The Best Autotune Plugin, Plus What Autotune Actually Costs

The best autotune plugin for most people is Antares Auto-Tune, the original and still the reference for both natural pitch correction and the hard-tune effect, with Celemony Melodyne the top pick for detailed note-by-note editing. If you don't want to pay, Logic Pro's built-in Pitch Correction and free plugins like Graillon and MAutoPitch cover the basics.

Autotune plugins split into two kinds. Real-time correction sits on the track and fixes pitch as the audio plays, which is fast and gives you the hard-tune sound. Graphical editing shows every note so you can move, stretch and reshape them by hand, which is slower but more transparent. Most vocal producers use one of each.

Autotune plugins compared

Antares Auto-Tune: the best autotune for the classic sound

Antares Auto-Tune is the plugin the effect is named after. Set the key and scale, set the retune speed, and it pulls each note to the nearest pitch in the scale. Slow retune gives natural correction; zero retune gives the instantly recognizable hard-tune sound on countless rap and pop records. In between is where most vocals live: fast enough to catch a sour note, slow enough that the slides between notes still sound human.

It comes in several editions. Auto-Tune Access is the simple entry point, Auto-Tune Artist adds more control for performance, and Auto-Tune Pro adds Graph Mode for detailed editing alongside the real-time Auto Mode. Antares also makes Auto-Tune EFX+ for creative effects and sells the range through an Auto-Tune Unlimited subscription.

Melodyne: the best for detailed pitch editing

Celemony Melodyne shows each note as a blob on a piano-roll grid. You can drag a note to a new pitch, flatten or keep its vibrato, change its length and adjust its timing, all while keeping the singer's natural character. It's the standard for invisible tuning in pop, and for fixing a great take that has a few off notes.

Melodyne comes in four editions, essential, assistant, editor and studio, with more editing tools at each step. In DAWs that support ARA, it opens right on the audio track without a separate transfer step.

Other strong autotune plugins

Waves Tune Real-Time is a low-latency real-time corrector built for tracking and live use. Synchro Arts RePitch is a graphical editor from the makers of VocAlign, aimed at natural results. For free options, Graillon from Auburn Sounds has a free edition with pitch correction and pitch-shifting effects, and MAutoPitch from MeldaProduction is a straightforward free corrector.

Tune (ours): real-time correction with formant preservation

Tune is our real-time pitch-correction plugin. Pick a key (all 12) and a scale (Chromatic, Major, Minor, Harmonic Minor, Major and Minor Pentatonic, Blues or Dorian), set Retune from 0 ms for hard tune up to 400 ms for natural, and use Humanize to relax the correction on held notes so vibrato survives. A Voice setting (Bass, Tenor, Alto or Soprano) helps it track the singer.

Tune preserves formants, so voices keep their character when you shift them, and a live pitch graph shows the detected pitch, the target note and the correction. Transpose and Detune controls handle octave-down ad-libs and robot effects. Presets include Hard Tune, Trap Melody, Natural Pop, Subtle Fix, Robot Voice and Octave Down Ad-libs. Tune costs €49, runs as VST3, AU and AAX, and its latency is low enough to monitor through while recording.

It's a real-time tool, so for moving individual notes by hand you'll still want a graphical editor like Melodyne. Here's the Natural Pop preset: Retune at 70 ms and Humanize at 45%, fast enough to fix pitch and slow enough to keep the voice natural.

Stock autotune in your DAW

• Logic Pro: Pitch Correction for real-time fixes and Flex Pitch for graphical editing, both built in.
• GarageBand (Mac): a Pitch Correction slider in the audio track settings, with an option to limit it to the song's key.
• FL Studio: Pitcher for real-time correction and NewTone for note editing, depending on your edition.
• Ableton Live: recent versions of Live 12 include Auto Shift, a real-time pitch-correction device. Check that your version and edition have it.

For step-by-step setup in each of these, including free options, see how to get autotune.

How to choose an autotune plugin

• On a budget? Start with your DAW's stock tool or a free plugin, and upgrade when you run into its limits.
• Want the hard-tune sound? Pick a real-time plugin with a retune speed that goes to zero.
• Want invisible fixes on a great take? A graphical editor gives you note-level control.
• Tracking through it? Check the plugin is built for low latency.
• Mixing the whole vocal? Put the tuner first in the chain, before EQ and compression. Our Velvet vocal chain is designed to sit right after it, and the best plugins for vocals covers the rest of the chain.