ronws

Good ideas, you should develope those. Make the most of your studio time when you get there.

Dude, that is the way to go. If you get a chance, read the book "Guerilla Home Recording." That guy belongs to a group that does that exact thing, the goal being 20 songs amongst them in a 12 hour period. There will be some dogs. And there will be a few gems that are worth polishing. Like a creative writer, just write something, even if you don't use it. It will lead to other ideas that do work.
I just had a flash of insight for a song I am trying to write and stumbling. I have some lyrics and a vocal melody but was stumped trying to figure out the right guitar part. Then, I realized, why not let the vocal melody define the guitar riff? It doesn't matter how you get there, as long as you get there.
 

Bravo, Mivke. As good as the original, in my opinion.
 

Thanks a lot guys! I do play the instruments but I am new to this whole recording world haha, I created an youtube channel and will start posting covers as soon as I figure out how to properly record everything and acquire good equipment. I just hope I sound as good as you haha, that was an awesome cover! Thanks again!

I have only listened to this second version and I liked it. Remember, and I had to learn for myself, recording is NOT like live performance. Recording different parts with rests in between is how it is usually done. Live, you would change the arrangement, anyway.
I like the tones in your voice. Bits of Peter Cetera and Michael Bolton in there make it soul-icious.
 

 
Take it easy, just a little pin-prick. There'll be no more "ahhh!" but you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up? I hear you're feeling down. But I can ease your pain. Get you on your feet again.
There is no pain you are receding. A distant ship's smoke on the horizon ....

And I really like how your voice sounds on this song, too. Again, you need to keep this in your "ready to sing" set list.

Here is what I don't understand about Soundcloud. I get it, they want to help protect copyright. Here's the deal about copyright. If you buy a karaoke track from a legitimate retailer, you have paid copyright for use of what is basically a pre-master stem. You only have to pay additional royalties if you want to sell that recording of yours as a single or part of an album or collection of songs. Because selling that recording you made involves what is called mechanical rights. (reproduction of the material in a medium to be used by others.
If there is no cost, I don't see what the problem is. 
A company that owns a bar pays a blanket fee to ASCAP to play whatever music on the jukebox or however they are playing music. Because then, the music is part of the environment the owner is "selling" to the public.

Here is what I don't understand about Soundcloud. I get it, they want to help protect copyright. Here's the deal about copyright. If you buy a karaoke track from a legitimate retailer, you have paid copyright for use of what is basically a pre-master stem. You only have to pay additional royalties if you want to sell that recording of yours as a single or part of an album or collection of songs. Because selling that recording you made involves what is called mechanical rights. (reproduction of the material in a medium to be used by others.
If there is no cost, I don't see what the problem is. 
A company that owns a bar pays a blanket fee to ASCAP to play whatever music on the jukebox or however they are playing music. Because then, the music is part of the environment the owner is "selling" to the public.

Yeah, At 53 as far as health goes, I am in the PINK, Pretty much all day I am "Comfortably Numb".  No need for meds.......... Life did that to me.

 
Take it easy, just a little pin-prick. There'll be no more "ahhh!" but you may feel a little sick
Can you stand up? I hear you're feeling down. But I can ease your pain. Get you on your feet again.
There is no pain you are receding. A distant ship's smoke on the horizon ....

I had a Literal Deja-Vu experience ............... Like you have been here before but know you have not. Hearing the same background noises and seeing the same junk sitting on your table. I view these experiences as a confirmation that I am on my destined path regardless of how bad or good my situation is. Kind of like a mile marker of a life path. Either that or my Meds did not wear off yet.
   I never had any problem singing high notes when mimicking Axle. I have problems when trying to sound consistent with my lower notes or sounding "Full and modal" in the upper range. It is like the sound of Johnny Cash to F4 and Axle singing from F#4 to E5.(not exactly, but it is good for an example)
  

I agree with Gneetapp and I also wander how a high-speaking guy sings bass. That should be interesting.
 

I agree with Gneetapp and I also wander how a high-speaking guy sings bass. That should be interesting.
 

