I have recently upgraded the studio in my living room (hmm maybe that's why I'm single again.... lol) and have a couple of songs I want to offer for comment.
One is by Elton John and the other by Billy Joel. I'm working on a 10 song CD of all Elton and Billy covers.
Here is the equipment I used. Shure KSM-32 mic plugged into a Mackie Onyx 1220 mixer with firewire interface, a Dell Dimension 8400 with Traction 2 software and dynaudio BM5A speakers.
I had nothing to do with the music. I just did the vocal, effects, and mastering since I don't have my Ketron yet to do the music w unique styles.
Also, in ur (hopefully honest) critiques keep in mind that both of these are first takes done within hours of setting up the studio since i don't know how to do the loop punch record thing yet. i may have to actually read the manual, lol.

Dan McDermott: I'm Still Standing (written by Elton John & Bernie Taupin) http://warrencountyreport.com/imstillstanding.mp3

Dan McDermott: Miami 2017 (written by Billy Joel) http://warrencountyreport.com/miami2017a.mp3

I've said it before and I'll say it again....
Great Pipes!!
I really liked your Billy Joel rendition...question: Are you doing the back-up vocals also?
I found Miami to have just a bit too much effect on the lead vocal, IMO, for my liking.
Overall though, you've got a great voice Dan, and you're wasting your time if you don't get out of your studio, and onto the stage.
Keep up the great work.
Thanx for letting us hear you again.

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...shboom

Hi, Dan! New songs from you??? Gimme, gimme, gimme, ...

I'm glad to hear that you've started to dive into rock dynamics. Yes, the effect was slightly too strong like Shboom mentioned. But after a short while I became more similar with this sound. I'm also glad to hear that you didn't loose anything of your voice force...

I would really like to feature your talent!!!
The styles are somewhat better than before. Are you having your new keyboard? Or are you using a better studio equipment in the meantime? A good work!

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Greetings from Frankfurt (Germany),
Sheriff ;-)

Thanks to both of you. I sing at my shows 5 nights a week and I would love to work with a band but I can't afford to right now because I gig 5 nights a week and 6 nights during wedding season. That's my fulltime job and if I split the money with a band I would earn a lot less. I get on average $150 per weeknight at nightclubs and $500 for weddings. There is no way that a band would be able to split the money and each person earn that unless you were a national act or a popular regional one.

But I will probably have to get used to that when my CD comes out and I want to promote it, or at least get with one or two others to have more people on stage.

Since I don't yet have a quality arranger, (and when I get one I will be faced with a learning curve) I would love to work with someone who could come up with some creative styles on Elton John and Billy Joel songs and record them so I could do the vocals. It would be a lot of fun to experiment with. I'm planning on a CD of half Elton and half Billy cover songs.

I agree on the effects. I think I have to reduce the effects on both, boost the overall volume, and bring the vocal a bit louder on the miami 2017 song.

Please keep the constructive criticism flowing. It's a great way for me to learn from people better at this than I am!!!

I forgot to answer a couple of questions. (ADHD moment, lol.) I am only doing the lead vocal, the effects on it, and the mastering of the final product. I had no role in the music or the background vocals since I bought them because I can't afford a Ketron yet. The previous ones were with midi files I found on the Internet done through a sound module (a roland xv-5050.) I also have much better preamps and software with the Mackie Onyx board than the Protools mbox i used for the previous demos.