The Best Formant-Shifting Plugins

We explore six of the best formant-shifting plugins for processing vocals, transforming instruments and creative sound design.

Formant-shifting is a popular audio processing technique in modern music production. From tweaking the timbre of instruments to transforming the tone of vocals, formant-shifting is a versatile process that opens up many creative opportunities. In this article, we’re exploring some of the best formant-shifting tools available today, including a free formant-shifting plugin at the end of the article.

What are Formants in Audio?

In technical terms, formants refer to peaks in the frequency spectrum caused by resonances in the vocal tract. Sonically, formants don’t have any bearing on the pitch of a sound, but more the overall tone and timbre. For this reason, some formant-shifting plugins, such as ELASTIQUE PITCH, use the terms formant and timbre interchangeably.

What is Formant-Shifting, and What Does it Sound Like?

Formant-shifting is the digital process by which the formants of an audio signal are adjusted, thus changing their tone. Again, this is a separate process from pitch-shifting, although many plugins allow the user to control both, either in tandem or independently.

Formant-shifting can be used to make a male voice sound female, and vice versa, without changing the pitch of vocals. Check out how dance music royalty Chris Lake and Sammy Virji use ELASTIQUE PITCH to transform the tone of a vocal sample.

While formant-shifting is commonly used on vocals, it can be used on other instruments and even drums, too. Want to bring out the presence of a piano recording, or tame the harshness of a hi-hat loop? You can achieve that with formant-shifting.

The Best Formant-Shifting Plugins in 2025

Let’s take a look at some of the most powerful pitch-shifting plugins available today.

zplane ELASTIQUE PITCH

First up is our own pitch and formant-shifting plugin, ELASTIQUE PITCH, which uses our industry-renowned ELASTIQUE pitch-shifting and time-stretching algorithm. Leading DAWs, including Ableton Live, Pro Tools and Cubase use the same algorithm in their own native pitch-shifting functionality.

The first version of ELASTIQUE PITCH was released in 2009, and a 2025 update gave the plugin an overhaul. Version 2.5 boasts the latest and greatest version of the ELASTIQUE PRO algorithm, a completely redesigned user interface, expanded multichannel support and much more. Through each iteration of ELASTIQUE PITCH, the focus has always been on audio transparency and user experience, and Version 2.5 is no exception.

ELASTIQUE PITCH’s intuitive XY control allows users to quickly apply up to 12 semitones of formant-shifting, independent of pitch. There’s an in-built Dry/Wet control for seamlessly blending your formant-shifting effect, a pitch delay for creative glitch effects, and even a grain freeze function.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use formant shifter with industry-trusted audio transparency and a few extra tricks up its sleeve, ELASTIQUE PITCH ought to be on your radar. Download the free demo of ELASTIQUE PITCH now to try it out for yourself.

Antares Throat Evo

The developers behind this next plugin are best known for their suite of pitch correction tools, but today, we’re talking about their formant-shifting plugin. Throat gives you in-depth control of vocal formants, as well as lips, mouth, and vocal cords.

If you want to really dive in and mess with a vocal’s anatomy beyond pitch and formant-shifting, then Throat Evo by Antares does offer some further controls not found in other formant-shifting plugins. If, however, you’re looking for a simple-to-use and creative formant-shifting effect for vocals as well as other instruments, then another plugin on this list might be more suitable.

BLEASS Vox

Next up is another vocal-focused formant-shifting plugin, this time from French audio software developers, BLEASS. As well as independent pitch and formant controls, there’s in-built pitch correction for quantizing the key and scale of vocal recordings.

You also get a vibrato effect for adding pitch modulation, and a unison effect for adding stereo movement and thickness to your vocals. Finally, there’s a Real Time button, which reduces the plugin latency. As with many audio processes, there is a trade-off between time and transparency, and so engaging Vox’s Real Time mode may reduce processing accuracy.

Soundtoys LittleAlterBoy

The US-based audio software developers, Soundtoys, are known for their range of creative and characterful audio plugins. LittleAlterboy has been around for a number of years, and is a monophonic pitch and formant shifting plugin with a few modes and parameters to experiment with.

By default, you can adjust the Pitch or Formant control, and the two parameters remain in sync with one another. Alternatively, you can switch off the Link control, and adjust the Pitch and Formant independently.

As with many of Soundtoys' products, this plugin is designed to impart a unique color on the audio signal. So if you’re looking for more natural and transparent formant shifting, there might be more suitable alternatives for your needs.

Minimal Audio Formant

The last third-party tool on this list is a free formant-shifting plugin from Minimal Audio. The aptly-named Formant is a simple, no-frills formant-shifting plugin with just three controls. Of course, you get a formant control, plus a Tilt EQ for further shaping the tone of the sound. Finally, a Dry/Wet control lets you apply parallel formant-shifting with ease.

Just like ELASTIQUE PITCH, Formant makes use of an XY control for intuitive formant processing. Unlike ELASTIQUE PITCH, Formant can only be used to control the formant of an audio signal, and not the pitch too.

Use Your DAW’s Inbuilt Formant Shifting

Finally, depending on your needs and workflow, you may be able to use your DAW’s own inbuilt formant-shifting functionality. In some DAWs, such as Ableton Live, this is possible in the audio-editing window thanks to the Complex Pro warping mode, which is powered by our ELASTIQUE algorithm. One thing to note, however, is that using your DAW’s formant-shifting tools may limit your creative potential.

In the case of Ableton Live’s Complex Warp algorithm, you only get control over the preservation of formants, and can’t actually adjust the formants in semitones. Unlike real-time pitch and formant-shifting plugins like ELASTIQUE PITCH, your DAW applies shifting in an offline process.

While your DAW might also have a real-time formant-shifting option, you may find that a paid-for third-party plugin provides considerably better audio quality.

If you want to see how ELASTIQUE PITCH’s audio quality compares to another formant-shifting tool, or even your DAW, feel free to download the demo below to try it for yourself.