20 Great Plugins for Vocals (VST, AU, AAX)

Vocals are a vital part of music production for most genres of music. Plugins help to tune vocals to the correct pitch, as well as process them in creative ways that work great for your style of music.

There are a few different types of vocal plugins. While some help you carve out the sound, others tune in near real-time, and others only work with pre-recorded audio. Many of these plugins work differently, and it’s great to have a few of them in your toolkit to work in different situations.

If you want to pitch-correct some vocals, play around with different effects, or even completely dehumanize vocals, there are vocal plugins out there that can help you.

1. Antares Auto-Tune Pro X

Starting this list is the most obvious choice: Antares Auto-Tune Pro X. Known for its professional pitch and time correction, Antares Auto-Tune Pro X is the newest and best addition yet. Its potential to coordinate transparent, natural sound music with hints of classics has made it a top-notch plugin.

The swift and intuitive interface of Antares AutoTune Pro X is the selling point of the plugin. The time and pitch correction with the redesigned Graph Mode makes editing vocals a breeze for either live or studio performances. This version also includes a collection of artist presets to fast-track music-making and editing.

It can be used to improve vocals, while also adding a great amount of creativity to sounds. Auto-tune is often used as a pop and hip-hop vocal plugin to give the vocals a signature sound that is common across some sub-genres.

• Redesigned Graph mode for greater manual editing
• Live input for low latency monitoring
• Audio Random Access Support for tight integration
• Newest, most advanced version

Check it out: Antares Auto-Tune Pro X

2. Melodyne 5 Essential

Celemony Melodyne 5 is a top choice for processing recorded vocals (and other sounds). It is known for its time correction, natural-sounding mix, easy navigation, and other useful tools that help to tighten a track’s pitch impeccably.

A vast range of melodies and rhythms gives enough room for experimentation. Conclusively, Celemony Melodyne 5 includes almost all features that can transform your vocals to perfection. It features note length correction, pitch drift correction, correction of intonation and timing errors, and more!

Just like AutoTune is the standard for live pitch correction, Melodyne 5 is the standard for post-processing vocals.

• Transpose music and scales easily
• AAX, VST3, AU, ARA, Standalone
• Heavily used in the industry for processing recorded vocals

Check it out: Melodyne 5 Essential

3. iZotope VocalSynth 2

This is a great plugin to sculpt and transform vocals.

The iZotope VocalSynth 2 is not only a wonderful voice processor but also comes out stronger with its instrumental processes for all kinds of audio. It has all the creative tools, a user-friendly design interface, and a revamped CPU optimization.

The Biovox tool is an innovative addition to VocalSynth 2 that helps to adjust vocal nasality, vowel sounds, and formatting. The plugin can also help to establish inter-plugin communication with the Ozone, iZotope’s Neutron, Tonal Balance Control, etc.

• AAX, RTAS, AU, VST2, VST3, AudioSuite
• Bivox module
• Advanced view of the synth engine
• Enhanced sound effects
• Includes five vocal engines

Check it out: iZotope VocalSynth 2

4. iZotope Nectar 4

iZotope is a front-runner in quality plugins and their vocal processing plugins, and this is no exception. The great features of iZotope Nectar 4 justify its popularity.

The plugin includes over a dozen modules, including EQ, Harmony, Dimension, and Compressors. The plugin saves you a whole lot of time with its speeding and mixing effects simultaneously. It crafts a better vocal track with its fine series of audio processors and a virtual vocal assistant.

The latter takes care of your pitch and automation corrections and much more. All in all, iZotope Nectar 4 is a great choice for a vocal plugin.

• Very easy to use
• De-esser module
• Pitch and auto-level module
• The vocal assistant is very helpful
• Dynamic and EQ mode is amazing

Check it out: iZotope Nectar 4

5. Waves Vocal Plugin Bundle

The waves vocal bundle comes with a diverse range of four processors in one package. The waves vocal bundle is great for fine-tuning, voice processing, and pitch correction issues. The ‘De-breath’ plugin, reduces and eliminates human excessive breathing while singing.

Its Renaissance Channel and Equaliser, De-Esser, and Compressor plugins can help you polish vocals in your track. The virtual channel strip attends to the EQ, compression, limiting, and gating.

• Great pitch correction
• Works for both monophonic and polyphonic sounds
• Streamlined compressor
• Vintage modeled EQ

Check it out: Waves Vocal Plugin Bundle

6. Little AlterBoy

Little AlterBoy specializes in dramatic sound effects and voice transmissions.

The plugin is from Soundtoys, a well-respected plugin development company. The standout points of this plugin are the vocal melody, vocoder effects, single pitch robotic sounds, and formants. The plugin provides hard-tune effects and locks vocals.

Moreover, Little AlterBoy also creates mixes using instant vocal harmonies. The plugin includes four formats: AAX Native, AAX AudioSuite, VST, and Audio Units (AU).

