Level 3 Diploma in Music Production

Extended Studies is a dynamic and conversational space for general course management and personal development. This class allows a great opportunity for course leaders and students to meet weekly to recap and review key areas of the curriculum – as well as receiving information relating to assessments, opportunities, student life, and masterclasses. This acts as an assessment support session as well as general holistic support for students and an open space for suggestions, ideas and sharing work/ good practice.

This class focuses on refining the sonic quality and definition of a piece of audio with common mixing tools and techniques. Students will study mixing theory, including the basic physics of sound, as well as how to implement audio effects, EQ and dynamic processing within their DAW to create mixes for a range of genres.

Students will learn how to apply critical listening and to plan and prepare a mix in order to apply these techniques to their own work.

The unit also looks at the finalisation of audio prior to publishing with essential mastering techniques, which have become increasingly important in the modern producer paradigm to deliver impactful demos and professional-sounding products.

This lesson gives students practical music industry knowledge that will help them plan their careers. They’ll be taken through all aspects of the music industry – including DIY routes, social media study, self-releasing, record and publishing deals, management, music synchronisation, legal issues, copyright, music teaching, live music and business plans and more.

This lesson will enable students to develop the skills and strategies for generating work and income within the UK music industry. Students will look at the different requirements and methods for generating work and income as a self-employed supplier as well as a creative enterprise. Students will learn how to promote themselves effectively through the vocational assignments and portfolio-based work.

Students will develop their aural and theory skills in this lesson by learning to explore and identify musical components such as rhythm, melody, harmony, tonality, instrumental timbre and structures. This will enable them to acquire the critical listening skills required in the production environment and will enable them to communicate quickly and effectively in a variety of musical situations, opening the doors to employment opportunities.

This is a core lesson that looks at use of the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) – the essential backbone in contemporary sound production, which has enabled a producer to create and record music at their own pace using relatively minimal software-based solutions.

Students will be provided with the skills to use key features within a DAW such as MIDI programming, audio editing, automation, project management and be able apply them to their own work.
This lesson also explores sound design practices involving audio synthesis and sampling – and the skills and techniques required to apply music and sound to a range of moving picture applications.

This lesson will introduce students to the musical and sonic features of a variety of popular music genres through studying culture, musical devices, production techniques and instrumentation in order to extend and develop their understanding of popular music overall and how it has evolved over time.

This class shifts focus away from your own original compositions to look at the various ways in which remixers can reinterpret other people’s work into new and exciting alternate versions.

We will look at how to work with different tempos and keys, slicing and dicing audio parts, altering and fusing genres – whilst keeping some semblance and spirit of the original.

We will also learn how to apply these techniques in a performance context by adapting MIDI and audio parts into a live arrangement using physical controllers to deliver a remix in real time.

This lesson provides students with genuine experience of using our first-class in-house recording studio. They will work as a team and learn how to prepare and run recording sessions with session musicians using our professional-grade Audient mixing desk and Pro Tools system with a wide range of microphones and recording techniques.

This is an opportunity to share any work-in-progress projects you have within an informal and welcoming environment – to gain confidence and receive constructive feedback from your peers and lecturers that can help you on the road to completion.

These sessions will bring together students from all three of the Diploma pathways and provide an opportunity to collaborate on an inter-disciplinary project of their choosing. It will foster the good communication and inter-personal skills that are essential for anyone looking to enter a professional working environment.