so i'm starting to record vocals to my beats in garage band and well, it just kind of sounds like it's pasted in there. so if anybody could give me some pointers or advice to get this shit sounding somewhat decent that would be much appreciated.

getting good vox is a combo of three things
1. Knowledge and Experience
2. Gear.
3. Voice.

A decent preamp and a decent mic are key. Knowing where to boost and cut (EQ), also having a good overall mix will help your vocals fit. The singer/rapper has to have a good voice and talent or it will sound weak regardless. Read books on recording or go to school, save up for some gear and be realistic about the potential of your artist and your on your way.

first off im assuming the beat is one track and the vocals another? yes?
put visual eq on both tracks with analyser on.
see where there are strong peaks in the vocal and weaker areas of the beat (generally in the mid-range)
either in visual eq or use the graphic eq and make a pocket in the beat by slightly lowering the weak areas eq down a bit and then raise that eq on the vocal where its strong
after you do that fuss with the volume of the vocals and the compression attack and release on both the beat and the vocals to get them locking up
then try panning each track a little to either side

I would say leave the compression alone unless you have to control the dynamics of the voice. If your artist gets too quiet and or too loud at certain times, some careful mild compression will even this out. If you track properly in the first place and get a good take this should be less of an issue. I also suggest knowing your frequency ranges of the human voice and other instruments (google it and you can find very helpful charts for this), and being able to critically listen and identify problem frequencies. One trick is boosting with a tight q and sweeping across the frequency range, when you find a really offensive frequency...cut it. I also find cutting around 500hz on the master will get rid of some muddiness and things will seem more in place. Whatever works though, use your ears first, and thinking outside the box is essential, but have a solid foundation of the science too.

not trying to make something amazing, just trying to make something that doesn't sound like shit.

thank y'all for the tips

Word man, these are just things to consider. If you can't afford a u87 and apogee converters you can make up for it with knowledge. Also if you don't have knowledge you could make a u87 sound like a computer mic.

just for my own knowledge, (and anyone else reading) why would you suggest not using compression on both tracks to get them locking nicely? why also would you not compress someones live recording vocal?

I would take like 2 to 3 dbs off on the way in if I had a dope hardware compressor with mad mojo. I would use compression on the Master to get them to "Glue" together a little. Dont think I would compress them both separately there would just be too much going on between the two I dont think they would glue. That being said if you think it sounds good then that's what matters most. Thinking different is what gets us to new places.

Using a compressor is good to balance volume, but it's easy to overuse that. A bit of volume variation in a vocal track makes it human. Good timing of vocal doubles makes sure it gets that hiphop punch, granted your lyrics are good of course. Same is true for other genres of music, no one uses just a single dry vocal track no more. Heck, look at the auto-tune FX madness at the moment in music, everybody and their mother uses one.

As for basic coloration or better color/thickness of the vocals, you'll need to invest in either a nice mic pre-amp and FX boxes to tweak your sound.

Nowadays you can get both in the mid-range vocal processors (sub 300$).

Most if not all artists sound pretty weak without the basic FXs, like enhancer, EQs, reverb, de-essers and so on. Yeah, some rappers have a naturally thick voice that's convincing without any extra FX, but that doesn't mean FX won't give you the same results.

I'd recommend a good vocal processor to be able to add that extra thickness. Most boxes nowadays will have compressors, de-essers, reverb, pre-amp models, harmonizer, pitch correction and so on in there by default.

Some pieces of gear to consider could be:

- TC Helicon Voicetone Create
- TC Helicon VoiceWorks Pro
- Digitech Vocalist Live 4

Some require you to play keyboard or guitar for it to be able to give accurate pitch correction and / or harmonies, but if you don't need a pitch correction, I'd go with something basic like Voice tone Create. Should be able to get one secondhand on the cheap.

There should be some other brands selling pretty good equivalents, but unfortunately except for the Voice tone Create boxes, you're likely to be looking at spending quite some money here. These vocal processors don't come cheap.

I used to use a Line6 audio interface called Line6 UX2 (not the POD Studio one, but that's just a re-issue from what I can tell, as it's providing the exact same). This box gives vocal modeling in 6 different pre-amp flavors together with a bunch of FX.

This is more of a software-based solution though and requires a DAW (and hence a PC) to record to and all that, so it might not be perfect.

At the moment I run my vocals into a Line6 POD X3 Pro rack, which does work stand-alone and excellent, but it's obviously more a guitar/singer songwriter orientated solution being a guitar FX and Amp modeling processor. (And Not cheap.)