• Vocal formant and pitch shifting
• Hard Tune FX
• Robot/Vocoder Mode
• Monophonic Voice manipulation with Pitch, Format, Drive, and Mix Controls

Check it out: Little AlterBoy

7. Vocal Splitter

The Vocal Splitter is a definite win for producing wide-sounding vocals.

This is a very common process used in modern vocal productions. The plugin provides easy and time-saving ways to bring your mono vocals into a modern-sounding stereo.

It’s dry/wet mix dialing, frequency parameters, speed and depth, and drive and filter adjustments are on point. It puts forth wide and modern vocals from a mono source, includes presets with one-click transformation and tunes the speed and depth of power effect.

• Drive dial to add grit and increase definition
• Mute Source buttons for effects
• Full PDF Manual and Tutorial video

Check it out: Vocal Splitter

8. TAL-Vocoder (Free)

The TAL-Vocoder is nice free vocoder from a great maker of plugins, able to emulate the sound of old-school vocoders from the 80s.

Tal vocoder is great for producing retro-style vocals, as well as sounds that can be processed and sculpted in interesting ways. If you’re tired of the stock vocoder in your DAW, then you have nothing to lose by downloading this one.

• 11 band vocoder engines
• Harmonic control
• Low CPU usage
• Windows and OSX plugins available

Check it out: TAL-Vocoder

9. MAutoPitch (Free)

This is a nice, free auto-tune-style plugin. It certainly doesn’t have the features and sound of the bigger, paid auto-tune and post-processing plugins that we have previously gone through, but it’s still really great for a free plugin.

It has creative features such as formant shift and stereo expansion. The plugin has an easy-to-use interface and is free of cost. If you want simplistic and easy pitch correction and automatic tuning, this is a free plugin that you have to try.

• Multiple options and effects
• Preset switching
• Automatic gain compensation
• Supports VST, VST3, AAX, AU formats

Check it out: MAutoPitch

10. FabFilter Pro-Q 3

Fabfilter Pro-Q is the EQ plugin choice among many top producers.

It exports the highest quality sound, with a great interface. The plugin is high on useful features such as external spectrum visualization with overlapped frequency content, new filter types, and Brickwall modes for LPF and HPF.

To top it all off, Pro Q3 has three processing modes; Zero Latency, Natural Phase, and Linear Phase to tackle every vocal and pitch issue you might encounter.

• Dynamic EQ
• Up to 24 bands and a huge range of filters
• Highly efficient processing and low memory usage
• A highly respected plugin in the industry

Check it out: FabFilter Pro-Q 3

11. Image-Line Vocodex

The Image-Line Vocodex is well-known for its noise cancellation and flexible features. It also offers excellent noise reduction, which helps to reduce ambient noise and errors.

Voice doubling is also achievable with the plugin. This is very effective when harmonizing a line to add interest to your composition. The built-in reverb is a nice touch that complements the voice doubling and makes it sound more natural.

It also includes a Soundgoodizer plugin, which is a sound-boosting plugin that helps limit and gives the recording a warm output. It also has up to 100 bands that can be used and updated to improve vocal quality anywhere on the spectrum. All of this comes at a reasonable price, making this plugin one of the most popular on the market.

• Speech enhancement useful for podcasts
• Noise reduction or noise gate feature
• Voice doubling and harmonizing features
• Built-in Soundgoodizer

Check it out: Image-Line Vocodex

12. Sonnox Vox Doubler

Wide vocal outputs and stereo capabilities are two of the plugin’s most well-known features. This plugin can produce excellent double and triple vocal tracks with a lot of width and depth.

It also gives the vocal sounds greater thickness, giving them a more realistic quality. The Humanise feature of this tool is a fantastic addition, allowing you to experiment with the recording’s timings and pitch for even more authentic results.

This plugin’s depth control adds more depth to the scene, which may be utilized on multiple layers to make it more fascinating. This is also a reasonably priced option for producers who are new to music creation and cannot afford to invest a lot of money in high-end plugins.

• Double and triple vocal track capabilities
• Humanise section
• Depth control

Check it out: Sonnox Vox Doubler

13. iZotope Vocal Doubler

The iZotope Vocal Doubler plugin is the perfect way to improve the quality of your vocals without having to spend more money on another plugin. It’s a great plugin if you want to utilize a doubling effect for your vocals, adding depth to make the vocals stand out.

The plugin is relatively light on your CPU as well so if you’re working on a low-end workstation, this is the perfect plugin for you. A simple and clear user interface adds to the plugin’s ease of use and makes it even more appealing to newcomers interested in getting into music creation.

• Low CPU usage
• Ease of use
• Free plugin

Check it out: iZotope Vocal Doubler

14. Krotos Dehumaniser Simple Monsters

The Krotos Dehumaniser, unlike others before it, will cost you a little more, but it will undoubtedly deliver, and it is nowhere near the price of professional plugins. You can create unique vocals and creature-like sounds for not just music but for games, animation, and much more.

