What has anyone used and felt worked well to auto create harmonics? I'm debating if I want to do this and probably won't for simpler stuff, but I'm looking at some not-simpler stuff and I'm not that good

I know a few people who do this and they all use Melodyne. Take that as an endorsement or a coincidence, I have no idea.

If you think it sounds artificial, you could always take what Melodyne has generated, study it and then re-sing it yourself.

Thanks...I thought that was a pitch corrector, not a harmonizer...? So it's both?

It can do a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyjtlfPnBF8

We should wait for offline AI powered service for realistic vocal harmonies, and it would be very easy for AI.

well, it started out life as a pitch corrector. But what is a harmony but a transposed part? Just add some simple music theory rules so that it stays in the key. It also does time-alignment and a bunch of other stuff.

To me, the most impressive thing it can do is, you can put three people singing a chorus around one mic, and if the alto is off, you can fix her and leave the soprano and the tenor alone. I used to think that sort of thing was "impossible", and not that long ago.

Hard pass (also not the topic at hand)

I'm gonna be that, "hey jerk, that isn't what I asked" guy, but bear with me... the best autoharmonizer is you and a keyboard to work things out. Nothing will ever sound as good and organic as real harmonies. My "trick" for disguising my not-amazing voice is to quadruple-track every part, which tends to homogenize the whole mess into something that sounds decent (I put Logic in loop record mode and track a line or two over and over until I have four decent takes. It's a lot faster than you might think, especially with Logic Remote on iPad on the music stand!) I then run all harmonies to a bus with compressor and EQ, then do a send from the bus to another bus with a doubler or chorus of some sort. You might be amazed at the results.

Another very good reason not to use some kind of automated thing is that you can make a lot more musical choices with parts - sitting on pedal notes on certain lines, going up while another is going down, etc.

FWIW, I'm a long-time Melodyne user, and you certainly could use it to harmonize things. Depending on how in-tune I sang in the first place, I often just use built-in Logic pitch correctors on every harmony track because Melodyning a dozen or more harmony tracks can be pretty tedious (I always Melodyne lead vocals though).

For a real time harmonizer, all these years later, it's still Eventide Quadravox/Octavox. It's not going to replace tracking actual harmonies, nothing will. But does let you pick the key for it to transpose to. Not just the interval but the key as well. I don't know why other plug-ins don't have that option. Tracks fairly well.

Otherwise, non real-time, Melodyne or manual pitch/stretch.

You could try Waves Harmony.

It's quite complex but I like it and it's currently under 40 dollars.

Frankly if the demos are any indication, those last two are clearly not the answer. I want simple, pure, harmonies, not some EDM computery-sounding whatever.

But regardless, appreciate the replies. Always worth looking around. A friend has Melodyne so going to give that a test drive...

Here's how you do it in Melodyne.

Tune/process the original vocal. Buss the tuned track to a new audio track and record it to that track. Now you have a tuned lead vocal audio track.

To create a harmony, you simply move the blobs in the original tuned track to the pitches you want them to be. Then buss THAT to a new audio track, and record it. You now have the first harmony.

Rinse and repeat for the remaining harmonies you want.

It's time consuming but if you can't sing
yourself, and the singer who cut the lead didn't also cut the harmonies, then it's your only option.

I have Waves Harmony and yes it won't turn a single lead vocal into Bohemian Rhapsody. But it does do some cool stuff..I use it to turn a single harmony track into what sounds like 20 people singing it (there are several "gang" or "choir" presets). So it's a good doubler/tripler/multiplier. Also does vocode-ish stuff.

There currently is NO plugin that creates instant perfect harmonies.

Learning curve is a little steep with Melodyne, but it's worth the effort.

Melodyne essential can be pretty affordable on resale sites and should do all you need. You might want to follow it up with something like Softube Layers or Sonnox Doubler (again check the resale places) to vary it up from the main vocal a little bit. Set Doubler to full wet and instead of a double you have a new vocal with slightly different timing, pitch fluctuation, etc. You should be able to Melodyne and Doubler for under $30.