Voloco review, after two years of writing and demoing on my phone
Score: 9/10
The fastest way I’ve found to get a demo-quality vocal out of a phone, and the free version is genuinely usable.
- App
- Voloco
- Works on
- iPhone, iPad, Android
- Price
- Free, with a Premium subscription
- How I tested it
- Two years of demos, writers’-round prep, and social clips on an iPhone
What works
- Effects run while you sing, so you hear the finished sound as you record
- Detects the key of your backing track automatically
- Auto Mix balances your vocal against the beat in one tap, free
- Premium works as a plugin inside GarageBand and AUM on iPhone and iPad
What doesn’t
- Multiple vocal layers (up to eight) need Premium
- WAV export is Premium-only; the free version exports MP3
- Built for the voice, so you’ll want another app for instruments
I’m a songwriter first and a singer second. For years my demos were me and a guitar in Voice Memos, and every time I sent one to a co-writer I added “ignore the vocal.” Voloco is what made me stop apologizing.
What it does
Voloco is a vocal recording app. You pick a backing track, either your own or one from the BeatStars library built into the app, and sing over it with effects applied in real time. Pitch correction, harmonies, vocoders, and reverbs are all there while you’re still recording, not bolted on afterward.
When you load a track, Voloco detects its key and scale. Pitch correction then pulls your voice toward the right notes in that key, which is the difference between a pitch-correction effect that sounds great and one that sounds like a robot losing an argument.
What’s free
More than I expected. The Starter Pack gives you five effects: Hard Tune for the obvious, modern sound, Natural Tune for something you’d never notice, Super Vocoder, Big Chorus, and Clean, which removes background noise without touching pitch. You also get presets for EQ, compression, echo, and reverb, one vocal track per project, MP3 export, and a daily beat import.
Auto Mix is free too. Tap it and Voloco sets your vocal level against the backing track, which is the step I always used to get wrong.
What Premium adds
Premium unlocks 62 more effects across a pile of packs. I use the Jazz and Bon Hiver harmony packs constantly for stacked choruses. It also adds custom effect settings, up to eight vocal tracks so you can stack harmonies yourself, WAV export for sending to a producer, cloud backups for 20 projects, and auto-mastering that runs right on your phone.
The feature I didn’t know I needed: Premium lets you use Voloco as a plugin inside GarageBand and AUM on iPhone and iPad. I build the band track in GarageBand and put Voloco on the vocal.
The yearly plan comes with a 7-day free trial, so you can test all of it before paying.
How I use it
Every song goes through the same path. The idea starts in Voice Memos, I work out the words and chords, then I cut a guitar track, import it into Voloco, and sing over it with Natural Tune and a little Small Room reverb. Twenty minutes later I have a demo I’m happy to text to a co-writer or post as a short clip.
Before a writers’ round, I record the new song in Voloco a few times just to hear it back. You catch the lines that don’t sing well fast.
Who should get it
If you write songs and sing them, get it, even if you never pay. The free version alone will make your demos better.
If you mostly produce beats or need to record a full band, Voloco isn’t trying to be that. Pair it with GarageBand or BandLab and let Voloco handle the vocal.