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 the Waves Tune: 1) Waves Tune Real-Time, 2) Waves Tune. 3) Waves Tune LT. Oct 29, 2019.

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.

The world standard for professional pitch correction. Auto-Tune Pro adds automatic key and scale detection with the new Auto-Key plugin (included with your Auto-Tune Pro purchase), a Classic Mode algorithm which brings back the celebrated “Auto-Tune 5 sound,” real-time MIDI Parameter Control, and ARA (Audio Random Access) functionality for closer integration with supported host applications. Home of the Auto-Tune plug-in, the music industry standard for pitch correction and vocal effects. Shop and learn about the best plug-ins for pitch correction, vocal effects, voice processing, and noise reduction. Auto-Tune Pro, Auto-Tune Artist, Auto-Tune EFX+, Auto-Tune Access, Harmony Engine, Mic Mod and more.

The birth, or shall we say the genesis of real-time pitch correction plug-ins started back in 1997 with Antares Auto-Tune which, like Melodyne, has been regarded as a gold standard in pitch correction. Over the last 20+ years Antares have continued to develop Auto-Tune with many great tuning features introduced within a simple to use GUI. May 01, 2019  Auto-Tune Ac. Which autotune plugin is the best? In this video, we will put head to head some of your favorite autotune plugins and see which one is the best.

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.

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.

Waves 10 Auto Tune Free Download

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!

*This article may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a commission if you click a link and purchase something we have recommended. Please check our full disclosure policy for more details. Thanks for stopping by!

• Signal Processors >Pitch-shifters

Is it really possible to carry out studio-quality pitch-correction in real time? Waves think so...

Love it or loathe it, automated pitch-correction is here to stay. Antares’ Auto-Tune first made it possible, and has become so well-known that its name is often used generically to describe all such tools, but there are plenty of other software-based pitch-correction tools out there. However, most are primarily intended for studio use, where they will be applied as post-recording processes.

For live performance there have, of course, been a number of dedicated hardware devices that offer pitch-correction in real time, including the now-discontinued Antares ATR-1 and various TC-Helicon products. It’s easy enough to see two sides to the desirability of such a tool in a live setting and I’ll leave you to have that discussion amongst yourselves but, in a world where the computer sits centre stage in so many music-making environments, the user control and flexibility offered by software-only solutions could have obvious benefits in a live context too.

Well, Antares obviously think so, because they have a version of Auto-Tune called Auto-Tune Live targeted at precisely this role, and Waves have now joined the roll-call with their own take on the genre: Tune Real-Time. Providing the rest of your system doesn’t create a processing bottleneck somewhere along the line, Tune Real-Time is designed to operate with sufficiently low latency to be fast enough for even the most demanding live-performance situation. And, as I’ll get to in a minute, the plug-in can also be used as a standard post-recording pitch-correction tool.

Holding A Tune

Waves are not new to the business of pitch-correction. Indeed, SOS reviewed the original Waves Tune way back in the November 2006 issue. While Tune can carry out pitch-correction automatically as well as manually, like the Melodyne plug-in it requires your audio to be ‘tracked’ into the plug-in before this can take place. However, faster computer systems mean that, 10 years on, real-time pitch-correction with a plug-in is now a viable prospect.

Once installed via the slick Waves Central licence management system, how you configure Tune Real-Time will depend upon your type of use. For routine automatic pitch-correction of previously tracked vocals, you would, of course, simply insert the plug-in on your vocal track and get cracking with tweaking the control set to suit. However, if you are interested in live pitch-correction — whether that’s during tracking in the studio or for live performances — a different arrangement is going to be required.

While the specifics will undoubtedly depend upon your exact hardware/software configuration, Tune Real-Time is going to need to be inserted in your signal flow in a way that allows the engineer (studio or front-of-house) and the singer to monitor through it in real time. As when applying any software processing to a live audio signal, that means a return journey for the audio through your computer system and back out to your monitor setup, making low latency all round an obvious requirement.

