Real

Ask and you shall receive, my friend. You are correct in asserting that the first demonstation is on pitch and the second is an octave lower.

I think you have a nice, manly tone. It sounds good to me.   As you say, bringing this tone to the high notes makes this song more challenging, so you usually use falsetto at the top. I think some of the difficulty of the top notes is because the tone is losing some "clearness" around middle C (For example at :34 "and sit" at :57 "seas" you are medium intensity near middle C and raspy, but as you continue lower in pitch and intensity, you sound very smooth).   If you were to clear bring a soft but clear tone to that area in practice, then work on making it connected, that may give you more release.   Nice job on a difficult song.

Nice and smoothe my man, butter with the lows. I can definitely hear the inner Maxwell when you go up in the False.   I see you representing for the Grown Folks' side of R&B. Keep it up.

Thank you Ron and MDEW. My speaking voice is quite low and raspy, so to follow John above middle C I'd need to use a bit of volume, which i can't do in my living arrangement. I tried to use about 30% volume, and the mushy/wobbly first version was the result.   I had a window of about an hour today where I could record, so i tried some different approaches. I found one I felt more confident in and posted it at the top. Still pretty light though.

As the other's have said, I feel like each version you've posted has gotten closer to "All of mdew," with the Rock version being completely in your pocket.  You sound comfortable on that one, and the end result is cool.

The "For Brenda" adds authenticity I can tell that all of the notes are in your "easy zone" from the consistency and relaxed quality of your tone, which is great, because that gives you the room to do your own thing. I think it's good you didn't try to mimic John's approach, because that would take away from what the Ronws has to offer with his interpretation of the song. Also, I agree with you saying that the rigidity of the backing track takes away from us, in comparison to what we could do with our own instruments.   All in all, Good work Ronws, and if you record another version I'll be glad to listen to that one as well.

Sounding real strong man. I like how focused your tone sounds, and you made the song your own!

Inspirational flexibility and vibrato my man. I can only hope that my journey of lightening my low/harsh speaking voice goes as well as yours did.

Thank you for listening @GSoul82

Hey all, new poster here. This is my first real attempt to record as a vocalist, though I did some rapping in high school.   I figured I join in on the fun by recording something light over Felipe's backing track... I only did the first half, so the torture should be over as soon as it begins.   Version 2 (I feel much better about this one): https://app.box.com/s/4zuf1l36tdghkzele97cqaixobwuo9tk   Edit: Had to bring the song more into my comfort zone