A song with just guitar and vocals?

Seriously,
 
If it's acoustic guitar the best way to make it shine is 
 
a) get the cleanest recorded sound you can with a 2 mic setup (google it)
b) add some very nice but very light room/reverb sound 
 
Vocals? Heck we're all trying to make them shine and have spent years chasing the elusive FX chain. And if you're like me you may never find a one size fits all approach.
 
But, get the cleanest possible recording you can and you're probably 80% there.
 
 

My goal:

 

In essence I just want to know how to do something not to be too ashamed of to put out here. I want to do a competition for the best performance of a song of mine. And give a cash prize for it... but it's barebones. No intro no solo no backing so I can leave that to the inventive guys out here? But I'm no singer. Clarity may have been the best bet? It just seems to have no feel! I don't suppose it would matter.

Hi,
 
Here's a different take, and I'm not even sure that some folks would consider this or check it out, and I can not tell you how they did it.
 
Give a listen to Roy Harper and Peter Hammill (solo stuff specially) and see how they did it. In the earlier days, I doubt that they over dubbed a lot and specially Roy, I would think that it was just a stream of consciousness, as it might have been with Peter, though I think he probably wrote the lyrics before and knew how he wanted to express them.
 
There is a difference here. Peter is more of an "actor" and many folks do not like his singing at all because of it. Roy is almost a total folk singer, and I do not think that he looks at his voice and tries to make it better ... I think he just goes ... I don't care and off he goes and he can go for a long time.
 
I think all suggestions are very good. Depending on the words, it probably should be the mood and the attitude, in which case the echo suggestion by Bapu is lovely, which can also be done with distance, and direction, with items in between ... (one of the fun'est exercises on the stage! ... watch the quality of the voice around walls, and you discover new things that you can also use to great effect.
 
However, I would always say ... knowing your words and HOW you are saying them ... is all that matters ... since the rest usually takes care of itself. Magic is magic, and no bad recording will fail to bring that magic alive ... every one will still go ... wow ... think of the old fashioned bootlegs ... the quality was poor (done on cassettes in concerts and such), but you would never question the value of the band and its emotion and work on that stage on that night ... and this is really what made Led Zeppelin in the early days. Those boots were fantastic, as were the PF's and GD's!

Actually it's an electric guitar and a vocal... I want to do a live performance. Not to sound the best ever just good enough to give someone the idea of how to play my song. As I say I want to do a contest to have better musicians and home recording artists a chance to make the song sound good as I'm not a singer or have the want to learn everything on home recording...
 
Having said that someone on a different forum said some mods might not let a competition go on in a forum. What about a link? Or a competition video in my sig?
 

All Right Now by FREE is just guitar and vocals (and drums) until the first chorus. Koss really carries it.
 
You need an interface that will record electric guitar and microphone. Maybe run the guitar through a boost. Just have at it and see what you get. Try it with a click track. Try it with a drum loop. Try it with no click or drum track. Add a little compression and reverb. Add an amp sim unless you're micing an amp, then you'll need two mic inputs.
Record it for the feel then if you don't like it use Direct Monitoring on your interface and do another guitar track or three. another vocal or three or how ever many of each. Keep the original, then choose what you like.
If you get a raw track you like and just can't make it sound the way you want, there are people here who are very good and many who will, I'm sure, help you out. You can record and ask someone to help you if you aren't happy... but just try. I know very well that it is hard when you don't know what you're doing. Lots of people here have been engineering, producing, recording for decades. When you just have a song idea, a guitar, and a voice.. it can be very intimidating and you can easily get completely lost in the technology.
So... just do what you can and if you don't like it, ask for help. You can post what you have on the Songs forum but be clear that you don't claim to be a producer, you're just trying to record a song and people will help you. If you aren't comfortable with that, listen to some of the songs on the Songs Forum. Pick a couple you identify with, and people you think you'd be comfortable talking to and ask if you can get help and share via dropbox or Soundcloud.
I know how you feel.. but just do it. If you're like me, you'll record your voice and think... ugh, do I really sound like that? but what your ears hear when you sing is different from what you hear recorded, through phones or speakers. It doesn't make it bad just different.
It's the only way, just start. You can get direction once you are moving, no one can give direction to someone who isn't moving. (I mean that in a good way)!
 
You're trying to make a "Scratch Track". Just try it several different ways.... it don't have to sound good unless you're pitching it to a pro artist or something. If that is your intent, do the scratch track and get someone, some good musicians to record it. Plenty of people here to do that.
 
Rich Mullins' last album was released as a double CD. He died a week after doing the "demos" or "scratch tracks". He recorded them on a cheap cassette machine in an abandoned church, playing a piano and singing by himself. The playing and singing isn't so good but what his band and others did with them is incredible. It was called The Jesus Record. It is very interesting to hear him doing the scratch tracks then listen to the studio polished result. You can do this.
Willie Nelson wrote Crazy and pitched it to Patsy Cline's husband. Patsy didn't like it because Willie sort of spoke the words but.. from Wikipedia:
According to the Ellis Nassour biography Patsy Cline, Nelson, who at that time was known as a struggling songwriter by the name of Hugh Nelson, was a regular at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Nashville's Music Row, where he frequented with friends Kris Kristofferson and Roger Miller, both unknown songwriters at that time. Nelson met Cline's husband, Charlie Dick, at the bar one evening and pitched the song to him. Dick took the track home and played it for Cline, who absolutely hated it at first because Nelson's demo "spoke" the lyrics ahead of and behind the beat, about which an annoyed Cline remarked that she "couldn't sing like that".
However, Cline's producer, Owen Bradley, loved the song and arranged it in the ballad form in which it was later recorded. On Loretta Lynn's album I Remember Patsy, Bradley reported that as Cline was still recovering from a recent automobile accident that nearly took her life, she'd had difficulty reaching the high notes of the song on the original production night due to her broken ribs. So after about four hours of trying – in the days of four songs being recorded in three hours – they called it a night. A week later she came back and recorded the lead vocal in one take.
 
So... go for it! Lots of things happen when people just try. Do it.
 
Good luck! You'll do fine!
Julien

jbow
 
Various artists mentioned ... 
... 
So... go for it! Lots of things happen when people just try. Do it.
 ...
Good luck! You'll do fine!
Julien

I sooooooo wanted to add Sandy Denny by herself and with Fairport Convention. Just listen to her and Richard Thompson in "Reynardine" from "Liege and Leif", and from what I understand, it was done in something like 2 takes or 3.
 
Again, from a directing point of view, it is about the "actor" or "singer" and how they approach the piece of music they have. If that is not defined (reasonably!), I am not sure that a lot of studio this and that can make it better, although it did a lot of punk bands, and hair bands and prog bands ... you know what I am saying!

eph221
...
 I once wrote a stream of consciousness song.  The lyrics started:  Said the father to the boogie man how do you do?/when he went downtown./he got in the elevator and bought some clothes/  he bought some shoes for his toes...Roses are red/violets are blue/I like the boogie man/how 'bout you?

Perfect lyrics for the old/retired Coffee House Band!