BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology

The BSc (Hons) Music and Sound Design Technology course is 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 over production 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 UH, 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 DAW 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. 

UCAS points	A Level	BTEC
104-112	BCC-BBC	MMM-DMM

IB requirement: 104-112 UCAS points.

Access course: Diploma with 45 level 3 credits at merit.

All students from non-majority English speaking countries require proof of English language proficiency, equivalent to an overall IELTS score of 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each band.

You will graduate as a talented music technologist / sound designer capable of forging a career in a variety of roles.  Our graduates can be found in many places within the music industry, working in recording studios, production companies, working in live sound and at major events, as sound editors, audio restoration engineers, developers of new hardware and software and working in a wide range of roles connected to sound for film, TV and games. 

Each year, former students return and talk to our current students about their employed roles and how their degree has been beneficial. 

Whilst a number of our students go one to work for established companies, there are always a number who set themselves up independently, developing their own business.  

"I find myself in disbelief that so soon after graduating from the BSc Music and Sound Design course I was able to approach professional opportunities with such confidence in my own abilities and audio skill-set, a great deal of which I had learned from studying with this program. I made it, and graduated with a degree that I am extremely proud of.  

Since graduating, my deep interest in field recording inspired me to approach the British Library Sound Archive with a proposal to conduct my first independent field recording trip to Japan. This proposal was accepted and with the funding provided I was able to travel to Japan. I lived and worked across Japan, documenting and recording a wide range of Japanese nature, musicians and spiritual ceremonies. This collection of field recordings is due to be published by the British Library later this year." 

Mat Hart – recent graduate.