Vocal Bender is certainly one of the slickest plugins we’ve experimented with and delivers all you need to shape your vocals with no stress. We can dramatically scale the pitch of our backing vocals on the fly during track playback, and experiment with modulating our vocal in order to get the right tonal qualities without any CPU slack. We’re happy to report then, that not only does Vocal Bender provide that within minutes, but that there is absolutely no processing lag.

But the aim of the game with Vocal Bender is really getting that professional-sounding vocal manipulation at speed. Once you reveal the modulation and automation options, vast creative scope presents itself. The basic simplicity of this UI invites immediate experimentation but there is a significant amount of complex and utterly unique programming potential here. Vocal Bender offers up speedy, real-time pitch-shifting and instant access to some of the modern vocal producer’s tricks, all controlled via an intuitive UI. Vocals that – to varying degrees – modify in pitch and intensity, distort, stutter and loop can be found almost anywhere and in many genres. We go into the ins and outs of this setup in this guide too. Waves has also recently introduced a two-tier subscription model called Waves Creative Access (opens in new tab) which grants you access to some/all Waves plugins for a monthly fee - including the plugins featured in this guide.

For each plugin in our roundup we have also conducted an in-depth test, which is linked to at the end of each summary, so don't forget to read these more comprehensive reviews before you buy. With an ever-growing roster of analogue emulations and newer, cutting edge tools, it can be tough to know which Waves plugins to throw into your virtual shopping cart, which is why we’ve rounded up the best here. If you're not sure where to start, this guide will steer you towards the essentials for your home studio tool kit, imparting advice for best use practice along the way, and ensuring you have the right tools to help you mix better and faster. The company's vast range of plugins covers everything from virtual recreations of classic outboard processors through to ultra-modern production tools. Waves (opens in new tab) is at the forefront of this plugin development and has been producing incredible plugins used by producers and engineers the world over for the better part of three decades.

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