Autotune is an effect used to either save yourself time tuning up a vocal or creating some interacting aesthetic effects in your mix (as I covered in my recent overview on how to use autotune). Let’s talk what is the best autotune as I’ll be offering up both a free and premium option for getting your vocals (or even instruments in some cases) in order.
What is the Best Autotune
Antares’ Auto-Tune is their latest version of the software they pioneered in the late 90’s, and it’s still the best option regarding what is the best autotune you can get today.
This is my go-to autotune when I need to:
- Tuning a vocal without letting the listener hearing the tuning happening.
- Adjusting the pitch or formant of a vocal for vocal layering or ear candy.
- Achieving the robotic “Cher” effect via instant note snapping.
- Tuning instruments after the fact, post-recording.
As you can see from my overview of the best autotune settings which I dialed in via Auto-Tune for the most transparent yet in tune profile for any vocal, there’s a lot going on with this plugin:
To really appreciate what makes this the best autotune, let’s go through the features and parameters.
Input Type
The input type helps Auto-Tune yield much better results than I get from other tuning plugins. It offers options for three vocal types in Soprano, Alto/Tenor, and Low Male, as well as Instrument and Bass Instrument.
Choosing the proper setting to best match the input material you’re tuning makes the tuning sound more natural.
If you’re not sure the best input type, the “Learn” (machine learning) feature will detect it for you. This is good for vocals which are on the fringe between two different ranges.
Key/Scale
While you can manually choose the notes you want to include or exclude, you can save yourself time if you know the key of the song and can choose this accordingly.
The key and scale work together for choosing the notes which will be included/tuned to and just as importantly excluded/avoided.
If you’re not sure what scale to use (Major, Minor, etc.) then you can just choose Chromatic to tune to the closest pitch relative to that key in the 12-tone chromatic scale.
Similar to the “Learn” option in the Input Type section a moment ago, we can click “Auto Key” to have Auto-Tune automatically figure out what key our vocal or input source exists in and set it accordingly which is another time saver.
Tracking
The tracking parameter essentially dictates how often the plugin checks in on the pitch.
I’ve found the tracking parameter works well at its default value of 50, but if you hear artifacts from the plugin then you might need to turn this down to smooth those out.
Retune Speed
The retune speed is one of the main drivers of how transparent or apparent the tune adjustments are happening.
Measured in milliseconds, setting this at its fastest speed of 1ms all the way to the right will result in that robotic note snapping effect.
I typically find that setting this to 40ms is a good starting point to where, in most cases, you’ll achieve in-tune note adjustments without making it clear that the notes are being adjusted.
Every vocal or input is different, but turn this faster and you’ll begin to hear the adjustments happening. If you’re mixing pop vocals, you can get away with a touch of this to add to the vocal sheen.
If you’re still hearing the vocal tuning taking place, you may need to turn this down to 50ms or slower.
Just note that depending on the pace of the vocal, you might not experience the benefit of the tuning if you turn this too low and that it’s all about finding that sweet spot.
Flex-Tune
The next two parameters are part of why I love Auto-Tune as they’re designed to preserve the expressiveness in your vocals in particular.
Part of the appeal of organic, human vocals is their imperfections and part of that is not always hitting every note perfectly in tune.
The flex-tune parameter keeps that expressiveness in the vocal – by turning this up the correction window of every note gets smaller so the tuning gets more lenient essentially.
I like setting this in the middle, around 50 for a transparent, natural result.
Humanize
Humanize affects sustained notes. It’s natural when a singer holds a long note that you get a little wavering around the true pitch of that note.
Turning this down to 0 will keep the vocal locked perfectly on the note they’re holding on those longer notes which adds a robotic feature to the vocal.
Turning up this parameter maintains that slight wander present in the dry vocal, so I like to set this around a mid point of 50.
Natural Vibrato
Vibrato is somewhat an extension of that last point as when a vocalist enlists vibrato on a note, they intentionally add a little variation back and forth around the note they’re delivering to make those particular notes and the overall performance sound a little less monotone and more interesting.
