Adobe Audition plugins can make your voice sound completely different! Here are two of my favourite Adobe Audition VST plugins that can make your voice sing without you having to sing a single note. Free VST Plugins, Free AAX and AU Plugin Download 15 Free VST plugins, audio DAW music production AAX and AU plugins by Voxengo, with plugin download links. 'Free' in our case does not assume 'inferior'. Our free plugins are based on the same best technological base as our paid plugins.
In our How to Mix Music guide we talked about why mixing dynamic sounds is a tough egg to crack. Vocals are super dynamic so they’re trickier to mix.
But you don’t have to pull your hair out every time you hit the mixing board to get the perfect vocal.
There’s a dizzying amount of plugins out there. That’s why we did the digging so you don’t have to.
Here’s 9 plugins that will help you get your vocals and beats fitting together like peas and carrots.
9. Vladg and Tokyo Dawn Proximity
Ever recorded an entire vocal only to realize you had the mic in the wrong spot? No sweat.
The Vladg and Tokyo Dawn Proximity lets you change the mic placement AFTER you record. Pretty useful and pretty cool.
8. Acon Digital Multiply Chorus
Vocals need some color. That’s where a chorus plugin comes in.
Acon Digital’s Multiply Chorus will thicken up your sound. It’s a whole bunch of tiny delays (we’re talking milliseconds) that fill out your vocals to liven them up a bit.
7. Melda MAutoPitch Auto-Tune
Auto-tune’s origins are pretty strange. But there’s no denying that it’s an invaluable tool for producers dealing with vocals.
Auto-tune is the vocal mixer’s secret weapon. MAutoPitch is one of the best auto-tune plugins around. It fixes pitch, corrects sour notes, and even gives you that iconic T-pain/Cher effect if you want it.
This one comes in a free plugin bundle with all sorts of fun mixing toys.
6. Voxengo OldSkoolVerb
Reverb for vocals is essential. Reverb takes your vocals out of the room you recorded them in, and allows you to make your own sound space.
OldSkoolVerb has got you covered no matter what your needs are. From huge halls to a tiny closet, it gives you all the options to create the perfect sonic space in your mix.
5. Klanghelm DC1A
The DC1A is a nifty little character compressor by Klanghelm. It uses sophisticated compression settings and an easy 2 knob setup that has you covered “from smooth levelling to heavy pumping.”
Be sure to check out their absolutely EPIC demo video.
4. Alex Hilton A1 Trigger Gate
If you’re wondering how far you can push your vocal track this plugin will do a great job letting you know.
Using a step-style sequencer the A1 Trigger Gate packs in a boat load of cool effects. It’s good for all sorts of stuff. So grab it and start experimenting.
3. Glitch Machines Hysteresis
Just like any other part of a mix, vocals are a great place to experiment. The effects on Hysteresis definitely deliver a whole bundle of experimentation.
This delay plugin creates “robotic artifacts and abstract music malfunctions.” Count me in.
2. Acustica Ochre EQ
All good mixing needs a keen sense of EQ early on. Vocals are no exception.
That’s why the Ochre from Acustica is so useful. It’s perfect for sculpting out the best vocals you can.
1. Fine Cut Bodies La Petite Excite
Exciter plugins add subtle harmonics to your vocal track for some extra sonic-excitement in the high range.
The free La Petite Excite from Fine Cut Bodies (you just have to signup to get it) is a great plug to try out.
Throw it on your vocal and enhance it to your liking with some subtle harmonic distortion.
Go make that perfect vocal
Vocals are tricky to mix. But with these handy plugin tools it doesn’t have to be so tough. Grab ’em all, hit the studio and get cracking on that perfect vocal track.
And don’t forget to let us know your favourite plugins for mixing vocals. We wanna know all your tips and tricks too. :)
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Integrate Adobe Audition into your post production workflow! Utilize Audition’s powerful tools for fixing common audio problems like background noise, hum, clipping, clicks and pops.
Adobe Audition can quickly clean up audio and fix problems that Premiere Pro cannot. In this post we cover common audio problems that you may encounter in your video editing and post production – and how to address these issues using the tools within Adobe Audition.
If you’re looking for tips on a Premiere Pro to Audition workflow, check out my previous posts on roundtripping your video editing clips and sequences into Audition and back to Premiere.
Noise Reduction in Audition
Adobe Audition has powerful noise reduction tools that be accessed in the Waveform Editor. If you are in a Multitrack Session, double click on a track to go into the Waveform Editor.
Click and drag to select several seconds of background/ambient only sound. The more time you have to sample the better your results will be. Make sure you do not select any audio with voices or other noises!
Go to Effects > Noise Reduction (process). Click “Capture Noise Print” and then “Select Entire File”.
Click “Noise Only” to hear what you are removing (deselect it before you click apply). Click the green button on & off to toggle the effect as you adjust the “Noise Reduction” & “Reduce by” sliders.
If you prefer shortcuts, use Shift +P to save a noise print and CMD/CNTRL/Shift + P to open the “Noise Reduction” Effect. I suggest making shortcuts for effects you commonly use (do this by accessing the shortcut editor in the menu bar, Edit >Keyboard Shortcuts).
Adaptive Noise Reduction
Adaptive Noise Reduction automatically learns what noise is, as long as you have background noise before people start speaking. To take advantage of this tool, it is a good habit to always record 4-5 seconds of audio before your talent starts speaking.
In Adobe Audition, you can also combine Adaptive Noise Redution with other effects in the Effects Rack (which you can’t do with standard Noise Reduction). It is part of several presets like “Clean up and Level Voice-Over” that can help you get started if you are new to audio effects.
Remove Hum in Audition
This Adobe Audition effect comes in handy if you are doing a lot of location filming where you can’t control the production environment.
Use this to remove AC hum (lights, power lines, electronics). In my example I was picking up hum from an Xbox 360 in the room.
Go to Effects > Noise Reduction/Restoration > Dehummer. Select your preset based on country. I’m in the states so I picked 60Hz.
Auto Heal & Spot Healing
You can use Auto Heal & the Spot Healing Brush to remove clicks, pops, and other short noises you want to remove from your audio.
Zoom in by pressing the plus key and select the pop. Right click and select “Auto Heal” (Comm/Control + U).
You can also paint a selection with the spot healing brush(B) by dragging over the area to fix in the “Spectral Frequency” display.
Using the Diagnostic Panel
Access the Diagnostics panel in Audition by choosing Window > Diagnostics from the menu bar. The powerful diagnostic panel provides tools to fix clipping, clicks and pops in your audio.
The Declipper is handy for repairing clipped audio. Select the DeClipper Effect in the Diagnostic panel. Click Scan and your clipping areas will be listed. Select a listed problem to move to it in the waveform.
You can fix each one at a time or click Repair All.
Note: Depending on your audio it may still appear clipped, as Audition works in 32 bit floating point. Decrease the amplitude or use Normalize to see that the audio isn’t actually clipped. I have had varied results with the DeClicker, so if it dozen’t fix your issues, you the manual method mentioned above using Auto Heal & Spot Healing Brush.
Before:
After:
Utilize a Premiere to Audition workflow to take advantage of these great audio tools in your video editing projects. For more details on working with audio in Adobe Audition see Adobe Help.