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Creative Music Technology (Games and Interactive Media)

BA (Hons)

Undergraduate degree - single honours

Award
BA (Hons) Creative Music Technology (Games and Interactive Media)
School/s
Bath School of Music and Performing Arts
Campus or location
Newton Park
Course length
Three years full time, or four years full time with professional placement year. Part time available.
UCAS codes
Institution Code: B20
Course Code: J932 or J933
Campus Code: A,BSU

Entry requirements

We accept a wide range of qualifications for entry to our undergraduate programmes. The main ones are listed under 'Typical offers' in the main column below. For combined courses, please check both subjects. If your qualification is not listed, please email admissions@bathspa.ac.uk with your specific details.

Pursue your passion for games and interactive media on our industry-focused Creative Music Technology degree.

  • Create impact and meaning in sound and music for games and interactive media.
  • Develop an impressive industry-facing portfolio of innovative and creative work through your assignments.
  • Gain the professional-standard skills, confidence and experience you need to pursue a career in game audio.

Gaming is now as popular a pastime as watching movies or listening to music. The UK gaming industry is reported to be growing exponentially, and exciting developments continue in the interactive web and media content scene.

Creative Music Technology (Games and Interactive Media) is designed to give you industry-standard skills and confidence in sound, music and audio production for gaming and interactive media content. This includes the creation of innovative sound effects, musical composition and orchestration, voice recording and audio post-production.


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"There’s very little that I learned during my three years at Bath Spa that I haven’t used and built upon on a daily basis in my professional career. Game Audio requires a very multi-disciplinary skill set touching on all aspects of music, sound and media production, so for me, this course was perfect."

Jethro Dunn, graduate and Audio Director at Firesprite (Playstation Studios)

What you'll learn

Overview

Great sound design has the ability to enhance the gaming experience while creating emotional narrative and dynamic impact. Gain valuable insights into sound design, composition and dialogue on this specialist course.

You'll source original sound through Foley-studio style recording, synthesis, and location or site-specific sound capture. Within gaming, music composition ranges from traditional orchestration and arranging through to more abstract, electronic or urban production. You'll explore composition and the dialogue / voiceover recording and editing that often complements it. You'll also learn audio post-production skills such as editing, processing, producing and mixing, with a strong focus on the techniques used to implement this audio content into interactive game environments through industry-standard software known as Middleware. 

Our goal in designing this course is to give you the freedom to explore creatively, while instilling the technical skills you'll need to forge a career in this exciting industry. As your studies progress, you'll collaborate on industry-style projects, offering insights into team working and responding to a game designer or director's brief. Collaborations with students across other areas such as Creative Computing, Acting and Music (game designers, voice actors, producers and musicians) are encouraged.

Course structure

Year one
Build the foundations. We'll encourage you to continue to explore and grow your existing creative activities alongside important practical and interpretive skills. You'll explore topics such as audio recording and production, sound design, critical listening, and the relationship between music / sound and game / moving image.

Year two
Take your skills and creativity into the professional arena. You'll attend a series of high-level industry guest lectures and engage in collaborative opportunities with external professionals, an internship or an industry placement. You'll also be guided toward greater technical competence in the core areas of sound design and critical listening, and undertake a collaborative project with game designers on the Creative Computing (Games) course.

Year three
Specialise. A number of creative and industry-level optional modules will enable you to select a specialised route to support your creative and professional aspirations. You'll combine interactive audio and professional game design in dedicated projects. You'll also design, develop and present a large-scale project, which takes the place of the traditional dissertation on this programme. All third-year assignments are designed to be the foundation of your professional portfolio, and may be used publicly to promote your skills.

How will I be assessed?

The vast majority of assessment is through coursework, with most assignments aiming to develop your professional portfolio. We're also committed to developing your communication skills as a way of empowering you to discuss your own work and the work of others. Tutors are always available to support assignments and particular assessment style preferences if needed.

How will I be taught?

You'll learn through a combination of lectures, music lab workshops, large and small group seminars, individual tutorials, online delivery and self-directed study. The majority of taught sessions are in specialised music studios, audio suites and fully-equipped computer labs that give you individual access to your own workstation with relevant software and audio materials. Access to specialist rooms such as the recording studios and our comprehensive equipment hire system allows you to work on coursework and undertake directed and private study.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

Course modules

This course offers or includes the following modules. The modules you take will depend on your pathway or course combination (if applicable) as well as any optional or open modules chosen. Please check the programme document for more information.

Year one (Level 4) modules
  • Audio Recording
  • Sound Design Exploration
  • Creative Practice
  • Audio Production
  • Sonic Cultures
  • Applied Sound Design
Year two (Level 5) modules
  • Foundations of Audio Processing
  • Sonic Art
  • Hyper Production Techniques
  • Sound and Music Industries
  • Audiovisual Practice
  • Experimental Audio Processing
  • Composition
  • Professional Placement Year
Year three (Level 6) modules
  • Research Project
  • Sonic Signatures
  • Composition for Media
  • Interactive and Procedural Audio
  • Independent Study
  • Sonic Performance
  • Audio Post Production for Moving Image
  • AudioVisual Performance

Opportunities

Study abroad

As part of your degree, you could study abroad on a placement at one of Bath Spa’s partner universities.

Industry guests and visiting lecturers

You'll attend presentations and question and answer sessions with an array of professional guests throughout the course. In the second year, you'll be able to attend our Think Tank lecture series of industry professionals at the top of their respective fields, and in your final year, we run a two-day question and answer series with game audio professionals from all over the world via Skype.

