Hello, 
I've only just joined on this forum so apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place or something. I am in the process of recording my own music and I've got quite fast at recording track sand editing them, panning them etc but it always ends up sounding quite amateur. I'm not particularity knowledgeable as I am quite new to this and don't know a lot of the terminology. So my question is, how would i go about making vocal tracks sound a lot better and professional?
 

Welcome to the forum. I assume you have music creator and need some advice.
 
Vocals are and can be a bit tricky to get right because there are so many variables that can make them sound less than professional from the mic and the gear, to adding fx that ruin the mix or the performance itself is less than stellar. You need to determine which of those it is.
 
One way we could help would be to hear the vocals in question. However, you need to load them up to a music site such as sound cloud or some other.... and post the link here..... but until you get 25 posts....active links are not permitted so..... you need to type it out like this:  www dot name_of_site dot com and we can figure it out. Listening is the best way for us to know what advice to offer.

Not knowing what in your opinion is wrong with the vocals I suggest the normal list of variables:
- Your voice/singing. Are you familiar with listening to your voice and are you realistic about yourself as a singer? If your singing is not of a professional level, there's no way you can make yourself sound professional.
- Microphone. Do you have a mic of proper quality for vocals. I don't mention audio interface separately, because qualitywise any of them can produce acceptable results. Though a proper external interface is very recommendable.
- Recording technique and environment. How's the acoustics in your studio? 
- There is quite a learning curve for using the effects and whatever the DAW has to offer, so don't expect to get there in a month or two. There are lots of guides on FX and else on tweakheadz.com
 
There are good books about recording also, like some by Roey Izhaki, can't remember the other big name just now. Those books, however, give you more when you have some idea of the job.
 
Patience :o)

Thankyou for both replies, you've made me realize I was a bit vague and should probably add some more infomation.

• I'm fairly certain the vocals are well performed as they are not my vocals but vocals of a friend who I think has a strong voice and has had singing lessons for a long time (feel free to disagree)
• I use Cakewalk music creator 5
• for recording vocals I use a Blue Yeti USB condesner Mic

I uploaded an unlisted youtube video of some vocals I recorded, without the backing track. It's a rough version in terms of it's not the best he can sing but otherwise I recorded it in the way I would record anything else to my best effort. 

 
Let me know any feedback or anythign else you would like to know. 
 
Also, GuitarHacker I'll check out your music

Hears the link to the video, just type the standard start to a youtube url in
 before hand and hopefully itll work
 
s5XJWhFlL3E&feature=youtu.be

Hi! I couldn't make your link work, maybe you could try reposting it more completely.
 
I am a beginner myself and still learning, but for me the most important steps towards better-sounding vocals so far have been:

• Getting a decent Mic. I don't know yours, and by the price it should at least be decent. But maybe it's not ideal for vocals? Maybe borrow a different one for a test? (As noted above, getting a real audio interface is generally very recommended, although that may not be the source of your issues)
• Getting a pop-filter
• Reducing noise in the room and minimizing unwanted reflections. Just the placement and direction of the microphone, and placing a carpet made quite a difference in my case.
• Recording multiple tracks and learning comping techniques (probably less simple in MC than it is in Sonar X3, which I have now upgraded to)
• Double tracking vocals
• FX: Adding just a touch of reverb, sometimes a touch of chorus, or high frequency exciter.

Yeah, that link isn't working for me either...... type it out completely and leave spaces or spell the "." as "dot"
 
 
also, when you post some vocals for a listen please have them in a song with backing tracks since it's hard to compare the vocals solo'd with no other reference.