Left knob
Retune speed
How quickly a note is pulled into tune once it starts. Lower is faster and more obvious. Higher lets scoops and slides through before the note settles. At 0 ms the correction is immediate.
Start at35 ms
Spark AutoPitch
Vocal pitch correction for Windows. Choose a key and scale, then adjust the correction strength and speed. Use slower settings for subtle correction or Hard tune for a pronounced tuning effect.
30 days free
Download for Windows30 days free, starting when you activate AutoPitch in the plugin. One trial per account and device. No card required.
- Windows 10 and 11
- 64-bit
- VST3
- Standalone app
- Key and scale aware
- Formants: Preserve or Shift
- Mono or stereo vocal
- Resizable window
- Reports latency to your DAW
What it’s for
Suggested settings for lead vocals, hard tuning and harmony tracks. Adjust them to suit your recording.
A natural lead vocal
Set the song’s key and scale, turn Hard tune down to 0% and use a slower Retune speed. This allows more of the singer’s note transitions and vibrato through while correcting held notes.
Starting point
- Hard tune
- 0%
- Retune speed
- 35 ms
- Correction
- 85%
- Humanize
- 40%
The hard-tuned effect
Set Hard tune and Correction to 100% for abrupt note changes. Hard tune overrides the smoothing controls; Retune speed at 0 ms alone does not produce the same effect. New instances open with these hard-tuning settings.
Starting point
- Hard tune
- 100%
- Correction
- 100%
- Formants
- Shift
- Key and scale
- The song’s
Separate harmony tracks
Use an instance of AutoPitch on each harmony track. In Detailed tuning, disable unwanted notes in the Target notes strip. This creates a Custom scale for that part.
Starting point
- Scale
- Custom
- Target notes
- That part’s notes
- Channel mode
- Mono vocal
- Retune speed
- Faster than the lead
The main page
What each knob and menu does to the sound, and where to start for a natural lead vocal. New instances open with Hard tune at 100%, which overrides Retune speed and Humanize (the window says “Set by Hard tune” under both), so set Hard tune to 0% in Detailed tuning first.
Centre knob
Correction
How firmly each note is pulled onto its target. It’s the strength of the correction, not a wet/dry blend, so turning it down gives a lighter touch rather than a doubled, phasey sound.
Start at85%
Right knob
Humanize
Lets the singer’s own movement around a note, like vibrato, come through while the centre of the note is still corrected. It doesn’t add any wobble of its own.
Start at40%
Left menu
Key
The root note of the song. Set it with Scale so AutoPitch only aims for notes that belong, and a flat note lands on the right pitch instead of the semitone below it.
Start atThe song’s key
Middle menu
Scale
Chromatic allows all twelve notes, which is the safe choice until you know the key. Clicking notes off in the Target notes strip in Detailed tuning turns it into a Custom scale.
Start atThe song’s scale
Right menu
Formants
Preserve or Shift: two ways of handling the character of the voice as the pitch moves, each on its own engine. The difference, explained.
Start atShift, then try Preserve
Detailed tuning
Open Detailed tuning at the top right for Hard tune, custom scales and additional controls. Choose Back to AutoPitch to return to the main page.
- Hard tune
- At 100% it overrides Retune speed, Humanize, Note transition, Tolerance and Note hold, and their settings come back as you lower it.
- Note transition
- Smooths the move from one settled note to the next without dragging the melody back toward the old note.
- Tolerance
- How far from the note, in cents, a sung pitch can sit before correction steps in, 10 cents unless you change it.
- Note hold
- How long a new note has to last before AutoPitch commits to it, so quick passing notes aren’t snapped onto. New instances use 35 ms.
- Snap response
- Makes the correction more immediate and narrows the tolerance, on a continuous scale rather than in steps.
- Output
- Sets the level coming out of the plugin, 0 dB by default.
- Tuning reference
- The pitch of A4, normally 440 Hz, for tracks tuned a little higher or lower.
- Vocal range
- Pick the singer’s range when you know it, or leave it on Full range.
- Channel mode
- Mono vocal, the default, folds left and right into one centred voice before tuning, while Stereo keeps the recording’s width.
- Target notes
- Click any of the twelve notes to switch it off and make a Custom scale. The strip counts the notes still selected, and Reset brings them all back.
Formants: Preserve or Shift
Formants are resonances that contribute to the tone of a voice. The Formants menu controls whether they stay in place or move with the pitch. Compare both settings on your recording.
Preserve
Rubber Band engine
Keeps the formants in place while the pitch is corrected. Worth a try when a corrected note starts to sound less like the singer.
Shift
Default for new instancesSpark waveform shifter
Moves the formants with the pitch and aligns neighbouring waveform cycles as notes change. This is the default setting for new instances.
Switching Formants settings. Changing from Shift to Preserve takes about 110 ms and ends with a short crossfade. Both settings report the same latency to your DAW.
Latency and monitoring
To correct a note, AutoPitch has to hear a little of it first, so it delays the audio by roughly 50 ms or more, depending on sample rate. That’s the same with either Formants setting.
AutoPitch reports that delay to your DAW, which compensates on playback so the tuned vocal stays lined up with the rest of the mix. That can’t help while you’re recording through it: the singer would hear themselves late. Use it on the vocal track when you mix, not in the headphone feed.
- Reports its latency to your DAW
- Yes
- Zero-latency mode
- No
- Live monitoring through it
- Not recommended
How the knobs work
The same on every knob, on both pages.
- Drag Click and drag to turn it.
- Mouse wheel Scroll over a knob to nudge it.
- Arrow keys Tab to a knob, then step it up or down.
- Double-click Puts it back to its default.
- Click the value Type an exact number.
Specs
System requirements and plugin details. See support for installation and DAW setup.
Go to support- Format
- VST3, 64-bit, plus a standalone app
- System
- Windows 10 and 11, 64-bitNo macOS version yet.
- Controls
- Retune speed, Correction and Humanize, with Key, Scale and Formants menusTen more in Detailed tuning. There’s no on/off switch in the window: use your DAW’s bypass.
- Window
- Resizable, with a 10:7 shapeOpens at 900 × 630. Resizes up to 1600 × 1120.
- Channel mode
- Mono vocal by default, or StereoStereo keeps a stereo recording’s width.
- Latency
- Reported to your DAWRoughly 50 ms or more with either Formants setting, depending on sample rate. For mixing, not live monitoring.
- Trial
- 30 days freeOne trial per account and device. Starts on plugin activation; no card required.
- Planned price
- $12.99Paid purchases are not open yet.
More from Spark
Compressor, EQ, Delay and Reverb are in development. View their planned features below.
Try AutoPitch
free for 30 days
30 days free, starting when you activate AutoPitch in the plugin. One trial per account and device. No card required.
Download for Windows