¡Ni que la grabación fuera perfecta!

In this sentence, ni que is an idiomatic expression meaning roughly as if... or it's not as if....

So ¡Ni que la grabación fuera perfecta! means something like As if the recording were perfect! The speaker is rejecting an exaggerated attitude, complaint, or expectation.

It often carries a tone of irony, disbelief, or annoyance.

Because ni que in this kind of exclamation normally takes the subjunctive, not the indicative.

Here, fuera is the imperfect subjunctive of ser. Spanish uses it to present the idea as unreal, hypothetical, or contrary to fact.

Compare the feeling:

La grabación es perfecta = The recording is perfect.
This presents it as a fact.

¡Ni que la grabación fuera perfecta! = As if the recording were perfect!
This suggests the opposite: the recording is clearly not perfect.

Because after expressions like ni que and como si, Spanish usually uses the imperfect subjunctive to talk about an unreal or contrary-to-fact situation, even when the meaning is about the present.

So the time is effectively present, but the grammar marks the situation as unreal.

A useful comparison is English as if it were perfect, where were also does not really mean past time.

Formally, fuera can be from either ser or ir, because those two verbs share some forms in the imperfect subjunctive.

But here it must be ser, because it is followed by the adjective perfecta:

ser perfecta = to be perfect

That makes sense.
ir perfecta would not fit here.

So in this sentence, fuera means were from ser.

Yes, it is often used as a standalone exclamation, even though it feels like part of a larger thought.

Spanish commonly allows this when the rest is understood from context. The idea might be something like:

No te pongas tan exigente, ¡ni que la grabación fuera perfecta!
Don’t be so demanding, as if the recording were perfect!

So the sentence works on its own because the implied meaning is clear: the speaker is dismissing someone’s attitude.

They are similar, but not identical.

Both can express as if and both commonly use the imperfect subjunctive:

como si fuera
ni que fuera

The difference is mainly in tone and usage:

como si is more neutral and widely used in ordinary comparisons.
ni que is more expressive, often more colloquial, and often sounds more irritated, ironic, or dismissive.

So:

Habla como si fuera experto = He talks as if he were an expert.
This is fairly neutral.

¡Ni que fuera experto! = As if he were an expert!
This sounds much more emotional and dismissive.

Because it agrees with la grabación, which is a feminine singular noun.

So:

la grabación = feminine singular
perfecta = feminine singular adjective

If the noun were masculine, you would use perfecto instead.

Yes. Fuera and fuese are both valid imperfect subjunctive forms of ser.

So both are grammatically correct:

¡Ni que la grabación fuera perfecta!
¡Ni que la grabación fuese perfecta!

In modern speech, especially in everyday conversation, fuera is generally more common.

It usually sounds:

ironic
dismissive
annoyed
or skeptical

The speaker is implying that the recording is obviously not perfect, so someone’s reaction or expectation is unreasonable.

Depending on voice and context, it can sound mildly teasing or quite sharp.

Because standard Spanish punctuation uses both an opening exclamation mark ¡ and a closing one !.

Since this sentence expresses emotion and attitude, exclamation marks are very natural here:

¡Ni que la grabación fuera perfecta!

That helps show the sentence is not a neutral statement, but an emotional reaction.