Catalyst - Institute for Creative Arts and Technology GmbH
Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering
Berlin, Germany
DURATION
3 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
31 May 2024*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2024
TUITION FEES
EUR 11,750 / per year
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* deadline for applicants requiring student visa: Friday 29 March 2024
Introduction
Become a sonic visionary and learn how to put your own creative fingerprint on a range of music and sound. Walking the line between vocational technical training, creative practice, and critical thinking, you’ ll develop a personal approach and a unique sound as a music producer or sound engineer.
You’ll be immersed in a learning experience that equips you with the latest knowledge and technical skills in sound production. You’ll learn through first-hand experience using our industry-standard studios, workshops led by practicing endeavors industry professionals, solo endeavors to master every step of the audio journey from ideation to release, and collaborative projects that reach across the spectrum of creative production. You’ll make singles, EPs, music for film, a variety of engineering projects, a studio album, and much more.
By the end of the course, you’ ll have a wealth of experience and the confidence to bring your own ventures as well as projects set by others to fruition. This hard work will form a solid portfolio, setting you up to make waves in your chosen slice of the audio industry.
You can study this program either as a full three-year BA degree or the first year only as a one-year HE Certificate.
Open a World of Musical Possibilities
You'll learn to use our studios as an instrument for recording, mixing, and mastering projects and products. As a sound engineer, you’ ll play that instrument to capture the purest essence of the original performance. As a producer, you’ ll be the creative visionary and project manager taking ideas from their birthplace in the imagination of the artist, band, or composer and helping transform them into a sublime and tangible sonic reality. As a contemporary studio-based composer, you'll take all of these roles and meld them into something new and unique.
We offer a playground for musical self-discovery. Rather than showing you how to copy the work of other producers, we’ ll empower you to forge your own creative journey. Whether that’s experimenting using a DAW (digital audio workstation), fostering a network of industry professionals, or doubling down on investigating acoustic theory and practice, you’ ll always learn by doing here.
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Career Opportunities
Completing the one-year HE Certificate course will put you in a position to work as a freelance sound engineer. Completing the full three-year BA (Hons) course will set you up for a huge range of career possibilities.
As the focus of the course is on helping others actualize their own sound, you'll be well-positioned to become a studio engineer specializing in recording, mixing, or mastering, or a live engineer for events. Working as a music artist who records and tours your own music will also certainly be a route available to you. You'll be ready for roles in songwriting, composing, and arranging, or taking a step back and diving into acoustics and studio construction. You’ll be able to work in content creation, making sample packs, branding, adverts, or jingles as well as being able to design the tools as a software or plug-in designer. You may opt to explore the role of a media artist, working with audiovisual, sound, and interactive installations.
Curriculum
Year 1 (HE Certificate)
Using challenging real-life scenarios, you will learn the industry-standard tools, technical know-how, and essential techniques required to record, mix, and produce music for yourself or others. The body of work you produce will be the foundation of a sound engineer or music producer portfolio.
The course content in your first year will focus on:
- Studio recording principles and practice… and more practice….and more practice!
- The ability to develop, produce, and complete a creative product
- The essentials of audio production, sampling and sequencing
- Utilising psychoacoustics and room acoustics for music production and creating unique timbres
- Familiarising yourself with different DAW systems and tools of operation for audio production
- Recording and mixing your own tracks, songs and compositions
- Making your first steps towards a career in the music industry
If you choose to enroll for our HE Certificate, you will take just the first year of this program as a standalone qualification. The one-year HE Certificate course is the same as the first year of the BA program and you'll be learning alongside the BA students throughout the year. You have the option of progressing into the second year of our BA program after successfully completing the HE Certificate, subject to results and availability of places.
Year 2 (BA)
In Year 2, you'll build on the foundational knowledge of Year 1. Refine your critical listening and mastering skills while keeping an ear to the ground of the latest developments in the industry. Explore and expand your individual skill set and creative approach as you dig even deeper into the techniques of mixing, mastering and studio production.
The course content in your second year will focus on:
- Advanced studio recording techniques
- Recording, mixing, and mastering large-scale projects (albums, EPs)
- Band recording and producing larger studios
- Comprehensive knowledge of audio production operation tools for different DAW
- Audio production and composition techniques for multimedia
- Use of diverse techniques to explore the expansive concepts of sequencing, synthesis, and sampling
- Building a comprehensive knowledge of industry-standard tools and techniques
Year 3 (BA)
Consolidate your skills and creative practice. By setting out your own brief with our support, you'll work to define your production vision and prepare to present it to the world. Produce your own creative project from concept to public release in collaboration with other creatives. Establish a professional framework that works for you and launch yourself into the music scene with empowering personal projects that prepare you for the real world and your chosen path.
Throughout all three years of our Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering program, you will be creating an unparalleled wealth of audio material for your public-facing portfolios, while broadening your perspective on the creative techniques and practices necessary to pursue your creative calling.
The course content in your third year will focus on:
- Exploring and defining your own distinct creative approach to music production
- Managing your own creative projects from concept to realization
- Discovering creative strategies for starting, developing, and completing musical pieces
- Becoming proficient in providing creative input to someone else’s track, song, album, composition for film, etc.
- Using your sound engineering and audio production expertise to lead studio recordings
- Developing new and innovative music production and recording methodologies
- Appreciating and assimilating music production techniques from the last 75 years