I record my voice with a condenser mic running thru a Peavey mixer when I want a good clean dry sound . I also have a shure 58 I using My Pod x-3 to get a thicker and a little distorted sound mostly for up tempo rock etc. but also a little flat on the EQ and no effects. What I've noticed is the Pro Channel effects sound better than any of the other effects I've used like nectar and Pod X-3. Those seem to muddy the sound more than enhance it. What are your opinions on recording vox?
 
P.S. I Am stuck with MY voice which really needs all the help it can get

vox
 
always get the cleanest capture you can, however you get it.
 
then, you can muck with it all you want.
i think running a vocal thru something like a pod can work, but i would never call it a 'clean capture'.
 
 
pure signal, nice gain staging, short cables, a good room, good mic technique, a quality pop filter, and the perfect vibe in the room, is how to get good vocal captures.
 
\always apply any effects (for the most part, even eq and compression) AFTER the capture is in the DAW.
 
 
if you really know what you are doing, apply some eq and outboard compression going in, but only if you have quality gear.
 
 

bill,
for example, if you have a pristine vocal, and you hear stuff you don't like:
 
try adding distortion plug in.
then, maybe experiment with some delay, verb...
 
compression..
 
 
try singing the track 2 and 3 times, choosing the best one to sit on top, and layer the other two below it, panned straight up.
 
ex: most of robert plant's vox with zep were double tracked, and mixed together.
 
 

Thanks Bat! I like the sound I get off the condenser mic. It's clean and full. My sound tends to deteriorate after I start applying enhancements. I haven't tried tracking a 2nd and 3rd time yet. Question: Why pan straight up on the 2nd and 3rd track? I have tried "comping" for better takes on a verse. Vox, for me anyway, takes twice as much time as all the others including drums before I get a sound I'll go with. I have a raspy voice so the cleaner the better. I'm writing a swamp rock tune and before I start with vox I want a plan beforehand 

the 2nd and 3rd vocal tracks, will overlap and blend any idiosyncrasies together...
 
you eq each one a bit differently, and roll off the high end a bit, so that the main vocal track stands out....
but the idea is to BLEND the 2 or 3 takes so that they sound as if they are one.
 
it's not easy to do, but when you get it dialed in, it sounds really cool.
 
 

You need a GT 66 Tube mic.

Bill,
 
Iffin you ent got a realtek sound card..............................................
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
.....you're on your way to greatness.

Also Bill,
 
You're Juan up on me. 
 
I could never strat a fred with the words "My Vocals" unless they were followed by "suck".

Maybe Bill just needs more RAM?  I hear it's everything... 

Here's a trick I use.
I sing the main vocal part as close to a full take as I can in the beginning to see if I can capture any kind of magic that happens when you're simply in the flow of things. If I need to go back and redo a verse or chorus etc I punch those in...but continuity can be heard...you can't get that great take by punching in every other word...Once done, I double the lead vox. You can and should do this in small pieces so you can get the phrasing to match. No reason to sing this all at once, unless you really can remember what you did, and all the little embellishments, but that's hard to do...this will speed the process up greatly. After that, I sing a 3rd and 4th take...then do this.
1. Take the 2nd take (main double) and center pan this with a slight eq change and not quite as loud as the original to get it doubled. This will thicken up the part a lot. I try not to have the double as loud as the original as it softens any edge the original has. 
2. I then sing 3rd and 4th parts (I know that seems like a lot but they all add up and it's worth it - even for a rapper this works, and sometimes on a rap track I'll take the parts and use a pitch transposer on a part so they aren't all the same) and add them to an aux track leaving them center panned. In the aux track I add a stereo delay and a compressor (I do have compressors on all the vocal tracks..it's the difference maker)
I then use the delay to pan the tracks (3 and 4) by taking the left side and zeroing everything out so it's has no effect, then on the right side max out the send and use a short delay around 8-12ms. This will pan everything so you now have your vocals on the left and right channels. I do this so I get both tracks panned...if you don't use an aux track and just pan the 3rd and 4th takes...it's just one voice per side...this gets both voices on both sides. (*note - psycho-acoustics being what they are...you might have to turn up the right track (say the 4th take) a little more than the left track to balance them out...our ears will hear the left track first since there is no delay and bringing up the right side volume will compensate for that...this is one of those instances where the meters do lie)  
3. Once you have that done bring up the aux track with takes 3 and 4 on it so you can barely hear the voices in the left and right fields (experiment with how much you need...say a small amount on a verse and a little louder on the chorus to get the chorus fatter for dynamic reasons...   
 
I do all the background parts this way (only using a double instead of 4 tracks...they get nice and thick)
 
This can be done in such a way that you don't actually hear all the parts...but when all of this is in a mix...it fattens things considerably.
Just one mans thought...Have fun
Jason216