Hey everyone! I'm new to recording and need some advice on equipment. Right now, I have an MXL V67G going into a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 interface and then into Sony Acid Music Studio 9. My monitors are the Presonus Eris E5 active monitors. I mainly record vocals and piano, and I have a horrible time trying to get the vocals to sound anywhere near professional or at least somewhat good. No matter what effects, compressors, or EQ I add to the vocals, they still sound flat and unnatural.
The key part of this is that you say you are
new to recording so you have a lot to learn.
An example recording of your vocals would help determine if they are good, bad, acceptable or better. Can you post something somewhere? Soundcloud?
When I record, the signal I get is very patchy and is either extremely quiet or too soft. When I see vocal tracks on professional setups, the waveforms they have look very full and have very little spikes in the signal.
What is patchy? Jumpy, bits missing from the recorded audio?
Forget what waveforms look like for other people. That is neither here nor there. If your recorded audio is quiet you may just need to do something simple like turn your monitors up.<~~This is usually a requirement at this stage in the recording process. When tracking (recording the different tracks) it is a good practice to aim for anything between -18dbfs and -12dbfs in your DAW. If you're hitting around there with the peak somewhere in the middle, you're getting good levels. You don't need to shoot for the red.
Stay out of the RED.
I was thinking if I used a microphone preamp with the 2i2, I could get a more even signal going into and coming out of the interface with less spikes and distortion. Would the preamp help me in this regard? Maybe I could get some more clarity with the preamp as well?
Hold fire there. You have 2 preamps in the 2i2 that are more than adequate in this early stage of your learning. Don't piss money up the wall on something you neither need nor understand. Learn with what you have and enjoy the process. To run another preamp you need a Line In function which, from a quick google, the 2i2 doesn't have. If you put a preamp through an existing preamp you'll make a noise/mess.
Also, I was wondering how much difference in sound quality the DAW makes?
None at all.
In mine, it seems like it can't take much sound level at all before it starts to peak. The effect plug-ins aren't that great either. Would a better DAW be a good investment?
Read above, you don't want it to peak. If you're recording that hot (in the red) it will just sound bad. If you require volume, turn your monitors up.
Volume comes after the Mixing stage in the Mastering <~~That's further on down the road. You don't need another DAW. They all do the same thing but the workflow is different in them all. FX wise, pretty much the same thing in this early stage of the game for yourself. All the plugins in the world won't make a bad recording (capture) sound better. You have to address the source which will include your voice, room acoustics, mic positioning, delivery of performance, etc.
Any answers and suggestions you guys can make for me would be greatly appreciated. I want to get my recordings sounding great! Thanks!
Patience, time, reading, reading, reading, practice, more reading. It's a long rocky journey you're starting out on and you'll have much fun.
You came to the right place for info.