Outline
If you've studied sound or music technology at university, been working in sound professionally, or if you've been experimenting with sound as a composer, designer, sound artist or engineer and are looking for a way to develop your voice, this programme may be for you.
We offer an interdisciplinary taught masters programme at the forefront of the University of Edinburgh’s rich expertise in the creative arts, music and digital media design. This programme will provide you with knowledge, skill and understanding to enable you to thrive in a range of sound design situations, both commercial and experimental.
Our programme assumes you have some aptitude for and experience of working with sound in creative ways and are prepared to advance quickly. Our students are curious, open-minded, adaptable and highly creative individuals who are keen to acquire new skills and consolidate their existing knowledge across all areas of sound design.
You may have experience of sound production for film and want to unlock those skills for game sound design, or you might be making music through creative coding and want to explore more acoustic and physical aspects of sound.
This programme will help you learn a great deal more about the craft of sound design and to expand your potential as a creative sound professional. We balance challenging practical project work with theoretical study which creates an inspiring, lively and motivating work environment.
Studying for an MSc in Sound Design will expand your appreciation of opportunities for sound design across a range of musical and artistic practices. Crucially, you’ll develop as a sonic artist, be challenged to rethink what sound design is, and why it is central to a number of developments in the arts, the media, critical theory and even science.
Our programme is practice-led and strongly interdisciplinary and you will learn to create innovative and expressive sound media including the study of:
- Film sound
- Interactive game-audio design
- Sound installation and sonic art
- Sound software design
- Creative music and compositional practices
Programme structure
You will study a broad, flexible and integrated range of key and emerging sound design practices. The programme is designed to allow you to develop according to your skills and interests.
In the first semester, the programme focuses on:
- developing sound design skills
- exploring the potential for sound recording
- editing in the digital domain
- processing sound to create new sonic structures
- considering relationships between code and sound that allow sound designers and music makers to develop sound work that changes according to context.
In the second semester, you will consolidate your knowledge. You will work with non-linear sound design and sound on screen by exploring how sound can be used to tell stories, create spaces and support interactions. There will be opportunities to develop competency in programming creative audio applications.
Across the taught semesters you can tailor your studies to your interests by exploring suitable elective options.
The programme ends with a self-directed but supervised research-led sound design project over the summer period in an appropriate area of sound design.
Our overall objective across the year is to support the development of personal skills, insights and experience while encouraging a rounded, outlook that has a wide appreciation of the issues of sound design in a range of creative contexts.
Graduates of the programme will be armed with professional, practical, analytical and intellectual skills to take into sound-related industries or on towards further academic study, such as a PhD.
Part-time study
The programme can be studied part-time over two years, taking two taught courses per semester in the first year, and one taught course per semester in the second year. You will finish with the final sound design project over the summer period of the second year.
Part-time study will typically require 25 hours per week across learning and teaching activities and coursework.
Teaching
You will be taught through a combination of:
- lectures
- seminars
- tutorials
- practical sessions
- critique.
This is supported by occasional input from external professionals in the field of sound design and related areas, and by peer learning and collaborative practice.
Students will receive technical training in a wide range of sound design areas. The specific content will vary but typically will include:
- advanced work with digital audio workstations
- microphones and other recording equipment
- mixing and spatialisation
- game audio software (depending on course electives).
Assessment
Each taught course provides advanced tuition in a specialised aspect of the subject. In common with general design education practice, the main assessment of progress is by means of project-work (some of it group project-work) complemented by a relatively short written report.
Typically, project briefs emphasise creative production projects which develop and integrate practical skills in Sound Design with critical reflection.
Depending on course electives there may be more substantial essay type submissions, and/or other forms of work such as a video essay, presentation and so on.