11 Best VST Plugins For Voice Overs
Music Industry How To is supported by readers. When you buy via a link on our site, we’ll possibly earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you.
Many inexperienced filmmakers think all they need to do is capture the audio for the scenes they’re filming and later insert it into their footage in post-production. Oh, if it were only that easy!
The truth is getting the right voice sound for your film, or for that matter, podcast, audiobook, or radio show usually requires some post-processing magic. At a minimum, you will need a competent toolset for enhancing the sound of recorded voice.
In this guide, we’ll be looking at the best VST plugins for voice overs.
Contents
Voxessor by United Plugins – Best Overall

So, you’re working on a film or maybe a video project. You need the voices to be audible. And you quickly realize how much of a challenge that is. You try boosting levels in your video editor, but that doesn’t work how you expect it should. It just makes the surrounding noise harsher.
That’s because you need post-processing to get the job done, and United Plugins’ Voxessor can deliver what you’re looking for.
Voxessor is effective for YouTube videos, podcasts, audiobooks, and films alike. No matter the application, if the recorded speech needs some touching up, this plugin includes all the functions you need to enhance voice tracks.
But what does it come with? First, there’s an EQ sweep function that will help you find the ideal EQ settings fast, without all the hassle.
Second, Intelligent Matching detects your voice tracks and analyzes the speaker’s voice. You can use the Match function for automatic EQ settings.
Third, the automatic volume setting reduces unwanted volume fluctuations.
Fourth, Voxessor comes with a one-knob gate and a one-knob compressor that has been optimized for voiceovers. Voxessor, however, is flexible enough to be used on vocal tracks for musical projects too.
Fifth, there’s a tunable de-esser that helps eliminate sibilance while maintaining the integrity of the original performance.
Voxessor comes with some other fun features like automatic gain compensation, smart bypass, intelligent sleep on silence, and more.
Overall, Voxessor is a tool that makes the process of tuning and sweetening vocals very straightforward. It works without a lot of tweaking, which is especially great when you don’t know what you’re doing, but it still gives you room to fine-tune as you see fit.
Voxessor is our best overall selection for tuning voice and vocals.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
Krotos Sound Design Bundle 2 by Krotos – Best Premium Option
Krotos Sound Design Bundle 2 is an epic collection of sound design, voice, automation, and sound effect tools for filmmakers. It comes with an astounding 16,375 sounds and 1,144 presets. As you can imagine, it comes with a premium price tag too.
Anyway, let’s look at what’s included.
First up is Dehumaniser 2. This vocal processor is perfect for creating all types of beast-, dinosaur-, robot-, or alien-voice sounds without all the hassle of setting up complex processing chains. It comes with over 200 presets to help you get started.
Next up is Igniter Full Tank. Looking to inject your film with vehicle sounds? This is your plugin. We’re talking motorbikes, sports cars, helicopters, airplanes, drones, spacecraft, and more.
Igniter features nearly 300 presets and powerful features like granular-, synth-, one-shot-, and loop-modules.
Third, Reformer Pro is your foley specialist in a box. You can use it to achieve all types of sound effects – feet, movement, ringing phones, and more. Not only will it improve your workflow, but it will also let you add layers to your sounds or replace them entirely.
Finally, Weaponiser Fully Loaded lets you create all manner of sound effects quickly and easily. As the name would suggest, the module was developed for weapon sound design. But additional libraries give you access to footsteps, magic, whooshes, user interface sounds, and more.
Krotos didn’t think that was quite enough, so they’ve included the Bundle 1 Library as well as the Battle Bundle Library for additional sound effects.
Naturally, the only plugin that does anything voice related is Dehumaniser. But we’ve included this as our best premium selection for those who need more comprehensive filmmaking and sound design solutions.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
VoxDucker by United Plugins – Best Budget Option
What’s the worst part of mixing the human voice? Well, it depends on whom you ask. But many a podcaster, video maker, or filmmaker will tell you that it’s working with background music. Somehow, the voice always clashes with the music, and it can be challenging to get the levels and processing right.
