Vocal Recording/Enhancement

[zaydonmd]

I would like to record some vocal tracks of my voice at home using a XLR mic and then work on editing various parameters of the sound including the adding of vibrato at certain points, pitch correction, reverb, double tracking, etc). I consider my voice to be decent but it can certainly benefit from electronic enhancement. I also have very little experience with recording using computers or workstations. Can anyone please recommend any approaches?

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thank You.

[max.hodges]

The most powerful software i have come across is melodyne by celemony.
Mac only at present.
Use a decent condenser mic and preamp to record the vocals , as little compression as possible and then edit the audio with that.
Autotune and mic modeller by antares are also pretty useful, but melodyne is king.
Be subtle in all your editing unless you deliberately want it to sound artificial
(think Cher "i believe")
the Tc vocal prism is also pretty good, when used in moderation.
It is better to record the right basic sound in the first place than to try and achieve it by editing and mixing.
All mics have different tonal qualities, not all suit everyones voice, but try a few out if you can, hiring them can be an effective way of achieving this , unless you have a supplier willing to do several on approval.
Budget mics that are pretty good include the AKG C2000, 3000,4000.
Rode NT1, NT2 ,NT1000,
Neumann tlm103,
AT 4033, CAD M177
Any how, a large diaphragm condenser is the type you need. All of which will require "phantom Power" from the pre amp.
Vocal channel processors from Joe meek, focusrite, TL audio, and envoice all have a good sound and different characters to impart at a reasonable cost.
Also record at the highest bit depth resolution your machine can manage, as this defines the Dynamic range it is capable of .
96 Khz isnt essential, but would be nice, 24 bit is however seriously better than 16 bit.
good luck.
max

[5-11under]

My recommended approach:
Use what you have or spend a wee bit of money, do lots of research and experimentation, then decide if/what upgrades need to be made to your system.