The vocal presets provided by Wav Monopoly are great. I recommend them to anyone using FL Studio or any other DAW to record their vocals. Wav Monopoly is the best choice for independent artist and producers, efficient professional-grade presets and easy customization. The Wav Monopoly’s presets saved my mixes when it came to me recording my. Auto-Tune EFX+ is the powerful production tool which combines the core features of Auto-Tune with the powerful Auto-EFX multi-effects rack (vocoder, tube distortion, filters etc.) and Auto-Motion pitch-shifting melodic pattern generator. Must-have vocal plug-in for producers and sound engineers.
- Download Antares Autotune Presets
- T-pain Autotune Presets
- Autotune Presets Free Download
- Autotune Presets Download
- Autotune Presets Free Download
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.
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.
Download Antares Autotune Presets
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.
What I find most fascinating about Antares Auto-Tune is that everyone and their mother knows what it is, despite the fact that it's just another digital audio plugin used in bedroom and professional studios alike. Even people who have no clue what an EQ or compressor does somehow at least know of the word 'Auto-Tune' and even the general effect it has on the human voice.
But even though Auto-Tune has evolved to become this cultural phenomenon, very few artists or producers truly understand how to get it to sound like the way it sounds on major records.
In case you don't know what it is, Auto-Tune, in a nutshell, is a pitch correction software that allows the user to set the key signature of the song so that the pitch of the incoming signal will be corrected to the closest note in that key (and does so in real time). There are other pitch correction programs out there that do similar functions: Waves Tune, Waves Tune Real-Time, and Melodyne (which is pitch correction, but not in real time), but Auto-Tune seems to have won the standard for real-time pitch correction.
Auto-Tune traditionally is used on vocals, although in some cases can be used on certain instruments. For the sake of this article we will be discussing Auto-Tune and its effect on the human voice. Listen to this early example from the 'King of Auto-Tune,' the one artist who did more to popularize its effect than any other, T-Pain.
Working as a full-time engineer here at Studio 11 in Chicago, we deal with Auto-Tune on a daily basis. Whether it's people requesting that we put it on their voice, something we do naturally to correct pitch, or even for a specific creative effect. It's just a part of our arsenal that we use everyday, so over the years we have really gotten to know the ins and outs of the program—from its benefits to limitations.
So let's delve further into what this software really is and can do, and in the process debunk certain myths around what the public or people who are new to Auto-Tune may think. If you were ever wondering why your Auto-Tune at home doesn't sound like the Auto-Tune you hear from your favorite artists, this is the article for you.
To set the record straight, as I do get asked this a lot of times from clients and inquiring home producers, there really are no different 'types' of Auto-Tune. Antares makes many different versions of Auto-Tune—Auto-Tune EFX, Auto-Tune Live, and Auto-Tune Pro—that have various options and different interfaces, but any of those can give you the effect you're after. Auto-Tune Pro does have a lot of cool features and updates, but you don't need 'Pro' to sound pro.
I wanted to debunk this first, as some people come to me asking about the 'the Lil Durk Auto-Tune,' or perhaps that classic 'T-Pain Auto-Tune.' That effect is made from the same plugin—the outcome of the sound that you hear depends on how you set the settings within the program and the pitch of the incoming signal.
So if your Auto-Tune at home sounds different from what you hear on the radio, it's because of these factors, not because they have a magic version of Auto-Tune that works better than yours at home. You can achieve the exact same results.
In modern music Auto-Tune is really used with two different intentions. The first is to use it as a tool in a transparent manner, to correct someone's pitch. In this situation, the artist doesn't want to hear the effect work, they just want to hit the right notes. The second intent is to use it as an audible effect for the robotic vocals you can now hear all over the pop and rap charts.
But regardless of the intent, in order for Auto-Tune to sound its best, there are three main things that need to be set correctly.