VoxDucker was created to solve this very problem. This tool will soften the background music so that the voice can be heard. And it can perform this job in three different ways.
While the ducker was created with vocals and voiceovers in mind, United Plugins says it’s just as effective on bass, drums, rhythm guitars, and other instruments. Whatever you need to duck and move out of the way of the voice, you can!
But there’s a lot of messing around with dials to get the settings just perfect, right? Not so. VoxDucker has been tested in an array of scenarios so there’s minimal tweaking involved. Simply adjust the depth control and you can be on your way. That said, you can make additional manual adjustments if needed.
And that’s about it. The GUI offers some visual feedback, and the plugin comes with some other features like smart bypass and intelligent sleep on silence.
It’s a tool that’s been created to solve a specific problem, but if that’s a problem you’re running into, you will love VoxDucker, especially given that it’s our best budget selection and it’s available for a nominal cost.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
UBERLOUD by Boom
Gee, I wonder what Boom’s UBERLOUD does? If you guessed that it makes your sounds go uber loud, you’re right. Fusing the functionality of a clipper with a denoiser, UBERLOUD adds harmonics to your tracks while removing unwanted noise.
Have you ever had trouble getting a specific track to sound loud enough in your mix, no matter the meter reading? I know I’ve been there. You can use EQs, compressors, and saturation to boost the track in the mix (and end up having to fix the issues this can cause), or you can use UBERLOUD.
UBERLOUD will boost your track without all the added shrillness of top-end EQ, the highly squashed sound of an over-compressed track, or the harshness of distortion. It’s perfect for voiceovers and guitar solos alike – anything that needs some extra presence in a mix. Plus, it’s easy to use.
But how easy is it? Well, you’ve got one knob to boost your signal and three taming knobs. Aside from that, it has controls for three independent bands.
So, if you need specific sounds in your mix to cut through the noise, UBERLOUD should be your weapon of choice.
Learn more: Plugin Boutique
AudioTrack by Waves
Waves’ AudioTrack is an excellent four-band dynamic processing channel strip with four-band parametric EQ, gating, and compression / expansion. The developer says it’s equally effective in music, narration, podcasting, and voiceover applications.
AudioTrack lets you choose from bell, high-shelf, or low-shelf curves for all four bands, as well as filter response for high and low bands. It comes with 48 presets designed for voice, guitar, keyboards, drums, and more.
This plugin is useful for gain staging, taming peaks, adding punch with compression to tracks, upward expansion, clipping prevention, and more.
You can also take advantage of two interfaces – legacy light or modern dark, depending on what works best for you.
While you would need some working knowledge of how to set the parameters, AudioTrack is no doubt a handy tool for EQ and dynamics.
Learn more: Waves
NS1 Noise Suppressor by Waves
Waves’ NS1 Noise Suppressor works a little bit like United Plugins’ VoxDucker, seen elsewhere in this guide. This is a simple, one-fader plugin that can help a voice cut through background noise. It helps reduce unwanted noise too.
NS1 Noise Suppressor is a great solution for voiceover, video dialog, music, and more. You can use the meter to monitor the amount of noise reduction to dial in the perfect amount.
The NS1 Noise Suppressor does not sound good with extreme settings, but even at lower settings, it can help remove echo, room noise, fan sounds, and more.
If you’re primarily dealing with noise in your recorded voice or speech, then this is a great solution. But if you have jobs to do other than just removing noise, you’re going to need more power guaranteed.
Learn more: Waves
Sibilance by Waves
I probably don’t need to tell you what Waves’ Sibilance is. This plugin cuts down on unwanted harsh and shrill consonants like “shh” and “ess.” This plugin has been designed to target sibilance and sibilance alone, without affecting the quality of the performance.
The Sibilance VST can be used on dialog, voiceover, podcasts, and even vocals. While keeping the tone and character of the original performance, it will eliminate unwanted frequencies and keep all other aspects, like resonance or duration, intact.
