Ableton Forum

I do not own anything to really mess with vocals specifically. Wondering if people had recommendations like melodyne or I think izotope has one as well...ableton has been mostly fine but I’d like to be able to mess with formants and things a little more...This is the one tool I have put off getting for a long time but I want to get a little more out of some vocals (though ableton has done fairly well so far). Thanks guys and girls

mwlad17 wrote:I do not own anything to really mess with vocals specifically. Wondering if people had recommendations like melodyne or I think izotope has one as well...ableton has been mostly fine but I’d like to be able to mess with formants and things a little more...This is the one tool I have put off getting for a long time but I want to get a little more out of some vocals (though ableton has done fairly well so far). Thanks guys and girls

The big three are:

1. Melodyne

2. Autotune

3. Vocalsynth/Nectar


Melodyne is for more transparent editing. Very high learning curve. Probably not the best workflow in a DAW without ARA like Ableton but for transparent editing, it is the best. I know people who can even get it to do very cool synthetic stuff but that isn’t is strong point.

Autotune is pretty standard. Very cool for quickly getting a vocal sounding on key without heavy tweaking. Does synthetic stuff very well and is pretty good for transparent stuff though not as deep as Melodyne nor as transparent but is very CPU efficient yet nice sounding. It is kind of like the Sylenth of pitch correction as you can get it to sound great quickly without CPU hassles.

Izotope stuff is a different take on the Autotune stuff. Vocalsynth goes right into the synthetic stuff and is perfect when you just want something computerized. Nectar is more of a mixing plugin but it has Autotuning and harmonization. The CPU use is higher and it sounds less Autotunish (which could be a good or bad thing). It’s learning curve is somewhere between Autotune and Melodyne but at the same time very different than both. Vocalsynth is a more elegant version on NI the Mouth. Nectar is more Alloy tweaked for vocal production. I don’t use Nectar much as it is a CPU hog. Izotope stuff often has better presets as Autotune nor Melodyne isn’t intended for presets but the idea is to choose a preset, tweak to your liking then freeze to conserve CPU use. Vocalsynth IMO is cooler one over Nectar but Nectar is better for more refined transparent editing me think. It’s got a cool harmonizer as well. Vocalsynth has one too but is geared towards synthetic where Nectar is more natural.


I think all three does formant tweaking Autotune is the more direct one. Where Melodyne is probably the deepest. Izotope is cool too. Can’t really rate it though as I don’t work with it enough.


I think M4L has a free Autotune plugin as well. Don’t know how good it is. Also you can do some cool tricks using Ableton Complex Pro as well.

jlgrimes wrote:

mwlad17 wrote:I do not own anything to really mess with vocals specifically. Wondering if people had recommendations like melodyne or I think izotope has one as well...ableton has been mostly fine but I’d like to be able to mess with formants and things a little more...This is the one tool I have put off getting for a long time but I want to get a little more out of some vocals (though ableton has done fairly well so far). Thanks guys and girls

The big three are:

1. Melodyne

2. Autotune

3. Vocalsynth/Nectar


Autotune is pretty standard. Very cool for quickly getting a vocal sounding on key without heavy tweaking. Does synthetic stuff very well and is pretty good for transparent stuff though not as deep as Melodyne nor as transparent but is very CPU efficient yet nice sounding. It is kind of like the Sylenth of pitch correction as you can get it to sound great quickly without CPU hassles.

Autotune is VST3 so pretty much out of it for Ableton users. There is also WavesTune which is $29 at the moment, plus use the signature link below to get another 10% off at the moment.

Mark Williams wrote:

jlgrimes wrote:

mwlad17 wrote:I do not own anything to really mess with vocals specifically. Wondering if people had recommendations like melodyne or I think izotope has one as well...ableton has been mostly fine but I’d like to be able to mess with formants and things a little more...This is the one tool I have put off getting for a long time but I want to get a little more out of some vocals (though ableton has done fairly well so far). Thanks guys and girls

The big three are:

1. Melodyne

2. Autotune

3. Vocalsynth/Nectar


Autotune is pretty standard. Very cool for quickly getting a vocal sounding on key without heavy tweaking. Does synthetic stuff very well and is pretty good for transparent stuff though not as deep as Melodyne nor as transparent but is very CPU efficient yet nice sounding. It is kind of like the Sylenth of pitch correction as you can get it to sound great quickly without CPU hassles.

Autotune is VST3 so pretty much out of it for Ableton users. There is also WavesTune which is $29 at the moment, plus use the signature link below to get another 10% off at the moment.

If you are on Mac, the AU version still works.

Vocalsynth/Nectar are decent alternatives and does some things Autotune can’t.

Nectar is more for actual pitch correction for editing vocals as I think it has a manual mode.

Vocalsynth is more for making your voice sound robotic although I think they probably share a very similar auto pitch correct engine.



Melodyne if you don’t mind tweaking notes line by line. It is the best for this type of thing.


Gsnap is a free Autotune.

Reaper also comes with the Reaeffects suite which does Autotune although you will have to play with it a bit.

Waves Tune is of a really nice quality and very natural sounding. I tried them all and eventually went for this as it was very quick, user friendly and the results were very natural. You can get it for a silly price atm too, $29 i think.