Manchester Metropolitan University
MA Sound Design
Manchester, United Kingdom
MA
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2027
TUITION FEES
GBP 22,000 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* EU and non-EU international students full-time fee
Key Summary
About: As an MA Sound Design student at Manchester Metropolitan University, you'll create immersive and responsive soundscapes. Taught by specialist staff in the School of Digital Arts (SODA), course blends artistic and technical practice across film, TV, radio, games, VR and sound installations. You'll learn field recording, audio production, Foley, spatial audio and research while collaborating with other creatives to develop an artistic identity.
Career Outcomes: Graduates gain skills for roles across media and audio. Potential outcomes include media content creator, location sound recordist, film and animation post-production sound editor, game audio designer, Foley editor, music supervisor and sound designer.
As an MA Sound Design student, you will create sound for environments that are immersive, interactive, and responsive.
Taught by a team of specialist researchers and practitioners, the course adopts an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the relationship between sound and narrative across a range of professional contexts. Combining the artistic with the technical, you will learn to capture, manipulate, and craft soundscapes for film, television, radio, games, virtual reality, and sound installations. You will also gain the essential tools to interrogate your practice through research and analysis.
The School of Digital Arts (SODA) provides a dynamic community that spans diverse skills and approaches, creating a space for collaboration and experimentation while encouraging you to network with other emerging creatives.
By developing your own artistic identity across a wide range of areas, this course will enable you to become a self-sufficient creative, equipped to meet the demands of a competitive and international creative industry.
Features and benefits
- Industry links
You will explore a diverse range of animation methods, approaches and styles through practical projects that can be tailored to your artistic style, narrative voice and career ambitions. - Creative community
You will become an integral part of SODA - home to a creative community of research active staff with expertise in diverse fields of practice such as animation, filmmaking, photography, games art and sound design. - Expert staff
Learn from internationally recognised, expert tutors who are active artists and practitioners. You'll also have support from a team of specialist technical staff who offer bespoke inductions and support for software, hardware and studio spaces. - State-of-the-art facilities
You'll have access to a full suite of industry standard facilities, including edit suites, recording studios, and an electronic composition room. - Experiment with sound
The course features a holistic and experimental approach to sound creation, allowing students to explore sound in multiple professional media contexts. - Focus on your interests
The flexibility within the curriculum allows you to develop your key interests and creative aspirations, building a portfolio of practice and research that will establish your identity as an emerging practitioner.
Course information
This course adopts an interdisciplinary approach for exploring and experimenting with the relationship between sound and narrative, within a range of professional contexts.
The course has a focus on capturing, manipulating, and crafting soundscapes for film, TV, radio, games, VR/AR, and sound installations. We'll cover field recording techniques, soundscape architecture, immersive audio, audio-visual theory, and industry practices. Through a mix of practical workshops, screenings, and theory sessions, you'll learn to capture, manipulate and create sounds, conceptualise and design immersive soundscapes, and critically evaluate sound works.
You'll also learn the essential tools to interrogate your practice through research. You'll consider how creative audio is integrated into environments that are dynamic, immersive and adaptive, including practical approaches to game audio. You'll also produce independent creative practical outcomes related to your specialist area of sound design.
On the course you'll be supported by a team of research-active professionals with strong connections in the industry.
Core modules
- Sound Design Practice: Sound Worlds
- Co-Creation for Sustainable Futures
- Interactive Sound Design: Sound as Play
- Reimagining Technologies
- Independent Project
Graduates of the course will be well rounded twenty-first century media creatives able to adopt a variety of professional roles across a range of contexts including: media content creation, location sound recording, film and animation post-production, game audio, sound and music for interactive media, Foley editing, music supervision, music editing, and sound design.
Core modules
Sound Design Practice: Sound Worlds
Co-Creation for Sustainable Futures
Interactive Sound Design: Sound as Play
Reimagining Technologies
Independent Project
Study and assessment
Study
- Full-time 20% lectures, seminars or similar; 0% placement; 80% independent study
- Part-time 20% lectures, seminars or similar; 0% placement; 80% independent study
Assessment
- Full-time 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination
- Part-time 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination