It’s easy to get caught up in the cul-de-sacs that present themselves while seeking out recorded ‘perfection’.
Rather than relying on your producer to ‘fix up’ what you’ve done at home, utilise your producer resources to maximise what it is that you have to offer that is unique to you as an artist — that’s what will make you stand out and get noticed.
At the same time, don’t fool yourself that you can start your assault on the musical world without first perfecting what you can deliver as the artist — this may include, depending on your genre, singing to the best of your ability.
Losing sight of those goals could lead to the equivalent of musical plastic surgery, musical botox, perfectionism destroying authenticity — not so much from a lack of vision, but from the vision being mis-directed in the pursuit of pseudo-technical perfection above genuine artistic communication. A ‘bland’ sameness waters down your message and prevents it from cutting through perhaps…
A discussion on these issues with music critic Grant Smithies and producer Simon Holloway on Graeme Hill’s ‘Weekend Variety Wireless’ from Radio Live, Sunday March 6, 2011 is here: https://www.radiolive.co.nz/Autotune-A-musical-invasive-weed/tabid/506/articleID/19025/Default.aspx