Sound Engineering and Production with a Foundation Year - BSc (Hons)

This module will develop students’ understanding of acoustic fundamentals and will also develop a methodology for testing a range of musical instruments, using a range of applicable techniques to extract and analyse data. The scientific nature of this module will allow you to have a deeper understanding of sound, human hearing mechanisms and musical instruments, underpinning later modules in recording and acoustics.

This module provides a base for you to develop key skills in recording and mixing, imperative for all fields of music technology and sound engineering. You will become familiar with the hybrid analogue mixing/digital recording studio environment and explore recording techniques and processes applicable to a wide range of acoustic and electric instruments. You will study analogue-based audio systems and processes, and microphone technology. You will apply this knowledge through a series of studio based recordings.

This module will introduce the nature of digital signals, presenting the international standards for digital audio data and the common processes involved in the capture and processing of digital signals. Later the module will allow you to develop strong skills in the standards for compression and distribution of digital audio signals and via a cross discipline approach, the module will illustrate common methods form computing and how valid these are for digital signal distribution.

This module will give you a broad understanding of sound reinforcement for a range of scenarios of up to 250 audience capacity. As well as the practical skills of connecting and troubleshooting a range of equipment from analogue to digital, the module will also focus on the need for good theoretical skills, including room modelling and system prediction as well as understanding of electrical safety and safe operating practice.

Audio Software Development will provide fundamental knowledge for writing and developing audiorelated software tools. The field of audio production heavily relies on digital systems, which in turn require technical programming and logic skills for their implementation. Given the ubiquitous nature of digital technologies, this is a valuable skill to have as a sound engineer.

In this module, you will explore everything from compilers, instruction sets and hardware architectures up to programming concepts such as iterators and functions. The module finishes by introducing simple digital signal processing technologies and object oriented design. The module provides the knowledge base to excel in the technical modules in years 2 and 3.

This module will develop key understanding of electronic fundamentals as applied to audio systems. Subject matter relates primarily to the analogue domain and will encourage you to develop your passion for the equipment found in the studios, learn how they sound and what makes them important during the recording, mixing and mastering process. Specific attention is applied to audio transducers; loudspeakers, microphones and headphones.

This module introduces you to recording sound for television and radio, sound effects, dialogue replacement (ADR), and mastering audio levels for broadcast using a project based approach. You will increase your employability through exposure to the skills used in the broadcast industry and working with actors and television crews in interdisciplinary activities involving students across different faculties.

This module enables you to develop an individual recording portfolio based on your personal areas of interest whilst acquiring core techniques and skills in key applications. It provides the opportunity to explore editing, mixing and a range of recording techniques to lay a foundation for more advanced recording and production work at Level 6.

Digital technology is widely used throughout all the stages of the digital media processing, production, transmission, distribution and broadcasting activities. This module provides application based fundamental digital signal processing (DSP) knowledge and skills.

This module will develop key understanding of audio systems, embedded systems and electronics. This module will encourage you to develop your passion for the equipment found in the studios, how they sound and why, and what makes them important during the recording, mixing and mastering process.

This module will allow you to gain an in-depth understanding of global music and audio industries and how organisations have sought to adapt to technological change. This module enhances employability through the development of your understanding of employer requirements and approaches to recruitment.

This module will develop students’ understanding of psychoacoustics through critique and analysis of academic work. Students will understand how to provide critical assessment of existing research work. This module will provide a practical insight into acoustic consultancy by assessing through theory and practice. It will cover building, interior and environmental acoustics in a way that aids employability by utilising methods that are typical of industrial practice.

This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake a credit bearing, 40-week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Undergraduate Degree.

The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market. Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace.

The purpose of the module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and research informed project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. In agreement with your supervisor, you will decide upon your topic which will take the form of a practical outcome (artefact) with accompanying contextual material. The main consideration when choosing your topic is that it must be aligned to the programme you are studying, and you should consider the relevance of this topic to your future academic or professional development.

At this level, you will be expected to work independently but you will receive additional one-to-one support from your supervisor, who will be familiar with your chosen topic area. As you progress on the module, extra support will be available and this may take the form of group seminars, workshops and online materials that will help to develop your project. 

Based on prior study, this module assumes a good working knowledge of a range of digital mixing desks with a basic understanding of ground stacked PA systems. The module will enhance your skills to enable the planning of larger, more complex shows and provide practical simulations of these knowledge and in order to improve team working and troubleshooting skills. The module allows a deeper understanding of measuring and tuning PA systems, the operations and mathematics involved in rigging, and other show control systems such as DMX for lighting.

This module will cover the wide range of research areas within music information retrieval (MIR). The field of MIR emerged at the intersection of other areas in music research including audio signal processing, machine learning, music history, musicology, and music psychology. Current research in MIR consists of topics related to these fields, including music recommendation, automatic music transcription, optical music recognition, source separation, semantic audio applications. The aim of the module is to familiarise you with the topics in MIR, as well as to introduce methodological and presentation skills required for performing research in the field.

The module will cover linear and nonlinear systems, time and frequency domain processing algorithms and will explore future generations of methods in the field such as adaptive, cross-adaptive and intelligent music production systems.

The Game industry has overtaken the film industry in terms of revenue and audio is an integral part of developing high impact titles. In this module, you will explore the fundamentals of sound design for interactive environments, including sound effects, Foley sound, soundscapes and dialogue. The module will cover the integration of audio into game engines like Unity and middleware such as FMOD, and mixing techniques particular to the gaming industry.