You can preserve or reduce the natural vibrato which exists by turning this up or down, respectively. You can even introduce some vibrato via the “Vibrato Controls” in the advanced view, though admittedly I have difficulty getting good sounding or better said non-robotic results with this.
Modern/Classic
Antares are now in double digits on their latest versions of Auto-Tune Pro. One past iteration of their Auto-Tune plugin, specifically Auto-Tune 5, still has a lot of fans which swear by and use it in their mixes for its specific and unique sound.
It has SO many fans, in fact, that Antares recognized this and built that sound right into their latest versions of Auto-Tune by way of the “Classic” Mode.
While Modern mode is just that, the “Classic” mode preserves that sound for a slightly brighter and pronounced transition and attack on the tuning, so give it a spin on your next vocal
Auto Mode/Graph Mode
Whereas “Auto” mode gives you the simplified perspective, Auto-Tune Pro also has a “Graph” mode which allows you to make fine, detailed, and automated adjustments to your vocal from beat to beat.
You can adjust the pitch and timing on a much more drilled down perspective here which is great for vocals which might have an especially egregious issue here or there.
Formant
We typically think of the formant parameter as an effective way to create some ear candy by adjusting the timbre of that vocal. You hear modified formants on vocals a lot in pop music these days, particularly when layered underneath the main vocal or sometimes on the main vocal itself.
While you can certainly do that to adjust the sound of the throat for some fun aesthetic effects here, you can compensate for timbre changes to the vocal as a product of the tuning via the formant controller.
Transpose
You can create a static adjustment of the key of the vocal via the Transpose feature.
I like to use this feature combined with the formant controller for seamlessly adjusting audio which was recorded a semi-tone or two above or below to my intended key.
Detune
The detune feature changes the reference pitch of Auto-Tune so that it can accommodate for audio recorded in a different reference frequency.
Keyboard
You can exclude specific notes via the Keyboard feature at the bottom of the interface.
This is useful when you’ve got a vocal which is in a certain key but might include some non-traditional notes which are outside of that key.
Normally, depending on the Key and Scale set, the plugin would force those notes to unintentional surrounding notes.
Adjusting the keyboard allows you to create your own custom note-set to suit whatever your input material requires.
Presets
There are dozens of presets to pull up to achieve all kinds of effects and results from your input material.
You can also save your own presets, so if you find a setting profile which works well for quickly tuning up your monophonic audio of a specific instrument or a profile which creates a certain effect on your vocal you like and want to revisit, you can easily save it for a quick recall later.
The long and the short is whether you want instant results for some subtle yet effective automatic tuning or you want to roll up your sleeves with details for days, Auto-Tune Pro has you covered. Admittedly part of why I love this plugin is the results I get from it fast without having to roll up my sleeves; it’s the best lazy-producers solution to fast tuning.
Best Free Autotune
If you’re looking for an excellent FREE alternative to Auto-Tune Pro, give Graillon a look.
This is an attractive and easy to use autotuning option for free which doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of Auto-Tune, but one which is very effective for tuning up your vocals.
The interface is very intuitive; the keyboard is much smaller and just includes a single octave for you to include or exclude notes as necessary.
The “Correction” panel allows you to adjust how aggressively the tuning occurs, even featuring Min and Max parameters for determining how far off a note will be adjusted from its target to give you a lot of control over maintaining the organic and transparent sound of your vocal.
It also has pitch shift and formant controllers to compensating as necessary, similar to as I outlined with Auto-Tune Pro.
You can also adjust both the Wet or autotuned version of your vocal relative to the Dry or untouched version of your vocal to create a nice balance and give yourself a little extra control over the vocal.
Even similar to Auto-Tune, Graillon even has 3 different pitch engines, one of which targets a sound from a previous iteration of the plugin in Graillon 2 (G2).
It even has some added effects in compression, a gate, chorus, preamp, and bitcrusher, the latter of which can add some color to the vocal.
Note that there’s a premium edition with a bit more functionality, but you get the lion’s share of features with the free version and it’s a very serviceable plugin for tuning your vocal, albeit with a bit more effort.
Check out my overview on the best free vocal plugins for more options in getting your vocal sounding its best without spending a dime!
