Once upon a time sound engineers got clear, warm vocals without plugins. I know. Hard to believe. They used great microphones, ran them through great preamps into exceptional consoles with awesome compressors. Listen to Sinatra recordings from the 50's and you'll see why so many people seek to emulate vintage sound by recreating hand made valve equipment. That's where the genuine warmth is.

 

Usually (more like always) the pre was part of a desk, and this arrangement always is greater sounding than a preamp alone, as in addition to its own circuitry the signal is passing, it additionally travels through the jambly circuit of the master section as well as many times the master's output transformer. A desk kills a preamp standing alone everytime for warmth, depth and all in all three dimensionality.

 

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Honestly at that time people used whatever they had. Some of that was the consoles, a large part of it was the space, some of it came from the distance used, Frank Sinatra was not close mic type of guy, and biggest part of it came from Frankie Blue Eyes himself. There is something to be said for a great recording room and at a little distance (especially with that style of crooning.)

Don't underestimate the quality of the performer, or that of the engineer just using a fader at the right time, a lot of the sound comes out how it goes in, especially when you have a singer that doesn't need to eat the mic to sound good.

I knew I read something about @ Sound On Sound a few years back - I am never sure on the policy about posting links, so you can use your favorite search engine and look up Sinatra Classic Tracks - Sound on Sound it should be there.

 

I recall stories from really old school engineers back in the 70's (all probably dead now) where they had a guy called the balance engineer and his job was where to place the instruments from the microphone. Singer was close, then maybe upright bass, then strings, keep the horns way back and practically move the drum kit to another room. It was an art and must have required great ears and an understanding of the acoustic properties of all instrument groups.

 

Can't go wrong with ISA 430: https://www.thomann.de/intl/focusrite_isa_430_mk_ii.htm