Compression can be your best friend and your worst enemy. Compression is a key ingredient for vocals that sound professional, modern, and radio-ready when used correctly.
Do you use reference tracks when you mix? They can actually be pretty useful & give you some insight. A reference track is usually a professionally mixed song that you load into your session & 'reference" & analyze from time while you're mixing your song.
This is usually a process you want to save for the mastering stages. By enabling the oversampling function on your limiter, your overall master will result in a cleaner sound & allow you to push the limiter a little bit more.
Have you ever mixed a vocal to sound great & found an awesome sounding reverb to go with it - only to find that there is still some muddiness in the mix? Most people don’t realize that even a great sounding reverb most likely still needs a little EQing. That’s because every song is different & the frequencies that consume each individual varies from song to song. Luckily with a little EQing, you can make any reverb sound amazing in the mix & sit perfectly with all the other tracks in the session.