A free Melodyne alternative that runs in your browser
IchiPitchy is a free browser-based alternative to Melodyne for note-level vocal pitch editing. It detects each sung note, shows it as a draggable block on a piano roll, and lets you reshape the pitch curve inside a note, plus formant, timing and vibrato edits. Note editing is never metered; two lossless WAV exports a month are free, then Pro is $3 a month.
What carries over from a tool like Melodyne
- Automatic note detection, so your performance arrives as editable objects rather than a flat waveform.
- Drag a note to move its pitch; edit the pitch curve within a note using control points.
- Split a detected note into segments, or merge segments back together.
- Per-note formant, timing and vibrato adjustments.
- Lossless WAV export.
What is different
It is a web app, so there is no licence, no installer and no DAW required — but equally there is no plugin mode, so it does not sit on a track inside your DAW. The workflow is upload, edit, export.
It is also broader than a pitch editor. AI vocal separation, a rule-based backing band generator across 50 instruments, and a multitrack mixer with a master limiter are in the same app, so a raw take can become a finished mix without another tool.
It is desktop-only, and it needs a modern browser.
Honest limitations
A browser tab is not a substitute for a professional offline editor in every case. Polyphonic instrument editing is not the target — this is built for vocals. Uploads are capped at 100 MB per file, and heavy rendering happens server-side, so a long export takes as long as it takes.
If you need a pitch editor inside your DAW session on a track insert, a plugin is still the right tool. If you want note-level vocal editing without buying anything, this covers it.
Step by step
- Open your take in the browser. Upload a vocal — no install, no plugin, no DAW required.
- Work with notes, not a curve. The take is split into note blocks you can drag, exactly like a note-based desktop editor.
- Edit inside a note. Double-click a block to add control points and reshape its pitch contour — scoops, slides and vibrato shaping.
- Split and merge. Use the cut tool where detection drew a boundary in the wrong place, and merge blocks it split by mistake.
- Render it. Export a lossless WAV with the edits applied, or MIDI of the notes.
IchiPitchy compared with a desktop pitch editor
| Capability | IchiPitchy | Typical desktop pitch editor |
|---|---|---|
| Install / licence | None — browser tab | Desktop install, paid licence |
| Notes as editable objects | Yes | Yes |
| Pitch-curve editing inside a note | Yes, control points | Yes |
| Formant, timing and vibrato edits | Yes, per note | Yes |
| Polyphonic / chord editing | No — vocals only | Yes, in higher tiers |
| Runs as a DAW plugin | No — upload, edit, export | Yes |
| AI vocal separation included | Yes | Usually a separate tool |
| Multitrack mixing included | Yes | Needs the host DAW |
| Export | Lossless 24-bit WAV | Lossless |
Frequently asked questions
Is there a genuinely free alternative to Melodyne?
Yes. IchiPitchy offers note-level pitch editing — note detection, per-note pitch dragging and pitch-curve editing — free in a desktop browser, with no licence.
Does it work as a plugin in my DAW?
No. It is a standalone web app. You upload audio, edit it, and export a lossless WAV to bring back into your DAW.
Can it edit chords or instruments, like Melodyne's polyphonic mode?
No. It is built for vocals and monophonic pitch editing, not polyphonic instrument separation within a single track.
What about Auto-Tune — is this closer to that?
It does both. Automatic key-and-scale snapping covers the Auto-Tune use case, while the piano roll and pitch curves cover the Melodyne-style manual editing case.
What does Melodyne do that IchiPitchy does not?
Three things, honestly. Melodyne’s polyphonic modes separate individual notes inside a chord or a full mix, which IchiPitchy cannot do — it works on monophonic material, one note at a time. Melodyne runs inside a DAW through ARA, so edits sit alongside the rest of your session; IchiPitchy is a standalone web app you export from. And Melodyne is a mature desktop product with deeper timing and tempo-mapping tools than a browser editor offers.
What does IchiPitchy do that Melodyne does not?
IchiPitchy is a whole vocal studio rather than a pitch editor. It separates a song into vocal and instrumental stems with AI, adds one-click harmonies built from your own voice, generates a 50-instrument backing band from a chord progression, generates an instrumental from a text prompt, records straight from your microphone, mixes multitrack with per-track effects, tunes the vocal inside a video, and answers plain-English requests through an AI assistant. None of that needs an install.
Can IchiPitchy replace Melodyne for professional work?
For monophonic vocal work — tuning a lead, fixing a few notes, tightening harmonies — yes, and the export is lossless. For polyphonic editing, ARA integration with a DAW session, or offline work on a machine with no connection, no. Those are the cases where a desktop licence still earns its price, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.
How much does IchiPitchy cost compared with a Melodyne licence?
Melodyne is sold as a perpetual desktop licence, bought once per edition. IchiPitchy costs nothing to use: note editing, auto-tune, harmony, recording and mixing are unlimited and unmetered, and the free plan also includes two editor exports and two mixer exports every month. IchiPitchy Pro removes those export limits for $3 a month or $33 a year, with tax added at checkout.
Do I need to install anything or create an account?
Nothing to install — it is a website, and it runs in a current desktop browser. You do need a free account to upload a take, because the file is stored against your projects and the final render happens on the server. The key and BPM finder is the one part that needs no sign-in at all.
Can I edit timing, formants and vibrato as well as pitch?
Yes, per note: formant shift in semitones, a timing offset, a time-stretch ratio, and vibrato depth, rate and reduction. These are applied when the file is rendered rather than during live preview, so the editor stays responsive; the panel says so next to the controls. There is no free-form time-grid dragging of the kind a desktop editor offers.
Will it flatten my vibrato like a hard auto-tune?
Only if you ask it to. Level sets how hard notes snap to the scale — 0% leaves the performance alone, 100% is the deliberate robotic effect — and Smooth decides how much vibrato and ornamentation survives the correction. For surgical work, skip auto-tune entirely and drag individual notes instead.
What quality does it export?
Lossless WAV at 24-bit or 32-bit float, rendered server-side with a WORLD vocoder rather than in the browser preview engine, so the file you download is the high-quality render. MP3 at 320 kbps, MIDI of the detected notes, and separated stems as a zip are also available. MIDI export is free and never counts against the export allowance.
Is the audio I upload private?
Uploads are stored against your own account and are not public or shared. Note detection and the final render run on IchiPitchy servers, so the take is uploaded — this is not an offline tool, and any page that told you otherwise would be wrong. Projects are removed automatically after a rolling retention window unless you extend them, and you can delete a project, or your whole account, at any time.
Related
Read the full user guide or open IchiPitchy.
Melodyne is a trademark of Celemony Software GmbH. Auto-Tune is a trademark of Antares Audio Technologies. IchiPitchy is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by these companies. Product names are used only to describe what IchiPitchy does.