Craig Anderton's books (like The Big Book of Sonar Tips) on this daw have really got me through over the years. That is where I would start.
Then, the whole gain stage set-up is very important to your final signal (that you are hearing).
Many of the Cakewalk vsts are really quite good.
Worse come to worse, Boost 11 will bring that signal up to where you can deal with it.
Also Cakewalk's own 64 bit vocal strip is a handy little tool with a lot of pre-sets to get your feet wet.