How to Get Autotune: Free Options, FL Studio and Every Major DAW

Here's how to get autotune: install a pitch-correction plugin in your DAW (Antares Auto-Tune, a free one like Graillon or MAutoPitch, or your DAW's built-in tool), put it on the vocal track and set the key and scale of your song. On a phone, the free BandLab app includes an AutoPitch effect that does the same job.

Autotune isn't one product. It's the common name for real-time pitch correction, and Auto-Tune is the Antares trademark that gave the effect its name. Any pitch-correction plugin can give you both natural fixes and the hard, robotic sound. Below: the free options, step-by-step setup for FL Studio and the other big DAWs, and the settings that matter.

How to get autotune for free

• Logic Pro: Pitch Correction is built in. Click an Audio FX slot on the vocal track and choose Pitch, then Pitch Correction. Flex Pitch handles note-by-note editing.
• GarageBand (Mac): open the editor for the audio track and use the Pitch Correction slider in the track settings. Tick Limit to Key so it corrects to the song's key.
• BandLab: the free browser and mobile studio includes AutoPitch, with presets from subtle to hard tune.
• Graillon (free edition): a free real-time pitch-correction plugin from Auburn Sounds that loads in any DAW that runs VST3 or AU.
• MAutoPitch: a free pitch-correction plugin from MeldaProduction, simple and reliable.
• FL Studio and Ableton Live: both have built-in options in some versions and editions, covered below.

How to get autotune in FL Studio

FL Studio includes Pitcher for real-time correction and NewTone for editing notes, depending on your edition. If your edition has Pitcher, load it on the vocal's mixer insert and skip to the settings section. To use a third-party autotune plugin in FL Studio instead:

1. Run the plugin's installer and keep the VST3 option ticked.
2. In FL Studio, open Options, then Manage plugins, and click Find installed plugins to scan.
3. Make sure the vocal plays through its own mixer insert. If you recorded into an insert, it already does; for an audio clip, set its mixer track number in the Channel Rack.
4. Open the Mixer (F9), select that insert, click an empty effect slot and choose your autotune plugin.
5. Set the key and scale of the beat, then lower the retune speed until you hear the correction you want.

More on loading plugins in FL Studio is on our plugins for FL Studio page.

How to add autotune in Ableton, Pro Tools and Logic

Ableton Live: recent versions of Live 12 include Auto Shift, a real-time pitch-correction device; check that your version and edition have it. Otherwise, install a VST3 or AU autotune plugin, enable the plugin folders in Settings, and drag it from the Browser onto the vocal track. Our Ableton install guide has the exact steps.

Pro Tools: Pro Tools only loads AAX plugins, so check that your autotune plugin comes in AAX. Install it, then click an insert slot on the vocal track and find it in the plug-in menu, usually under Pitch Shift. See how to install plugins in Pro Tools.

Logic Pro: use the built-in Pitch Correction, or install an AU plugin and find it under the Audio Units section of an Audio FX slot.

How to set up autotune: the settings that matter

Every autotune plugin uses roughly the same controls, though the names vary. Put it first on the vocal, before EQ and compression, so the rest of the chain processes in-tune notes.

1. Key: the key of the song. Ask the producer, check the beat's file name, or find the root note on a keyboard by ear.
2. Scale: usually major or minor. Chromatic corrects to every semitone, which is safer when you don't know the key but sounds less polished.
3. Retune speed: how fast notes are pulled to pitch. Zero for hard tune, tens of milliseconds for a modern polished sound, slower for natural fixes.
4. Humanize: relaxes correction on long notes so vibrato and natural slides survive. Use more on slow songs.
5. Voice type or range: tells the plugin roughly how high the singer is, which helps it track the pitch accurately.
6. Amount or mix: blend or reduce the correction if it sounds too processed.

How to get the hard autotune sound

The hard-tune effect is just very fast correction. Set the correct key and scale, put retune speed at or near zero, and turn humanize off. The voice then jumps from note to note with no glide in between. Getting the key right matters even more here, because a wrong scale makes the singer snap to notes that clash with the beat.

Here's our Tune plugin with its Trap Melody preset: minor scale, Retune at 6 ms and Humanize at 10%, close to hard tune but with a hint of movement left on held notes.

Using autotune while you record

Singers often perform better hearing the effect in their headphones. To do that, the plugin must run on the track while you record, with as little delay as possible.

• Use a real-time plugin built for low latency. Graphical editors like Melodyne are for after the take.
• Lower your audio interface buffer size to around 64 or 128 samples while recording, then raise it again for mixing.
• Turn off other heavy plugins on the session while tracking, or freeze those tracks, so the CPU can keep up.

To compare paid and free plugins in more detail, see our guide to the best autotune plugin.