cpkoch - just a couple comments about value. And I agree that if you wait long enough a sale of some sort can come along.

I often use a four step approach to charm my vocal tracks.

1. Record vocal tracks in Sonar X3 Producer, loop record, capture multiple take lanes
2. Speed comp in Sonar X3, get the right and best phrase takes from the take lanes
3. Clean up the comped track in Melodyne
4. Add all kinds of touches in Nectar 2, that includes cloning the track and making harmony track(s) etc.

After those steps, without much effort involved at all, you can have a pretty amazing vocal track.

mettelus
At the very bottom should be a section of "Third Party Products" including Peavey Revalver HPSE and iZotope Nectar Elements. 
For some reason I thought you had X3 Studio; but if you have Producer and do not see these listed, I suggest sending an email to XLN audio and ask about these.

The phrase Third Party Products is not there as far as I can tell!  I use Chrome as a Browser but tried looking for it on Firefox ... same conclusion!
 
By the way, I bought Producer  in May 2014 and am quite happy I did!  Anyway, I have inquiries into XLN's support organization as well as having left a message on their Facebook page.  I've also emailed iZotope asking how to get the free package.
  
As an aside if you have compared Nectar Elements with Nectar 2 I would welcome your take on each.  If I can get Elements free I can probably rationalize buying the Nectar 2 Upgrade! The little bit I've used it makes me think it's a pretty powerful  tool for vocalists/  
 

For Addictive Drums, there was a nice post made by Subjacent last year which includes track templates and drum maps. If you begin to use AD to any significant level, the content of that post will come in handy.
 
Nectar Elements unto itself is a fairly powerful plug-in. With the extras included with X3 Producer, the "gap" to Nectar 2, can be closed with an effects chain for the most part. Nectar 2 (Standard Edition) has more internal effects, which makes it a "one stop shop" in a way for a vocal track. Over time I have tweaked this enough to have saved presets based on the mic I am using that makes it a quick start point for mixing.
 
The extras that are included with "Nectar 2 (Production Suite)," namely the "breath control" and "pitch editor," I do not use nor find useful. Melodyne is easier to use and more capable than the pitch editor, and the breath control didn't seem to have much usefulness to me.
 
For the work you are doing, I would recommend following up with Nectar Elements and potentially upgrading to Nectar 2 (Standard Edition) from there. The sales that run around Christmas are usually pretty extensive, and the cheapest upgrade price is sometimes through third party retailers (online) rather than iZotope's website itself. Cclarry often has timely posts in the software forums on software deals as they arise.

I'm seriously considering the upgrade. Nectar elements has proven to be very useful. I have used it time and time again for commercial work.

As usual, thanks goes out to you Mike,  for your most thoughtful guidance.  

lawajava
cpkoch - just a couple comments about value. And I agree that if you wait long enough a sale of some sort can come along.

I often use a four step approach to charm my vocal tracks.

1. Record vocal tracks in Sonar X3 Producer, loop record, capture multiple take lanes
2. Speed comp in Sonar X3, get the right and best phrase takes from the take lanes
3. Clean up the comped track in Melodyne
4. Add all kinds of touches in Nectar 2, that includes cloning the track and making harmony track(s) etc.

After those steps, without much effort involved at all, you can have a pretty amazing vocal track.

I really appreciate you sharing the tips.  I am fairly new to doing this kind of thing and haven't yet arrived at a modus-operendi  for developing good sounding tracks.  I need to lean more  about your first two steps. I may or may not be using "Speed Comp" techniques but I have found that using the best of multiple take lanes is useful. I'm also finding cloning and use of the nudge feature on a single vocal tends to make it more appealing. I've just recently learned about Nectar 2 and find it  exceptional and easy to use.  Now if I can just find out how to get the free Nextar Elements my plan will be to upgrade to Netar 2.  
 
Thanks again for your help.