I've always been a user and abuser of software and I've used, for example, both high end $10000 G5 packages as well as simple iBooks and PC's for Movie editing, and sure editing a video on Final Cut pro is way more powerful and time consuming and allows you to get the best out of the product, but i've found that if you know your way around simpler software like windows movie maker or iMovie you can create movies almost on par with those created by Final Cut Pro in terms of look and feel, perhaps lacking the same special effects though. Same as making Powerpoint slideshows look like Flash animations.
If the same principle applies with Audio editing then the theory would be that if I spend my time thinkin out how each track is going to be recorded (and even use manual eq's for the guitars) and then spend a lot of time in Garageband and some other 3rd party audio software then I can probably get a pretty convincing audio track going.
So in theory if i got a program that allows me to equalize parts of songs then i should be able to do an alright copy myself without contacting a studio and paying a heap of money.
