Vocals are one of the biggest priorities in your mix. In some genres, vocals are THE centerpiece around everything else in the mix revolves. As such, the vocals aren’t something you can sweep under the rug, they need to sparkle otherwise the mix will suffer. I recently covered my personal vocal chain, sharing both the types of effects I use, the order I use them in, AND the settings I dial in to each to get my vocals perfect every time. Of course many of the effects I use are premium options, so I thought I would put together a list of the best free vocal VST plugins alternatives for each type of processing in that chain, so let’s get into it.
Best Free Vocal VST Plugins
Let’s begin this list of the best free vocal VST plugins with the same effect I use to begin my vocal chain: autotune.
Graillon (Autotune)
Autotune is best used early on in your vocal processing chain so it can be applied to the pure, raw vocal itself. More to the point, subsequent effects you might use later in the vocal chain can give the autotune a false read about what its hearing, so the earlier you can use this generally the more effective it will be for tuning up your vox.
Graillon is a free autotune audio effect designed to keep your vocals in tune with less work from you. Note that there is a premium version, as well, but the free version includes all the things you need like, ya know, autotune.
The keyboard allows you to include or exclude certain notes so the tuner avoids them and snaps your vocal to the nearest included note, ensuring you’re only using notes which are within the key of your song/vocal.
Aside from tuning the vocal and allowing you to adjust the correction to taste to create a more transparent tuning, Graillon has additional features like the ability to outright change the pitch and formant to really change the flavor of the vocal like you’ll commonly hear in a lot of pop music vocals today.
TDR Nova (Dynamic EQ)
TDR Nova is my favorite free EQ available today.
I did a deeper dive on this in my overview of the best free EQ plugin available and I stand by that claim even today.
If you have checked out any of my EQ cheat sheets or EQ tutorials in general on this site, you’ll know that I love dynamic EQ and use it as much as I use conventional/static EQ.
I even recently did an entire overview on the how to use dynamic EQ, and vocals were a huge emphasis.
While like a few plugins on this list, TDR Nova has a premium option which boasts a few advantages like more than the 4 band cap you have with the free option:
Still, if you use it effectively (or chain multiple instances together), TDR Nova works quite nicely for reactively sculpting out problem frequencies as they act up, keeping more of that natural vocal sound intact for more transparent and typically better sounding results.
Aside from EQ, TDR Nova makes for a great spectrum analyzer, as well, which can be useful for understanding what’s going on with your vocal, as well.
Stock Multiband Compressor (De-Esser)
A de-esser smooths out the harshness associated with exaggerated “S” sounds, also known as vocal sibilance.
Your DAW may or may not come with a stock de-esser, but you can use a multiband compressor for the same purpose.
De-essers are essentially just multiband compressors which focus exclusively on the 7-10k range where sibilance resides.
I did a tutorial on how to turn any multiband compressor into a de-esser, so refer to that for more information, but essentially you simply need to create a band around 9k and loop the most offending instance of sibilance in your vocal track while you tweak the parameters:
Aside from JUST using multiband compression as a de-esser, you can use multiband compression on vocals to tame the dynamics with greater precision:
Dial these settings into your stock multiband compressor which comes with your DAW for instantly controlled yet transparent precision compression on your vocals.
Still, the TDR Nova dynamic EQ allows you to get similar results with a bit more precision, so it’s a judgement call and you might try both.
Fetish (1176 Compressor)
FET compressors, or Field Effect Transistor compressor plugins are largely based on the famous 1967 Universal Audio 1176 and are excellent at taming peaks and giving your signal a lot more cohesion and energy. This makes them ideal one of the more dynamic types of audio in vocals.
The appropriately named Fetish compressor is a free 1176 modeled compressor which has all of the typical settings and analog tonal character you’ll find on/from an 1176:
Because it’s not as intuitive as other compressors, check out my overview on how to use an 1176 compressor.
Here is a snapshot of the settings I generally like to start with when compressing vocals with an 1176 style compressor:
The Fetish is the first step in our chain for dealing with the typically extreme dynamics associated with vocals, so I like that 8:1 ratio coupled with a threshold which addresses virtually the entire practical dynamic range of that vocal to achieve 8-12dB in gain reduction.
