there're pros and cons, sucker. if you wanna compare the ability to program knob movements versus drawing envelopes... drawing envelopes is more precise obviously, but moving knobs feels cooler and is easier and is more natural. in a previous post, somebody mentioned that n-track studio is capable of doing both, but i just checked it out again and the interface, visually and functionally is still really crappy in my opinion. bottom line is, you can respectably fake automation in cooledit. you just can't record knob movements as far as i know