UDMUSPRO - BSc Music Technology and Production

The BSc Music Technology and Production is a new course that reopens the ‘Music Production’ pathway for students at London Metropolitan University. Re-designing the music provision around a flexible new curriculum that fosters the optionality of both a career-based approach along with an interdisciplinary approach, still centred on the idea to explore the music studio and live sound in innovative ways. The new carefully structured program allows students to follow the two clear and distinct pathways within Music Technology – Firstly, with the Music Production route, leading to career opportunities including: recording, sound engineering, mixing, mastering, production and post production. Secondly, the Sonic Arts pathway, which leads to more artistic opportunities, for example: sound art and installations, experimental music and performance, sound design, foley artist, film music and computer game sound.
Teaching delivery makes use of a variety of methods such as lectures, group seminars and workshops, independent research, tutorials and supervised projects. Due to the nature of the degree, there is an emphasis on computer based learning and demonstrations. Students are stimulated to develop independent learning and problem-based learning equipping them for the later stages of work related learning practice. The teaching team is acknowledged both locally and internationally. We provide a professional range of expertise connected with innovative practices, operating in the field of music research, composition, interactive media, studio based production and live music performance. Guest speakers complement the teaching team bringing on board a live experience from the industry and from the creative arts. Blended learning is envisaged to be used as appropriate, engaging on the new structured programmes for blended-learning delivery as proposed on the OC|OC Masterplan: professionally-accredited online programmes, students collaboration by virtual means and promotion of high-quality virtual contact hours.
It is part of the course strategy to rely on specialist facilities to support our teaching endeavour. They form a basic resource of space and equipment (post-production surround sound studios, live/recording studio, video editing suites and a computer music IT lab complemented by portable kits for live sound production) that support all aspects of sound/music and media embraced on this new degree. We rely on providing our students with the skills and knowledge taken directly from industry by inserting in their curriculum practical outcomes that replicate stages of pre, production and post as encountered on the music industry. The same set of available resources provide the necessary support for Sonic Arts curriculum, where creative minds play with the added element of real-life professional touch in everything they do. This highly professional approach to the teaching and learning experiences expands the student engagement from the traditional academic practice towards the construction of a real portfolio of works that can be taken straight from the classroom to their work placement experience.
With a view to the future, the relocation to North campus in a few years time and the consolidation of the planned Media Centre, cross-faculty resources will be greatly amplified by having different areas able to benefit from sharing teaching and learning expertise. Active actors of our interdisciplinary teaching and learning approach, our students will grow in their expertise in direct collaboration with other subject areas. For example, producing collaborative works in sound/music for games, as well as providing music and audio for performance and digital media programmes.

1) To prepare students to the use of new technologies in sound, music & media, from composing and producing studio-based works, to exploring live sound spaces in innovative ways by providing them with the skills and critical thought which support and enable the creation of ground-breaking works in sonic arts, music production and interactive media;
2) To educate students as both artists and producers with an understanding of the needs of the music industry and the overall creative arts industry, developing also the ability to analyse and solve the technical problems in a London-based course offering a distinctive range of expertise in music and sound, with interdisciplinary ties to the wide field of digital media arts, crafts and performance;
3) To develop the qualities and transferable skills necessary for employment requiring the exercise of personal responsibility with enterprise and industry exchange. Real opportunities of working for clients in the music industry as well as high profile hybrid projects with partners;
4) To prepare students for research and further studies, development, management, and production roles within the music and creative arts industries promoting the enhancement of work related learning experience;
5) To foster the development of students’ intellectual and imaginative powers; their understanding and judgment; their problem-solving skills; their ability to communicate; their ability to see relationships within what they have learned, and to perceive their field of study in a broader perspective;
6) To develop an enquiring, analytical approach, encouraging independent judgment and critical self-awareness expanded to a professional and interdisciplinary content leading to a wide range of possible outcomes.
The course as a whole encompasses and focuses on a number of areas (music composition, music production, processing of digital audio, audio recording/mixing/mastering, interactive media, studio based and live sound engineering). Emphasis is placed in practice-based projects at levels 4, 5 and 6, on progressively developing students’ creative skills, and developing their ability to work both independently and in teams. Project work throughout the course stresses the importance of self-evaluation and critical self-awareness.

