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I've been in a fair few hundred recording sessons now with vocalists, and the main thing is to start off with good talent.
May sound silly and blatantly obvious, but you have to listen to the vocalist's demo and see whether it will fit your track and whether they have the technique to sing it correctly.
When working with composers, they select vocalists base don a particular sound - I kind of liken it to me buying records; I can hear within 3-5 seconds whether that track is going to fit my style of DJing.
Same thing with vocalists - every session that I've been on where the vocalist isn't quite right for that track and they try to make it work, you can hear it. There's only so much you can fake and even with the biggest protools rigs at you disposal, you can only get it so far before you kill the life out of it.
The main thing is to listen to their intonation, pronunciation, tone and timbre, and learn to know how those things will fit your track.
Now having said this a lot can be done to get a particular performance from a vocalist....
and that's where the personality factor comes in - which can often make a decent vocal in to a truly great one....it's about what they bring given the right circumstances and direction, not to mention a bit of freedom.
It's about knowing how to read them - the best guys I've worked with are masters of manipulation (both in a good way a bad way). They know whether to make this person comfrtable to get a result, or they know by scolding them or pushing them they'll get a better result.
There's of course the usual tricks (like if they're flat, low then feed to their cans and make them push their voice in to pitch) but one of the biggest things is getting the right sound in their head. By that I mean, they should understand what your track is about, even if it's a rough bed track. That way they can mold their voice to it etc.
The other big thing is reverb for the vocalist. Some love tons of reverb on their voice when recording, and it's often a confidence thing as it masks the centre of pitch (which is why people love to sing in the shower with all that splash off flat surfaces etc), but you have to get it right. I've heard the same vocalist give two virtually entirely different performances of the same track because they had different reverbs during different takes.
You always want to record dry of course, but that reverb makes them sing so differently so learn what type does what effect to certain vocalists.
Finally, choose equipment that suits that vocal. Don't put an SM58 on someone with really velvety mids tones, and don't put a U47 on a male punk vocal. Think about gain staging, compression (if any) and EQ with their range and power.
So the short answer IMO, is a combination of you selecting the right person for the task, engineering it correctly with the right kit, and then using what you have to get the most out of them.
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