Technical vs. Conceptual advise on recording engineering...where to start?

Technical vs. Conceptual advise on recording engineering...where to start?

Many have looked at the technical side of music and then looked away.  However, some advise form a Grammy winner does not hurt.

Terminology in the music and audio engineering field is at its best overwhelming.  Although not a formally trained audio engineer myself, I have come to terms with the fact that the more one knows about “what” goes on with the sound one records (or reinforces live), the more efficient musical art gets expressed.  For highly intuitive folks, this may seem pointless, but for the more analytical kind, just the right dose of technical concepts can get us from point A to point B on a confidence level.  So "just do it" is really an understatement.

Some advise for the aspiring songwriter, guitarist, performer, etc., comes from Sound on Sound. The following list could come in very handy when involved in any studio/live project as terminology questions may arise.  You can find a helpful glossary of terms (and much more advise) on the Sound on Sound page located here.

The never-ending quest for technical knowledge, could be, as stated before, an overwhelming one.  Therefore, once we can get a basic understanding on the technicalities we may be working with, the rest lies on making a viable living at doing what an artist does best:  creating art.  A constant issue for any artist is “compensation”, since most of us do not have a business background.  So, how to work around the issue of keeping art and business separate?  Well, according to the following professional advise, by doing just that! 

Chris Lord-Alge himself, a Grammy-winning audio engineer can be found giving his practical advise on the topic of “money and art” here at about the 1 hour and 4 minute marker.  Although his art is not on a traditional musical instrument, the art of sound engineering touches the art of sound in a very special way. 

To recap, it may sound counter-intuitive at first, but some technical knowledge of studio (and live sound) terms may give any artist the poetic freedom that he or she may need to free up some of the creative objectives desired.  Also, as stated on the video cited in this post, the same could happen when money and art get separated.