Level 4

LO1. Knowledge and understanding
Demonstrate a broad knowledge base with respect to Music Technology and its pathways in Music Production and Sonic Arts applied to the conception and creation of practical outcomes, and discuss them using appropriate terminology and forms of presentation.
LO2. Cognitive intellectual skills
Demonstrate familiarity with the context of Music Technology, both with its artistic and technological foundations, and its broader critical, cultural, historical and ethical background in tune with the two pathways of Music Production and Sonic Arts.
LO3. Transferable skills including those of employability and professional practice
Use information retrieval systems effectively and develop appropriate methods for collecting, analysing, organizing, interpreting and deploying knowledge.
Work effectively with others as a member of a group and meet obligations to others.
LO4. Subject-specific practical skills
Apply specified and appropriate tools and methodologies to well-defined problems in music composition, critical listening and analysis, sound design, music and sound for media, acoustic systems, musical technology and culture, and music production, under direction or supervision.

Level 5
LO5. Knowledge and understanding
Acquire a deepened understanding of the artistic and technological context on the subject of Music Technology and its pathways in Music Production and Sonic Arts.
LO6. Cognitive intellectual skills
Deploy critical and analytical skills in oral and written discussion and demonstrate the ability to develop, structure and communicate an argument or similarly rigorous line of enquiry, using the appropriate scholarly methods, conventions and protocols.
LO7. Transferable skills including those of employability and professional practice
Interact effectively within a team / learning group, giving and receiving information and ideas and modifying responses where appropriate.
Act with increasing autonomy, demonstrating skills in self-managed learning and self-assessment with a reduced need for supervision and direction.
LO8. Subject-specific practical skills
Operate in situations of more advanced complexity, requiring the identification and diagnosis of technological problems, particularly as they apply to the subjects of music composition, recording and studio production, interactive arts, live electronics, music computing and digital audio, sound for the moving image, audio/visual post-production, cultural musicology, the creative industries, acoustics, and the application of a wider range of techniques and tools for their resolution, reporting practical procedures in a clear and concise manner.

Level 6
LO9. Knowledge and understanding
Select, manage and produce a thorough and penetrating investigation into a historical, theoretical, artistic or technical question in the context of Music Technology and its specialist pathways in Music Production and Sonic Arts.
LO10. Cognitive intellectual skills
Research, order, analyse, evaluate and make appropriate use of original evidence, scholarly materials and techniques and current research, identifying the key arguments or issues at play in the selected topic, constructing a clear argument or line of thought and showing how his/her work fits into and arises from previous work in the area.
LO11. Transferable skills including those of employability and professional practice
Demonstrate the ability to act autonomously, with minimal supervision or direction, within agreed guidelines.
Foster responsibility for student’s own self-marketing and personal, academic and professional development and employability.
LO12. Subject-specific practical skills
Develop confidence and flexibility in identifying and defining complex problems relating to Music Technology, apply appropriate knowledge and skills to their solution in a professional level, and describing the process in detailed and coherent project reports in tune with the two pathways of Music Production and Sonic Arts.

Please check Course Handbook and WebLearn.

Quality Assurance Agency Subject Benchmark Statement Music from October 2016.

A variety of assessment methods are used within the course, ranging from formative, summative, diagnostic, peer and self-assessment, through studio based work, workshops, written assignments, practical coursework, essays, individual and group practical projects, and a final dissertation or investigative study. These methods are aligned to the School and the University assessment strategies, and with the course learning outcomes and curriculum.
Strategies utilised support students’ understanding of their learning by providing timely developmental feedback that promotes a deeper learning approach to their studies. Assessment methods such as reports, essays, critiques and presentations, allow differing learning styles, whilst encouraging reflective approaches.
Each assessment (formative and summative) seeks to build students’ confidence as independent learners, providing pertinent advice for all aspects of learning.
The course team provide a regular set of opportunities for scheduled tutorial ‘drop in’ sessions and the course’s Blended Learning environment offers students opportunities to discuss (with tutors and peers) their assessment strategies. Further support is available via a new team of academic mentors, tutors, Library Services, University Student Services, and the Centre for Learning and Teaching.

