Pick your trick, I guess. Comp a selection of the best takes for an illusion of a flawless performance, or autotune a vocal. It's all okay in my book.

I hate the "Autotune Sound" of perfectly flattened harmonies in so many commercial releases, but I don't resent it. To me it's the same as distortion or stereo chorus or flange...it's another soundshaping tool.

I just did a song, "Mystery Tree" where I recorded a fairly difficult new guitar track. And then I realized I didn't want to sing it that high. So I used Cubase's Pitch Shift effect to lower the entire guitar track two semitones down. Viola! A nice deep-sounding guitar...what was DADGAD became CGCAGC. Magic tricks are okay by me.

http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman