1. Breathing in, editing out...? 2. And what about blowing in the mic?

I wonder what you guys do with breathing in sounds on vocal tracks.

I am working on a few projects with badly recorded vocals (which can't be rerecorded due to circumstances). I can get rid of the noise and hum very easily (it's amazing what you can do about that nowadays!), but now I am stuck with two problems:

1. in between (parts of) sentences I hear the singer breathing in. The thing is that I don't hear that everywhere. Not at the start of the verses or the chorus, etc. Now it's a bit odd to not hear breathing in when the singer starts to sing but to only hear it in between here and there. If you know what I mean. 

Now when I play the entire track the breathing in can't really be heard, unless you pay close attention. I wonder if I should gate out all breath sounds, also because they are different everytime (short, hard, long, soft, etc.)

While I was thinking about it I noticed I don't even know how this is done on most records... I know some ballads that have obvious breathing, but a lot of songs you never hear breathing...

So, what would you do: edit the breathing out or let it in, even though it's not everywhere?

2. Apart from some popping, I also have some parts where the singer maybe touched the mic or blew into it too much while singing. It sounds a bit as if he was standing outside in the wind, if you know what I mean.

Anything I can do about that...? I can't think of a solution for it. Usually you harldly hear this due to the instrumentation, but there is one slow song that starts of with a piano and there you can hear it quite clearly.

Thanks for all the tips in advance, and please... do not simply post that I should rerecord the vocals because, as I said, that's impossible due to circumstances.

Where it sounds good for effect I'll leave them in.  If not, Slip edit them out.  Split clips, crop,  and fade I/O.  As far as the poping/blowing in the mic the above suggestions are good but in the future you should use a pop filter.

I think you are suppose to sing correctly first. Perhaps some lessons would help.

"what about blowing in the mic?"

Not unless it takes me to dinner first.
 
(I'm sorry for that there Lord and please be with the Pigmies in New Gunnie)

Okay, then let's take the breath sounds of playing a flute. Some people like that, as well as singing. I guess it then depends on how close the mic is and how the breathe should be softer than the singing.

There's a massive difference between a top class singer with good microphone technique breathing in a natural and musical way, and a bunch of badly recorded gasps. Rule of thumb, I think, is that if you were recording Dusty Springfield in Abbey Road, you'd probably leave them in. If you're recording your mate's band in your spare room, just edit all that crap out.

I think you are suppose to sing correctly first. Perhaps some lessons would help.

I've had singing lessons. But not once did my teacher suggest a technique for avoiding the need to suck in air! 

Never blow into or at a mic.

as far as breaths go, treat them with the same respect you would treat the notes (unless they deserve disrespect).

I edited the breathing sounds out with WavePad, which I also used for the noise reduction. Heck, reduction...? The noise isn't reduced, it is completely gone with that WavePad noise remover! Awesome program for an incredible low price (compared to others).

Ive yet to meet a vocal track that couldnt make use of a volume envelope somewhere in the track...assuming your are already throwing in volume envelopes I would suggest Bitflippers idea of just lowering the breathing.  I like leveling volumes manually before throwing on any contraptions and doohickeys.