Electronic Music and Sound Production BA (Hons)
Subject to validation.
Course start date 2025.
Length:
3 years
Explore how electronic music and sound production can elevate screen experiences, enhance fine art, and redefine immersive installations.
Our BA (Hons) Electronic Music and Sound Production course is designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of contemporary electronic composition and sound design, preparing you with the critical and industry knowledge to shape sound for a wide range of media, from film and games to gallery spaces and live performances.
Through a solid foundation in composition, sound editing, mixing, synthesis, and media workflows, you’ll develop expertise across both established and emerging technologies in our world-class labs. You’ll explore the unique demands of sound design for Film, High-End TV, Games, and Immersive spaces, as well as for traditional live and recorded music. With a theory-driven approach, you’ll gain insight into electronic music’s historical and contemporary influences, discovering its cultural impact and shaping your bold, experimental visions for the future.
Why Study with us
- Explore multiple disciplinary backgrounds and immerse yourself in a world of sonic exploration, design and production.
- Explore sound as a creative medium in your chosen area of interest.
- Work with traditional field recording and studio sound recording.
- Develop, define and hone your unique creative and technical skills in composition, performance, production, audio and sound design for live performances/events, music/sound for computer games and film production.
- Learn to compose, mix and master sound for stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos playback.
Course content
Year 1
This unit will focus on developing your fundamental skills in sound recording in the studio and on location. Through hands-on sessions, students will learn the fundamentals of music theory, sound creation, field recording, and editing techniques using industry-standard tools like Pro Tools and Ableton Live. This unit offers a comprehensive foundation, blending technical and critical skills, to prepare students for their further study and work in the evolving landscape of electronic music and sound. Group critiques and listening exercises will sharpen your feedback and evaluation skills, while seminars in sound theory and reflective learning will build a deeper understanding of music’s role within cultural contexts.
40 credits
In this unit, you will explore and experiment with a wide range of techniques, materials, and media. You will explore the intricacies of sound and music for film, electronic composition, and advanced audio methods. You’ll engage with film sound workflows—such as location sound, foley, ADR, and SFX design—and develop expertise in composition techniques, including synthesis, sound editing, and 5.1 mixing. Hands-on workshops in Pro Tools and Ableton Live will enhance your digital audio workstation skills, with a focus on MIDI integration and intermediate production techniques. Lectures will deepen your understanding of ethical representation and diversity in electronic music and sound production, exploring socially engaged and sustainable practices across historical and contemporary contexts.
80 credits
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
Year 2
This unit will enable you to expand your specialist knowledge and skills and help you to identify areas for personal development. You will learn to apply your skills and knowledge to cutting-edge immersive spaces and develop sound designs and compositions tailored for those interested in sound environments, interactive media, and creative installations. Through practical workshops, you will learn to create and diffuse sound in immersive spaces, using tools like WWise, Unreal Engine, Dolby Atmos, and MAX/MSP. Emphasis is placed on hardware hacking, microcontrollers, and sensors, empowering you to design sound work for varied contexts such as games, film, and gallery spaces. With a strong focus on personal and professional growth, you’ll gain valuable insight into creative risk, well-being, and safe practices and exhibit your sound installations in a group gallery show, ensuring real-world experience in sound art presentation.
80 credits
This unit focuses on helping you to understand your practice in a wider context through collaboration and interdisciplinary working, with the opportunity to test different working practices. Students will develop the skills needed for collaborative, interdisciplinary audio and visual production, focusing on live sound, realtime generative music, improvisation, and sonic branding. Through hands-on workshops and collaborative projects, students will engage in professional practices across three briefs: a group performance event, a sonic branding client project, and an audio-visual collaboration. Students will learn about event planning, production, and team management, enabling you to apply your knowledge and skills to a broad range of contemporary industry and cultural practices.
40 credits
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
Diploma Year (optional)
Students have the opportunity to spend a year after the second of their degree (or the third year if studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year) enhancing their employability options through a Level 5 Diploma. They can choose from courses designed to provide:
- opportunities to gain industry insight, developing employability skills through a series of supported experiences, expanding professional networks and building confidence in the workplace, or
- an introduction to creative computing, building an understanding of how coding skills can be used to advance and complement creative practice.
