9) Auto-Tune Evo. Another solid free autotune VST on our list, Auto-Tune Evo offers two distinctive ways to deal with pitch correction. For basic pitch corrections and correcting off notes in live performance in real-time, Automatic Mode would suffice as it identifies closest pitch in a user specified scale (minor, major, chromatic, etc). 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.
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.
Autotune Vst Download
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.
Free Autotune Vst
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.
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)
Auto Tune Vst Download
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.