Duration:
1 year full-time

Location:
Confetti London

This Sound Engineering & Audio Production postgraduate course will help you to explore current and emerging audio and industry areas such as studio engineering and mixing, mastering, immersive audio, game audio and post production. 

You’ll use this knowledge to develop a personalised journey in specific areas of interest so you’ll finish your degree with a focussed commercial strategy for a sustainable career.

The key aim is to cultivate high quality, entrepreneurially adept graduates to work in the Sound Engineering and Audio Production industries from a portfolio career grassroots level to more structured established company environments. Students will be well placed for the real world of work in this exciting field.

This course is for you if:

  • you love creating and manipulating sounds
  • you enjoy learning technical and science based concepts
  • you like using audio equipment creatively and technically

Industry exposure at Tileyard

As part of your degree you’ll get exclusive access to the UK’s best music industry insights and connections through our partnership with Tileyard – the world’s largest professional music community.

You can expect regular masterclasses, industry briefs, mentoring and a host of other opportunities to further develop your portfolio, industry knowledge and those all-important connections and contacts.

This programme is open to graduates with a degree from any discipline and does not require sound engineering study to be completed at undergraduate level, but you need previous related experience and a passion for putting together high quality productions.

Entry & admission criteria:

  • A minimum of a 2:2 honours degree, or an appropriate equivalent, i.e. a professional qualification, from a recognised British or overseas institution, in a related subject, such as Music Technology, Music Production, Audio Production, Sound Design, Commercial Production, Sound Engineering, Audio Engineering, Game Audio, Audio for Media, Audio for Post Production, Audio for Visual Media, Composing for Media
  • If you don’t hold a relevant degree, you should include a link to streamable recordings and/or compositions or other related audio work made with technology and state your role in recording or producing them. Write a short statement on the techniques you used to create the audio outputs that illustrate your suitability for the course along with any industry related experience
  • Non-standard applicants with at least three years’ industry experience are also welcome to apply.
  • Applicants who do not fully satisfy the general criteria will be considered if they are able to demonstrate that they are capable of successfully undertaking and completing the programme at the required standard. Eligibility may be determined by means of an interview for some applicants.
  • Applicants who have been taught and assessed in languages other than English should have an English language equivalent to IELTS 6.5.

  • A minimum of a 2:2 honours degree, or an appropriate equivalent, i.e. a professional qualification, from a recognised British or overseas institution, in a related subject, such as Music Technology, Music Production, Audio Production, Sound Design, Commercial Production, Sound Engineering, Audio Engineering, Game Audio, Audio for Media, Audio for Post Production, Audio for Visual Media, Composing for Media
  • If you don’t hold a relevant degree, you should include a link to streamable recordings and/or compositions or other related audio work made with technology and state your role in recording or producing them. Write a short statement on the techniques you used to create the audio outputs that illustrate your suitability for the course along with any industry related experience

Personal statement

You should include in your personal statement why you want to study this course and a summary of your knowledge of recording and mixing audio including what microphones, software, consoles and outboard you use regularly

International qualifications

We accept qualifications from all over the world – check yours here:

English language entry requirements

You can meet our language requirements by successfully completing our pre-sessional English course for an agreed length of time, or by submitting the required grade in one of our accepted English language tests, such as IELTS:

Would you like some advice on your study plans?

Our international teams are highly experienced in answering queries from students all over the world. We also have members of staff based in Vietnam, China, India and Nigeria and work with a worldwide network of education counsellors.

To apply for this course, you will need to complete an application through NTU’s Applicant Portal.

Your application will include a personal statement, and you’ll need to provide a reference.

Preparing for the financial side of student life is important, but there’s no need to feel anxious and confused about it. We hope that our fees and funding pages will answer all your questions.

We offer a 20% discount to most current Confetti and Nottingham Trent University students, and recent alumni.

Research Project (60 credit points)

In an ever-shifting and more complex creative industry, the need to source, analyse and process knowledge has never been more important.

