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Students
Tuition Fee
GBP 17,065
Per year
Start Date
Medium of studying
Duration
12 months
Program Facts
Program Details
Degree
Masters
Major
Audio Production | Recording Arts | Music Production
Area of study
Arts
Timing
Full time
Course Language
English
Tuition Fee
Average International Tuition Fee
GBP 17,065
About Program

Program Overview


Emphasizing aesthetic considerations, technology, and collaboration, the program equips students with an industry-standard portfolio and prepares them for diverse roles in the sound and music industry, including artist/producer, mixing engineer, sound designer, and composer.

Program Outline


Degree Overview:

This forward-thinking music and sound production course allows you to develop your own sonic signature. It takes a contemporary, wide-ranging approach to sound production and helps you create work with an authentic voice. You'll join a vibrant MA Sound community, where you'll be supported to pursue your individual interests and aspirations. The program helps you develop an industry-standard portfolio of sound-based work to take into the next stage of your career. The MA Sound (Production) is designed to enable aspiring musicians, composers, and producers to refine their craft and build a professional portfolio to help them thrive in the sound and music industry.


Outline:

The program covers aesthetic considerations, technology, and the skills used in modern audio production. You'll develop work within your areas of interest, without stylistic boundaries, and you'll be encouraged to collaborate with related fields of practice to expand your practice.


Trimester One:

  • Sound Skills: This module builds on the idea that you'll already have a set of core technical skills that underpin your practice.
  • It offers opportunities to extend your capabilities. You can choose a set of projects from a large number of options – these cover skills right across the Sound (Design), Sound (Production), and Sound (Composition and Sonic Arts) pathways and include (optional) elements of multimedia. Focusing on developing skills in postgraduate-level research and writing, it's designed to give you the tools to reflect on how you work, what you make, and how it exists in the world.
  • Creative Portfolio: This module focuses on developing your individual practice as a producer or composer/producer.
  • Seminars will explore a wide range of contemporary practice relevant to your area of specialism, focusing on the technical and aesthetic aspects of work by current practitioners. The module particularly emphasizes a critical understanding of developments in contemporary thought in sound/music, and its related areas. Through the module, you'll produce a portfolio of production studies, drawing on your own priorities and interests as a creative practitioner, informed by engagement with other ideas and work. The seminars investigate how music and sound production has developed far beyond a means of reproduction, toward a narrative ‘language’ that is constructed to portray ‘meaning’ for the listener. You'll listen critically, discuss, and create studies in production.

Trimester Two:

  • Production Project: In the second trimester, you'll develop an advanced creative project for the Production Project.
  • This will reflect on your development process and outcomes in order to keep pushing your personal development and professional skills. Whilst the module assessment is set by us, the content of the assessments will be defined and directed by you.
  • Research and Practice: You'll complete your Research and Practice module with a project summarizing the contextual artistic research you've undertaken.

Trimester Three:

  • Major Project: While most postgraduate courses include a dissertation, MA Sound (Production) culminates with a large-scale practical project, supported by a reflective journal.
  • The project will allow you to develop your own individual and original research area through your practice. The exact nature of this work will be negotiated with the module leader. You'll be able to use it to develop a body of practical work which will serve as a substantial portfolio for the next stage in your career.

Course Modules:

  • Sound Skills
  • Practice and Research
  • Creative Portfolio
  • Production Project
  • Major Project

Assessment:

The majority of assessment is based on your practical coursework. Some practical projects are accompanied by short, informal written assignments. For the Research and Practice module, you'll produce a more substantial paper which helps you investigate your interests as an artist and understand the contexts in which you work.


Teaching:

You'll be taught through a mix of lectures, workshops, seminars, and online study materials. Throughout the year, we bring in composers, sound artists, and industry professionals to talk about their work and deepen your knowledge and understanding of current contexts. The Major Project is taught through individual tutorials, where the focus will be entirely on your own practice. In the Sound Skills module, we make use of a ‘flipped classroom’ model, where you independently work through online materials at your own pace, supported by weekly seminars and workshops with tutors.


Careers:

The course helps you develop an individually-tailored portfolio of skills. This will equip you for the current employment landscape, where a combination of traditional sound production roles are required alongside broader practice in sound, music, and other media. Potential roles include:

  • Artist/producer
  • Mixing engineer
  • Mastering engineer
  • Sound designer
  • Sound library content creator
  • Sound artist
  • Composer for film, TV, and games
  • Music label professional
  • Software developer
  • The course also provides the breadth necessary for teaching, and provides the basis required for PhD research and beyond.

Other:

You'll join a community of students and staff working across a suite of Music and Sound courses, including related pathways in Sound (Design) and Sound (Composition and Sonic Art). You'll have access to a range of specialist music and sound resources, as well as other University services, venues, and facilities. These include:

  • Commons building, with its superb classroom facilities, social spaces, and specialist digital resources.
  • Musiclab Studios with three control rooms and a live recording room.
  • Audio Mixing booths.
  • Recording studios with two control rooms with live recording room.
  • Post Production facilities, including:
  • Two high-end equipped audio surround suites
  • Audio editing suites
  • Foley and dialogue recording room
  • Surround viewing theatre
  • Video editing/colour grading suites
  • Two TV studios.
  • Mac workstation room with networked music technology labs with high-spec workstations, running core software including Ableton, Pro Tools, Logic, MAX/MSP, and Adobe.
  • Michael Tippett Centre, housing a purpose-built concert hall with excellent acoustics and PA.
  • University Theatre.
  • Newton Park Library, including a large collection of books, periodicals, and CDs with extensive eBook and online journal access.
  • Virtual Learning Environment, which provides online access to learning materials such as lecture slides, assessment information, discussion boards, and other resources.
  • Access to thousands of business, design, and tech courses online via LinkedIn Learning.
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Admission Requirements

We're generally looking for a good honours degree or equivalent. Some courses also require an interview or the submission of a portfolio of work.

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