In reply to
Yes, I think its just a matter of being really sure of the notes. A guy I know worked with an excellent vocalist and she was always saying about familiarity with the tracks they are singing. This was backed up a few years later when somebody excellently demod a vocal they knew... but when they were in the studio it was really hard work getting a new tune down.
The sound of people's voice is a lot to do with breathing too and there is no reason why your vocalist shouldnt be excellent with a bit of time and effort.
With vocalists I struggle with I get a lot of takes done, then get the best one, put it through a compressor, then multiband compressor, then get another 4 takes, two left, two right (panned) all with a little reverb on each channel followed by compression then send all 5 vocals to a group channel. The main one goes in at the right volume for the track (into the group), the other 4 go into the group really quietly. That way, wavering pitch and volume on those 4 average out especially with their reverb and compression (thats why the reverb is before the compression, as a filler- keep the reverb time short). Then compress the group, and add whatever reverb and delay that is needed.
The above idea is kind of like the old skool 'double tracking' with a few minor changes which you can do with all the processing power of the digital age. You could actually do either more double tracking or dont pan the 4 backing vocals if the vocalist is worse- however yours is nowhere near as bad as the two I have in mind and one of them has over 60,000 hits on youtube (although i can only spot a remix with 13000 hits now, hmm).
Yeah mate, thanks a lot, what you say is totally true, really apreciate it you taking your time explaining
cheers