Recording, Mixing and Production with Foundation Year BA (Hons)

This module offers you the opportunity to develop as a creative user of professional DAW systems. Through the module you will gain fluency in the use of:

• hardware and software
• synths
• samplers
• controllers

You will also grasp the essential concepts required for next level music production.

Recording theory is a broad module introducing a variety of topics vital to the field of music technology. It also serves as a base for the more practical and technically orientated modules in the music technology degree courses at LCM/UWL. It is a key module designed to equip students with a grounding in the core knowledge and techniques germane to the disciplinary nature of the music technology courses.

The module aims to provide the student with a solid grounding in the theory, techniques and terminology associated with contemporary acoustic and digital recording practice, as well as ensuring a fundamental grasp of the basic physics of sound and sound propagation.

This module focuses on the development of your portfolio career. Increasingly, the successful modern freelancer requires a diverse range of skill sets in:

• writing styles
• technique
• arrangement
• production
• the ability to expand your client base and income streams.

Workflow demands will be examined in a time managed ethos to allow best practice. The module also explores creative outlets, future facing opportunities and residual income streams to allow you to pursue a career as a music professional whilst developing your portfolio.

If you understand how other people’s music works, it will help you develop your own creative vision. Different music genres all have their own particular sonic signature and this module is where you learn how to identify and talk about the elements which have defined recorded music, from past to present allowing you to absorb the techniques and mix aesthetics to build them into your tracks.

Recording Practice will help you develop the required skills needed to operate studio recording technology to a high standard. The module will further the listening skills covered in Recording Theory and will increase your sensitivity to different recording and musical contexts. It covers a comprehensive overview of contemporary studio technology and the recording process.

The module will also extend ear-training techniques and examine each component of studio technology in detail. In addition, it will address how the techniques of recording are coupled to the technology, providing each student with a backbone of knowledge designed to help the recording demands of the second year.

From King Tubby to Danger Mouse and beyond, the power of mixing has progressed from a process of sonic enhancement and balancing, to a creative force capable of creating brand new musical styles. Remix Practice give students the chance to creatively and technically explore an essential career pathway and continue to develop their professional portfolio throughout the course. The module focuses on the creative abuse of dynamic, non-linear DAW packages, following on from DAW Mixing and Production in semester 1, and preparing students for Advanced DAW Practice in year 2.

The module aims to provide students with opportunities to:

·       Explore the aesthetics of the remix, what it ‘looks’ like and how it is perceived;
·       Deploy specialised tools and techniques associated with the practice;
·       Embrace remix culture as a sonic and philosophical paradigm
·       Acquire processing, production and mixing skills beneficial to students in their roles both as remixers and creative engineers.

During the LCM Record Label Module, you will be participating in a simulated record label from the perspective of the record-production students. You will learn how to pitch recording projects to labels and project-manage new releases to specified release timeframes.

The module is broken into two distinct halves. First, you will establish a foundation of knowledge around the structure of contemporary record labels. Second, you will learn how to identify and correct recording and arrangement issues using advanced pre-production and project management skills.

'Recording music' is an advanced-recording subject designed to develop the required skills to operate both physical and virtual recording technology to a higher standard. Students will engage in a combination of practical and theoretical workshops aimed at developing a fluency in recording planning and practice. The module aims to further develop students’ abilities to critically evaluate, and confidently produce musical recordings in a chosen style.

This module embraces the idea that the creative mind, rather than thriving on isolation, is dependent upon human interactions, which are in turn essential for the development of your own innovative artistic practices.

By examining multidisciplinary case studies ranging from pioneering scholarly ideas, through to scientific theories and revolutionary art forms, you will learn the importance of thinking outside the box, synthesising different backgrounds into new forms, and putting these ideas into practice.

This module aims to get you thinking about applied research: how can you get better at some aspect of your creative and/or technical practice? You will come at this from three perspectives. Firstly, you will use some aspect of your practice from another module in the course to collect video data documenting the way you engage with and conduct that activity.

You will then use a process of stimulated recall to analyse that data and reflect upon your creative practice – an autoethnographic approach. Secondly, you will use a series of masterclass presentations given by members of staff and/or postgraduate research students to think about your practice – an ethnographic approach.

Finally, you will conduct a review of some of the academic literature in their field which is relevant to their practice – a theoretical approach. These three activities will be used to think about a way that you can improve your professional practice in some way and will form the basis for designing a major project at level 6, which will bring that improvement to fruition.

On this module you will learn how to build upon core Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) skills and enhance your understanding of Pro Tools software. Your goal will be to produce a computer-based, digital mix of music-only projects to a professional standard. You should finish the module fully prepared to collaborate with other producers, engineers and musicians to realise your creative goals.

LCM Music Factory embraces the network and community available within London College of Music and the University to provide real-life scenarios for the production of original music with a contemporary stylistic focus through collaboration. The fundamental aim of this module is to offer the student an opportunity to experience both the pressure and challenges of producing recorded artefacts to a specific musical brief. There is also a significant research aspect to the module, with assessment based upon both practical and theoretical knowledge in equal measures. 

This module will look at the shaping of electronic sounds, timbre as a compositional tool, advanced sampling and advanced forms of synthesis. You will conduct experiments that explore techniques covered in the online lectures and production workshops. You will also create a short video explaining or demonstrating some aspect of what you have learnt and how you have applied it.

'Mixing Music' embraces the notion of balance-mixing as an art (form), at the same time celebrating its dependence on a firm technical foundation, repertoire and vocabulary of engineering skills, combined with a refined conceptual understanding of the three-dimensional stage of an envisioned sonic illusion. Focusing on developing and specialising students’ mixing skill to an advanced level, the module provides a practice-based context for the application, evolution and acquisition of advanced mix-techniques.

Taking into account contemporary mixing strategies, musical contexts and professional outputs/formats, the module offers opportunities to approach creative mixing projects over a range of stylistic and technical challenges. As such, this mixing curriculum focuses on genre-specific techniques, and a range of software, hardware and hybrid workflows, encouraging the development of mixing folios that showcase a wide-ranging palette of techno-artistic skills. Ultimately, the module also requires both the critical evaluation of, and reflection upon both mixing practices and end outcomes – framed in the context of the history, culture, technological development and the current aesthetics of the artform.

During this module you will develop an understanding of the processes and technologies used in mastering. You will also have opportunities to apply these techniques to create a portfolio of mastered materials. Seminar work will help you to develop the essential listening skills for mastering as you simultaneously enhance your technical abilities to the highest level of control.

This module aims to provide you with an overview of the technique and musical approaches to contemporary mixing. The module will focus on historical origins and approaches to mixing and will analyse the work of professional contemporary mix engineers.

In the final year of your degree course you will undertake a major project. This module is your chance to create your dream project with a high degree of independence.

You will be allocated a supervisor and then given the freedom to create a piece of work, which you feel really represents you as a music technology student.

You will be guided and supported, but this is your vision and your chance to show the world your achievements.