Creative Sound Technology Foundation Degree (FdSc)

About the course

This two year Foundation Degree at Leicester College, in association with DMU, covers a wide range of themes and topics, providing you with the necessary skills to gain employment in the music business, recording and multimedia industries, as well as the opportunity to pursue a career in the live performance support sector.

Combining creativity and technology in the process of recording and composing music, you will develop a professional work ethic along with the crucial skills you need, to prepare you for the demands of employment in the modern music and allied industries.

Reasons to study Creative Sound Technology at DMU:

• Develop your knowledge and expertise in the techniques and technologies associated with the recording, composition and manipulation of sound and music
• Leicester College is the region’s only Apple, Ableton and Roland Accredited Centre, allowing you to take both the Logic 101 Apple Certification and the Ableton Certification
• Relevant work skills are taught by industry active professionals and visiting guest lecturers. Previous guest lecturers have included people who have worked with or for Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, Kasabian, Happy Mondays, Pet Shop Boys, Pulp, The Subways, Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Erasure, Arcade Fire, Beverly Knight, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Ray Davies, Eric Clapton, Heaven 17, Tina Turner, Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festivals, The Charlatans and Nine Inch Nails
• Recent places for ‘tech visits’ have included The Big Chill Festival, Rammstein, The Killers and the Download Festival.

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Key facts

UCAS course code: J933

Duration: Two years full-time

Institution code: D26

Entry and admission criteria

Entry requirements for 2014

• Normally 160 UCAS tariff points from at least two A levels or equivalent with five GCSE's at grade C or above including English and Maths.
• BTEC requirements: Merit Merit (MM) at National Certificate level or Pass Pass Pass (PPP) at National Diploma Level
• International Baccalaureate: 24+ points.

If you are unsure about the amount of UCAS points your qualifications may attract you can use our UCAS Tariff Chart|.

We welcome applications from mature students with non-standard qualifications and recognise all other equivalent and international qualifications.

If English is not your first language, an IELTS score of 6.0 or equivalent when you start the course is essential. English language tuition| is available at DMU both before and during the course if required.

Teaching and assessment

This modular course will develop your expertise in recording technology, composition, acoustics, electronics and sound manipulation, via a range of industry standard projects and academic works.

Course modules

First year

• Live Performance Technology (Theatre)
• Essential Business Skills
• Creative Music Applications I (Sound Creation and Manipulation)
• Creative Music Applications I (Programming)
• Introduction to Audio Recording
• Principles of Audio (Acoustics)
• Principles of Audio (Audio Electronics)

Second year

• Live Performance Technology (Live Music Engineering)
• Live Performance and Technology (Hard/software)
• Freelance Business
• Creative Music Applications II (Multimedia)
• Creative Music Applications II (Advanced Programming)
• Studio Production
• Research

Industry links and professional accreditation

Leicester College

Leicester College is one of the largest in the UK with more than 26,900 learners studying with us on a wide range of courses, from many different backgrounds and with different ambitions and aspirations.

Work experience and placements

You can improve your CV, become highly employable and put the skills you learn on your course into practice by taking a work placement as part of your studies.

Technology's dedicated Placement Unit| provides support to all of our students looking to integrate a placement within their university career on both undergraduate degrees and postgraduate masters programmes. The placement unit will help you search for placement opportunities, create and refine your CV and interview approach, and offer any advice you need to find a great placement. Our placement students have worked for a range of organisations from small business through to multinational companies across the world including Microsoft Ltd, IBM, GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) and PepsiCo International.

Placements can enhance your career prospects and give you the chance to use theory from the classroom in a real-world scenario before you have graduated.

Graduate careers

On successful completion of the course, you may apply for entry onto the third year of DMU’s Single Honours BSc Degree in Music Technology (subject to interview).

Graduates find wide and varied opportunities within the music, media and allied industries. Suitable career paths would be in areas such as music production, sound engineering, broadcast and theatre production, programming, composition for multimedia and video/film and technical posts in education.

Fees and funding

For information on fees and funding options please contact Leicester College.

Facilities

You will benefit from professional grade facilities including: four acoustically treated soundproofed practice rooms; three recording studios; theatre; 45 Apple Macs; 15 iPads; Industry brands such as Pro Tools; Apple; SSL; Empirical Labs; Neumann; TLA; Joe Meek; Lexicon; Reaktor; Trace Elliot; Yamaha; Marshall; Roland; Boss; Line 6; Shure; AKG; Moog; Focusrite; Drawmer; Ableton; MAX MSP; Novation; Akai; Sherman; Alesis etc. Plus, we have a working live performance venue, ‘Upper Brown Street’.