Hi. You're asking quite a question there! I can offer some advice based on my own experience of doing exactly what you're trying to do, although I make no claim whatsoever of having the final word. I'm still learning too.
1. Setup. How are you recording this? A picture would help here. It sounds like a single mic doing both guitar and vocals. You would be much better off recording the guitar and dubbing the vocal on afterwards. This will allow you to place the mic closer and so pick up the sound better, cut out ambience and eq them differently so they're not fighting for the same part of the frequency range. Closer miking makes the sound more intimate, although if you're not careful you can over-boost the bass frequencies (this is call the proximity effect). Many mics have a bass roll-off precisely for this reason, which is intended particularly for vocals. There's much more to say but this will probably do for now.
2. Arrangement. It sounds like you have an decent tune there but not really an acoustic song. This doesn't mean you can't use an acoustic guitar, of course, just that it could do with a bit of layering perhaps. You're probably happy with what I would term the horizontal arrangement but you might like to put some thought into the vertical. Perhaps two guitars, one taking the strain and the other providing a texture - both can be rhythmic, I don't mean just noodle about over the top of your rhythm track - and pan them l/r (a bit), leaving a nice hole in the middle for your vocal, which you can also treat in the same way. The bass, if you want to add one, will go here and won't be fighting for space. Ditto percussion.
As I say, I've been working like this for years, with varying success. If you would like to hear what I did you can hear it on MySpace at:
http://www.myspace.com/askmurt
http://www.myspace.com/cactusjuice2
As a final word, it can be almost too much of a blessing to have the almost unlimited possibilities available these days. The Ask Murt stuff was done on a cassette four-track and that's pretty much what you hear, although it has been digitally re-engineered and trickeried in places. All very simple, stick up a mic* and play, but having this little room to play with forces you to plan what you are going to do, which having all the technology in the world shouldn't let you off doing.
* Mic placement is critical and makes a huge difference to the sound, as does your choice of microphone. You'll have to experiment but if you want a good sound you will need a condenser, not a dynamic, mic and a decent soundcard. And as dead a recording space as you can find.
Then you have to get into engineering, I'm afraid. The basics are compression and eq and there's no space to talk about that here, it's such a big subject, but there's plenty on the web and software plugins come with some very well thought out presets. This is the bit I'm still learning.
Any questions, get back, I'll be happy to answer what I can.
Cheers, Swatcher
