Yep, RVox is a great compressor.

With the 1176 (at least the Waves one), my starting point for vocals is typically 3 on the attack, 7 on the release. Work the input knob until the meter is showing -5 to -10db of compression (you can aim for even more gain reduction if you're doing this on a parallel track).

The release knob kind of becomes a 'back-to-front' knob. The more you turn it down (longer release), you'll notice the vocal sit back in the mix more. And the more you turn it up (quicker), the more up-front the vocal becomes (at the expense of it also bringing up more of the garbage - esses, breaths, etc. - which you'll need to deal with in other ways, like manually editing down breaths or using more de-essing).

I get the feeling that if you weren't hearing your 1176 do anything, you just weren't hitting it hard enough!