It's interesting that this thread came up. I had this written on Wednesday but didn't get around to posting it untili today.
Take All The Plugins Off The Vocals
As mentioned in the blog, it's EASY to start twisting knobs and "improving" things only to realize that you need to start over with a clean canvas. If you blow it during tracking, there isn't much you can do but live with it. I've been recording for 5 years now and I would be VERY cautious when tracking with compression and EQ. I've never actually used compression or EQ when tracking.
Now going back to the vocal sound. I'd like to know what he doesn't like about his vocal sound. Generally speaking, If I dont' like the way a vocal sounds, I ask the singer to sing it differently.
I'll be finished with my most important record ever in about a week (and then off to mastering). On that record, I've used 3 different mics on vocals. I used a Shure SM7, Soundelux U99, and Audio Technica AT4050. I couldn't tell you which song I used which mic on unless it was just from memory.
If I remixed them, I would probably hear different character in each track, but with the songs mostly mixed, I have no idea which song used what.
The moral of the story is that if you can't get what you are looking for with a mic like the Rode NT1, something is wrong. The preamp will do almost nothing to fix it. Preamps don't really fix anything. They are extremely subtle in most cases (with snare drum being the least subtle).
For me, the preamp thing is something you feel more than hear. I mean that by switching preamps, the sound won't change at all to a person without a trained ear. However, sometimes a preamp can make a track "feel" better.
With that said, the musician is the most important part of the chain. I've chosen to delay my income and work with the best musicians. I would say that this has been a MUCH bigger improvement to my recordings than any preamp would ever make.
Brandon