I’m quite familiar with the feelings you’re describing here, including the struggle to let go of being in control of the music production cycle from start to finish. However, when I actually did let go, I decidedly learned things. I know the way my brain is wired allows me to mix and master music of mine as if I were a different professional at each stage — however, I saw a pro master engineer work on my album, finding and enhancing nuances that I couldn’t hear, thus significantly improving my work.

Sometimes I think we could establish a loose ‘association’ on the Fediverse: a few professionals capable of wearing different hats, willing to work with each other’s projects. We could exchange roles and try to improve the final results by lending fresh ears and a different perspective to our songs. Of course, it’s easy to say and difficult to put in practice, but that’s my two cents.