Autotune Retune Speed: The Only Setting That Matters
Vocal tuning · 5 min read
Retune Speed is how long Auto-Tune takes to pull a note onto the target pitch, on a 0–400 scale where lower is faster. Use 0–10 for the hard, locked modern sound and 40–90 when the correction should be invisible. Between 15 and 35 is the dead zone where everybody hears it working.
Two useful zones
0–10 or 40–90
Locked effect · or correction nobody notices
The 60-second answer
Set key and scale first and delete notes the melody never sings. Hard effect: Retune Speed 0–10, Humanize 0, Flex-Tune 0. Invisible: Retune Speed 40–90, Humanize 25–50, Flex-Tune 30–60, Natural Vibrato left alone. Then play the fastest run in the song.
What the number actually means
Retune Speed is a time constant, not a strength. At 0 the pitch is dragged to target in a couple of milliseconds, so every note starts already correct and every slide becomes a step. At 400 the correction never arrives before the singer moves on, which is the same as bypassing the plugin. A sixteenth note at 120 BPM lasts 125 ms, so any setting slower than that does nothing on a fast line.
Your scale matters more than your speed
On chromatic the plugin has twelve targets a semitone apart and grabs whichever is nearest at every instant. On a slide, a bend or a breath the pitch then jumps between two neighbouring semitones several times a second. That is the chattering artefact people blame on retune speed. Set the real key, choose major or minor, and remove the scale notes the melody never touches. Five or six targets instead of twelve, and the same speed sounds twice as clean.
Dialling it in, step by step
| # | Do this |
|---|---|
| 01 |
Set key and scale before anything else Find the key from the beat, then delete the scale notes the vocal never sings — usually the 4th and the 7th in a trap melody. Key + scale, not chromatic |
| 02 |
Decide which job you are doing Effect or repair. Pick one. Trying to get both from one setting is how you land in the 15–35 dead zone. Effect: 0–10 · repair: 40–90 |
| 03 |
Hard sound: lock it down Retune 0–10, Flex-Tune 0, Humanize 0. Keep formant correction on so the voice does not turn into a chipmunk on big moves. Retune 0–10 · Flex-Tune 0 |
| 04 |
Invisible: slow it and let notes off the hook Retune 40–90 with Flex-Tune 30–60, so notes already close to target are untouched and only the wrong ones get pulled. Retune 40–90 · Flex-Tune 30–60 |
| 05 |
Turn Humanize up on sustained notes Humanize applies your retune speed to short notes and a slower one to held notes, so vibrato on a long vowel survives while quick words stay tight. Humanize 25–50 |
| 06 |
De-ess before the tuner Pitch shifting stretches an S into a longer, harsher S. Take 3–4 dB out at 6–8 kHz ahead of the plugin. De-esser → tuner |
The trick: automate Retune Speed by note length, then break the rule on purpose
One number cannot serve a held note and a sixteenth-note run in the same verse. A correction that takes 60 ms is invisible on a two-second note and completely absent on a 100 ms word. So automate the knob. The default rule is fast on short notes, slow on long ones — which is exactly what Humanize does for you, and if your plugin has it you can often stop there. It gets interesting on the modern hard-tuned sound, because there you invert the rule deliberately. The glassy locked tone lives on the held notes, so drop Retune Speed to 0–8 on the sustained words and open the runs up to 25–50 so fast passages glide instead of stair-stepping between semitones. Two automation points per phrase, maybe eight in a chorus. That is the difference between an effect that appears where you want it and a plugin that is audibly on for four minutes. Write it on the plugin parameter, not by bypassing the plugin, or you get a click at every jump.
Stop guessing the chain.
The Vocal Chain Bible is 88 real vocal chains from Grammy-winning engineers — every plugin, every setting, in order, with free alternatives for each one. 5+ years, 100+ interviews, one PDF.
Get the Vocal Chain Bible — $48 →Mistakes that kill it
- Leaving it on chromatic. Twelve targets a semitone apart cause most of the artefacts producers blame on the speed knob.
- Living in the 15–35 zone. Too slow to lock, too fast to hide. It is the setting that makes a vocal sound cheap.
- Tuning a take that is out by more than a semitone. The plugin will do it and the formants go with it. Re-sing the line.
- Stacking a real-time tuner on a hand-tuned vocal. Two correctors chasing each other produce a wobble neither makes alone.
Key and scale first, then one of the two zones, then automation. Three decisions and the tuner stops being the loudest thing in the mix.
Keep going
FAQ
What is the best retune speed for rap vocals?
0–10 for the locked, obvious sound, 40–70 if the melody should feel sung. Most modern rap sits at one extreme, rarely between.
Does a lower retune speed sound more natural?
No, the opposite. Lower means faster correction and a harder sound. Higher numbers correct slowly and sound natural.
Should I tune before or after compression?
After a light corrective pass, before the main compressor. A tuner tracks pitch better on a level signal.
Who's behind this
Ivan Meshcheriakov · IvanFromRnD
5+ years ago I moved to LA with zero connections and started building from nothing — 14-hour days, meeting people and interning at studios. It took me 5+ years to meet and interview 100+ Grammy-winning engineers — then I turned it all into the Vocal Chain Bible.
Read my full story →