Make the most of these extraordinary times and gain a nationally-recognised qualification. A short online course is a significant first step to improving your skills and achieving your career goals.
COURSE OVERVIEW
- Extensive state-of-the-art facilities to rival top commercial studios
- Professional software and plugins
- Taught by industry experts
- Creative freedom on assessed projects
You will work in our specially designed 24 room studio complex with the technical spec and acoustic performance to match the best commercial studios – as well as our five Apple Mac music workstation rooms, our fully equipped Learning Resource Centre, our Theatre, and numerous well-equipped classrooms.
You will build your production, recording and programming skills, and apply them in our artist development programme, in which you can grow as an artist, producer, composer, programmer, engineer or any combination of the above. The course includes track creation, recording, mixing, mastering, live sound, synthesis, sampling, some acoustic and music theory, weekly visits from key music industry practitioners, essential practical music business knowledge and work experience opportunities.
Collaboration opportunities abound with students of performance, production, photography, media, graphic design, props, costume, musical theatre, fashion, games design, acting and other creative areas – and with our extensive contacts in the music industry.
The course involves the making of significant amounts of self-directed music in the form of a project each year, meaning you will be building a significant body of current work.
Facilities
Our custom-designed studio complex features: Four high-spec control rooms, five acoustically-balanced live rooms, three digital/post suites, one DJ room and ten pre-production booths, five computer clusters, three classrooms and a large lecture/performance space.
Using industry standard Logic, Protools, Ableton with a wide range of plugins such as Ozone, Native Instruments –
Hardware includes SSL, TL Audio and Audient desks, for processing Empirical Labs (Distressors), Dbx, Drawmer, TL Audio and many other platforms in studios and production rooms. Access to East West, Sonox plugs, Focusrite, Neve and SSL pre-amps, huge range of microphones and synthesisers, DI boxes, soundcards and headphones.
Contact time and study hours
A full-time student can expect to have around 2 days of timetabled teaching contact per week. You will have approximately 40 hours of timetabled teaching contact for each 20 credit module. This is supported by independent self-guided study.
FURTHER INFORMATION
- a relevant A-Level
- Level 3 Extended Diploma
- related academic or work experience
- the quality of the personal statement
- You will also be required to provide a portfolio and interview for this course.
- Your interview will take place in the production booths within our new music studio block. You are required to bring a memory stick containing two or three examples of your recorded work. You will also need to bring evidence of your academic written skills; this can be a piece of existing academic work or a 500 word review of a pre-recorded track of your choice, paying particular attention to the production quality.
- Demonstration of recorded work
- Evidence of written skills (see above requirements)
- Evidence of aural skills
- Interview with question and answer session
- Music producer
- Studio engineer
- Recording artist
- Live sound engineer
- Mastering engineer
- DJ/producer
- Audio for games
- Film sound
- Post production sound
- practical workshops
- discussions
- groupwork
- lectures/seminars
- tutorials
- self-directed study
- recordings
- project work
- portfolios
- dissertation
- presentations
- written assignments
- Mixing
- Programming
- Recording
- Arranging
- Routing
- Gain staging
- Mastering
- Working with clients
- Sound for film and computer games
- Keyboard skills (basic music theory)
- Professional presence (via a blog or website)
- Digital audio
- Analogue audio
- Acoustics and psychoacoustics
*FREE* Online short courses
Financial support
The applicable fees for this course, including any available discounts, will be listed in the information above.
How to apply
Once you have created an account, you can easily apply to your chosen course and track the status of your application at any time.
HOW THE APPLICATION PROCESS WORKS
Set Up Your Account
You’ll be prompted to create an account which will allow you to log in to our Application Tracker website whenever you wish. This will provide you with important information and you can also track the progress of your application.
Apply
Complete each step of the application form and then submit your completed form. We’ll let you know when we’ve safely received it with an acknowledgement email.
Application Review Meeting
Before offering you a place at college, we’ll meet with you (either in person, by telephone or online). We’ll send you a link to our booking page where you can select a time that’s convenient for you.
Accept Your Place
Offers will be sent to you via the email address you have provided. The offer will be conditional, based on predicted GCSE grades. You’ll need to accept your offer within 14 days to secure your place.
What next?
Once you receive your GCSE results, you’ll need to get in touch with the college to inform us of them and start your enrolment process.