Start Date
Course duration
- One year.
- Part time students can spread their studies to suit an individually negotiated learning programme. Precise details should be negotiated at each year's enrolment.
Location
Entry criteria
- A 2:1 Honours degree or higher in Music Technology or a related subject, or substantial industry or prior experience in the field.
- This course requires advanced musical knowledge.
- Candidates will be asked to provide a portfolio of degree-level/professional work and written statement.
Mode of study
- Full-time (1 year)
- Part-time
Further Information
- Email:
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- Programme Leader: Simon Zagorski-Thomas:
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- Apply online here
Course overview
This Course investigates the production of recorded popular music from both the theoretical and the practical standpoint. The London College of Music, TVU stands at the forefront of the academic study of music technology in general and record production in particular. Aside from being the largest university music technology department in the world, our staff have also established the only international academic conference on record production and its related on-line journal (http://ArtOfRecordProduction.com). The MA in Record Production deconstructs and analyses the process of record production to provide students with the relevant skills and understanding to develop a career in the contemporary, fast-changing music industry or as a springboard to further postgraduate study at PhD level.
Course Information
One outstanding aspect of this course is that the lecturing staff includes Grammy Award winning producer Mike Howlett (Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark, Flock of Seagulls, Joan Armatrading), Grammy Award winning producer and arranger Pip Williams (Nightwish, Status Quo, Moody Blues), producer, remixer and 5.1 mixer Steve D’Agostino (Depeche Mode, Heaven 17, John Foxx) and producer, composer and engineer Paul Borg (KLF, Urban Species, Mory Kante, Etran Finatawa) and Katia Isakoff producer, singer, songwriter and remixer (ADD N To X, Barry Adamson, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode, Velasonic). Students work in studios of professional specification - digital and analogue consoles with access to 5.1 monitoring and ProTools HD systems in addition to other, non-linear, platforms and digital and analogue tape systems.
Students will study the roles and history of the record producer in the music industry, the changing business models of record production, the historical development and geographical spread of recording technology and its affect on the sound of recorded music. There will also be considerable focus on the musicology of record production: the psychology and psychoacoustics of recorded sound, the way that technology affects performance practice and vice versa, how the changing methods of training, business structure and communication impact on music making in the studio and how musical traditions and audience expectations create norms of sound.
On the practical side, students will engage in practice designed to illuminate the whole range of the production process whilst also understanding the need for an overview: to combine a creative vision of the whole project with the practical management of the technical and artistic process. This will involve pre-production, financial negotiation and management, arranging, performance direction, track laying, session planning, editing, mixing and post-production.
List of Modules
- The Producer’s Role – the history, the business of record production, project management, negotiating between the commercial and the creative aspirations of the participants, developing a creative ‘vision’
- Capturing Sounds – the recording process, studio selection, microphone techniques, monitoring techniques, the ‘creative abuse’ of technology, the theory of staging, psychoacoustics and sound capture, re-recording – echo chambers, amplifiers etc.
- Manipulating Sounds – editing and manipulating a performance, the psychoacoustics of sampling, groove and repetition, combining programmed and performed events, theory and practice of dynamic processing, EQ and filtering, time domain effects, pitch domain effects and timbral / spectral effects
- The Development of Audio Technology – the history and ethnography of recording technology, the digital / analogue debate, the effect of training and practice, language and communication in the studio, ergonomics – how has the development of technology and software design influenced creative practice?
- Capturing Performances – pre-production, arranging and rehearsing, the environment and coaxing a performance, constructing a recorded performance, the negotiation between performance practice and recording practice, critical evaluation of performance.
- Combining Sounds – mixing – performance and automation, monitoring, listening and hearing, more on the theory of staging, the ‘sound’ of musical styles, traditions and audience expectations, perceived authenticity, post-production – mastering, edits, remixing etc.
- The dissertation module is a student-led, individually negotiated research dissertation. This can be based on an analytical / musicology approach or could also be practice based research such as comparative listening tests between hardware and software, different types of microphones etc. There will be opportunities for publication on the Art of Record Production website.
Course Features
Department and Faculty: Music and Performance, London College of Music (Faculty of the Arts).
There are two sister Masters programmes in the field of Music Technology at London College of Music. This is the MA Record Production, which is largely analytical, theoretical and research-based with numerous practical applications, and features a final dissertation.
The other is the MA Audio Technology , which is largely practice-based with supporting (but extensive) theory. It focuses on audio in new media and features a final practical project or written dissertation.
Teaching Methods
A combination of lectures, workshops, seminars and tutorials. Part of the tuition for this programme will take the form of a series of research lectures by TVU staff and guest lecturers which will cover material from a variety of modules. Some of these research lectures may be open to the public.
Assessment
All programmes within the Faculty are assessed through a variety of assessment methods. Written work is usually in the form of essays, presentations, critical self-reflections, learning journals, examinations etc. Practical assessment varies depending upon the nature of the practice, for example, CD recordings (although there will always be a substantial written component in the assessment). There are usually (but not always) at least two assignments for each module you take.
Typical Skills on completion
Graduates from the MARP will have a broad-based set of skills and understanding in the area of the creative production of recorded music and its history and analysis.
Graduates will have the ability to:
- Analyse, explain and critically evaluate the production processes involved in the creation of contemporary and past forms of popular music
- Display a high degree of technical mastery and skill in the use of audio hardware and software.
- Combine technology and performance in innovative and creative ways to produce a recorded musical product.
- Understand, contextualise and debate current professional practice and business models in the music industry.
- Engage in independent research and critically evaluate the theoretical output of scholars working on the musicology of record production and the interpretation of music production professionals of their roles in the industry.
Employment Opportunities
Graduates can be found working successfully in many professional avenues across a range of activities. Typical roles have ranged through: sound engineer, post production engineer, recording artist, studio manager, company director, product developer, product demonstrator, producer, composer and re-mixer.
Students progress to a diverse range of careers within the creative industries. They have worked with many prominent artists including: Trevor Horn, Peter Gabriel, Norsk Films, Limitless Music, Blondie, Hewland International, MagMasters Studios, Morphonic Production Company, BBC, Sony, AE Sports, Bloc Party, The London Synthesis Orchestra, Alicia Keys, Dave Stewart, Nile Rogers, Digidesign, RCM, Warner Brothers and more.
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