Hi David, it is nearly impossible to identify what the problem is without listening to you singing a song, or parts of songs where you do well and not so well, or at least some vocalizes, although singing a real song would be the best way for the very experienced guys of this forum to give you a genuine help. Cheers

Su tienes Cajones grande, bato loco.
Really good effort. You have the range and a great tone for this song. I think the only thing that is causing you some strain is over-articulation. You sound quite a bit more american on this one that you did the Bonnie Raitt song. Mainly because your vowels were cleaner. In fact, the only weak part I could hear was the lowest end. You don' have to sing that low just because Axl does. Sing where it works for you. And did you know that a lot of the singing on the songs, especially harmony parts, was Duff McKagan? He actually started out playing guitar and singing and got into playing bass later.
And, like Duff, you've got a great punk feel in your voice, which I think is cool.

Yeah, there's some off pitches but I think that is from pushing a little too much. I think, the key to the low end is the same as the high end. Manage the breath and let the folds do what they will.

Yeah, there's some off pitches but I think that is from pushing a little too much. I think, the key to the low end is the same as the high end. Manage the breath and let the folds do what they will.

Normalizing is the worst thing to do, don't do it, step away from it,have your wife slap your hands until they are red for even trying to do it. Leave it alone. The reason is normalizing is like a limiter, it raises everything in a track to the pre-set limit you choose. That gets rid of dynamics and usually places the track very close to digital clipping. Trust me, you don't want that. If you do want that, I can no longer be your friend. (Union rules) 
What a compressor does is reduce the loudness difference between the highest volume notes and the lowest volume notes. Not the pitch, the volume or perceived loudness. Once a level of loudness has past a set point you have decided (the threshold) it will then reduce the output volume. How much? That depends on the ratio that you set. Most times, for vocals, 2:1 works, or something close to that. I usually prefer to err on the side of less, rather than more, but I could be wrong. Since this reduces the dynamic range of least loud note to most loud note, it has the effect of making the least loud more prominent, almost equal with the loudest. 
As for the sound of your voice at different parts of the range, your wife may be right. Or not. She is hearing you acoustically in whatever room you are in and that is always going to be different than how we hear you through an edited recording. It could be that other things you are doing in editing are changing some of the sound qualities of your voice. It could be that you are singing these songs and sounding american and that is a sound she finds to be "muffled," whether it is, or not. That if you sing something traditional, then you sound "better."
So much of what a person hears is affected more by psychology than by actual comparison of pitches, tonal quality, etcetera. And who knows, maybe your voice sounds brighter in person, maybe it sounds brighter in traditional music and that you are doing something to sound different and more american.
For example, I find some local singing styles from other parts of the world to be hypernasal, to the point of bringing on nausea. I can imagine others would be equally sickened by the sound of my voice. And if others are not sickened by the sound of my voice, then I have not worked hard enough and need to double down (to borrow a phrase from the gamblers in Vegas.)
\m/
 
 

Thanks.  that makes a lot of sense.  It sounds to me like I get a darker sound in Curbing in comparison to overdrive or even neutral.  I will keep that in mind.  I usually sing lower parts in neutral coz they sound good to me!  I have never experimented with curbing with my middle voice!  
Plus I tend to really really buckle down and focus on the tough parts of the song and do not focus as hard singing lower parts from a tonality standpoint.  Guess this is a mental adjustment I need to make..  

Compressor functions
ratio: how much the sound in decibels is reduced in volume
threshold; The level of loudness at which point the compressor will then "compress" or reduce the level coming out
knee (soft or hard) - how sudden is the change to compressed signal
attack - how fast, in time, usually milliseconds, a compressor begins to act
release - how fast, usually in milliseconds, a compressor releases or quits compressing
option (make up gain after compression) - the compressor increases gain after compressing the signal or track to a usable volume.