Research is an essential skill in the toolbox for any creative practitioner wanting to have an extensive and rewarding career in a brave new world of opportunity and challenge.

The Research Project module enables you to collaborate with other creative cohorts and formulate life-long robust research practices. You will learn the essential skills necessary to investigate and synthesise information in order to develop informed conclusions and new and exciting practices.

The module will enable you to take a deep dive into your own specialist areas of interest to deliver a large research project. The project can be delivered in media that most closely align with your creativity, with outputs that could include a whole range of audio, visual or webspace artefacts.

Sound Engineering and Audio Production (60 credit points)

This is your Sound Engineering and Audio Production playground! We all have our specialisms, but have you ever thought how you can apply those skills in related fields? The key to your development is going through the ‘doing’ process in a number of scenarios and examining how you can use what you learned in your own practice.

Through a series of workshops and projects you’ll explore and enhance your processes and skills in these related areas. You’ll experiment and see how related competancies can be developed to increase your employability across the sound engineering and audio production sector: You might experiment mapping your mixing skills to sound design processes, or studio recording skills to location recording: you’ll work to personalise and apply these techniques to your own practice to enhance what makes you, you!

The key in this module is in the process and reflection, but assets related to your intended employability journey can be honed to completion for use in your ‘Creative Entrepreneurial Approaches’ module to show you at your very best.

Creative Entrepreneurial Approaches (60 credit points)

This module is designed to reflect the entrepreneurial nature of practices in the music and audio sector. Through appropriate negotiated research avenues, you will critically examine current ways of working most applicable to your own journey as a music industry professional, whether that’s as an employee, a business owner, or a freelancer with one or more audio/music related activities.

You’ll look for your place in the sector and work towards finding a home there during and after your studies by developing your subject and employability skills along with a relevant outward facing portfolio that considers you as a brand.

You’ll critically examine the work landscape to identify relevant professional opportunities during and after your studies to support your development, and, importantly, explore ways to monetise your talents. You’ll work on specific self-sourced or supplied industry facing projects and these will provide you with the opportunity to examine the skills needed in relevant key music sectors to help you thrive and survive.

In your ‘Practice’ module, you’ll explore and experiment with multiple related skills, and the relevant results of which can be finessed here and included in your work-facing portfolio, too. To give you the best chance to have long-term success you’ll have an assigned mentor from industry to give you a vital insiders perspective.

Ultimately you’ll form an output plan and will pitch for a ‘Confetti Employability Grant’ to help you with your next steps.

Do It For Real

Industry Week

Studying at Confetti you’ll take part in Industry Week where you’ll be able to meet a range of professionals within your field of interest as well as other areas of the creative industries. 

Past guests include Fumez The Engineer, Frasier T Smith, Susan Rogers, Sylvia Massy, Tony Visconti, Andrew Schepps, Steve Albini and Steve Lillywhite.

Student work

Our Talent Development team works closely with course leaders to link students with opportunities across the industry. Sound Engineering students have previously worked with leading companies, such as:

  • Ableton
  • Nottingham Panthers

You’ll learn in our very own live music and events venue, Metronome.

With its unrivalled reputation for the quality of its sound and visuals, Metronome hosts a successful commercial programme of live events throughout the year – and it’s here where you’ll learn from the best and gain real work experience. You’ll have access to:

  • SSL Duality console
  • Dolby Atmos control room
  • High spec microphones, preamps, synths, samplers, FX processors

Plus a combination of standard DAWs such as Pro Tools/Logic Pro and specialist composition/sound creation tools such as Max MSP. 

What roles do our graduates go on to?

  • Sound designer
  • Music producer
  • Recording
  • Mix and mastering engineer
  • Audio technician
  • Acoustician
  • Sound engineer

NTU Employability support

Our support doesn’t end when you graduate. As a Confetti and NTU student you will be entitled to dedicated graduate employability support for up to three years after you complete your studies. You’ll have access to exclusive events, initiatives and work experience opportunities to support you in the early stages of your graduate career.

Open Days

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Saturday 19 October - London
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