Vocal Production
Vocal Tuner: How to Get Your Voice On Pitch
Vocal tuners can help with one of the toughest parts of making a song—singing on pitch.
They’re music production apps that can change the tuning of a singer’s voice after they’ve recorded, or even while they sing in real time.
But vocal tuning is far from a gimmick, it’s a real music production process that even the pros use.
That’s why there are hundreds of vocal tuning apps out there, from free online voice tuners to advanced vocal pitch correction software.
In this article I’ll explain the basics of vocal tuners and suggest a few different types you can use right now.
Let’s get started
What is a vocal tuner?
Vocal tuners are plugins, software or apps that can improve a singer’s pitch.
In music production, pitch correction is considered an important part of the editing phase while working with vocals.
Music producers these apps to subtly tweak the singer’s performance to bring it closer to an ideal take.
But vocal tuners can also be used as a real-time effect while the singer records or performs.
In this application, the software adjusts the pitch in real time so the vocalist can hear and respond to the effect.
This method is especially popular when it comes to the hard tuning effect made popular by the original Antares AutoTune.
AutoTune is the best known brand of vocal tuning software, but it’s certainly not the only one out there. In fact, using the term “AutoTune” to refer to vocal tuners in general is misleading—pro engineers call it pitch correction instead.
Finally, some vocal tuning apps help singers develop their skills in singing on pitch. I’ll include some of these as well.
Struggling with lyrics? Peggy breaks it down.
Voice tuning apps
If you’re just looking for a fun way to tune your voice and sing on pitch, you might consider a simple voice tuning app.
These can be found online or in mobile app stores. They often other functions like vocal effects or voice changers.
Simple voice tuning apps can be great novelties for social media posts, parties or just plain fun.
That said, these are unlikely to be a great solution for music production, so avoid them if you’re making a song you hope to release on streaming services.
Here are a few voice tuning apps that you can try for free or for a small fee.
Voloco
Voloco is an easy-to-use app with vocal tuning and other effects.
It lets you sing over top of tracks from your library with real-time tuning and studio-quality effects so that your voice blends right in with your favorite music.
You can adjust the tuning strength and even create video/audio recordings to share online
Qneo Voice Synth
Qneo Voice synth is a live vocal processor that can turn your voice into a unique instrument.
With dozens of controls for shaping the sound, Voice Synth can create incredible new sonic textures from your voice.
Tune Me
Tune Me is a straightforward, effective app for recording and tuning vocals on mobile.
Vocal tuner for singing practice
Delivering parts in tune is one of the most important skills for vocalists.
Some vocal tuners are meant specifically to help singers train their pitch accuracy.
Songwriting 101.
These may have traditional pitch correction tools in addition to detection features that determine when a singer drifts out of tune.
Combined with visual feedback, this type of tuner is a practice tool that can improve your vocal skills.
Here are a few vocal tuners that can help you sound better.
Voxercise
Voxercise is a full-featured vocal warm up app designed to help you take your warmup routine anywhere.
With adjustable vocal ranges and sophisticated tuning per-note, Voxercise makes your practice routine more effective.
Muted.io
Muted.io offers a suite of music practice tools including a vocal tuner with pitch recognition.
Simply navigate to the site, start the tuner and sing to start practicing your pitch accuracy.
SolFaMe
SolFaMe is a vocal practice app with tuning drills to help you hone in on musical pitch while identifying the notes on a staff.
Professional vocal tuner apps
Professional voice tuners are the music production tools usually called pitch correction plugins.
These are powerful software programs designed to invisibly nudge a vocalist’s pitch to improve their recorded sound.
Typically, these apps are third-party plugins meant for use inside a DAW, or digital audio workstation.
That means to use them you’ll need to be set up with basic home studio software already.
On top of that, some professional vocal tuners can be expensive.
After all, we’re talking about advanced technology that changed what was possible with recorded audio!
With that in mind, it’s worth paying a bit of money for a pro vocal tuning plugin if you’re looking for quality results for a mix.
Here’s an overview of the top pro plugins:
Synchro Arts RePitch
Synchro Arts RePitch is a next generation pitch correction plugin built for natural, transparent sound.
With an affordable price and a suite of powerful pitch tools, RePitch should be on your list to try for pro vocal tuning.
WavesTune Real-Time
WavesTune is a classic vocal pitch correction tool from Waves.
Available in both editor-style and real-time editions, WavesTune is among the cheapest pro vocal tuners.
That’s thanks to the company’s frequent sales and discount offers—don’t get stuck paying full price!
Celemony Melodyne
Melodyne is sometimes called the industry standard pitch correction software for pro studios.
Its advanced processing offers extremely high quality pitch and time editing.
And while Celemony now offers a range of products at different price points, its full edition is pricier than the rest on this list.
Studio vocal recording explained.
Antares AutoTune Pro
AutoTune is synonymous with the robot voice effect famous in hip-hop, R&B and electronic music.
But that’s not all the software is capable of!
AutoTune Pro is a great option for subtle pitch correction as well as hard tuning.
Its editor view gives you the fine grain control you need for pro vocal tuning.
Vocal tune-up
These days vocal tuners are everywhere.
From the top of the charts to the apps on your phone, it’s a music tech innovation that’s here to stay.
Whether you need a simple novelty voice changer or a professional audio editing tool, you’ll have a solid idea of what’s out there once you’ve made it through this article.
Various contributors from the LANDR team of music mentors.
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