I know there's a bunch of home recordists out there...so, I'm curious about how you approach vocals: the room, compression (while tracking, and in the mix), fx, eq, doubling and how you place it in the mix. Not to mention what plug-ins you favor, gear and whatnot.

Granted, we don't all have Neumans and botique pre-amps...but that's the beauty of it. All this technology can either save you a bunch of money and fool the ears of many-a-listener, or make you pull your fucking hair out.

Here's my signal chain:
Equitek E200, or AKG C3000B, or SM57. Stewman metal pop filter, vocalist 5-6 inches from mic.
Roland MMP-2, 1073 Model, low harmonics boost 3dB
Low cut at 66Hz, pad engaged
Either on-board Roland compression(tube model)
2or3:1, high threshold (-13dB) or DBX 266 inserted on the Aardvark Q10.
S/PDIF out of the Roland to S/PDIF in on the Aardvark.
I favor a drier "to tape" sound. I like the Waves R-Verb, or the Logic PlatinumVerb. Not too much "doubling of vocals, but the more harmony parts, the better. We usually will run 1 or 2 harmony parts for cleaner vocal passages.

right on...thanks for participating Mike. any attack and release #s you'd like to share? i'm starting w/ 30ms attack, 100ms release then adjusting to taste...

Depends on which unit. 30/100ms sounds about right on the dbx, a bit faster attack if I'm compressing on the Roland.