BTEC National Extended Certificate in Sound Engineering

Music Technology is a creative and practical course in which students learn a variety of professional skills and apply them in industry-related projects.

5 GCSEs at grade 4. GCSE grade 4 in either English or Maths.

In the first year you will learn how to use the recording studio to capture a song of your choice, you will also learn how to use the industry standard digital audio workstation Logic Pro X in our iMac suite to produce music to a commercial brief. In the second year you will study Live Sound where you will be the sound engineer for a series of concerts. You will develop Mixing & Mastering techniques and use them to produce an album of original music alongside your classmates.

Our facilities include: an iMac suite, Recording Studio, 3 Mixing Rooms, Live Music Equipment and Live Room with a large rehearsal space. These can be booked and accessed outside of lesson times and we encourage you to work on your own musical projects. Outside of lessons you can join a band and perform at the Music Live Night Events or you could work as part of the back stage crew in our many events including the College Production.

Students will need to purchase a personal pair of Closed-back Studio Headphones ~£40.

Assessment takes place as an on-going process for each of the units. There is a 15 hour exam over 2 weeks in May of the first year where students will produce Music to a client brief. Emphasis is on practical work and there is no formal final written exam.

There are a multitude of progression routes available after studying BTEC Music Technology including studio engineering, live sound engineering, post production engineer, mastering engineer, broadcast engineer and in location recording. Progression routes include further study: Music, Music Technology, Creative Music Production, Film and Radio Production, Video Game Design or Computer Science.