Here I am trying to explain Rip Rowan's survey of the Prorec readership. And he's asking about my profession, that is, my area of expertise, and whether I'm an amateur or expert. And I'm thinking, "Profession? What can this mean today, where digital audio tools are ever-more-accessible, where more people can have more control over the entire process of musical design- performance- engineering- production- distribution." It's All Me, Now! So, I'm wondering, does this profession concept make any sense at all any longer? I consider myself: - an amateur musician - an amateur audio engineer/producer - an amateur computer engineer / system integrator - an amateur graphic designer - a professional multimedia designer (I get paid) My excitement about digitized audio design / recording / production tools starts with the fact that I don't need to relate to other "professions" to get the job done. I don't have to turn over a project to a recording engineer, to a printer, to a CD mastering / duplication house. The process of creating a recorded musical performance is (at least for me) not linear, where specialists in various professions have to let go at certain phases of a project. Whether it's a jewel box tray card, or a freshly burned CD, I can see/hear some approximation of the final product minutes after I conceive it....

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