Beat Making
AI Vocals: The 6 Best Vocal AI Plugins and Tools in 2024
AI took the world by storm in 2023. So it’s no wonder that more producers are curious about how vocal AI plugins and tools could transform their music production workflows.
After the infamous AI Drake hit and a barrage of faked vocal AI memes making their rounds on social media—it’s more than clear that AI vocal tools and plugins will impact the music industry.
So, how can you start using AI vocal plugins and tools in your music production process?
In this article, we’ll take a look at the various ways vocal AI technology can be used and we’ll identify the best vocal AI plugins and tools available right now.
Let’s dive in.
What is Vocal AI?
Vocal AI refers to any technology—plugin, web app or otherwise—that uses AI to produce, mimic or manipulate vocal recordings.
Vocal AI can be used to simplify music production processes like vocal alignment, re-create the sound of a famous singer’s voice or tune a recorded vocal take with deep precision.
This is how the pros get great vocal recordings.
Are AI vocals legal?
With famous artists increasingly being mimicked by vocal AI tools that are trained on their voices—the legal considerations around the topic are increasingly murky.
There’s nothing illegal about using a vocal AI to re-create your favorite singer based on a vocal take in your DAW, but only if you do so privately or for your own entertainment.
If you write a track with a faked AI vocal, especially if you use one to mimic a famous artist, your music will likely be taken down from major streaming platforms like Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music and others.
It’s become a major focus of these platforms to identify AI-generated content, so you could be flagged, taken down and even banned if you use this kind of technology without clearly labeling it as AI-generated content.
AI stands to change music production in 2023 and beyond. Read - AI in Music: 6 Tech Tools Changing How Musicians Create
Worse, you could be hit with legal action from the artist’s label or representatives, especially if you’ve profited from the artist’s voice without their consent.
So, if you choose to try out a tool that can replicate someones voice, do so privately or make sure you have the artist’s permission.
How is vocal AI used in music production
Of course, beyond vocal mimicry, there are other ways that vocal AI can be used in vocal production.
Vocal AI plugins are often used to produce convincing choirs, interesting synths and polish vocal parts like realigning layered vocal takes or tuning vocal takes while maintaining a natural, human sound.
The best vocal AI plugins and tools
Let’s dive into a handful of vocal AI plugins and tools with a variety of applications.
1. Elf.tech
Elf.tech is the pioneering vocal AI tool from Grimes that gives subscribers instant access to a powerful AI model of the famous singer’s voice.
You can easily submit any vocal take and receive a version that sound exactly like if Grimes was singing the actual part.
Since this tool is owned by Grimes, this one clearly gives you legal access to use her voice for commercial purposes.
But, at the time of writing this her team is still sorting out legal considerations with streaming platforms, so you may run into issues with distributing to some streaming platforms if you use a tool like this.
2. Synchro Arts VocAlign Project 5
While it’s not strictly an AI plugin, VocAlign Project 5 by Synchro Arts puts some seriously complex algorithms honed on over 25 years of data to work.
This revolutionary tool changed the way thousands of producers align layered vocal takes, and will help with speeding up this time-consuming aspect of vocal production.
Before, producers would have to manually re-align layered vocals using flex-time tools directly in the DAW timeline.
See VocAlign in action.
This process could take hours, requiring producers to pore over vocal recordings and align each rhythmic deviance to the grid.
The more singers, layers and parts a song had, the more time-consuming the process became.
You can imagine how difficult these tasks could be when working with a choir or multi-singer ensemble.
VocAlign eliminated this tedious part of vocal production by using powerful software to adjust layered vocals and ensure every part was rhythmically in time, without causing destruction or distorting the overall sound.
Its SmartAlign feature can even intelligently align background vocals to match and complement your lead vocals.
So, if you find yourself scratching your head over tackling an out-of-sync layered vocal part, definitely give VocAlign a try.
3. Lalals
Lalals (stylized as lalals), represents the cutting-edge side of vocal AI production.
The relatively simple web app offers users the ability to select AI voice models from a seriously impressive canon of A-list pop stars.
Here's 10 free vocal plugins we love.
Want to turn your rap into a Drake tune? How about turning your vocals into a convincing Beyonce or Ed Sheeran? Lalals has you covered.
It’s a pretty simple workflow, you just have to drop a (tuned) vocal take into the web app and lalals will spit back a modelled version of whichever pop star you choose.
Of course, this is where vocal AI wades into murky legal territory.
The company claims it has trained its models on cleared material, insinuating that you can use the models for commercial purposes—but it’s hard to say exactly how you can use them when considering attitudes toward AI vocals in the wider music industry.
At the very least you may need to be clear that you used an AI model to make the vocal part or risk being taken down or worse. Tread carefully with this one, but have fun with it!
4. Musicfy
Musicfy is similar to lalals, except it doesn’t use name-brand pop stars to describe its vocal models.
So it may be possible to use these vocal AI models with a bit less legal risk as they’re somewhat less recognizable than the iconic pop stars listed on lalals.
But, it’s still not entirely clear who these vocal models were modeled after or what claims the vocalists the AI models were trained on have to any music you produce with these models.
That being said, this is an impressive and cutting-edge tool that can be incredibly inspiring, just be careful if you choose to use this technology commercially and consider being super clear about using an AI model to make the track.
5. SynchroArts RePitch
RePitch is a powerful vocal tuning plugin that employs some seriously powerful algorithms.
This is not a strictly AI plugin, but the powerful software is built on huge codebase that generates AI-like results that are capable of tuning vocals, while maintaining a natural human sound.
Here's what makes RePitch so powerful.
The unique interface also makes it simple to clearly visualize what manipulations the software is making to the vocal take.
If you’re working with any vocal part that could benefit from some subtle tuning, RePitch is a serious choice to consider.
6. Sample Logic Vocal AI
Vocal AI from Sample Logic is an impressive vocal synthesis plugin that does an effective job of generating a variety of vocal sounds—from realistic choirs to psychedelic swirling vocal sounding pads and stabs.
You can get pretty creative with this plugin, it’s great for making ambient soundscapes, epic choirs, unique synth sounds and much more.
This synth is hosted via Kontakt, so you’ll need to get familiar with Kontakt Libraries to use it.
While it’s not immediately clear what role AI specifically plays in the synth, Sample Focus states that its used in blending and modulating the vocal samples to creating a convincing and custom effect.
The early days of true vocal AI
Vocal AI has exploded into the mainstream in 2023. We’re seeing capabilities and music created that we never thought possible until now.
Undoubtedly, the vocal AI trend will continue to grow and evolve as the music industry scrambles to untie the various legal knots that the technology has created.
For now, these vocal AI tools present some handy fixes to long suffered problems in music production and offer near-infinite inspiration to producers looking to level up their sound.
So, go and give these impressive new technologies a try and see what you can make!
Alex Lavoie is a drummer, music producer, songwriter and marketing professional living in Montreal, Quebec. He works as a staff writer at LANDR by day and writes indie post-punk tunes in his band UTILS while moonlighting as drummer for folk-rock outfit The Painters. Connect with Alex Lavoie on LANDR Network!
@Alex LavoieGear guides, tips, tutorials, inspiration and more—delivered weekly.
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