Personally, adding my artistic flare to the mix when it comes to adding effects and what not to the vocals to make them come alive is one of my favorite stages in mixing.
For me: I'll blend different delays together and reverbs and have them as sends that go through out the track. However, I always have a main 'verb and delay on my vocal bus (sometimes it's only the lead vox) to set a general depth in my mix. From there I can pull effects in and out. I don' t think I really do anything out of the standard of vocal effect processing. Like others, I'll throw in the EQ cuts and such on certain spots. Sometimes paralleled compression on vocals on certain parts goes along ways
I'll experiment with flangers, and other sound morphers for a more slight effect. Distortion is also a common one that is added, makes harsh vocals really dirty and nasty if used in good conjunction with compression! Let's not forget DeEssers!
For specifics: Sometimes I'll bus my vocals that have the same delay, but they will be panned out L and R fully. And have opposite settings so it makes a cool delay stereo effect. For certain parts in a mix, I might boost or lower a specific
frequency to make it stand out a bit more or pull back. If the mix is extremely spacious, I'll stick a few reverebs to really fill out the sound field. Plate and long hall verbs work great for these kinds of effects and just adjust to taste. I'm also
a fan of heavy compression on vocals. I like that up in your face sound. Other times I'll copy the vocal track into 4 different ones, add different effects to each and blend to the original track so you have this greater space behind it.
You can heavily compress one track, EQ hard another, add a flanger to one, delay another one, give all 4 a different reverb but makes sure it's more subtle and then blend to desire and fill in behind main vox. This is just off the top of my head.
You can aslo use a Waves Doubler and widen the stereo field of your vocal tracks.
Other than that, go crazy and experiment a ton! That's how a lot of us learn what sounds cool. Because when it comes effects and things of that nature, It's more just about personal taste than it is correct or incorrect.