The Fetish does most of the heavy lifting, but the entirety of the vocal compression doesn’t fall on one single compressor.
LALA (Optical Compressor)
In going back to my vocal chain, I like to follow up the first compressor with a second compressor immediately following it (see how many compressors on vocals).
After we’ve tamed the extreme dynamics of the vocal with the 1176 or first compressor, I like to follow it up with something a little smoother.
An opto or optical compressor is perfect for this job, and LALA is a great free option.
As you can see, the controls couldn’t be simpler. Unless you want to use the sidechaining capabilities, the opto-style compressor has two settings you need to pay attention: gain and peak reduction.
Admittedly taken from a snapshot of the premium Waves CLA-2A, you can see all you need to do is turn the peak reduction dial until you have the amount of gain reduction you want, then makeup the gain with the gain setting:
It’s vocal compression for dummies, and a great way to apply some gentle smoothing to the remaining peaks to get the level of your vocal under control while imparting a bit more energy and keeping it sitting (almost) perfectly in the mix.
Audio Assault Head Crusher (Saturation)
I JUST did a tutorial on vocal saturation, an incredibly useful effect for warming up a thin or top heavy vocal. This is great for vocals which weren’t recorded in ideal conditions, with lacking equipment, or the vocalist was simply too far away from the microphone and thus the vocal is light in body.
Saturation creates frequency information via overtones in locations they didn’t previously exist, making it a more effective alternative to trying to boost the body frequencies which just aren’t there in the recording.
While one of my top 3 favorite plugins just in general is Decapitator from Soundtoys, a great free alternative to Decapitator is Head Crusher from Audio Assault. Why do these plugin names always have to be so violent toward the head, by the way? I digress.
While it’s missing a couple bells and whistles like Decapitator’s “Style” (see my overview on the best saturator plugin), Head Crusher has a very similar interface.
The drive dial is the major contributor in how much of that distortion you want to add from subtle warmth to full on crispy crunchiness (which makes for a great aux send when blended in conservatively).
The high and low pass filters are there, and the very useful tone knob is there to favor a darker or brighter sound even while keeping the drive/saturation at a minimum.
While it’s great for supplementing the body in your vocal (or any track), I love a plugin like this for nudging the overall tone of all different types of audio in my mixes both for the simplicity and efficacy of its quick and great sounding adjustments in either direction.
Little Microshift (Width)
I basically consider this one a cheat because of how often I use it and how easy it is to instantly get the effect that I want.
Whenever I feel like a vocal could use a little more size in the stereo field (with or without vocal doubles) and without having to rely on reverb or delays which can get messy, I blend in a touch of Little Microshift via an aux send.
Strictly speaking, Little MicroShift isn’t available for download on its own outside of the occasional giveaway, but if you keep an eye out when it does become free it’s an incredibly useful addition to your vocal toolbelt; I even use it more than its premium big brother, Microshift.
Vocal Rider
Lastly, a vocal rider automates the level of your vocal for you.
This is a useful plugin especially at the end of your vocal chain because it allows you to both keep your vocal on top of the mix as well as add a little life into the track.
While there are plenty of effective premium vocal riders for accomplishing this task, I LOVE Vola 2 for accomplishing the same goal for free:
It’s not quite as intuitive or effective necessarily for keeping the vocal on top of the instrumental as say the Waves Vocal Rider, but you essentially tweak the push down and pull up sliders as your practical range.
If you want to be conservative like I recommend, keep these at a plus and minus 1 or 2dB at most to introduce the subtlest of volume automation without having to touch your fader.
It won’t be enough that your listener will hear an audible difference, but they’ll be able to feel it which is the goal with adding that touch of extra life at the tail end of your chain.
Give some or all of these best free vocal VST plugins a shot in your next mix and I guarantee at least one of them will become a regular in your toolbelt for achieving the same results as plugins which cost so much more!
Also, check out my many vocal tutorials for tips on how to use them to craft the perfect vocal in your next mix.
