects VST plugins, you can do it for free.
Whether you’re a home producer or work at a major recording studio, Autotune and other pitch correction software can help deal with a weak vocal performance.
In a hurry? I love Melodyne 4 Studio from Celemony. It’s sounds incredible, leaving little to no artifacts on vocals recorded in a treated space, but are in need of a little fixing.
But Autotune isn’t reserved exclusively for pitch correction. T-Pain popularized the hard-straightened pitch, even going as far as releasing an iOS app called “I Am T-Pain.”
Pitch correction software can also be utilized for other instruments as well. I’ve even used VariAudio (the “Autotune” built into Cubase) on bass guitar parts that were slightly out of tune. The result was surprisingly excellent, with little to no audio artifacts.
There’s a lot you can do with Autotune and similar software. /free-vst-to-make-sounds-wider.html.
With so many options for producers, how can you decide on which one to use? Fortunately, I’ve had the experience working with many pitch correction plugins to weed out the good from the bad.
I’m going to include both free and paid options, so please read on!
Have an interest in virtual instruments? Don’t miss my other roundups!
Table of Contents
1) Antares Auto-Tune Pro (Paid)
Auto-Tune is the original pitch correction software. It’s so popular that its name is synonymous and is more of a colloquial term.
Antares gives you a couple of options to pick from depending on your needs — Pro, Artist, Access, or EFX+. As you’d guess, the price moves up the more features there are.
Auto-Tune is very hands-off. I’d even go as far as to say that it’s the most straightforward plugin for correcting pitch.
Pros
- Easy to use for beginners
- Lightweight on memory
- Great-looking user interface
Cons
- AUTO mode is limited
- Difficult for beginners to use GRAPH
- A little outdated compared
When using Auto-Tune on a vocal track in AUTO mode, set the key, the retune speed, and the amount of humanization. You should be able to hit the playback button now and hear hopefully great results.
Because it’s simplicity, I find that it doesn’t perform as well as others (when using the quick settings) that require more fine-tune vocal editing.
To fix an abysmal vocal performance, use the graph mode and hand tune each note to your liking. This process is much more complicated but yields a far better result.
I am not huge on Auto-Tune (I know many are), but it can deliver exceptional results. If you take the time to learn how to use it properly, you’ll have great-sounding vocals with ease.
Auto-Tune from Antares is available at Plugin Boutique.
2) Steinberg VariAudio — Cubase Pro (Paid)
Steinberg’s VariAudio is a pitch correction software included in Cubase Pro. It’s not a standalone plugin, so you won’t be able to use it if you don’t own Cubase Pro.
But, for those of you with Cubase who didn’t realize your DAW has pitch correction, rejoice!
I love VariAudio — so much so that I couldn’t imagine switching DAWs. I’ve been on Cubase for ten years, so I know my way around, but VariAudio is the one thing that will keep me as a forever customer.
Pros
- Integrated into Cubase
- Quick to edit any clip
- Very fast and no CPU
Cons
- Audio artifacts are very noticeable if not careful
- Limited cutting resolution
- Not intuitive at first
VariAudio functions similar to Melodyne and Auto-Tune’s graph mode. Double-clicking on a clip opens up the editor, where you can choose to enable VariAudio — no plugin required.
From here, it’s simple as using Pitch Quantize and Straighten Pitch on each clip. Cutting clips also helps pitch only individual sections of a waveform.
The newest version of VariAudio introduced some incredible options for adjusting pitch that make the software even more valuable.
I highly recommend considering Cubase Pro if you plan to switch DAWs — for VariAudio exclusively!
Steinberg’s Cubase Pro is available from Plugin Fox.
3) Celemony Melodyne (Paid)
We’re moving up the price ladder, but for a good reason. Melodyne from Celemony is one of the most utilized pitch correction plugins used by professional vocal editors and producers.
Melodyne offers (to my ears) the most accurate and musical sounding algorithm, leaving no tuning artifacts that are easily recognizable to the untrained ear.
Pros
- Incredible-sounding algorithm
- Tons of flexibility when vocals sound poor
- Zero audio artifacts in most cases
Cons
- Difficult for new users
- Rather expensive
The software has incredible note detection allowing for more accurate tuning. I find that in VariAudio, there are times that the software cannot understand individual notes, so they are omitted. It’s not too often this occurs, but Melodyne does it better.
Melodyne is available at Plugin Boutique.
4) Waves Tune (Paid)
Waves Tune operates similarly to Auto-Tune and Melodyne. Before you begin tuning, the software scans the audio track and displays audio waveforms.
The process of editing is quite similar as well, though the interface is slightly dated.
Pros
- Included in many of Wave’s plugin bundles
- Relatively lightweight on CPU
Cons
- Outdated
- Difficult to use
I have never enjoyed using Waves Tune but figured it needed a mention since Waves is one of the most popular audio plugin companies.