Sibilance gives you the ability to listen to just the content that’s being removed, so you know exactly how it’s working and what it’s doing to enhance your audio.
It’s a simple plugin, and it’s not the cheapest de-esser out there, but it does have a couple of features that might make it more worthwhile, and it is very effective at what it’s been designed to do.
Learn more: Waves
Manny Marroquin Triple D by Waves
Many Marroquin Triple D was of course developed in collaboration with Grammy-winning mix engineer Manny Marroquin. This plugin will detect and fix problems with your voice or vocal tracks while leaving the critical material completely untouched.
It sounds like a small thing, sure, but many plugins and even EQ techniques can leave your vocal tracks sounding a little flat. You’re better off taking advantage of a solution like this versus trying to improvise at the last minute.
Triple D is an effective tool for voiceover, podcast, and vocal tracks. Its three primary controls include DeBOXY, DeHARSHER, and DeESSER, each with frequency and bypass controls.
The naming of the parameters is silly, but the intention is understood – the plugin removes boxy, harsh, and sibilant sounds from your vocals.
You can use the attenuation meter to monitor exactly how much noise you’ve reduced at the specific frequency you’ve chosen.
Triple D makes it easy to perform several jobs in one place without the need of building an entire processing chain and dialing in settings for each from scratch.
Learn more: Waves
Renaissance DeEsser by Waves
Waves like their de-essers, and the Renaissance DeEsser is one that’s been around a good long while. It has achieved a very high rating, though, and its popularity hasn’t exactly tapered off.
While a little technical, the interface is simple and attractive enough. What is it? It’s a de-esser. And it’s a tool you should investigate for voiceovers, audiobooks, podcasts, and even vocals to tame the troublesome frequencies, hiss, shrillness, and the like.
Performing the same functions with EQ is inevitably messy, and at times it may even prove counterproductive to the results you’re trying to achieve.
Renaissance DeEsser comes with phase-compensated crossover, precision filtering, and multiple modes (wideband and split). It also features light and dark skins if customization is your thing.
Thanks to its simple interface and monitoring function, Renaissance DeEsser is relatively easy to use, and it can even be used to even out vocals where they seem to be a little uneven. Neat!
Learn more: Waves
JJP Vocals by Waves
Waves’ JJP Vocals was created in collaboration with Grammy-winning engineer and producer Jack Joseph Puig.
The average vocal processor focuses on “boring” things like EQ, compression, saturation, harmony, pitch correction, etc. Not JJP Vocals! This plugin wants to let you imbue your vocal tracks with Attitude, Attack, Magic, Presence, and Space. Crazy? Maybe so!
But clearly, it’s not something someone just pulled out of a hat and called it an effect. JJP Vocals combines familiar effects like vocal-specific EQ, compression, delay, and other effects, which are influenced by how the parameters are set.
The idea is to make vocal processing intuitive, and the only thing you need to do here is to adjust the five sliders until you’re happy with the result.
JJP himself says he thinks of mixing vocals intuitively, not as a systematic process. There might just be something to that…
But what do the main parameters do? There must be some method to the madness, right?
Attack boosts initial consonants, Presence enhances clarity and articulation, Attitude adds power to vocals, Space is a slap-back delay, and Magic will boost the vocal’s natural character.
Of course, what’s cool about JJP Vocals is that it isn’t just for vocals (it also works for rap vocals by the way), but also for voiceover, podcasts, audiobooks, and more.
This plugin also comes with things like S5 parallel processors, voice options (two male, one female), and additional settings to perfect your sounds – low and high EQ, de-esser, and compression.
For a signature plugin with plenty of functionality, JJP Vocals’ price is not overkill and may be well worth a look if you’re looking to add to your voiceover toolkit.
Learn more: Waves
eMo D5 Dynamics by Waves
Designed for studio and live use, Waves’ eMo D5 Dynamics comes with five dynamics processing effects in one – compressing, limiting, gate / expander, de-esser, and leveler. No wonder it’s called D5! Its price reflects this fact too.
