Well, after 15 years as a producer, arranger and engineer,and as an ex pro musician before that, I would simply say, that unless the recording is simply of the vocal and guitar ONLY, then generally, everything else is recorded "dry" (no effects but with them in the playback to the artist), and seperately. This then enables any post production, WITHOUT any problems from pickup from other instruments or vocals, and no difficulties trying to cut and paste sections with different background fall out.
If you can play the song live, then you should have no problems recording the seperate guitar, as YOU know your timings,swells etc, and should be able to just sing the words in your head, as you would live.
Don't see why you "lose the feeling" when recording, unless your trying to do it yourself, which is very, very difficult for a begginer.
As regards vocals, most decent studios, will use a valve or tube, mic, with valve compressors, limiters etc, AND use 2 inch tape !!!
Yep, you still can't beat it !!
Having said that, emulation via software plug-ins, is now very very good,and unless you know what your doing, would be very difficult to tell.
All in all, I find it FANTASTIC that people can now produce good quality recordings at home, compared to how I remember it in the 70's and 80's. God bless Fostex for the first cassette multi tracks, and Steinberg for Cubase. Trouble is, people now take it all for granted, and sometimes forget, that the medium may have changed, but the old rules and tricks still apply. The primary one is :-
Crap in, crap out !!!
Good luck to all

Spike