The correct key of the song. This is the most important part of the process and honestly where most people fail. Bedroom producers, and even some engineers at professional studios who might lack certain music theory fundamentals, have all fallen into the trap of setting Auto-Tune in the wrong key. If a song is in C major, it will not work in D major, E major, etc.—though it will work in C major's relative minor, A minor. No other key will work correctly. It helps to educate yourself a bit about music theory, and how to find the key of a song.
The input type. You have the option to choose from Bass Instrument, Instrument, Low Male, Alto/Tenor, and Soprano. Bass Instrument and Instrument are, of course, for instruments, so ignore them if you're going for a vocal effect. Low Male would be selected if the singer is singing in a very low octave (think Barry White). Alto/Tenor will be for the most common vocal ranges, and soprano is for very high-pitched vocalists. Setting the input type correctly helps Auto-Tune narrow down which octaves it will focus on—and you'll get a more accurate result.
Retune speed. This knob, while important, is really all dependent on the pitch of the input source, which I will discuss next. Generally speaking, the higher the knob, the faster it will tune each note. A lower speed will have the effect be a bit more relaxed, letting some natural vibrato through without affecting a vocalist's pitch as quickly. Some view it as a 'amount of Auto-Tune knob,' which isn't technically true. The amount of correction you hear is based off the original pitch, but you will hear more effects of the Auto-Tune the faster it's set.
So let's say you have all of these set correctly. You have the right key, you choose the right range for the singer, and the retune speed is at its medium default of 20ms. You apply it on the singer expecting it to come out just like the pros. And while their voice does seem to be somewhat corrected, it's still not quite corrected to the right pitch.
Here's why your Auto-Tune doesn't sound like the pros:
The pitch of the vocalist prior to Auto-Tune processing must be close enough to a note in the scale of the key of the song for Auto-Tune to work its best. In other words, the singer has to be at least near the right note for it to sound pleasing to the ears.
Whether you're going for a natural correction or the T-Pain warble, this point still stands. If the note the singer originally sings is nowhere near the correct note in the key, Auto-Tune will try to calculate as best it can and round up or down, depending on what note is closest. And that's when you get undesirable artifacts and hear notes you weren't expecting to hear. (Here is an example of how it sounds when the incoming pitch isn't close enough to the scale, resulting in an oddly corrected pitch.)
T-pain Autotune Presets
So if you put Auto-Tune on a voice and some areas sound good, some sound too robotic and a bit off, those are the areas that the singer needs to work on. Sometimes it can be difficult for non-singers to hear slight sharp or flat notes, or notes that aren't in the scale of the song, so Auto-Tune in many cases can actually help point out the problem areas.
Autotune Presets Free Download
This is why major artists who use Auto-Tune sound really good, because chances are they can sing pretty well before Auto-Tune is even applied. The Weeknd is a great example of this—he is obviously a very talented singer that has no problem hitting notes—and yet his go-to mixer, Illangelo, has said before that he always uses at least a little bit of Auto-Tune on the vocals.
If you or the singer in your studio is no Weeknd, you can correct the pitch manually beforehand with a program like Melodyne, or even with built-in pitch correction tools in your DAW, where you can actually go in and change the pitch of each syllable manually. So if you find yourself in a situation where you or an artist you are working with really want Auto-Tune on their vocals, but it's not sounding right after following all the steps, look into correcting the pitch before you run it through Auto-Tune.
If you get the notes closer to the scale, you'll find the tuning of Auto-Tune to be much more pleasing to the ears. For good reason, T-Pain is brought up a lot when discussing Auto-Tune. Do you want to know why he sounds so good? It's not a special Auto-Tune they are using, its because he can really sing without it. Check it out:
Autotune Presets Download
Hopefully this helps further assist you in your understanding and use of Antares Auto-Tune, and debunk some of the myths around it. Spend some time learning some basic music theory to help train the ear to identity keys of songs, find which notes are flat and which notes are sharp. Once you do, you'll find you'll want to use Auto-Tune on every song, because let's face it—nearly a decade after Jay-Z declared the death of Auto-Tune on 'D.O.A.'—it still sounds cool.