Fast, clear, and transparent, Dynamics D5 possesses all the qualities required to be an effective solution for rapid, on-the-fly use. Its zero-latency design and low CPU consumption play a significant part in that.
Additionally, the compressor and expander / gate modules come with sidechain input and filters, parallel compression can be used for added punch, dynamics detection reduces breathing and pumping, the limiter keeps your signal from overloading, and the de-esser comes with pre / post routings as well as three filter types.
The displays change based on the processor you’re using at the time, and it comes with 27 presets too.
Before I forget, yes, this is an effective solution for voiceovers, narration, and music alike, and it can even out your dynamics while providing a smoother sound to your voice or vocal tracks.
Learn more: Waves
What Should I Look For In A VST Plugin For Voice Over?
Still not sure what to get? That’s okay, we know where you’re coming from. That’s why, in this section of the guide, we’ll look at the specific criteria you should consider when shopping for a voice over VST plugin. These include:
- Ease of use
- Sound quality / functionality
- Features
- Budget
Let’s look at each.
Ease Of Use
Unless you’re an experienced producer or engineer, I would recommend finding plugins that are easy to understand and use. Many filmmakers, podcasters, narrators, and the like aren’t engineers, and may not have any interest in learning the craft either.
VST plugins have been designed to be used with Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). And just like that, I probably lost some of you already. But it’s a key point because, without a host, most plugins don’t work.
While you can probably find tutorials on every major DAW as well as how to use plugins within the interface, and it shouldn’t take you ages to figure out, the process can be technical, and not everyone wants to learn.
We don’t have the space to talk about the ins and outs of DAWs here, but I do want to stress that, depending on your needs, your best bet is to find a VST plugin (or set of VST plugins) that streamlines and enhance your workflow.
Sound Quality / Functionality
Sound quality matters with all but metering and utility plugins. And while that does apply to voiceover plugins as well, we need to go a level deeper and look at functionality as well.
And by that, I mean – does the plugin do what it’s been designed to do? Can it produce the promised results?
We all know that brands, developers, and manufacturers like to talk up their products. It’s only natural. But as a consumer, we must balance out a product’s strengths with its weaknesses, and its advantages with its disadvantages.
So, while you’re exploring the sound quality of the plugins – which I strongly recommend you do – I also suggest listening to whether it can do the jobs you need it to do. This isn’t always something you can tell from product descriptions alone.
There are plenty of resources for you to explore – audio clips, video demos, video reviews, and more. Whatever you can get your hands on can generally help along the buying process.
Features
There is an array of different effects that can be used to enhance the sound of a voice – EQ, compression, limiting, gating, noise suppression, de-essing, and more. Most voiceover VST plugins utilize one, a combination, or all of these techniques to achieve the desired results.
As result, not all plugins are created equal. What most of the plugins featured here have in common is that they’re different.
There is an easy way to figure out what features you need, however, and that is by gaining a solid understanding of what the plugins you’re thinking about buying can do. And that goes back to an earlier point on sound quality / functionality.
Budget
No matter the purchase, a smart person always consults their budget before sending their payment through.
VST plugins can add up fast, especially in this category. If you plan to buy a premium option, or if you intend to buy multiple plugins, we suggest checking the available budget before committing to the purchase.
Please spend responsibly and avoid going into debt. We want you to enjoy your new purchase, not end up loathing it.
Top VST Plugins For Voice Overs, Final Thoughts
Getting voice over just right can be a challenge. But with the right tools, you’re sure to get much better results. We’ve compiled the best options available for you in this guide, so you don’t need to go searching far and wide for other solutions.
Happy recording and let us know how it goes!
P.S. Remember though, none of what you've learned will matter if you don't know how to get your music out there and earn from it. Want to learn how to do that? Then get our free ‘5 Steps To Profitable Youtube Music Career' ebook emailed directly to you!