Careers

The industry landscape and opportunities change constantly, and self-employment and entrepreneurship are likely to feature strongly in your career path.

Professional graduate destinations include:

  • Audio production
  • Composition
  • Sound design
  • Game audio
  • Audio post production
  • Teaching / education
  • Audio / mix engineering
  • Sound recording/Foley-studio style recording.
Global Citizenship

If you’re a full-time undergraduate student starting your first year at Bath Spa University, you can apply for the Certificate in Global Citizenship, which you’ll study alongside your degree.

You’ll gain global awareness and add an international dimension to your student experience, and funding is available. On successful completion of the programme, you’ll be awarded a Certificate in Global Citizenship. This is in addition to your degree; it doesn’t change your degree title or results.

Adobe Creative Campus

Develop a wealth of indispensable digital skills that you can take into your future career. One of only three Adobe Creative Campuses in the UK, we provide all Bath Spa students with access to the full Adobe Creative Suite, giving you the tools to communicate creatively, whatever your course or chosen professional field.   

Professional placement year

Overview

This optional placement year provides you with the opportunity to identify, apply for and secure professional experience, normally comprising one to three placements over a minimum of nine months. Successful completion of this module will demonstrate your ability to secure and sustain graduate-level employment.

By completing the module, you'll be entitled to the addition of 'with Professional Placement Year' to your degree title.

Preparation

Before your Professional Placement Year, you'll work to secure your placement, constructing a development plan with your module leader and your placement coordinator from our Careers and Employability team.

How will I be assessed?

On your return to University for your final year, you'll submit your Placement Portfolio, detailing your development on your placement.

Facilities and resources

Where the subject is taught

You'll be based at our Newton Park campus. Course facilities are specified and maintained to a high standard. They include three fully-equipped ProTools HD recording studios and a number of mixing suites, all with professionally installed and calibrated industry specification monitoring. You'll use across two Apple Mac labs with up to 50 workstations in our main presentation lab, specialist audio suite and Foley rooms.

As a Creative Music Technology student, you'll also make use of other facilities, including:

You can also hire out equipment using SISO, Bath Spa University’s free equipment loan service. 

Resources

Our course facilities include a full range of hardware and software to support the curriculum content, including ProTools, Logic Audio Pro, Ableton Live, Max/MSP, and numerous plug-ins and processing software including Waves bundles, Native Instrument suites, GRM tools, Lexicon reverbs, and surround-sound encoders. We have a growing array of hardware modular synth components and we also support visual and media based work with a full range of multimedia software. 

You'll also be able to use a comprehensive equipment loan system with everything that you might need for extended project work, including an array of microphones and pre amps, specialist field recorder equipment, portable high specification monitors, and professional still and movie cameras with lighting. 

We are all too aware that the software and technology of music making and production is in a constant state of development, so our approach is to equip you with transferable techniques, artistic approaches, and working practices that'll continue to evolve and keep you ahead of your game throughout your career.

Fees

2024 entry
Student Annual tuition fee
UK full time £9,250
UK part time £4,625
International full time £16,905

Professional Placement Year

During the placement year, the fee is reduced to 20% of the full time fee. This applies to UK and EU/International students.

  • UK: £1,850
  • International: £3,381

Interested in applying?

What we look for in potential students

You'll no doubt be obsessively interested in music technology. You’ll work and learn with students who are equally committed, and be taught by staff with very high levels of professional practice and expertise. We do not describe music in traditional terms. While many students will have high levels of instrumental skills and accompanying theory, others will view software and hardware as their instrument.

Typical offers

We accept a wide range of qualifications for entry to our undergraduate programmes. The main ones are listed below:

  • A Level - grades BBB-BCC including a grade B in Music, Music Technology or a related subject.
  • BTEC - Extended Diploma grades from Distinction Distinction Merit (DDM) to Distinction Merit Merit (DMM) in a related subject, or evidence of experience in Music or Music technology.
  • T Levels – grade Merit preferred in a relevant subject.
  • International Baccalaureate - a minimum of 32 points are required in addition to evidence of a high level of experience in music, composing, music technology or music performance.
  • Access to HE courses - typical offers for applicants with Access to HE will be the Access to HE Diploma or Access to HE Certificate (60 credits, 45 of which must be Level 3, at Merit or higher) together with evidence of a high level of experience in music, composing, music technology or music performance.

If you don’t meet the entry requirements above, we may be able to accept your prior learning or experience from outside of formal education. See our Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) page to learn more.

English Language Requirements for International and EU Applicants

IELTS 6.0 - for visa nationals, with a minimum score of IELTS 5.5 in each element.

Course enquiries

For further information about the programme or entry requirements, please email us at admissions@bathspa.ac.uk.

 

How do I apply?

Ready to apply? Click the 'apply now' button in the centre of this page.

Need more guidance? Head to our how to apply pages.

Interview and portfolio guidance

We hold a number of interview days between December and April each year.

You'll be asked to provide an audio portfolio of example sound and/or musical productions that we will listen to and discuss during your interview.

We'd like you to share with us how you approach your audio productions, your current area of sound or musical focus, and your future aspirations. If you're invited to interview, you'll receive detailed guidance on the interview process and our expectations of your audio portfolio before your interview.

Course leader: Andy Keep
Email: a.keep@bathspa.ac.uk

Three year course
With placement year

Website feedback to web@bathspa.ac.uk