Vocal production really is a separate thing that I should've done/learned from the start.
It's been 10 years of me producing, and I never touched vocals apart from recording quick samples/phrases to chop and/or put in the production. But recently I started working with vocals, like.. actual singing LEAD vocals.. because I want to release an EP. And holy shit is this thing deep! I really started crying listening to the vocal mix of chart-topping releases. Like wtf.. it sounds so smooth and so well "inside" the instrumental.
I know it probably goes through millions worth of tracking chains and what not, then mixed by the top engineers. I got my only condenser mic, TLM103, a few months ago which goes directly into my iD14mk2 interface. I also have a SM7B, but it sounds very low-mid heavy and lacks clarity for this particular project (relatively soft singing, with mic up close).
At first, I tried getting the best possible takes, pitch-wise too. Then learned that I should focus on getting the best emotion out and the few cents up or down can be edited with flex pitch. Got melodyne and learned to tune the imperfections. I had RX, so used it to get the pops and clicks (mouth noise) removed.
But now, I just cannot get the vocals to sit "inside" the track in a way that would satisfy me.
I have a heavy-chesty voice, and I hit as low as 80Hz(!) fundamental on the lowest notes that I sing. My main source of production and mixing knowledge is YouTube. Even after doing good amount of cleaning up and coloring and sculpting and more clean up, it just won't sit inside the track. Sounds pretty good solo.
Now I'm frustrated because, even with all this production and mixing experience.. I can't get the desired vocal production and mixing done. I cannot afford to get it mixed by someone else but have plans of getting the whole EP mastered by someone I know later when it's ready for that.
What is your experience of getting into vocal production? And how did you get better? What helped you? How long did it actually take for you to start getting desired results?
Any help would be awesome! Thank you.