5) Waves Tune Real-Time (Paid)
While cheaper than the regular version of Tune, Tune Real-Time offers a quick and user-friendly experience for tuning vocals. I’d compare this plugin to using Auto-Tune on AUTO mode.
Note transition is iffy at best and artifacts are present throughout (at least when I used it). The plugin isn’t smooth sounding at all, and there aren’t many parameter changes available.
I’d recommend Real-Time for two different scenarios. The first being someone new to audio production looking to fix a vocal without technical knowledge of tuning vocals. You won’t get the most professional sound, but it will be acceptable.
The second scenario is for producers working with singers in the studio who struggle to sing on pitch.
Using a pitch-correction software can boost the confidence of the singer in the booth, though I can’t say for sure if this will lead to a better sounding vocal take.
Despite the marketing of Waves Tune Real-Time, claiming instant vocal tuning, I could envision latency becoming an issue in some home studio settings.
Free Auto-Tune VST Plugins
If you’re on the fence about which one to get or want to save a little cash, try some of these free pitch correction plugins I’ve listed below.
Things To Consider When Choosing a Pitch Correction Software Plugin
Despite all the choices I’ve laid out, you still may be confused on the correct option. Here are some things to consider before making a decision.
Does the software maker provide a trial?
If so, take the trial and check out the software! There’s nothing more frustrating than buying a plugin only to find out that it’s non-refundable.
Do you need graph editing functionality?
Graph editing, like seen in Melodyne and VariAudio, is for advanced vocal editors. If you need a quick tuning for a little enhancement of a track, you may not need to edit each note.
If you want to draw in the notes physically, a more advanced pitch correction software will be necessary.
Further features you may desire are formant control, MIDI input (for vocoder), and note straightness. These types of effects are often essential in a lot of today’s popular music.
Does your DAW already have pitch processing?
Mine does — that’s why I’ve included VariAudio in this list. Digital audio workstations like Propellerhead’s Reason and MOTU Digital Performer also come with their native pitch correction software.
Wrapping Up
Which one do I like most? If I didn’t have VariAudio included in Cubase, I’d most likely be using Melodyne exclusively. It sounds incredible, and the workflow is so intuitive.
So there you have it — my list of the best Auto-Tune/pitch correction VST plugins. Which one do you currently use in the studio? I’d love to hear from you down below in the comments. Thanks for reading!
Gear/Software
There are an insane amount of VST plugins out there – so many that it can be very hard to sift through them all to find just a few that truly offer what you’re looking for. You can find plenty of free ones, and some of them will actually turn out to be great (something I’ll cover in a later article), but sometimes you just need the quality and assurance you know you’re going to get with a purchased product; that’s when it’s time to start thinking of looking for premium plugins.
The truth is there are lots of awesome ones to check out, and it’s easy to get confused as to which ones are best suited for you. What you want to do – aside from downloading the demos and giving them a try on your own, of course – is research as much as you can, read plenty of reviews on each plugin that interests you, and go on YouTube to watch videos of the plugins in action, until you figure out exactly what you need.
To narrow it down for you a bit, here’s my top 10 premium plugins you should look into.
10. LFOTool – This one is great for less experienced producers who want an easy-to-use plugin to help them work on bass wobble for dubstep and drumnbass. It shows you how you’re changing the sound waves through a very straightforward interface and will help you get the hang of basic sample-tweaking features like tremolo, noise gate, and side chain compression. You can change the LFO wobble by BPM, and it has a swing feature to give your synths a bangin’ groove. It also comes with lots of presets, so you’ll be able to see the different types of sounds it’s capable of producing, giving you plenty of foundations for you to start from.
9. Robotronic – This is a great vocoder plugin with a stylish, simplistic interface. There are so many good ones out there, but this is the one I’ve used the most; if you’re looking for a straightforward vocoder with great sound quality and plenty of features, this one is worth looking into. Make a track with it in your DAW of choice, record a basic vocal bit straight into it and make it into anything you can imagine. A lot of fun to play with.
8. RayBlaster – This is a great softsynth that facilitates the creation of innovative textures. It comes with over 500 different sounds on its own, and you can also load in your own samples to work with those as well. Many of the sounds it comes with are great, but what makes RayBlaster stand out are the ways it lets you tweak those sounds to come up with some very odd and intriguing creations that will definitely inspire you. It’s lower on the list because there are much better softsynths out there, but the unique sound manipulation RayBlaster offers is undeniably cool.
