BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology University of Hertfordshire

"Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, examinations may be replaced by an alternative form of assessment during the academic year 2021/2022. Please refer to the Programme Specification on these pages for further details."

Why choose this course?

• Our programme is Accredited by JAMES, who represent the Association of Professional Recording Services (APRS), the Music Producers Guild (MPG) and Associate Industry Bodies.
• Develop excellent technical skills over the course of your degree, and benefit from our professional-grade studios, edit and listening rooms, and sound resources including those by AMS Neve, SSL, Avid, Focusrite, PMC, Adam, Genelec, Neumann, T.L.A, Lexicon and Drawmer to name but a few.
• Develop excellent technical skills over the course of your degree
• As a student studying on a degree award within the overarching Music and Sound Technology programme, you will also benefit from access to our other fantastic resources including our high-quality live sound and lighting teaching rig which hosts equipment from d&b Audiotechnik, DiGiCo, Midas, Sennheiser, Avolites, Robe, Clay Paky, Showtec, Capture, Resolume and more.
• Excellent industry input is built into the design of the degree awards from a huge number of areas within the wider music industry.
• The degree awards within the programme are designed to expose you to areas of music, sound and audio technology that you might not even know exist yet. "Coming to this course has really given my brain the kick-start it needed, and I'm beginning to see near endless possibilities with where I can go." - Glenn Osborn, a second-year student.
• We have a strong record of students from the programme securing placement years between years 2 and 3 of their studies. Placement destinations include Focusrite, Sound Technology (a leading distributor of high profile brands for the Music Retail and Professional Audio industries), The Famous Company, and a number of recording studios.
• Every year, organisations and companies approach us to recommend our graduating students.
• The music business is woven into your degree study every year giving you the skills to slot into the music industry (or create your own business).

What's the course about?

The BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology course are designed for students who wish to interrogate music and media through music, sound design and immersive audio applications. Focus is placed on sound and music as a component of multimedia, including the world of sound design as a creative process. Students create and work on a range of media focused projects including moving image, game audio and voice overproduction as well as determining how sound can be delivered within both multi-speaker environments and ‘virtual’ spaces.

Core modules studied alongside music and sound design technology practice modules develop students’ techniques and approaches using a range of sound technologies, as well as fostering professional and industrial contextual immersion and awareness, and experience with specialisms within connected music and sound-related fields.

BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology sits within the overarching Music & Sound Technology Programme. There are four-degree awards within this programme: BSc (Hons) Music Production, BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology, BSc (Hons) Audio Recording and Production, and BSc (Hons) Live Sound and Lighting Technology.

All courses share the same ethos, and you’ll have opportunities to work alongside our music composition and music industry management students too, ensuring you benefit from teaching and experiences within a large community of musicians, composers, technologists and performers.

Within the wider school of creative arts at U.H, there are opportunities to collaborate with students from other creative areas, including animation and film and TV, allowing you to network with a broad range of creative industries.

Year 1

Within the core modules, you’ll gain a solid grounding on a number of major D.A.W packages, as well as develop your creative and technical skills in mixing and effects processing, studio work and making your own virtual instruments. In order to develop your technical knowledge of connected audio specialisms, you’ll investigate acoustics, psychoacoustics, audio and Midi protocols and a number of sound projection systems whilst also using lab time to develop an understanding of audio electronics through building your own synthesizer for your own creative output. Music Business is also introduced where you’ll investigate various music business modules and contexts that connect what you are studying to the music industry.

In addition to the core modules, music and sound design technology students also investigate sound and its use in enhancing moving image such as in film, TV, the web and games. Areas including synchronisation, matching screen placement and movement are covered, and students are introduced to the creative recording of source audio for re-purposing as Foley. Sonic branding techniques and story-telling aspects are also investigated.

Year 2

In year 2 much focus is placed on developing your critical ear, and getting your music out there, with detailed work on developing both mixing and mastering techniques and approaches to digital distribution and delivery. In addition, students continue to develop their deep understanding of microphones and sound signal routing, including network-based systems using our state of the art Rednet enabled facilities. You will continue to hone your studio practice and understanding of the wider music industry.

As a music and sound design technology student, this goes hand in hand with dedicated taught areas to further develop your skills in re-dubbing, more advanced and intricate sync and sound design work, and extended techniques for processing found and sourced sound as well as deep immersion in the possibilities for surround and multi-channel audio work.

Year 3

By year 3, the vast majority of our students have already formed a number of professional connections, and students are able to make use of these and reflect on their approaches within a dedicated field project. In addition, there is the final major project which under the supervision of a dedicated tutor allows you to specialize in your chosen area which could be for example album recording and production, software/hardware development, an experiment, or dissertation-based study.

Drawing on the programmes’ industry accreditation links, students also engage with an externally defined industry brief within the area of (or relating to) music and sound design technology. This topic is delivered and supported by sessions from a range of academic staff in addition to bespoke sessions from industry professionals who feed in external expertise. Spatial/immersive audio, virtual reality sound and game audio are also explored in depth.

Your main campus is College Lane

This is where the creative arts, science and health-related subjects are based. This means you’ll share the campus with future nurses, scientists, artists and more. You can use the common rooms to relax with friends, work out in the 24-hour gym or have a drink in our on-campus pub or cafes. We also have restaurants for you to eat in or grab something on the go. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.