FM2SEPC10 Sound Engineering & Production in Context

This course develops creative studio practice for sound engineers through an ambitious, time-limited group project carried out with composition students. Emphasis is placed on soft skills, role clarity and organised workflows, planning sessions, coordinating responsibilities and meeting delivery deadlines, alongside performer-centred communication and constructive feedback routines.

Theoretical foundations support practical choices: ear training and descriptive music theory for engineers; analog subtractive synthesis and digital/virtual instrument concepts; and historical perspectives on popular music and production methods from 1950 onward. These inform genre-specific production strategies and stylistic interpretation.

Learning activities centre on end-to-end production and mixing. Teams design and run tracking and overdub sessions, select methods appropriate to style, and document technical and musical decisions. Mixing is treated as a primary discipline: engineers refine mixes for their own productions and take on defined mix/finishing roles for other groups, iterating based on peer or stakeholder feedback.

By the end of the course, participants can plan and execute a larger, ambitious studio process  collaborating effectively across roles, apply genre-aware production methods, and deliver mixes that demonstrate coherent technical judgment and responsiveness to feedback.