Get a microphone with decent quality. This doesn't mean it has to be an expensive, studio mic, but it also shouldn't be a cheap karaoke-like microphone either. Dynamic mics allow singers to explore their dynamic range, while condenser mics focus on taking in audio from a precise direction and capturing all of the quality of a voice. Even the lowest quality of these types of microphones can be purchased on a budget. Many low-quality mics sound great, especially to beginners.
Let a good singer, rapper or other vocalist record the song. Unless you have Auto-tune and are specifically trying to achieve the "T-Pain" or "Cher" effect, no amount of editing can make a terrible vocal performance sound pleasing to listeners. You can still dress it up and give it a nice quality, but bad performances are easily noticeable, even at the level of songs played by radio stations.
Record your vocal track into Pro Tools two times at the very least. The more you have to work with, the better. For example, most singers, rappers and even instrumentalists cannot go an entire performance without making a small error in pitch, timing, breathing or phrasing -- but they can give near-perfect performances for a specific line, verse or chorus. If you have multiple takes with which to work, you can choose the best words or lines from your collection to put on your final vocal track. You may even want to record one verse at a time, especially if your vocalist is nervous or new to recording.
Leave most of the breaths your vocalist takes in the performance. This makes the song feel more human and natural.
Cross-fade any separated sections where you took part of a line from one take and part from another. This is done by highlighting the section with the break with the "Selector Tool," which is located in the toolbar at the top-left of the screen, and then pressing "Control F" or "Command F." When the box appears, click "OK" and listen to the portion of the song. Undo the fade by pressing "Control Z" or "Command Z" if you need to adjust the starting and ending points of the fade.
Pitch correct singers with a program such as Melodyne or Auto-tune 7. No matter how good your singer is, or what style of music you record, pitch-correction will be necessary, even if it is only used to gently touch-up a single line. For hip-hop and dance songs, you will probably need to pitch-correct or add electronic pitch effects to the entire performance in order to get one, fluid sound. For other vocal performances, you will only need to touch up notes that are slightly flat or sharp and your touch-ups should be light, human and as natural as possible.
Use any other vocal-enhancing, third-party plug-ins you may have if desired. Melodyne and Auto-tune both offer packages with different enhancers specifically designed for vocals.
Place a compressor as the first plug-in of your effects chain. If a pitch-correction program is directly plugged into your vocal track, simply slide it down one slot. Placing a compressor before a pitch-corrector can make the presence of the pitch corrector not so obvious. You may want to place a second compressor after the pitch correction.
Change the presets of your compressor or compressors to one for vocalists, and adjust the settings as necessary. Do not over-compress the vocals if your singer has a great dynamic range. If you have two compressors, one should barely be compressing the vocals.
Place an equalizer, preferably a parametric equalizer, last in the effects chain. Adjust the presets if you want a specific effect, such as the "Telephone" effect or a male vocal boost. Adjust the Q and gain of each frequency range if you wish to create your own sound. Raising the high end around 3 db (decibels) may be all you need to make the vocals slightly clearer.
Create new auxiliary tracks for one or two reverbs and a delay. Vocals tend to like plate reverbs and room reverbs can help a variety of musical elements. Go to your mixer by pressing "Control =" or "Command =" -- and change the input of each auxiliary track to a different bus, such as 1-2, 3-4 and 5-6. Click on the blank slots in your vocal track's "Send" section to route them to the same bus. A new fader will open for each. Raising them will both add the effect and raise the apparent volume of the vocals without clipping, or passing 0db.
De-es the loud "S" sounds by inserting a very high-quality de-esser to your chain of plug-ins, using a side-chained equalizer with another plug-in to cut out that frequency, or by manually lowering the volume's automation where each individual "S" sound occurs. Manual de-essing is the most efficient, but most time-consuming method of removing loud "S" sounds.
Copy and paste the vocal track to a second track if you wish to make it thicker and fuller. Nudge the second track left or right a few milliseconds to create a common pop, rock and dance music vocal effect.
Pan all instruments, except bass, kick and perhaps snare, to the left or right until they sit well in the mix. This will keep everything from being perfectly centered and from interfering with your vocals. Lower the frequencies in the range of 500 to 2,000 hertz for any instruments that have similar frequencies as your vocals.