Thought I'd pop back and bring members up to date ( if they are at all interested) Some witty replies, others well-informed and some both. Again, thanks for taking the time to add your thoughts. One key point for me is I didn't like his instrumentation - the guitar and bass were fine but everything else bored me. My source material may not have been technically 'on point' but at leasat there was some colour and originality there. I was also looking for interplay between the instruments. The producer's sounded very padestrian and bland- like a line of commuters marching down the street compared to a group of friends rapping away and waltzing down a boulevard.
Anyway, I hear the dead horse groaning.
The upside to all this is that a number of ASx members warmed to Jig of Alice and Scrape and have lent their talents to collaborating or providing ongoing blisteringly honest advice. As for Soundbetter ? Nah, the pool of integrity and skills here is far superior. Some members genuinely want to try something different and work together.

Moral of story: In the age of the gig economy, people want to cut corners- you give them a golden rectangle of opportunity and they come back with a butchered pretzel

 

If only you'd spent a fraction of the time and energy you've expended on arguing about this actually working on your original performance of the song. Basically, producer bloke ran it through Turd Polisher Pro with all the sliders on max, yet here we are.