Waves can’t do anything about latency introduced elsewhere within your system, but by reporting zero latency to the host, Tune Real-Time ensures that no delay compensation is applied on its account. Its actual latency varies between 0 and 4 ms depending on the frequency of the current note. Different performers have differing sensitivities to audio latency. In order to achieve a more comfortable monitoring experience, I found myself having to change the buffer sizes for my audio interface from 256 samples to 64 samples in my 44.1kHz/24-bit project. Smaller buffer sizes do, of course, mean a higher system load, but that may be a price you have to pay in order to prioritise the pitch-corrected vocal monitoring. (Alternatively, by running Tune Real-Time on one of Waves’ SoundGrid servers, you could eradicate the round trip through your computer and DAW.)

The control set allows you to select a voice type to focus the pitch-correction within a certain note range.

Corrective Measures

You can define your own scale using the keyboard display, and the plug-in includes a huge number of preset scale types.The user interface shares many common elements with that of the studio-orientated Waves Tune and, indeed, other pitch-correction tools. For example, the bottom third of the panel provides scale/key selection and a choice of voice types — which, in turn, set a default note range within which pitch-correction will be applied. The small MIDI Input/Keyboard panel allows you to give your singer a reference tone or use an external MIDI keyboard to set target notes. Other parameters in the control set can also be controlled via MIDI, including the Speed parameter, so you can, for instance, apply ‘robotic’ pitch-correction just to a few notes as a special effect.

The central keyboard strip provides a visual guide to the notes being detected as the plug-in does its thing. As well as letting you drag the left/right boundaries of the active note range, this includes an interesting additional feature whereby clicking above each note allows you to toggle its behaviour in the pitch-correction process. This includes modes for ‘legal’ (grey), ‘illegal’ (pink with a ‘-‘ icon) or ‘bypass’ (grey with an ‘x’; the note is legal but no pitch-correction is applied); but there are also two other ‘illegal’ options, both with pink arrow icons that can point to notes above or below the current note. If the pitch-detection algorithm identifies such a note, it will force the correction in the direction indicated by the arrow. This is a useful feature, as it allows you to handle the correction of specific notes in a very particular fashion.

The keyboard section allows you to define how the pitch-correction behaves for individual notes.

For example, a singer might end up consistently flat with notes at the top of their range or sharp towards the bottom of it. Tune Real-Time can accommodate that and I could imagine that in a live setting, where an FOH engineer gets to know a specific singer’s strengths and weaknesses night after night, this could offer very precise control. You can set these five different correction states either on individual notes or, with the Group Octaves button engaged, for every octave.

House Of Correction

The topmost panel contains both familiar and less familiar elements. Familiar is the large arc-shaped pitch-correction display that shows the amount of correction being applied in real time. Also familiar is the Speed dial, which controls just how quickly pitch-correction is applied at the onset of a note. Values in the 40-60 ms range produce fairly aggressive correction, while slower speeds provide a more transparent result. And, yes, by setting it to zero you can get the ‘Cher effect’.

The Correction subpanel allows you to adjust just how tightly the pitch-correction is applied. Backing off from 100 percent here does help in terms of keeping the result transparent. If you want something more in the special effects category, you can also turn formant correction off; in conjunction with MIDI control of the notes, you can then move towards Micky Mouse or Darth Vader if you so wish.

Waves 10 Auto Tune Reviews

The Note Transition controls provide interesting additional options for handling the pitch-correction process across note boundaries.

Perhaps more interesting are the Note Transition and Tolerance controls. While the Speed control deals with the first note of a legato phrase, in the Wave Tune algorithm (in both its real-time and non-real-time formats), the Note Transition control influences the speed of correction applied as one note transitions into another during a phrase. In addition, the Cents and Time controls provide further influence over note transitions, allowing you to tolerate wider pitch drift before correction kicks in. OK, so the pitch-correction is still automatic, but these additional options do seem to offer an extra level of control.

Autotune Download

Rather neatly, you can also dampen or exaggerate any natural vibrato present in the vocal (although you can’t add artificial vibrato). This is actually well worth experimenting with as its on/off status, and the slider value, interacts with the pitch-correction process; if you find yourself with the occasional unwanted ‘pitch flutter’ on a sustained note, tweaking these settings can sometimes tame it.

