Recording vocals almost always requires the most attention to detail in regards to performance and sound.
Perhaps no other part of the recording process requires quite the level of delicacy, tact, experience, and expertise as capturing lead vocals.
Capturing a great performance is a byproduct of preparation, a good recording setup and great communications skills. Your vocals are the single most important element of any song.
Below, we’ve mentioned some of the best VST plugins for recording & mixing vocals in order for you to achieve the desired sound and capture a great performance.
1. VoxBox
VoxBox a plug-in that simplifies the vocal thickening process, without compromising on quality.
VoxBox helps you widen and thicken your lead vocals in a simple and intuitive way, while being light on your CPU and keeping your mixing chain simple.
Check out VoxBox
2. Auto-Tune EFX 3
Auto‑Tune keeps evolving, and the latest version incorporates both its best pitch‑correction ever and a nod to its past. The new features that have been included are useful and well implemented. Antares will always be known as the company that kick-started the automatic tuning revolution with the seminal Auto-Tune way back in 1997.
Auto-Tune takes an incoming monophonic signal (vocals are the primary target) and automatically corrects any wayward pitching within it – i.e it puts your out-of-tune singer in tune. Its combination of real-time and offline retuning is largely unchanged, but Auto-Tune Pro looks and flows better than ever.
Check out Auto-Tune EFX 3
3. Soundtoys Little AlterBoy Vocal Processor
Little AlterBoy is Soundtoys’ exciting new tool for dramatic voice alteration. Get a huge range of vocal transformations from one simple plug-in. Change the pitch of a voice, or change the singer’s gender with formant shifting. Lock onto a single pitch for robotic sounds. You can even control the vocal’s melody using MIDI for creative vocoder-like effects.
Check out Soundtoys Little AlterBoy Vocal Processor
4. Celemony Melodyne Essential
Celemony’s Melodyne has revolutionized music production with some incredible features, pitch drift correction being a huge favorite! If you are using Melodyne Essential to a single sound, like a voice or a single bass instrument it will allow you to really get the most out of the VST.
You can then change the pitch and change the position of each individual note. If you do studio recordings, and aim to make them sound a little better without having to record 1,000 takes, get Melodyne. Celemony Melodyne is an affordable plug-in even for someone who is just learning to use pitch correction software
Check out Celemony Melodyne Essential
5. iZotope VocalSynth 2
iZotope VocalSynth 2 is an improved vocal effect plug-in takes a comprehensive approach to creating the panoply of artificial voice sounds. iZotope has released their anticipated update to VocalSynth with many improvements and additions for greater sound sculpting.
It’s practical with auto pitch-correction and vocal harmonies or as an out-there completely synthesized stand-in for a human voice combining elements of vocoding, talkbox, and Linear Predictive Coding (computerized voice).
Not only is VocalSynth 2 a creative tool for vocalists, but it also offers the opportunity to process all kinds of instruments and audio material through the flexible chaining architecture. A myriad of controls and sonic surprises await you within iZotope’s clean and user-friendly design interface.
Check out iZotope VocalSynth 2
6. Nectar Elements
Nectar Elements intelligently combines their latest DSP for compression, de-essing, tonal and subtractive EQ, pitch correction, and reverb into one easy-to-understand interface.
Give your vocals professional clarity and polish with Nectar Elements. Using the new Vocal Assistant, Nectar Elements analyzes and adapts to your vocal sound, taking the guesswork out of placing your vocal in the mix and letting you make your vocals stand out in just a few clicks.
Check out Nectar Elements
7. FabFilter Pro-DS
FabFilter Pro-DS is a powerful, comprehensive de-esser plugin that has excellent smart vocal algorithm, low latency and oversampling modes. Pro-DS is unusual in that it’s designed not just for use on vocals, but any material with sharp, high-frequency content such as complete tracks or live drums.
It’s always tempting to try to work microphones very close, in order to minimise the amount of room ambience that is picked up. However, this benefit often comes at the cost of exaggerated ‘ess’ and ‘tee’ sounds, not to mention the risk of popping.
FabFilter Pro-DS conquers sibilant vocals making the performances listenable while simultaneously preserving the sonic integrity of the entire high end, something that non-linear de- essers can’t really claim. Anyone who’s used Fabfilter’s other plug-ins will be immediately feel at home with the Pro DS interface, which shares many of their innovative and intuitive design features.
Check out FabFilter Pro-DS
8. Vocalizer Pro
Part instrument, part processor, Vocalizer Pro is the ultimate instrument expansion tool. Offering endless sound-sculpting possibilities, Vocalizer Pro is ready to harmonize, modify, fortify, enhance, and re-synthesize any instrument—or any sound—in ways you never thought possible.
Check out Vocalizer Pro
9. Harmony Engine EVO
Harmony Engine EVO – (Vocal Modeling Harmony Generator) is the quickest, easiest tool for creating realistic harmonies. The plug-in puts professional-quality vocal harmony arrangements within reach of any songwriter, producer, musician or engineer.
