Not trying to keep beating this horse, but just to give some perspective: I don't work in the music business or anything like that, but part of my job involves working closely with a music producer and audio engineer, I'm also a musician (not professional). Can't tell you how many times, I lost count, I would be present as a listener when a recording is going or during a live show and the vocals sounded quite nice in the moment, great atmosphere, great time, you name it. Then, when it comes time to properly mix and work on it the vocals sound nothing like I remember (lots of flat notes, etc). There's just something that happens when you're listening to it in real time that somehow masks these imperfections, but that doesn't mean those aren't there. A recording, whether it's properly mic-ed or just a phone recording, will give you much more of a "this is how it actually sounded" perspective than just "I was there and had a great time".