BA (Hons) Sound Design and Production

BA (Hons) Sound Design and Production

Students work with state-of-the-art equipment and software, acquiring core technical and theoretical understandings that will carry forward into their career. Performance technologies, including computer-based show control, audio recording, waveform editing, digital mixing and audio networking, are used throughout the course. For students interested in composition, Central’s Sound Design Laboratories will allow experimentation with a variety of sound generation and sequencing software. Students will also be able to work with machine interoperability and the aesthetic relationships between sound and light design. Throughout the course students learn technical, communication, group-work and problem solving skills by working as part of a collaborative company of performance-makers.

Year 1 / Level 4 Year One establishes a common understanding of production and performance practices, taking a broad view of the processes that are involved. By the end of the year, you will develop a sound knowledge of the basic skills and concepts of your discipline and will have learnt how to take different approaches to solving problems, applying what you have learnt with some independence in a range of production settings. All units in Year One are marked pass or fail. You will be given an indication of your degree classification for each unit. (i.e. in comparison to the grades for a degree: First, Upper Second, Lower Second, Third, Fail.) Year 2 / Level 5 By the end of Year Two, you will have a sound understanding of the principles and practice of your specialist discipline and will have learnt how to apply these principles in a range of production and performance contexts. You will be able to evaluate different approaches to solving problems and will have technical skills appropriate for entry-level positions in your chosen discipline. You will be able to operate independently within given guidelines. You will work with less reliance on staff-managed and timetabled activities, compared to Year One. Assignments will offer a greater degree of challenge than the projects you did in Year One. You will spend more of your time working as an individual and as a member of production teams in both college-based and off-site productions. To meet the challenges posed by each assignment, you will need to be self-reliant and maintain a disciplined approach to time-management and priorities the most important elements of your workload. 11 Year 3 / Level 6 The first two years of the programme will have provided you with a broad and secure base from which to approach the final year. You will have experienced the process of production and performance from a variety of different perspectives and developed a range of appropriate skills. You will be experienced in working to deadlines, working effectively within resource constraints and have met the exacting demands of working productively within the collaborative processes of theatre-making. Although you will have studied a specific discipline, you will have a clear understanding and appreciation of the other disciplines that contribute to the making of performance and how each of these disciplines informs the others. By the end of Year Three, you will have developed an understanding of the complexities of your discipline, and done some work at the forefront of current practice. Through this, you will be able to analyze and evaluate what techniques or strategies to apply in a wide range of production or performance contexts.