Building on the power and ease of use of the original Harmony Engine, Harmony Engine Evo incorporates Antares’ groundbreaking Evo Voice Processing Technology for faster, more accurate pitch detection, smoother, artifact-free pitch shifting, and seamless, natural-sounding (if you want it to be) throat modeling.
Check out Harmony Engine EVO
10. Waves Vocal Bundle
Waves Vocal bundle is the ultimate vocal toolkit, made up of 6 powerful plugins, including Waves Tune for pitch correction and transformation, and DeBreath, which removes unwanted breath sounds—automatically.
Waves concentrate on top sound quality and ease of use rather then snazzy features.
Check out Waves Vocal Bundle
11. DUO Evo
Doubling is one of the best techniques for fattening up a lead vocal or giving it extra depth. DUO Evo is simply the quickest, easiest way to enhance vocals with a realistic doubled vocal part.
Simply instantiate DUO Evo on your lead vocal, adjust the Variation parameters to create exactly the doubled voice you’re looking for, and hit play. Instant doubling.
DUO Evo automatically generates a doubled vocal part from an existing vocal. In addition to allowing programmable variation in pitch, timing and vibrato depth, for even more realism, DUO Evo also includes a simplified version of THROAT Evo’s vocal modeling to provide timbral variation for the doubled part.
Check out DUO Evo
12. Mic Mod EFX
Simply tell Mic Mod EFX what microphone you are actually using and what microphone you’d like it to sound like. It’s as simple as that.
With over 125 microphones models included in Mic Mod EFX, you can afford to record each track through a model of the specific mic that will best produce that ideal sound you’re looking for. Or use it in live performance to get the sound of mics you’d never consider using on stage. You can even use it during mixdown to effectively change the mic on an already recorded track.
Check out Mic Mod EFX
13. Bitspeek
Sonic Charge Bitspeek is a real-time pitch-excited linear prediction codec effect.
Despite having only a few simple controls, this box can produce a broad range of sounds from cheap speaking toys to high-end vocoder and talkbox effects.
Check out Bitspeek
14. MUnison
MUnison is a unique combination of doubler/unison and smart harmonizer. It lets your vocals sound like an orchestra with automatically scaled harmonies, produces classic double-tracking effect and much more.
MUnison takes your audio, analyzes it, detects its pitch if needed and generates other voices. These can play the same pitch as the original and just fluctuate around it to get the realistic unison effect. Or they can play harmonies, following the scale you choose, useful even for live performances actually.
Check out MUnison
15. CHOIR Evo
CHOIR Evo is a unique processor that turns a single monophonic voice into 4, 8, 16, or 32 distinct individual unison voices, each with its own pitch, timing and vibrato variations.
When multiple instances of CHOIR Evo are assigned to individual harmony parts, the result is an amazingly realistic large vocal ensemble. CHOIR Evo accomplishes its magic with just a few simple controls:
Check out CHOIR Evo
16. Talkie Box 2
Talkie Box is a standalone software developed for audio post-production purposes. It allows processing in real-time your voice to emulate walkie-talkie, radio or telephone sound effects.
Design your own background noise and voice effects with this user-friendly tool for sound designers and game audio.
Check out Talkie Box 2
17. Auto-Tune Access
Auto-Tune Access is the easiest and most affordable way to start using Auto-Tune. It delivers the core Auto-Tune features with a simple and intuitive interface.
Auto-Tune Access delivers the same core Auto-Tune technology that professional artists and producers have relied on for years, in a more affordable and easy-to-use package.
Retune Speed and Humanize controls allow you to choose the desired effect for your track. Turn up Humanize for a more natural sound, or crank the Retune Speed for the full Auto-Tune Effect.
Check out Auto-Tune Access
18. TNT Voice Executor
TNT Voice Executor allows for one-click voice track editing plug-in for speech and singing. Designed for music producers, podcasters, youtubers, audio books and voice-over artist, video makers and broadcasters.
Some situations do not give you enough time to play around with your compressors, EQs and other effects to achieve great sounding voice-over or vocal. The solution is Audified TNT Voice Executor all-in-one voice plug in, that helps to solve all the issues within a second.
Check out TNT Voice Executor
19. SA-2 Dialog Processor Native
The SA-2 is designed to improve the overall sound of recorded speech. But the SA-2 is not just for dialog. It’s equally useful for vocals, and is a great tool for adjusting the timbre of any track, a reliable de-esser, and a fine multi-frequency compressor, in our completely biased opinion.
The SA-2 Dialog Processor is made up of 5 bands of strategic active equalization, configured in a variety of modes to best address common issues of dialog. Each band of active equalization has a threshold control to determine at what signal level the active equalizer begins to effect the signal.
Check out SA-2 Dialog Processor Native
20. Voxpat Player
Voxpat Player is a standalone software developed as a quick start for those interested on monster, creature and robotic sound design, but also for low-budget projects, students and musicians.
Create amazing sounds for games, films, music and multimedia projects in just a few minutes. Procedural audio, audio synthesis, audio convolution, among other audio manipulation techniques are used to create multiple layers of sound using your voice, samples or plugin instruments.
Check out Voxpat Player
