I recall telling Alex Austin, a mentor of mine and a very talented musician, that process of recording music was like going down a rabbit hole for me. My musical goal is simple. Compose a tune and record it. Despite my best efforts when I attempted to record my tunes they sounded horrible. To make matters worse I wasn’t very interested in in dealing with the complexity of recording.
Alex was a pretty intelligent guy and a good musician . Alex could not only create good music but produce it as well. Just before he passed away Alex produced and arranged a simple tune I composed and I was blown away by his effort. I most certainly could have not done what Alex did.
Conversely Alex told me that he was not a composer and that the tune I had composed for him brought tears to his eyes. I never expected that sort of response from Alex. For me it was just another tune that I had composed.
We all have strengths and weaknesses. There very few Buddy Guys or Elton Johns in the world but even those guy’s are bounded by creative limits.
My advice is to pursue what interests you and if producing and engineering is not your cup of tea pass it off to someone else who is fascinated by it.
Personally I use Ableton Lite when I record. I hardly scratch the surface on it’s potential. Like I said my goal is simple.