Interesting story. I guess if you have a huge budget, lots of time, and someone else is picking up the engineer's tab.... that works. Oh yeah, and, lets not forget.... a good voice to start with!!

As for me, recording non-top 10 songs in my studio mostly for fun.... I think 3 or 4 takes will work fine, hit it with Melodyne, punch in what ME can't fix in a transparent manner, put the takes in the mix layered and panned, slap some EQ and verb on it and let it roll, because , let's face it..... I'm not exactly singing at the level of Kenny Rogers, George Strait, or any of the big artists for that matter.

100 takes.... I can't even imagine how tedious that would be trying to comp. Knowing how many phrases, words, and syllables are in a given pop song..... then multiply that by 100..... now, listen to, and categorize each and every one..... now, pick the parts and put them together......

.....and don't forget to click the "SAVE" button every now and then.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.