studying sound design
Hi,
I have been into field recording and max4life for about two years now and I will be finishing school in Germany soon. So now I was wondering if maybe anyone of you could recommend a university(English speaking,French or German) which offers sound design?
I mean not actually recording or mastering, but more like learning about psychoacustics, sonic structures and audio manipulation.
Thanks for any suggestions.
a
Hi Autark,
I studied at Plymouth university (UK)
http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/
for a degree in sound and music production before staying at Plymouth university to study for a Masters in Computer music research.
The dergee covers studio recording pretty breifly, more of a guide of how to use the equipment on site so you can use it for projects later on. It covers music for video, a large individual project, collaborative projects. and the more acedemic stuff such as musical appreciation/listening/musicology etc
In Plymouth there is also DeepBlueSound
where i studied for 4 years to get a BTEC and the foundation degree in sound engineering and music technology. It was here that I had the most lectures on acoustics, sound physics, synthesiser and instrument design, digtial and audio realted differences, music theory (if you want to do it) lots about how the music industry works and the organisations involved.
For all the courses you have all the technology you might want but as with every course the more effort and time (and passion) you put into it the more you get out of it.
The Plymouth university degree course is run by john matthias so if you can get in touch with him by email i'm sure he could run you through the course's main areas and advise you if its right for you.
For what its worth i tried to find a course that specifically concentrated on all things sound design but couldn't find one in England. The good part about the masters degree is that you pretty much get to do a massive research project into whatever interest you (much like the dissertation for the degree) Im sure there is at least one better course out there that might be more suited to you, hope this gives you some help in finding out which one
Ali
Alternitively there are a hell of a lot of good boooks out there that cover the majority of what I've learn't over the last 6 and a half years on different courses
I'm currently in my final semester at the University Of Hull (UK), studying on this course:
There's quite a wide range of content covered, including modules relating to computer interaction for music and video, synthesis and sound design, psychoacoustics and electroacoustic composition (including the use of an ambisonic studio, which is pretty sweet.)
It might not be what you're after exactly as there's a lot of popular music elements also involved (the course is a BA) including forays into composition, performance, musicology and production, however my module choices have balanced this kind of content well with some of the stuff listed above.
The department has suffered a few setbacks recently, mainly to do with funding and staff leaving, and the course's dynamic is shifting slightly but I've had a pretty great time of it. Guest lecturers and visiting artists have been fantastic too, we even had Alex Harker - people will know him from these forums - in running us through sound design in MaxMSP.
cool, cheers for the two ideas..will check it out!