Sound (Production)

Join a community of students and staff working across a suite of Music and Sound courses, including related pathways in Sound (Design) and Sound (Composition and Sonic Art).

Our postgraduate sound production course covers aesthetic considerations, technology, and the skills used in modern audio production. You’ll develop work within your areas of interest, without stylistic boundaries, and we’ll encourage you to collaborate with related fields of practice, to expand your practice.

Trimester one

At the beginning of this music production degree, you’ll focus on making new work by developing your skills and exploring the contexts in which you work. You begin two modules which run across trimesters one and two. These modules support you over an extended period, focusing on core technical skills and the mutually beneficial links between research and practice. These support the core module, in which you produce a prototype portfolio of creative work.

The Sound Skills module is built on the idea that you’ll already have a set of core technical skills that underpin your practice. The module offers you opportunities to extend your capabilities. You can choose a set of projects from a large number of options – these cover skills right across the Sound (Design), Sound (Production), and Sound (Composition and Sonic Arts) pathways and include (optional) elements of multimedia.

The Research and Practice module helps you interrogate your own practice and think about how it relates to current artistic and cultural contexts, drawing on our programme of visiting practitioners who discuss their work. Focusing on developing skills in postgraduate-level research and writing, it’s designed to give you the tools to reflect on how you work, what you make, and how it exists in the world. It also helps prepare you for further study as a researcher-practitioner if you continue to a PhD.

The Creative Portfolio module focuses on developing your individual practice as a producer or composer/producer. Seminars will explore a wide range of contemporary practice relevant to your area of specialism, focusing on the technical and aesthetic aspects of work by current practitioners. The module particularly emphasises a critical understanding of developments in contemporary thought in sound/music, and its related areas.

Through the module you’ll produce a portfolio of production studies, drawing on your own priorities and interests as a creative practitioner, informed by engagement with other ideas and work.

The seminars investigate how music and sound production has developed far beyond a means of reproduction, toward a narrative ‘language’ that is constructed to portray ‘meaning’ for the listener. You’ll listen critically, discuss, and create studies in production. All this allows you to explore notions of genre, the relationships between pieces, and how to produce and stage sound technically and creatively, according to modern practices. 

Trimester two

In the second trimester, you’ll develop an advanced creative project for the Production Project. This will reflect on your development process and outcomes in order to keep pushing your personal development and professional skills. Whilst the module assessment is set by us, the content of the assessments will be defined and directed by you.

You’ll continue to explore new ways of working through the Sound Skills module, and complete your Research and Practice module with a project summarising the contextual artistic research you’ve undertaken.

Trimester three

While most postgraduate courses include a dissertation, MA Sound (Production) culminates with a large-scale practical project, supported by a reflective journal. The project will allow you to develop your own individual and original research area through your practice. The exact nature of this work will be negotiated with the module leader. You’ll be able to use it to develop a body of practical work which will serve as a substantial portfolio for the next stage in your career.

This course includes or offers the following modules. Please check the programme document for more information on which modules are core, required or optional.

• Sound Skills
• Practice and Research
• Creative Portfolio
• Production Project
• Major Project

Our aim is for you to build an extensive portfolio of composition and production. For this reason, the majority of assessment is based on your practical coursework.

Some practical projects are accompanied by short, informal written assignments. For the Research and Practice module, you’ll produce a more substantial paper which helps you investigate your interests as an artist and understand the contexts in which you work.

You’ll be taught through a mix of lectures, workshops, seminars and online study materials. Throughout the year we bring in composers, sound artists and industry professionals to talk about their work and deepen your knowledge and understanding of current contexts.

The Major Project is taught through individual tutorials, where the focus will be entirely on your own practice. In the Sound Skills module we make use of a ‘flipped classroom’ model, where you independently work through online materials at your own pace, supported by weekly seminars and workshops with tutors.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

We have good links with sound-related industries and have regular guest speaker visits from industry practitioners, including Bath Spa Alumni, during the year.

You can use the course to develop an individually-tailored portfolio of skills. This will equip you for the current employment landscape, where a combination of traditional sound production roles are required alongside broader practice in sound, music and other media.

Potential roles include:

• artist/producer
• mixing engineer
• mastering engineer
• sound designer
• sound library content creator
• sound artist
• composer for film, TV and games
• music label professional
• software developer.

The course also provides the breadth necessary for teaching, and provides the basis required for PhD research and beyond.

Based at our Newton Park Campus, you’ll have access to a range of specialist music and sound resources, as well as other University services, venues and facilities. 

• Commons building, with its superb classroom facilities, social spaces, and specialist digital resources.
• Musiclab Studios with three control rooms and a live recording room.
• Audio Mixing booths.
• Recording studios with two control rooms with live recording room.
• Post Production facilities, including:
  • two high-end equipped audio surround suites
  • audio editing suites
  • Foley and dialogue recording room
  • surround viewing theatre
  • video editing/colour grading suites
  • two TV studios.
• Mac workstation room with networked music technology labs with high-spec workstations, running core software including Ableton, Pro Tools, Logic, MAX/MSP, and Adobe.
• Michael Tippett Centre, housing a purpose-built concert hall with excellent acoustics and PA.
• University Theatre.
• Newton Park Library, including a large collection of books, periodicals and CDs with extensive eBook and online journal access.
• Writing and Learning Centre, which provides support for your academic work, including feedback on written drafts and other help with academic writing.
• English Language Unit, which can help you improve your English, reach your full potential and boost your confidence.
• Virtual Learning Environment, which provides online access to learning materials such as lecture slides, assessment information, discussion boards and other resources.
• Access to our free equipment loan service, which provides a huge variety including field recording, film and other audio related equipment.
• Access to thousands of business, design and tech courses online via LinkedIn Learning.