I'm using Vegas and have some books but nothing really explains the audio tools for the novice. I have no clue what noise gates and compressors do or how they work and what the various controls do. I'm trying to improve some narration and clean up recording where the mic was too far away and I get a lot of roominess (?).

Thanks

Vegas specifically?

See DSE's VASST site
http://vasst.com/search.aspx?entity=16&category=Training+Video

Also see

http://dplay.com/

Thanks very much

Jay Rose has a couple of books on audio postproduction that I recommend highly.

filmsound.org (http://www.filmsound.org/)