VocAlign 7 is the latest version of the popular and long-running vocal alignment software. It’s as good as you expect, but does version seven bring enough new features to the table to make it worth the upgrade?

Since 1995, Synchro Arts have been making vocal alignment a little easier with VocAlign. The industry standard software is now up to version seven with what Synchro Arts is calling the biggest workflow shift since the original debuted more than 30 years ago. The big new feature? Everything is now contained inside a single screen, with guide tracks, dubs and outputs all clearly visible at once. It’s a big change since we last checked in at version five, but is it enough to warrant the upgrade price?

If you’re unfamiliar, VocAlign is a vocal alignment plugin that snaps multiple tracks of audio to a guide. This is useful for lining up vocal doubles and harmonies. Of course, you could always do this manually but VocAlign handles it so quickly and effortlessly. If you work with vocals often, it’s pretty much a required piece of software. This is why it has become the industry standard.

Not content to rest on their laurels, Synchro Arts have worked over the years to improve the software, adding creative functionality like formant and pitch adjustment along with timing. This latest version revamps the workflow so that it’s much more convenient to work with, putting everything onto a single screen. 

There are two versions of VocAlign 7, Standard and Pro. We’re looking at Pro.

Start by dropping VocAlign onto every track that you want to affect. It’s most commonly used on vocals but it works just as well on instrument and dialogue tracks. Open one instance and all others will be reflected inside any one plugin, with each track appearing sort of like a mini DAW, each with its own solo and mute buttons. Arm and capture the audio, and then set which track is the guide and which are the dubs, the ones to follow the master timing and/or pitch. Automagically, everything is now tight and in tune and ready for any further adjustments you may wish to make. Note that you can have multiple guides as well, keeping everything within one tidy layout. 

Adjustments can apply globally, but also now individually to each track or even to separate clips within a track. On the left are the track settings, with pitch, timing and formant controls to change everything in that lane, while on the right are clip settings. You can easily give one single dub looser timing than the rest of the harmonies, and apply radical formant changes to just one clip within that track. Or highlight a section to protect it from any changes to ensure the naturalness of a comp remains. All of this is extremely intuitive in use as well.

VocAlign 7 has a new analysis view called Visual Energy. With this, you can readily see not only how the output audio aligns with the original but its “energy” in terms of amplitude. You can also check pitch changes, although you can’t edit notes at a granular level. For that, you’ll need RePitch 2, which syncs with VocAlign via SynchroLink 2.0 to act as the guide, with its information also showing up in VocAlign.

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Keleigh Batchelor on why balanced lineups start years before the poster, and why "fewer women DJs" doesn't hold up.

Debates about representation in electronic music tend to get heated fast. Comment threads and panel soundbites distort arguments that deserve more space, whether that's about lineup balance, studio access, mentorship or safety.

At the heart of the series is a simple question: can we close the gender gap?

No one is asking for consensus; that’s impossible. But by opening the floor, we can build a broader understanding through other people’s perspectives and experiences.

Next in the chair, in this ongoing series, is Keleigh Batchelor. Keleigh has spent more than 13 years at AlphaTheta, where she now leads PR and communications across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In that time, she has helped shape how the company's brands and technology reach the market, and how they speak to the creators who use them.

Alongside that role, she has become one of the company's most active voices on inclusion. Her recent work includes Equal Beats, an initiative that creates opportunities for aspiring women and gender-diverse DJs and creatives, and the thinking behind it runs through her answers below.

Attack: If there are simply fewer women and gender-diverse DJs in the talent pool, is it fair to expect more balanced lineups – or are those two things not mutually exclusive? In other words, does that argument ignore why the pool is smaller in the first place?

KB: I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. Our AlphaTheta account registration data shows that our user base remains heavily male, with around 15% identifying as female. We need to ask why; it’s not something that happened in isolation. Years of barriers to entry have shaped it, whether that is access to equipment, education, role models, mentorship, networking opportunities, or simply feeling like you don’t belong in the space.

Lineups are the visible outcome of everything that has happened beforehand. If we focus only on who is available to book today, we risk overlooking the work needed to ensure the talent pool is larger and more diverse in the future.

That’s why initiatives like Equal Beats focus on creating more opportunities much earlier in the journey through our Start from Scratch program. This helps more people access DJing, build confidence and develop the skills and networks needed to progress.

Can you share a story or example that shows how inclusion – or the lack of it – has affected someone’s confidence, career path or creat