Re: [LAU] OT: talent and craftsmanship [was: Re: OT: Dub Fx]

On Fri, Feb 12, 2010 at 07:38:31PM +0100, Pedro Lopez-Cabanillas wrote: If you want to be a musician you need music in your blood stream, to be a sound engineer in the usual meaning of that term you need both music and technology. The term 'sound engineer' is sort of a linguistic mixup. Usually an 'X engineer' is someone who has a good knowledge of the technology of X, and able to apply that knowledge in a systematic way to the the solution of practical problems. In many cases it also implies formal training and certification. The focus on technology and practical application is what differentiates an engineer from a scientist in the same field. By that definition, most of the people called 'sound engineeers' should maybe be called 'music engineers', and the 'real' sound engineers according to that definition are the ones usually called 'acoustic engineers'. But even the term 'music engineer' is too broad to describe most 'sound engineers'. It implies a much more universal knowledge - most people called 'sound engineer' only know about one type of music and would be completely lost when e.g. asked to record an opera performance. That's not a reflection on their qualities which can be exceptional, but on the usual meaning of the term 'engineer'. Apart from all this there is a second linguistic mixup. In English the term 'engineer' refers to engines and machines. The drivers of steam trains were called engineeers. In roman languages the term used sounds almost the same (French: ingenieur, Italian: ingegnere), but has a different origin going back the the Latin 'ingeniosus' meaning 'skilled'. And strangely enough, in Italian today 'ingenuo' means just the opposite: someone naive and easily abused. Ciao,