Karanyi Voicemax: Real-Time Vocal Tuning With Four Harmonies

Karanyi Sounds has released Voicemax, a vocal plugin that does three jobs in one window. It tunes a lead vocal in real time to the key and scale you pick, sings up to four harmonies next to it, and gives you two piano-roll editors to fix or rewrite any note by hand. It runs as VST3, AU and AAX on macOS and Windows, and the launch price is €59, down from €79.

At a glance: real-time tuning with Tune Amount, Retune and Smoothing controls; four live harmony voices that stay in key; a Harmony Builder for chord progressions; Brigade, which turns the harmonies into a group of up to 32 singers; Lead and Harmony editors with MIDI export. Perpetual licence, three activations, lifetime updates, and a 7-day full trial with no watermark. €59 launch price (regular €79), €39 for Cloudmax and Breeze owners.

What is Voicemax?

Most vocal tuning plugins sit in one of two camps. Real-time tuners such as Auto-Tune, Waves Tune Real-Time and UA's Topline Vocal Tune correct pitch as the singer performs, which is what you need for tracking and for the hard-tuned sound of modern pop and rap. Graphical editors such as Melodyne work offline, note by note, for detailed correction after the take. Harmony is usually a third plugin again.

Voicemax tries to cover all three for a budget price. The tuning runs live while you sing or while the track plays. The harmonies are generated from the tuned lead. And the editors pick up the notes as the DAW plays, so you can redraw a phrase or a harmony line without leaving the plugin. Your edits are saved with the project.

It is the newest plugin from Karanyi Sounds, the developer behind Cloudmax and Breeze, and it joins their MAX: Collectors' Edition bundle.

What Voicemax does, feature by feature

Real-time tuning. Choose a key and scale, then set how firmly the lead is pulled to the notes with Tune Amount, how fast with Retune, and how naturally it moves between notes with Smoothing. Low Retune and high Smoothing give transparent correction. Fast Retune with little Smoothing gives the robotic, stepped sound used on modern pop and hip-hop vocals.

Instant harmonies. Up to four harmony voices sing alongside the lead. Presets such as Thirds, Octaves, Unison, Deep and Full Stack get you started, and each voice has its own interval, pan and level. Spread widens the stack, and Formant changes the apparent size of the singers, which helps the harmonies sound like different people rather than copies.

Scale or fixed interval. In SCALE mode every harmony note stays in the key. Flip the switch and each voice keeps a fixed number of semitones from the lead, regardless of key. That is useful for parallel octaves or fifths, and for sound design.

Harmony Builder. Drop chord blocks on a timeline and the four voices sing that chord. You can copy, paste, stretch and move the blocks to write a progression for a whole chorus, and notes you have frozen under a chord are kept.

Brigade. This turns the harmonies into a crowd of up to 32 singers placed on a virtual stage, near or far, left or right, in a Room or a Hall. It is the quickest route to a gang vocal or a choir-like backing, and you can roll a random group for variation.

Lead and Harmony editors. Two piano-roll editors show the notes the plugin detects. You can reshape the lead and each harmony note, then export the lead and the harmonies as MIDI to drive another instrument.

Sound shaping. Separate EQs for the lead and harmonies (Cut and Bell), a master EQ with Tilt, and Push, an overdrive that thickens the vocal without raising its level. Re-Pitch moves the whole take by up to 12 semitones.

Smaller touches include a tagged preset browser with search, an undo history that covers the editors, and an interface in eight languages.

Voicemax specifications

Spec	Detail
Type	Real-time vocal tuning, harmonizer and note editor
Harmony voices	Up to 4 live, plus Brigade group of up to 32 singers
Tuning controls	Key and scale, Tune Amount, Retune, Smoothing
Editors	Lead Editor, Harmony Editor, Harmony Builder; MIDI export
Processing	Lead and harmony EQ, master Tilt EQ, Push overdrive, Re-Pitch ±12 semitones, Formant, Spread
Formats	VST3, AU, AAX (64-bit only); Windows runs VST3 and AAX
macOS	11 Big Sur or newer, Intel and Apple Silicon native, 4 GB RAM
Windows	10 or newer, 64-bit host, 4 GB RAM
Licence	Perpetual, 3 activations, lifetime updates, no subscription
Trial	7 days, full functionality, no watermark, no credit card
Price	€59 launch (regular €79); €39 for Cloudmax or Breeze owners

Voicemax vs Waves Tune Real-Time vs Topline Vocal Tune

All three are real-time vocal tuners in the same budget tier. Prices are from 23 October 2026.

