need help recording a clean vocal track

[team0sleep]

I am still somewhat new to recording a have a couple questions about vocals

1. i have a couple songs that i am working on that i have a really hard time getting a good clean vocal track thats not distorted or too noisy. I think its cause of the dynamics of the vocal track cause theres some really quiet parts, and loud parts, and when the vocal gets loud it gets noisy. i have a tube rhodes ntk mike going to my low budget blue tube dual path preamp, too a 166XL compressor/limiter with a pretty soft knee (i am still learning how to set compression without overdoing it) to an BBE sonic maximizer to an mbox 2. Any ideas of how i can improve this with settings? or maybe a better piece of gear to add to the chain that may help this?

2. i am trying to learn how to patch reverb into the monitor chain for the vocalist. I have a lexicon MX200. A crappy beringer mixer with no busses, and beringer head preamp, m- audio monitors. Any ideas?

Thanks

[clineaudio]

Well, as with all troubleshooting methods... start at the beggining first.

So, record w/ the simplest set up first (just mic into pre) and watch and ride levels to see if its your pre, your mic, or hitting digital overs that you are hearing.