5 free harmonizer VST effects & plugins that you must have

Pitchproof

Pitchproof by Aegean Music is a harmonizer/pitch shifter plugin. Despite being released almost a decade ago, it could still find a place in your VST effect arsenal.

With a pretty straight-forward interface, it provides a very basic (yet highly efficient) ability to shift the tone of an incoming audio signal – which it proceeds to do via two seperate settings: “Pitch” and “Key”.

By changing the core “Pitch” through a dedicated drop-down menu, the audio will be altered by a set number of semitones – limited to an octave up, or down. By then setting and defining the “Key”, the audio will be complemented with a fitting harmony, in accordance with the chosen scale.

It is quite a useful little freebie, but you should take in mind that it does tend to produce some pretty audible audio artifacts, especially when playing more than a single note at a time – making it more suitable for solo vocals, lead instruments and such (unless, of course, you’re looking for that kind of sound).

ReChoir

Re-Choir from igorski is a brand new and exciting free plugin effect, that will sure add some depth and interest to almost any of your musical creations. Aside from its unique harmonizing capabilities, it offers the producer with a diverse effect section, that combines several handy sound shaping tools altogether.

The main harmonizing feature incorporates a built-in delay, which can be set by the user. One thing to note is this particular plugin’s general approach is a bit different from other harmonizers that I’ve come across over the years, in a way that the pitch can be changed according to a pre-defined “mood”, rather than a certain (complementary) note or set of notes. You can choose between “Neutral”, “Happy”, “Sad”, “Dark” or “Evil” and every option will result with a slightly different harmony.

Personally, I find it great for experimental, ambient/atmospheric productions, but I am sure it can be applied if you’re working on other genres as well.

dSHIFT

dSHIFT by whiteLABEL is another “oldie but goodie” that I like to use, thanks to its high versatility and inspiring nature. It specializes in creating all kinds of different harmonies – from simple pitch shifting and chorus-like effects to animated, fantasy-like musical textures.

It’s got many interesting presets to work with, and if you spend enough time on it you find that the possibilities are quite endless with this fun little gem.

Brandulator

Brandulator by Stone Voices is a step-sequencer that is able to generate very interesting, evolving harmonies. It is a versatile piece of software that can be used on pretty much anything, and will sound convincingly well.

Every parameter can be fine-tuned to the very last detail, and there are many creative presets to choose from, which are divided to categories such as “Modulation”, “Filters”, “Gates”, “Combs”, “Vocoders” and so on.

HarmonicBoost & HarmonicReverb

I know I promised five plugins, but these two come from the same developer – ChromaDSP – and they complete each other so well that I had to mention them both.

Starting with Harmonic Boost – This plugin will create lush, evolving, organ-like harmonies, that may not exactly fit with every musical style, but will do just great on the right projects.

Harmonic Reverb – Although labeled as a reverb unit, I’ve never really used it as such. To me, it is more of a continuation to HarmonicBoost, with the only exception that it comes with a slightly different pitch-handling approach.

Using its 9-band frequency-based harmonizing unit (which acts as an equalizer), you can enhance or diminish certain harmonies, and shape the sound to your liking.