Dark haired girl singing into studio microphone wearing headphones

What is a good vocal take?

There are two crucial components that are always present in a good vocal take.  The first is technique. Good pitch and good phrasing have to be present in order to even consider keeping a take.

With pitch correction, deciding what to keep or not, is made more difficult.  If the initial pitch is good, however, it is infinitely easier to comp a great vocal track.

I can remember so many times tuning a certain word or phrase to death, and in the end, it would have been so much easier, and much more time efficient just to re-sing.

The second essential component is “vibe”.  My definition of “vibe” is feel and believability.  Do I really believe what the singer is saying?  Is the performance authentic? Many times the “vibe” is there, but the technique is not perfect.

If the technique is fixable, though, I will always go with “vibe”.