That's not a bad analogy because the assembly line didn't really make cars better, it just made more of them, made them quicker, and reduced the human element. And that's exactly what we want with music - more junk music flooding the cosmos, made quicker, and with even less human skill.
Not to quibble, but I find that somehow some of you missed the point of the post. I only posted this to counter what I felt were some uninformed opinions about what this particular software might be capable of after getting the newsletter and reading the previous thread about it that was closed. If anybody thinks this record I made was an assembly line product, I would beg to differ. Every single note was played by hand, there is not a midi track or loop anywhere, and I should know, I played nearly all of it. It was made almost completely by two people, the singer and myself with a guest vocalist or two, and two players who contributed sax and pedal steel guitar. It was completely recorded on freeware, on easily acquired hardware here at my house. I arranged, co-wrote, and tracked it and mixed it, and although it my not be the most amazing record ever made, you can plug a CD of it anywhere and it sounds remarkably consistent and agreeable. When I looked at the curve of the song I thought would be an appropriate guide for how I hoped the record would sound, it was not very far away from where I ended up with before I decided to give this little program I found online a whirl, only this was a five thousand dollar record, the other record was safely 40 times more expensive, plus an additional fee for the producer. As far as hiring a pro, well, I have been producing and engineering for quite a long time, sometimes the list of people I have put microphones in front of astounds even myself, but these days working at home is such a joy that I don't even miss the advantages I used to take for granted in terms of circuitry and real estate. But anyone can become slightly numb to a project when it is almost solely your responsibility and you are not only wearing the engineer hat, and the producer hat, but also the content hat, the player hat, and I am not complaining because it loved every minute of the challenge, getting my dormant drum chops together best I could, stringing up some instruments I don't touch as nearly often as I should, and my favorite part, getting inside the head of an artist and trying to dig every possible layer and nuance out that they are capable of within the constraints of time and a charitable budget.
But what really sort of zinged me when I read the previous thread, was all the assumptions about what the software does, by people who hadn't bothered to even check it out and replied by rote within their preconceived notions. It isn't going to enable assembly line-styled results, press the Pontiac button and out comes another J-car. It is just another tool that might come in handy sometime, the guy who developed it is just like everybody else here, he is trying to get noticed a bit, and if his attempts are a bit clumsy due to language difficulties, there are some interesting things he has developed in terms of usable and understandable processes that are readily viewable and allow for customized approaches if someone wants to take the 30 minutes to get to know what the software is designed to do. Now, raise your hand if you have been to Bernie Grundman's or Sterling Sound. Oh, I guess that is probably just me. This program is not going to replace those kinds of places, and does not purport to. But let me give you a little insight into places that cater to very big whales, sometimes minnows are treated not quite as well. Not in an intentional slight, or neglect, it is just that when you may only be good for one project it's just like any other business, repeaters might get a better table. so to speak. Carefully applied, I think that there is nothing wrong with using this kind of software, and if you think it produces cookie cutter results, find a program that tracks and captures EQ curves, and play some professionally mastered records through it, you are going to notice some recurring HPF and LPF complete notches, and an almost uniform frequency curve. It is like they all agreed on the top and bottom, and not much variety in other areas as well. So if you can't fight city hall and can't really afford the lobbyists, maybe there are some resources you can try to make your product as good as it might be within whatever resources of time and money are available. And thanks for listening, it is always interesting to hear more informed opinions from critical listeners, even if they are not always put in a work-a-day context.