‘Employability’ is integral to the design and delivery of the BSc Music Technology and Production. At all levels and throughout, notably in the opportunity to realise intellectual and practical properties of accumulated learning in levels 5 and 6 by completing an integrated programme of specialist, discipline-specific studies.
Aspects of work related learning (WRL) are specifically addressed in module MD6004, Project Development: Music Technology, developing the skills of professional practice in the sectors of Music Technology. Central to the module is a deep understanding of the student’s creative and critical practice in relation to future employment, self-employment, and other cultural contexts. Knowledge of these contexts would have been gathered during the course at levels 4 and 5. This knowledge will be used to inform choices and decisions, quality and mode of presentation.
Students undertake a work-related project or training appropriate to their academic level. They enhance and extend their learning experience by applying and building on their academic skills and abilities by tackling real life problems in a professional working environment, gaining a useful experience of the working environment and the career opportunities available to them on graduation.
Student Services provide Careers & Employability events throughout the year with workshops that help to prepare CVs for job applications and interviews. The Career services provide advice and guidance, along with collaborative projects set within specific modules. A close link with these services is added to the planning of the WRL module making sure that these activities are fully integrated on the student’s learning experience and not an optional service that students would access in an ad hoc basis. As well pointed on the Chapter B4 (Enabling student development and achievement) of the UK Quality Code, [students] who are also aware of their responsibility to engage with those opportunities, are more likely to make effective use of services and resources.

Standard University regulations apply

Standard University Academic Regulations. Refer to the course structure.

Opportunities for reflective learning/PDP are promoted through feedback and written reports, embedded in all assessments with emphasis on reflection of their work. Formative assessment and feedback is planned to address their learning development needs and to capture their learning achievements with a regular request of reflective commentaries in all written submissions.

This course will provide students with specialist technical expertise to open up a wide range of career opportunities to enter the Creative Arts Industries. Students develop as creative, flexible and reflective practitioners with employment and self-employment opportunities in sound recording, sound engineering, sound broadcast, mixing, mastering, production & post production, studio-based and live production, such as sound for theatre, concerts and festivals, as well as move to more artistic opportunities in sonic arts working with installations, experimental music and performance, sound design, foley sound, and audio post-production, film music, and computer game sound. Students may also choose a career in education or to progress to postgraduate study and research (Masters and PhD).
Whatever the path chosen after graduation, our students are certain to be equipped for a wise range of disciplines. They will have the opportunity to develop their skills in the Music studios and computer labs, working with industry-based software and practicing with a range of musicians and styles, besides of real opportunities to engage in collaborative projects that may be carried out cross school and inter-disciplinary.

This course will provide you with creative and technical expertise to open up a wide range of career opportunities to enter the art or music industries. During the corse you'll develop as a creative and reflective practitioner, with employment and self-employment opportunities in music production, sound recording, sound engineering and sound broadcast.

Graduates of the course could go on to become professional composers, sonic artists or sound designers, working in post-production, sound or music for film, video editing, sound and music for games, or live sound such as sound for theatre, concerts and outdoors festivals, all of which represent an important sector of employment for music and media graduates. You may also choose a career in education, or to progress to postgraduate study and research (master's and PhD).

In addition to the University's standard entry requirements, you should have:

• a minimum of three A levels at grades BBC or equivalent (DMM at BTEC) including relevant music or music technology subjects
• GCSE English at grade C/4 or above (or equivalent)

We encourage applications from international/EU students with equivalent qualifications. We also accept mature students with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Formal qualifications are not always necessary since life and work experience can be considered. In such cases, we ask for a CV and supporting letter.

Suitable applicants living in the UK will be invited to a portfolio interview. Applicants living outside the UK will be required to submit a portfolio of works digitally.

All applicants must be able to demonstrate proficiency in the English language. Applicants who require a Tier 4 student visa may need to provide a Secure English Language Test (SELT) such as Academic IELTS. For more information about English qualifications please see our English language requirements.