Final year
This is the first and shorter of the two units that make up your final year of undergraduate study. You will participate in a diverse range of weekly teaching events designed to enhance your experimental practice in Electronic Music and Sound. Advanced workshops, including Electronic Music and Sound Design Masterclasses, will encourage experimentation with new technologies and materials. Working from your research report proposal, you will enhance your critical thinking through research, analysis, and critical writing of an in-depth research report related to electronic music and sound, technology, industry, culture, or audiences that reflect your interests. At the end of the unit, you will submit a final project proposal that outlines a detailed plan for your specialist major project in your final unit of study.
40 credits
Your final unit allows you to resolve your creative practice, working from the project proposal developed in the previous unit. This could include wide and diverse possibilities from recorded compositions to Realtime improvisation, multichannel sound arts, and immersive sound experiences. You may choose to specialize in film sound or design the sound and music for a game. Opportunities to collaborate with peers on a wider range of courses will enable you to operate in any context, creating many potential spaces or niches for your electronic music compositions and sound design practices. This unit prepares you for a career after graduation, with support to develop a five-year employability plan, including seeking industry placements, internships, mentors, and employment, and building your final film for festival submission.
80 credits
The first week of each academic year is called Wayfinding week. It’s an opportunity get your bearings, establish new connections and, after your first year at Norwich, re-establish old ones. Your course team will talk you through the year ahead and explain the expectations for the year. We’ll help you navigate new encounters and identify areas to focus on as you progress through your course.
An important element of Wayfinding Week is taking part in our annual ‘Make it Manifest(o)’ project. Your course team will introduce the project in which we’ll ask you to consider your hopes and vision of the year ahead at Norwich and work with students in other year groups to bring your ideas to life. The project culminates in a celebratory display of work across the campus. The project will help you to develop your critical creativity through different approaches, concepts, and mediums. You’ll encounter diverse perspectives and build friendships and networks within our university community.
Interchange weeks are opportunities to step away from your disciplinary studies and engage in projects, workshops, visits and talks that extend your knowledge and understanding of the world. Whether you learn a new skill or take part in a global challenge project with students from other courses, you will come away with new insights to take back to your course. Interchange is part of the schedule for all Norwich students with sessions held across and beyond the campus led by university staff, visiting lecturers and students.
Careers Information
Our Electronic Music and Sound Production degree will equip you with valuable subject knowledge, cultural and social awareness, and a strong balance of musical, technological and transferrable skills. You’ll develop the skills and knowledge necessary to pursue a successful career in the creative industries, including those centred around digital music, film, TV live events and computer games.
Typical career paths include
- Music producer
- Composer
- Games producer
- Sound designer
- Audio technician
- Sound engineer
- Studio manager
- Artist/performer
You’ll also get specialist creative careers advice from our Business and Employability Team to help support you as you plan your career.
Tabbed Section
Typical UK offers
A / AS Levels – GCE
GCE A/AS Levels 3 A-level qualifications at grades BCC (104 UCAS Tariff points) or above. Where candidates are not taking 3 A-levels, Norwich University of the Arts will consider combinations of A-level/AS-level and other Level 3 qualifications.
BTEC Extended Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction, Merit, Merit in an art, design or media related subject
BTEC Diploma (QCF or RQF)
Distinction*, Distinction* in an art, design or media related subject
T Levels
A T Level in any subject with overall grade Merit or above
UAL Extended Diploma
Merit
UAL Level 3 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
UAL Level 4 Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design
Pass
Access to Higher Education Diploma (Art and Design)
Pass
International Baccalaureate Diploma
A minimum of 26 points
Norwich University of the Arts welcomes applicants of all ages from all backgrounds. Your application will be primarily assessed through your portfolio (if required), responses to questions asked and personal statement, so even if you have no formal qualifications or do not meet our typical offers it can still be worth applying.