Normalizing is the worst thing to do, don't do it, step away from it,have your wife slap your hands until they are red for even trying to do it. Leave it alone. The reason is normalizing is like a limiter, it raises everything in a track to the pre-set limit you choose. That gets rid of dynamics and usually places the track very close to digital clipping. Trust me, you don't want that. If you do want that, I can no longer be your friend. (Union rules) 
What a compressor does is reduce the loudness difference between the highest volume notes and the lowest volume notes. Not the pitch, the volume or perceived loudness. Once a level of loudness has past a set point you have decided (the threshold) it will then reduce the output volume. How much? That depends on the ratio that you set. Most times, for vocals, 2:1 works, or something close to that. I usually prefer to err on the side of less, rather than more, but I could be wrong. Since this reduces the dynamic range of least loud note to most loud note, it has the effect of making the least loud more prominent, almost equal with the loudest. 
As for the sound of your voice at different parts of the range, your wife may be right. Or not. She is hearing you acoustically in whatever room you are in and that is always going to be different than how we hear you through an edited recording. It could be that other things you are doing in editing are changing some of the sound qualities of your voice. It could be that you are singing these songs and sounding american and that is a sound she finds to be "muffled," whether it is, or not. That if you sing something traditional, then you sound "better."
So much of what a person hears is affected more by psychology than by actual comparison of pitches, tonal quality, etcetera. And who knows, maybe your voice sounds brighter in person, maybe it sounds brighter in traditional music and that you are doing something to sound different and more american.
For example, I find some local singing styles from other parts of the world to be hypernasal, to the point of bringing on nausea. I can imagine others would be equally sickened by the sound of my voice. And if others are not sickened by the sound of my voice, then I have not worked hard enough and need to double down (to borrow a phrase from the gamblers in Vegas.)
\m/
 
 

Compressor functions
ratio: how much the sound in decibels is reduced in volume
threshold; The level of loudness at which point the compressor will then "compress" or reduce the level coming out
knee (soft or hard) - how sudden is the change to compressed signal
attack - how fast, in time, usually milliseconds, a compressor begins to act
release - how fast, usually in milliseconds, a compressor releases or quits compressing
option (make up gain after compression) - the compressor increases gain after compressing the signal or track to a usable volume.

Normalizing is the worst thing to do, don't do it, step away from it,have your wife slap your hands until they are red for even trying to do it. Leave it alone. The reason is normalizing is like a limiter, it raises everything in a track to the pre-set limit you choose. That gets rid of dynamics and usually places the track very close to digital clipping. Trust me, you don't want that. If you do want that, I can no longer be your friend. (Union rules) 
What a compressor does is reduce the loudness difference between the highest volume notes and the lowest volume notes. Not the pitch, the volume or perceived loudness. Once a level of loudness has past a set point you have decided (the threshold) it will then reduce the output volume. How much? That depends on the ratio that you set. Most times, for vocals, 2:1 works, or something close to that. I usually prefer to err on the side of less, rather than more, but I could be wrong. Since this reduces the dynamic range of least loud note to most loud note, it has the effect of making the least loud more prominent, almost equal with the loudest. 
As for the sound of your voice at different parts of the range, your wife may be right. Or not. She is hearing you acoustically in whatever room you are in and that is always going to be different than how we hear you through an edited recording. It could be that other things you are doing in editing are changing some of the sound qualities of your voice. It could be that you are singing these songs and sounding american and that is a sound she finds to be "muffled," whether it is, or not. That if you sing something traditional, then you sound "better."
So much of what a person hears is affected more by psychology than by actual comparison of pitches, tonal quality, etcetera. And who knows, maybe your voice sounds brighter in person, maybe it sounds brighter in traditional music and that you are doing something to sound different and more american.
For example, I find some local singing styles from other parts of the world to be hypernasal, to the point of bringing on nausea. I can imagine others would be equally sickened by the sound of my voice. And if others are not sickened by the sound of my voice, then I have not worked hard enough and need to double down (to borrow a phrase from the gamblers in Vegas.)
\m/
 
 

Gneetapp,
For sure,... let's hear the lower octave version. That would be an interesting study.