7. Enzyme – This is a recent discovery for me but I think it’s really interesting. It’s also pretty complicated, but if you’re the type that enjoys pressing all the buttons and tweaking all the knobs to see what kinds of sounds you’re able to generate, this plugin will likely be a lot of fun for you. It’s capable of making some extremely weird sounds, due to the complex ways it allows you to manipulate samples, but that’s the fun of it – you’ll be making noise unlike anything you’ve heard before, and it will really get your creative juices flowing as you imagine what kinds of tracks these sounds would complement best. Definitely worth a look for more experimental producers.
6. Waves – Like Izotope, I’m listing the name of the company because they have so many plugins to check out, and they’re all really useful and renowned. Waves offers a lot of audio cleanup plugins, also like Izotope, but they also have innovative originals like an analog tape simulator (the J37 Tape – recreating the recording quality that legendary bands like the Beatles used) a powerful maximizer, a bass optimizer, and mono-to-stereo emulation, just to name a few. Waves is a company that’s great at what they do, and any plugin you get from them is guaranteed to improve the sound of your mixes.
5. Izotope – I’m listing the name of the company itself here because they have a variety of plugins available, all of which are worth looking into. Izotope specializes mostly in plugins that will help you with the mixing and mastering aspect of music production, and they’re absolute masters of this aspect. Whether you need audio analysis, sound quality enhancement or vocal production effects, Izotope’s got you covered. An extremely effective and useful plugin they offer is RX, which will help you clean up recordings with a lot of ambient noise – so if you’re recording vocals or any physical instruments in a room that has some echo or sounds from outside trickling in, RX can help you get rid of that noise. That’s just one of the many plugins Izotope offers, and looking at the rest of their stuff is highly recommended.
4. Alchemy – I haven’t used Alchemy as much as I would like to, but from what I’ve experienced thus far, it’s a great tool for creating innovative tones and textures, and all the samples that come with it are all of excellent quality. There’s everything from more organic instruments to straight up alien-sounding pads that will help you create some incredibly strange and beautiful instrumentation for your beats. Camel Audio has several other plugins you can take a look at, but Alchemy is by far their crowning achievement. They offer 28 different sound libraries you can purchase too, covering a wide range of genres and moods. It’s a bit pricy, but it’s well worth it, you’ll be spending hours on end experimenting with it.
3. Addictive Drums – I don’t know a whole lot about drum plugins, in all honesty, but I do know that this one is held in very high regard within the music production world, and with just cause; Addictive Drums offers some of the cleanest and sharpest drum sounds available. It’s been used in music for TV, video games, and plenty of songs on the radio and in the clubs, because there’s really just nothing else like it. Recently they released version 2 of their amazing software, and it’s absolutely worth every penny. Not only does it have an extremely helpful and easy-to-follow interface, they offer all kinds of sample packs for tons of different styles of music, so you can get just the right drum sound for whatever you’re recording. Electronic music producers love this thing, but also, if you’re a lone guitarist or a band that doesn’t have a drummer, this plugin is so effective that if you use it in your recordings and don’t tell anyone that it’s not a real drummer playing, they would never know. If you’re in the market for the best drum plugin around, look no further than Addictive Drums.
2. Absynth – This is a VERY close runner-up to the #1 spot. Absynth is one of my all-time favorite plugins. Are you tired of the same kinds of samples that every softsynth seems to have? Are you looking for something powerful enough to help you generate all sorts of refreshing and bizarre sounds that will bring your tracks into all-new territory? This is the plugin for you, then; Absynth isn’t just for sequencing synth loops, it’s a tool for very effective and versatile sound design. You can make textures with this plugin that you just can’t get anywhere else. Not only that, but the newest version comes with around 2,100 presets, which is way more than enough for you to get an idea of what it’s capable of. Absynth 5 has a new feature called Sound Mutator which lets you apply specific adjectives in the form of tags from a list in order to transform any sound into exactly what you’re looking for.
1. Massive – This is just an all-around monster of a plugin. You really can’t go wrong with Massive; it has so many presets, so many parameters you can tweak to make your own unique sounds, great quality, and is overall just a joy to work with. When it comes to softsynths, as far as I’m concerned, this is the top of the line. Anything from fat, warm bass throbs to soaring, sparkling synth leads, you can make it all with Massive. I almost don’t even know where to begin explaining all of the features it has, there are just so many worth mentioning – the most important thing to know is that whether you’re an experienced producer or a beginner, this will be one of the most important digital tools you could possibly add to your arsenal. It comes with so many presets, and producers are coming out with their own preset packs regularly (like this one by Gigi Barocco I reviewed not long ago), so you’ll never stop finding new sounds to work with. Native Instruments really knows what they’re doing when it comes to beat-making, and Massive is a great investment to help you develop your sound and style in completely new ways.
I hope I’ve provided enough information to help you get started, and I hope some of these pique your interest and end up helping you grow as a producer and make some great new tracks.