[sramsay]

Just got done mastering a track (a soundtrack for video with voice over). Getting to the appropriate LUFS level with a limiter seems to me something that is easily automated, and I'm not sure you need AI to do it. But as usual, most of the moves I made with EQ, compression, saturation, and so on were creative choices where I was picking from among dozens of different possible tones and vibes (some in my head, some from reference tracks). I guess I don't doubt that AI can master a track if you say "make it sound like a Beyoncé record," and some of the automated tools give you vague choices about how you want it to sound.

But for this to really work, I feel like I'd have to sit there going: "Okay, same thing but bring the lower mids up a couple of dB. Try it with a little more air in the top end. Compress those drums, but try not smear the transients on the snares. No wait, go back. Try smearing those transients a bit more."

At that point, I'm not sure "mastering as prompt engineering" is worth it. Though I totally agree that things like LANDR and Ozone are great for quick-and-dirty work.