A good preamp can give a nice warm sound that you certainly want. People who know, will often request a certain mic/preamp in the studios that have that combo.

My thought was what you don't want printed.... and that is compression, EQ, and reverb. And for heavens sake, don't use chorus and echo FX on a vocal unless you really (and I mean REALLY) know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Don't just throw it in there and think waa laa, now THAT sounds good. Because 99.9999% of the time, it doesn't.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.