The Real Thing?

If Waves Tune Real-Time is to be considered a success, it must be able to satisfy on two obvious points. First, is the processing actually fast enough for real-time use? Second, is the quality, flexibility and stability of the automatic pitch-correction processing up to the job?

While my own testing was studio-based, in terms of the first question, I think the answer is a very clear yes. OK, in a recording session, I’m not sure I’d generally want to track with pitch-correction in my signal chain but, if it is something you need — perhaps as a special effect or to provide a bit of a comfort blanket to an insecure singer — Tune Real-Time can do it. The trick, both in the studio and in a live performance context, is to ensure that the rest of your monitoring signal chain doesn’t scupper the plug-in’s efficient, low-latency operation. In a mission-critical live context, that might mean putting Tune Real-Time’s needs at the top of your performance priority list.

In terms of the second question, as an automatic pitch-correction tool, Tune Real-Time is most certainly competitive with the other leading contenders. I tested it alongside Antares Auto-Tune Live; both were capable of meeting the need for speed required for real-time use and, with the obvious qualification that I’ll get to next, both delivered very good results. What’s more, the Waves control set — and in particular the note transition features and ability to configure the direction of pitch-correction on individual notes — makes for a lot of flexibility. Yes, you are still in the hands of an automated correction process, but these controls give you useful ways to influence the operation of that process.

And that obvious qualification? Automatic pitch-correction will not turn a Friday night karaoke singer into a Christina Aguilera or a Michael Bublé; this technology is impressive, and in many ways remarkable, but is not a substitute for actual vocal skills. If you set Tune Real-Time to fast pitch-quantise, even a pub singer might get away with a few bars of ‘special Cher effect’ but, if it’s a more natural performance you are seeking, Tune Real-Time will not rescue someone who really can’t sing.

That is, of course, a very good thing and, in one sense, it means the whole argument about pitch-correction in a live-performance context is still a bit moot. If your singer has his or her skills down, yes, software like Waves Tune Real-Time can support and enhance their performance, and perhaps help compensate for situations where poor monitoring or tiredness can make even a good singer’s pitch a little off. In the studio, it is perhaps possible to do more to overcome a singer’s limitations, but this would really require the offline processing options provided by the likes of Melodyne or the full version of Auto-Tune. However, it is worth emphasising that Tune Real-Time is also a great option in the studio providing all you need is automatic pitch-correction. Don’t expect miracles of this or any automatic pitch-correction tool, but if you are starting with a solid singer, Waves Tune Real-Time is more than capable of tidying up any loose edges that might occur.

Alternatives

From a software perspective, the obvious competition is Antares’ Auto-Tune Live, currently costing about the same as Tune Real-Time at its full price.

Waves 10 Auto Tune 2017

There are also hardware alternatives, and in particular, TC-Helicon have developed a number of products aimed at live performance that include some pitch-correction options. A current example is the Mic Mechanic footpedal: this includes chromatic pitch-correction and is competitively priced, but does not provide the flexibility or level of user control offered by Tune Real-Time.

Autotune Free Download

Pros

• Latency of the plug-in is low enough for live use, providing the rest of the system configuration is up to the task.
• For an automated process, it offers plenty of user control.
• The quality of the automated pitch-correction processing is certainly a match for the obvious competition.

Cons

• Requires a low-latency computer/audio system for ‘live’ real-time use.

Summary

If you don’t need the option of manual pitch editing, Waves Tune Real-Time is a very capable automatic pitch-correction tool for studio use and, given the low latency of the plug-in itself, a viable option for use in a live performance context — providing you are dealing with a competent singer in the first place.

information

Fuse Distribution Ltd +44 (0)845 500 2 500

Waves +1 865 909 9200

Test Spec

• Waves Tune Real-Time v9.6.14.12 Build 87243.
• Apple iMac with 3.5GHz Intel Core i7 CPU and 32GB RAM, running Mac OS 10.10.5, with Soundcraft Signature 12MTK mixer/interface.
• Tested with Steinberg Cubase Pro 8.5.