The 5 dynamic settings and sample scrubber function set this apart from the competition, allowing you to rapidly and simply build sounds and adjust the audio to your liking. It also includes an iOS app, which is a nice addition to an already excellent plugin.

• Dynamic parameters
• Sample scrubbing feature
• New TouchOSC integration for iOS
• Solo scrubbing playback

Check it out: Krotos Dehumaniser Simple Monsters

15. J-Hud Vocal King

This is another free plugin for producers who want to learn but don’t want to invest money. It includes two compressors/limiters, which is a nice feature. It also has a preamp and a final comp, allowing you to have more control over your audio file.

The plugin’s signal flow also contains a four-band EQ, giving you more control and making the plugin even more user-friendly. The plugin also acts as a preamp which helps in giving the signal a strong boost making it stand out on top of the instruments.

The easy interface with meters showing the in and out signals is a great addition to knowing exactly what you are doing with the vocal signal using the plugin and compressing the audio properly.

• 2 Compressors/limiters
• Preamp knob
• Final comp

Check it out: J-Hud Vocal King

16. Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser

Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser is a professional de-esser with a lot of features that make it a suitable choice for numerous uses. It supports 64-bit AAX/AU/VST formats.

It has a Linear Phase Dynamic EQ that may be used to make changes to the audio file. It also has automatic tracking that keeps track of your energy levels. This implies you won’t have to alter the take individually or utilize envelopes. The three distinct ‘Listen’ features are also a nice touch that adds to its versatility.

This plugin, however, is aimed at professionals, and when compared to other plugins in the same price range, the Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser falls short. As a result, it is not well-known among professional users, which is why it ranks so low on the list.

• Highly featured De-esser
• Full-spectrum operation
• Automatic level tracking
• EQ

Check it out: Sonnox Oxford SuprEsser

17. Accusonus ERA 4 Voice Leveler

This is one of those one-knob plugins that many producers will find extremely simple and efficient to operate. It gives the user very little control in general, which might be problematic for some users and producers.

It is, however, an excellent alternative for new users and producers who are looking to learn more about audio music production. It’s also a wonderful option for minimalist producers who don’t want to dig too deep into the control and just want a quick repair for their vocal tracks.

The ERA 4 Voice Leveler automatically normalizes the volume levels of your recordings, saving you a lot of time in the studio. It is especially useful for podcasters and vloggers, someone who deals with dialogue day in and day out.

• Both audio and video Recordings
• Single Knob Plug-In
• Balanced Audio Levels
• 2 different Modes

Check it out: Accusonus ERA 4 Voice Leveler

18. W.A. Production Vocal Compressor

Because this plugin is specifically created for vocal processing, it has three compression levels to provide the most authentic output.

The first step of the peaks compressor evens out the audio and makes it sound smoother by removing amplitude spikes. The next part of the chain is the balance compressor which is kind of a parallel compression that leaves out the loud transients but boots the softer parts of the vocals which even out the audio even more.

Flavour compression is the next phase, which adds tape saturation, harmonics, and other subtle modifications to the audio to make it sound more attractive to the ear. The plugin also comes with noise gate ratio, frequency shaping, and other details which lets you dial in the perfect sound you are looking for in your vocal recordings.

• Easy-to-use design
• 3 different compressors
• Noise gate ratio feature
• Frequency shaping features according to taste

Check it out: W.A. Production Vocal Compressor

19. Softube Vocoder

Softube Vocoder is a plugin from Universal Audio, a well-known developer. This plugin, however, does not produce the same high-quality outputs that the brand is recognized for.

This plugin is reasonably priced, making it an excellent alternative for newer producers who want to get a feel for industry-standard developers and try out their products without spending a lot of money.

This plugin has a lot of useful features. It’s simply a vocoder emulator that produces a warm, three-dimensional, gritty sound. If you want to create a retro style, this is the tool to utilize. It also includes Resynthesis Control, which allows you to tweak the audio’s spectral response.

It also has a futuristic freeze feature which can be used in creative ways to spit and cut audio to create sound effects for your tracks.

• Analog synth Goodness
• Resynthesis Control
• Futuristic freeze

Check it out: Softube Vocoder

20. EasyVox

This is yet another free plugin that is always useful to have on hand in your workstation for when you want to try out new things.

It has a three-band equalizer, which is useful for quickly altering effects in audio recordings. It also includes an auto noise gate, auto gain, and pre-limiters, all of which can help you regulate and enhance your audio recording to meet your specific demands.

This plugin comes with a lot of control and editing options that can be used to learn or create fascinating effects in your audio projects, especially considering its low price.

• Dynamic mono vocal compressor/limiter/enhancer
• Autiogain and Pre-limiter
• Auto Noisegate
• 3-Band EQ

Check it out: EasyVox

Summary

Vocal plugins are great for helping create professional-level vocals in your music. Many of them are free, and some of them can be used in almost any DAW to help you tune your vocals precisely to the note that you want. They also process vocals with amazing results, adding creativity where needed. This list has a wide selection of different plugins that will, without a doubt, help and improve vocals in your music production process.