Perhaps we can all agree that the word “autotune” is synonymous with the music industry. For years, autotune became a popular gimmick for singers and producers to enhance the quality of the sound they’re making.

Autotune plugins are now a very common term, however, they actually refer to a specific product. Antares launched the first edition of its famed pitch-correcting software in 1997 and back then it integrated a pitch recognition system with pitch-shifting algorithms. This enabled it to distinguish a note being sung and shift it to the nearest semitone. But since its release, the word “autotune” has stuck with lots of people and thus become an official word for such a trick. 

Originally meant for the subtle nudging of slightly out-of-tune performances into place, singers such as Cher, T-Pain, and Akon popularized the severe usage of the tool to give vocals that characteristic hard-tuned effect that we are all familiar with in modern pop.

While hard tuning is the most visible application of pitch correction software, practically every record you listen to these days has gone through a voice editing stage.

With that, let us talk more about the best autotune plugins you can use for your Ableton Live device. In case you do not know yet, Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation (DAW) created by German company Ableton. It is among one of the most in-demand DAWs of professionals in the DJ field.

Your Own DAW Autotune Option

Price: Free!

Given that it is an autotune option of your own DAW device, we can only assume that it’s free with no hassle attached to it. Most major DAWs now contain tuning choices as standard features, albeit they will not perform nearly as well as some of the options described above (except the Variaudio which will be discussed below). They are, however, excellent practice tools, and while they take a bit more skill to achieve amazing results, they are capable of producing release-ready voices.

Only Ableton lacks built-in pitch correction tools among the three most popular DAWs for EDM creation (Logic Pro X, FL Studio, and Ableton). With that, you need to remember that sometimes the best tool you have is the one you already have!

GVST GSnap

Price: Free

GVST GSnap is a free program that allows you to experiment with its basic functions. It is more of a gizmo worth playing with than a professional tool. Unfortunately, GSnap is incapable of producing high-quality results, but it might be fun to play with if you aren’t at the stage of your career when you are investing in your skill.

Steinberg Cubase Variaudio

Price: Not Applicable

The Steinberg Cubase Variaudio is a built-in vocal edition option found in Cubase. Trust us when we say it’s so great that you’ll want to buy Cubase only to utilize the editing tool. It’s difficult to ask for more than built-in high-quality graphs and automated modes, as well as automatic voice alignment tools. However, one notable missing feature is the option to specify a scale for graph editing, which we presume will be added in a future version because it appears to be a popular feature.

Soundtoys Little Alterboy

Price: $99

Although it’s not really a tuning plugin, pressing the quantize button will give you the recognizable T-Pain influence. The plugin can also do some other cool things to produce interesting and unique vocal effects, so this isn’t exactly its primary use.

Waves Tune Real-Time

Price: $79, often goes on sale for as low as $29

Without the fancy bells and whistles and for a lot less money, this underappreciated plugin produces effects that are nearly identical to those produced by Antares. It differs from conventional tuners in that it has a separate knob for note transition and speed, giving you greater control over the strength of the effect. This automatic tuner is the one to buy if you’re just starting out and have a small budget.

Celemony Melodyne 5

Price: $100-$699

Melodyne, the revolutionary program that brought graph mode to voice editing, has become a popular tool in most studios for surgical pitch clarification. Higher-tier versions even support multitrack editing, making it much simpler to work with massive vocal projects.

Melodyne 5 now automatically detects atonal information such as esses and consonant sounds and leaves them untuned, helping to save time from when this had to be done manually to avoid artifacts, which are audible glitches caused by pitch shifting.

Synchro Arts Revoice Pro

Price: $599

Revoice Pro, the bigger brother of Synchro Art’s popular application Vocalign, is intended to be a fully-featured editing solution for devoted vocal editors and vocal producers. Despite its premium price, Revoice Pro is definitely hard to pass up if vocal work is your main goal to edit, with graph tuning options, time alignment, and sophisticated capabilities such as performance matching to save time on doubles.

Antares Autotune

Price: $99-$399

They created it, so of course they mastered the art of such! Antares is, without a doubt, the best-automated tuner on the market. Their new graph mode, which is included in the Pro version, is also wonderful, with advanced features such as the ability to adjust different speeds for different words to ensure maximum transparency. It’s pricey, yes, but there’s a reason for it.

The EFX version also includes a vocoder, and UAD versions let you use the external DSP from a Universal Audio unit with processing if that’s your thing.

Takeaway

And there you go! The 8 greatest autotune plugins to utilize to create flawless-sounding vocals. You now have a better understanding of what to look for while tuning, how to maintain the performance naturally, and the best tools to get there.

It doesn’t really matter whatever tools you use as long as the outcome sounds fantastic. After reviewing this list, you should be able to make an informed selection concerning your next voice-tuning equipment. We hope you have fun playing with your chosen autotune tool and you will enhance your sound with your creativity!