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Music and Sound Production [with Foundation Year]

Entry requirements


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About this course


Course option

4years

Full-time including foundation year | 2024

Subject

Music technology

**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

You'll also have access to all our other creative facilities and equipment.

**Careers**
Throughout our BA (Hons) Music and Sound Production degree, you’ll not only develop the latest skills and knowledge for a career as a music producer or sound engineer, but also get the support you need to grow into a confident and creative graduate with a willingness for lifelong learning, and the desire to seek continuing personal and professional development in all aspects of your career.

By the time you graduate, you’ll have built up a professional portfolio of audio production projects that will act as an enhanced CV for you to present to future employers and clients. This might consist of video showreels, commercial music releases, or other demonstrations of your technical expertise, as well as a fully-developed online profile.

Graduation doesn’t need to be the end of your time with us, of course. You might decide to stay at ARU and study for a Masters, such as our MA Music Therapy. Take advantage of our Alumni Scholarship and get 20% off your fees.

Modules

Year 1 core modules: Foundation in Humanities, English, Media, Social Sciences and Education. Year 2 core modules: Music in Context; Electronic Music Composition; Studio Techniques; Music Production. Year 3 core modules: Advanced Audio Technology; Ruskin Module. Year 3 optional modules: Audio for Film; Audio for Games; Composition and Orchestration; Music Business; Electronics for Music. Year 4 core modules: Final Project; Collaborative Project; Portfolio. Modules are subject to change and availability.

Assessment methods

Our open assessment tasks will challenge you to come up with your own creative responses, giving you space for active and creative rehearsals, collaborative experimentation and the development of your own independent work. You’ll also be assessed using different methods and strategies that reflect the wide variety of activities involved in music-making. As well as creative projects, these might include presentations/performance; essays; analytical work; portfolio development; and written and practical exams.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

Cambridge Campus

Department:

Cambridge School of Creative Industries

Read full university profile

What students say


How do students rate their degree experience?

The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Music

Sorry, no information to show

This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.


Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

43%
UK students
57%
International students
55%
Male students
45%
Female students
95%
2:1 or above
23%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
B
C

After graduation


The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.

Music

What are graduates doing after six months?

This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.

£17,500
med
Average annual salary
97%
med
Employed or in further education
35%
low
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

28%
Artistic, literary and media occupations
8%
Sales, marketing and related associate professionals
8%
Customer service occupations

What about your long term prospects?

Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.

Music

The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.

£12k

£12k

£17k

£17k

£24k

£24k

Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.

Explore these similar courses...

Higher entry requirements
University of Nottingham | Nottingham
Music and Music Technology
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 96-135
Nearby University
University of East London | Newham
Music Technology and Production (with Foundation Year)
BA (Hons) 4 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 64
Lower entry requirements
Anglia Ruskin University | Cambridge
Electronic Music Production
BA (Hons) 3 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: 96
Same University
Anglia Ruskin University | Cambridge
Music Production [with Foundation Year]
BA (Hons) 4 Years Full-time including foundation year 2024
UCAS Points: -

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Post-six month graduation stats:

This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.

It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.

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Graduate field commentary:

The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show

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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?

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