If you are studying at the time of your application and your application is successful it is likely that you will receive a conditional offer.
If the qualification that you are studying is not shown, do not worry as we are able to accept other pre-entry qualifications as well as combinations of different qualifications. Please do contact our Student Recruitment Team if you have any queries.
International applications
We accept qualifications from all over the world. To find our entry requirements from a specific country, please check our dedicated international pages.
Most international students are required to hold an English language qualification. Applicants are required to have a minimum UKVI approved IELTS exam score of 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each section. Equivalent English language qualifications are acceptable such as, IB English language syllabus A or B/English Literature (Grade 4).
We also accept some alternative English qualifications. Learn more about our English entry requirements.
You can email us on international@norwichuni.ac.uk if you’d like to discuss your application individually.
Electronic Music and Sound Production Portfolio Advice
Your portfolio is a chance to showcase who you are as a creative and budding professional. Include examples of both finished pieces and works in progress that demonstrate your skills, interests, and unique style. Aim to present work that highlights your creativity, personal interests, influences, and technical ability.
Remember, your portfolio doesn’t have to be perfect—we’re interested in your potential and can assess that through works in progress.Focus on including pieces relevant to electronic music and sound production, but don’t hesitate to bring in a variety of work that illustrates your creativity, technical skill, and narrative understanding.
Consider including one or more of the following:
- Creative Work in Music, Visual Arts, Film, or Games: Share projects that reveal your curiosity and engagement with the world around you.
- Electronic Music Production: Show us your potential through original electronic music pieces created as part of a course or independently.
- Original Sound Design: Include any sound work you’ve created for film or other projects, whether done in school, college, or at home.
- Performance Recordings: If you play an instrument, include videos or recordings—whether solo or as part of a group or band.
Get more advice on presentation formats, layouts and when to submit your portfolio in the application process.
2024/25 University fees for new entrants
Norwich University of the Arts will assess students’ tuition fee status using the guidance provided by the UK Council for International Student Affairs
Students from the UK or Ireland and EU students with ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status will be charged ‘Home’ fees if they meet the relevant residency requirements. They will usually be eligible for a tuition fee loan from the UK government, meaning that they won’t have to pay Norwich University of the Arts’ tuition fees upfront.
Students who do not meet the necessary residency requirements will usually be charged ‘Overseas’ fees and will not be eligible for the UK government tuition fee loan. Since 2021/22, this includes new entrants from the EU, EEA, and Switzerland who do not have ‘Settled’ or ‘Pre-Settled’ status, because the UK has now formally left the EU.
| Fee status | Course | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|
| Home | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £9,250 |
| Overseas | Undergraduate degree (full-time three and four year degree) | £18,000 |
Inflation in subsequent years
The rules for inflation on fees in subsequent years depend on the type of fee status and level.
- For Home undergraduate students starting in 2024, inflation may be applied to your fees in later years, if the UK government were to increase the fee cap beyond the current limit of £9,250 per year. If such an increase were to apply, we would confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we would limit the increase to the maximum allowed by the Office for Students.
- For Overseas undergraduate students starting in 2024, inflation will be applied to your fees in later years. We will confirm this in advance to you of each academic year, and we will limit the increase to no more than the Office for Students’ recommended inflationary measure, which is RPI-X. RPI-X is calculated by the Office for Budget Responsibility. In setting fees for the following year, we will use the Office for Budget Responsibility’s RPI-X forecast for quarter 3 of the relevant year.
For Home and overseas postgraduate degree students starting in 2024, fees will remain the same for each year of your course.
Financial support for UK students in 2024
Tuition fee loans and loans for living costs are usually available to UK and some EU students, as well as non-repayable Norwich University of the Arts bursaries based on family income. Find out more about applying for funding.
International students
We offer a range of scholarships for international students to support your studies with us.
- Group briefings
- Academic tutorials
- Group tutorials
- Lectures
- Workshops
- Critiques (crits)
- Seminars
- Finished pieces of work
- Presentations
- Written work
- Your research
- A reflective journal
News
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