Need help with vocals

You can fix that easily.... first...use the mic..close in on low volume work and back off for loud parts...that will give you a good starting point while tracking. You want it as consistant as possible.

Once the track is recorded....if everything else is good except volume levels....you have a number of options.
You can split the track into as many seperate clips as you need to without messing with the sound. then...highlight a clip and select from the top bar Process>audio>gain> then select the gain level increase or decrease. Normalize will also jump the levels up quite a bit, without overloading the signal.

Suppose you have just a very small section of audio that needs a boost, such as the first syllable of a word. highlight the track..then click and drag in the timebar at the top of the tracks....it will turn dark grey as you drag the mouse. A bar will appear in the track indicating the area you selected...when you release the mouse. If the area is not right...do it again...also don't forget you can expand the track horizonally for more accuracy. OK the snippet is selected. process the audio and select your gain level.

I used all of these different processes from normalize, boost +6 db multiple times as needed in the vocal tracks in Corridors of Time on my soundclick site. Also I used the snippet boost on the words Hourglass and Jesus....in the 3rd verse after the guitar solo.....on JUST the first syllable in both of those words. When I started, you could barely hear the first syllable. It sure beat re-recording the track...even with punch in & out.

BTW...on Corridors...all vocals were recorded dry. HF exciter was inserted into lead vocal track after recording. The backup tracks were dry. All vocals were sent to the master buss. I had a final mix compression & just a touch or reverb there that applied to the entire mix. No other vocal treatment was used.

Rather than normalize, I prefer a compressor. Good that you record dry, you can always go back to the original recording if things get screwed up. Normalize seems to leave artifacts, or maybe its just the way I used it, but I only used it once or twice, then went to the compressor. You could follow that with a limiter.
But that is jumping ahead of...learning good mic technique. Stay close in on the mic, don't move around a lot. Stand up, back straight. Breath control, project from the diaphram, concentrate on the notes as they come out, keep your mind on the dynamics from the point of origin...your lungs. Stuff like that.
Later
Albert

Yes, Soundblaster cards are problems for recording with MC (and other DAWs) because they are not designed for recording - they're designed for gaming and home theater. there's something you can try, but my best advice is to get a better sound card. look at my website for recommendations on soundcards.

in the meantime, if you haven't done this, then try it and see if it will work for you;
go to http://www.asio4all.com
download and install asio4all
change to ASIO driver mode: OPTIONS>AUDIO>ADVANCED>DRIVER MODE = ASIO
close and restart MC

then see if you can record in 24 bit. if not, then a new sound card is the only way to go.

I just got this mental picture of you tieing yourself to the mic stand, perfectly rigid and staring straight ahead, and thought I may have overstated that part of the comment
If you took the (wasted) time to listen to any of my music, you would see very quickly that I am NOT a singer. Maybe, to get better advice, you might want to do a little research on the net for singing and mic technique. I think I was just trying to emphasize that a lot of times learning the proper way to produce good end product is to have good production skills (which is to paraphrase the old garbage in=garbage out) For me there is no hope, I am tone deaf and my voice sounds bad, and you cannot make the silk purse from the sows ear.
'Nuff of that, the other thing, you cannot mix 16 and 24 bit in a song, itis one or the other. There are ways to work around this, maybe export the instrument audio already recorded in 16 bit, open a new song in 24 bit, import that track and record the vocals in a 24 bit session, etc., but you can't have both bit rates open in one song.
The difference between limiting and compression is something that would take a few minutes to get into, and I'm at work right now, so I can't spend any real time with that. If it slows down here, like maybe the boss goes golfing or leaves early, I'll write it out, or maybe it might have to wait till the weekend, but I'll try to answer your question or find you links to the information.
Later
Albert

To the subject of SB cards and 24 bit, check your documentation. My old SB Extigy was only capable of 24 bit resolution through the digital connection (S/PDIF) . Yours may be the same.