I still don't have a good enough idea myself to be honest. And also I don't think it really matters what DAW you use.
Here is what I use.
Behringer B2 Pro mic with windscreen and pop screen-> Behringer Tube ultragain Mic 100 -> Mixer -> DMX 6Fire -> Cubase sx2. Now if you want to apply fx to the voice, add them to the input channel and use the monitor setting on the track you are recording on. This way you will be able to hear what is being recorded. BUT you must make sure your latency is set below ~5ms. If it is any higher it can be very confusing.
Personally I record dry and apply the fx later for the simple reason it is easy to apply whatever fx you want after you have the vocals down. If you record with i.e reverb, you might find that it is overpowering in the final mix and there is little you can do about it then.
The exception is possibly compression/limiting. I am experimenting with this at the moment with varying results. I use Waves Platinum for most of my mastering but there are some great free VST plug ins and on of the best free compressors is Bonefish
http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=5 it adds a lot of character, much like analogue compressors do.
I add the effects at the mixing stage in realtime. basically I use waves rverb but there are some great free reverbs check out the KVR website
http://www.kvraudio.com/get.php?mod...x=1&win=1&free=1&sf=0&receptor=&sort=1&rpp=15
Reverb has a tendency to become more prominent on the final mix down so use it sparingly.
Other than that, it is all about how you mix the vocals. EQ is important and although it is stil a bit of a black art to me, check out things like
http://www.trinitysoundcompany.com/eq.html and
http://www.recordingeq.com/articles/rtec0499.htm to get some idea.
For backing vocals I tend to bounce each vocal left and right to fatten up the sound.