Creative Music Production MA

On this module you will be introduced to a range of significant and contemporary scholarship relating to the study of music, including that pertaining to music production, composition and sonic arts, and all kinds of performance. You will learn about diverse approaches to music research, and receive training in managing research professionally and ethically. Central to the module is the development of research skills appropriate to postgraduate level work and to your own research interests and creative practices. Attendance at research seminars will offer diverse models for your own research in performance, musicology, or creative music production.

On this module you will professionalise techniques in computer-based music. Focusing on modern approaches to music production, the module will deepen your skills in sound design using original synthesis and sampling as well as recording in a digital environment. This will involve multi-software workflows, the expressive use of hardware controllers and hybrid techniques combining digital and analogue processing  that combine both an ‘inside the box’ approach with outboard dynamics and effects units. You will develop advanced skills in digital audio project data management required for collaborative professional work. Furthermore, you will learn sophisticated editing, mixing and mastering techniques unique to digital music production. As a critically informed production expert you will analyse production concepts using critical listening, and research and apply various information on contemporary music production found in manuals, tutorials, instructional videos and mix-throughs or derived from in-depth case studies.

This module focuses on the theory, processes and tools involved in mixing a range of contemporary music. You will explore mix practice, exploring theoretical and analytical approaches that can be applied in both live and studio environments. Analysis of mix engineer practice will be combined with a systematic technical and perceptual analysis of the impact of processing tools on the musical reception of mixed music. The affordances of established mix workflows will be explored in detail, informing developments in mix practice through traditional and practice led research methods. You will study live and studio approaches.

This module investigates the studio as a creative tool and its relationship to your practice as a songwriter, performer, composer or producer. We will start by exploring examples of novel and unusual practice in the studio taken from both conventional and more experimental musical genres. Over the course of the module we will not only discuss these pre-existing models from a critical perspective but also explore them practically to help you understand the impact they have on aesthetic outcomes. These practical workshop sessions will provide a basis for developing your own bespoke workflow or performance setup which you will then use to realise a piece of compositional, performance or production work.

You will work in a small group of students to devise, manage and realise a practice-based creative project that is relevant to using the studio and/or other music technology and may include a live event or performance. Roles will be clearly allocated to group members with a collaborative approach to the project design and final assignment.

On this module, you undertake a substantial independent creative production project. You can undertake work in any area of creative music production that interests you and guidance will be available through staff supervision. Examples of the kinds of projects that would be relevant are an EP/album length production of one or more artists, a collection of your own songwriting or compositional work, a substantial live production (or portfolio of live work) from either mixing or performance perspectives, or a set of music videos (of your own creative work or that of others). On this module, you will undertake a substantial independent creative  musical project involving composition, performance and/or production work. You can may undertake work in any area of creative music production that interests you and guidance will be available through staff supervision to ensure that the project has an appropriate scope for the time available.  Examples of the kinds of projects that would be relevant are an EP/album length production of one or more artists, a collection of your own songwriting or compositional work, a substantial live production (or portfolio of live work) from either mixing or performance perspectives, a devised performance work or a set of music videos (of your own creative work or that of others).