	Voicemax	Waves Tune Real-Time	UA Topline Vocal Tune
Price	€59 launch (from €79), direct	$39.99 at Plugin Boutique to 1 Nov (list $199)	$79 at Plugin Boutique to 1 Nov (from $99)
Real-time tuning	Yes	Yes	Yes, with low-latency monitoring
Built-in harmonies	4 voices + 32-singer Brigade	No	MIDI repitching
Note editor	Lead and Harmony piano rolls	No	No
MIDI export	Yes	No	No
Formats	VST3, AU, AAX	VST, AU, AAX	UADx native, macOS and Windows
Extras	Brigade, Re-Pitch, Push overdrive	MIDI-controlled correction, live-sound support	Key Finder, Shift mode with formant

Which one to pick: if you only need pitch correction while tracking, Waves Tune Real-Time at $39.99 is the cheapest of the three until 1 November, and Topline Vocal Tune is built around low-latency monitoring for singers who want to hear the tuning in their headphones. Voicemax is the one to choose if you also want harmonies and note editing without buying a second and third plugin. The trade-off is maturity: Voicemax is a version 1 product from a small developer, while the other two come from companies with long track records in vocal processing. For detailed offline correction, a dedicated editor such as Melodyne still goes further.

For a channel-strip approach to vocals instead of a tuner, our Bogren A-Class Vocal first look covers a different kind of tool.

Who Voicemax is for

• Producers who write and record their own vocals. Tune, harmonise and sketch a backing arrangement in one plugin, then export the parts as MIDI.
• Pop, hip-hop and electronic producers who want both natural correction and the hard-tuned effect.
• Songwriters on a budget who would otherwise buy a tuner and a harmonizer separately.
• Sound designers. Formant, Re-Pitch and the fixed-interval mode can turn speech into creatures and robots.

Who should skip it: engineers who need surgical, note-by-note correction on lead vocals for release, who will still want Melodyne, and singers who already track through a tuner they trust. If you already own Nectar 4 or another suite with a harmony module, check whether that covers you first.

Price and availability

Voicemax is out now from Karanyi Sounds at €59 (launch price, regular €79). Owners of Cloudmax or Breeze pay €39. It is also included in MAX: Collectors' Edition at €199, which bundles all 32 Karanyi plugins, 16 Kontakt instruments and every expansion. A 7-day trial with no watermark is available, and the plugin stays installed after the trial so you can buy from inside it.

FAQ

How much does Voicemax cost?

€59 at launch, down from €79. Cloudmax and Breeze owners pay €39, and it is part of the €199 MAX: Collectors' Edition.

Does Voicemax work in real time?

Yes. Tuning, harmonies, EQ, Push and Brigade all run live while you sing or while the track plays.

Which DAWs does Voicemax support?

Any host that loads VST3, AU or AAX, including Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Cubase, Studio One, Reaper and Bitwig. On Windows it runs as VST3 and AAX.

Is Voicemax a subscription?

No. It is a one-time purchase with a perpetual licence, three activations and lifetime updates.

Voicemax vs Auto-Tune?

Both tune vocals in real time. Voicemax adds four harmony voices, a Brigade group effect and piano-roll editing in one plugin at a much lower price. Auto-Tune has the longer track record and the sound many engineers already know.

Verdict

Voicemax packs a tuner, a four-voice harmonizer and a note editor into one €59 plugin, and the Harmony Builder and Brigade features go beyond what budget tuners usually offer. It is a new product from a small developer, so try the 7-day trial on your own vocals before you commit, especially if you track through it live. If it holds up, it can replace two or three separate vocal plugins.