Vocal layering/recording/pan...

[DeadRinger]

I run a small(tiny) home studio and record a lot of instrumental soundtrack music. With the equipment that I have, I can get relatively remarkable quality from the instruments I record (piano/guitar/bass/various perc). Over the next month, I'm going to finally record some indie tunes that I have written over the past year. This will be my first venture into recording serious vocals(I've done it before and they sounded fine, but now they will be more up front). Do any of you have any advice on getting a warm vocal sound and layering it to an Elliott Smith sort of sound? Like how many layers? Where would I position the layers in pan? Is copy/pasting the vocals a viable idea or should they all be recorded seperately? Keep in mind that I know I'm using low budget mics for vocals, but I'm trying to make the best with what I have.

My set up:
G4 Powerbook running Logic 6 Express
M-Audio FireWire 410 Interface
Mics: Rode NT1 and Shure SM57(I actually prefered the sm57 on the small vocals I did before)

Also...any plug-ins(extra from what comes with Express) that you can't live without?

Thanks for the help!

 

[reshp1]

For Elliot Smith style vocals you're gonna be singing very close to the mic, so you'll need a pop filter. I would start off by just doubling (singing it twice, not copy paste delay) and panning left/right about 75 percent. You'll probably need to compress it quite a bit as well. See if you can borrow another mic too, I didn't really like the NT1 for vocals, was a little too hyped in the high freqs and a little sterile for my tastes.
Hope this helps