??? Why is it called audio/recording ENGINEER... ???

[indecizo]

...when many (most?) of them, even top notch AE's didn't actually study any engineering at all?

OP edited for better grammar.

 

[Nimvi]

So we don't feel bad about quitting school to pursue a life of no money.

But I've wondered the same. Maybe because back in the day you practically had to be an engineer to keep all that machinery running?

 

[RedDog]

Because if we were artists we'd be wasting time on our hair.

 

[UncleBob]

I think back in the day the guys working at Abbey Road etc who were doing the recording were actually engineers who hand built the gear and were the only ones who knew and were allowed to operate it.

I think now it's just a misnomer, like "blowjob", why do they call it a blowjob when there's no actual blowing involved.

 

[egan.]

Yeah it's a legacy thing from the age when lots of these guys were EE's. At this point what would you change it to? Transducer Seducer?

 

[~BURNY~]

A lot of people claim to own a studio too.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Of the various definitions of an engineer, in the simplest terms means a skilled person that uses the sciences to design and manufacture. While the science of audio is not typically implied, the earliest audio engineers were mechanical and/or electrical engineers who designed and manufactured the audio recording equipment. Still even today "audio engineers" are designers of sound and recording.

Don't over think it guys!

 

[ratsapprentice]

Engineer is a perfectly appropriate descriptor.

 

[LiberaScientia]

Because 'Audio Guy-that-makes-your-awful-band-sound-great' isn't very catchy at all

 

[Sloan]

plugin wrangler

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I push that button, then push that button... a lot.

Then I go pick things up and put them down.

 

[AudioGeekZine]

we had the exact conversation here about 2 years ago.

 

[drew_drummer]

we had the exact conversation here about 2 years ago.

 

[xFkx]

i find your lack of question marks in the title disturbing

 

[jipchen]

In germany, the title "Ingenieur" (engineer) is protected and you have to pay up to 10000€ if you use it without a fitting degree. I don't really understand why it isn't the same for english speaking countries. We call ourselves "Tontechniker" over here mostly, which means audio-technician or sound-technician, can't be confused with real engineers and is even more fitting in my opinion.

 

[ratsapprentice]

In germany, the title "Ingenieur" (engineer) is protected and you have to pay up to 10000€ if you use it without a fitting degree. I don't really understand why it isn't the same for english speaking countries. We call ourselves "Tontechniker" over here mostly, which means audio-technician or sound-technician, can't be confused with real engineers and is even more fitting in my opinion.

And thus.... Germans.

 

[El_Gato]

Engineering (Spanish: ingeniero) comes from the Latin "ingenium": cleverness or mental power to solve a problem, so using your ingenium to make it sound right in our case.

Much later, it was applied to the engine and those who constructed them for the same reason.