Course summary

Build foundations for your professional life as a commercial music producer or sound engineer, equipped with the latest techniques and experience in a range of audio production equipment. Create a diverse portfolio of work that will prepare you for the modern collaborative creative industries, whether you want to make soundtracks for films and games, manage sound for podcasts and live broadcasts, or perform as a DJ. Our BA (Hons) Music and Sound Production degree will allow you access to industry-standard equipment for recording, mixing, editing and production, giving you valuable practice in working as a professional producer or sound engineer. As well as advancing your understanding of digital audio theory, MIDI, and sound synthesis, you’ll move beyond move beyond the native mixers, processors and plugins in commercial DAWs towards higher-quality external processors, such as digital signal processing-based plugins and analogue outboard. As a student at ARU in Cambridge, many of your modules will be shared with our other music courses, giving you the chance to collaborate with different students and develop all-important skills for your professional life, such as teamworking and time management. You’ll also have opportunities to work with students on our film and computer game degrees, creating soundtracks for their projects. Our optional modules allow you to shape the course for your chosen career. For example, Music Business will develop and broaden your entrepreneurial skills for the modern music industry, with teaching by professionals who have extensive industry experience, and visiting speakers contributing specialist knowledge. Electronics for Music will introduce you to the analysis and design of electronic circuits, small-signal and power amplifiers, and the problems of noise, interference and distortion, helping you evaluate, select, design and test audio electronic equipment for use in your creative projects. You can even opt for a placement year between years 2 and 3 to get ahead in the creative industries. The UK music industry contributed £5.8 billion to the UK economy in 2019 – up 11% from £5.2 billion in 2018. (PRS for Music) Professional facilities All our music students have access to:

• Five climate-controlled recording studios featuring analogue-digital hybrid studio set ups and two mixing suites, all equipped with Pro Tools, Logic and outboard hardware recording equipment (Neve, Universal Audio, Audient, SSL); and an audio-visual studio

• A spacious recital hall, band rooms and practice rooms

• Electronic and orchestral instruments; five grand pianos, including a Steinway Model D; synthesisers; traditional instruments from India, China and Africa; a Balinese Gamelan

• An impressive inventory of professionally rated microphones and recording equipment

• Podcast and video capture system