Course summary
The Innovation in Sound master's degree offers a flexible and multidisciplinary approach that deliberately blurs the boundaries between artistic practice, technology development, and academic research. You have the freedom to tailor the course content to suit your own creative and career goals, working with specialist equipment and guided by experts in sound innovation. This cutting-edge master’s degree combines experimental sound practice with emerging technologies, giving you the tools and frameworks to develop groundbreaking audio work. You'll explore areas like spatial audio, interactive sound design, AI-assisted composition, cross-disciplinary audio applications, and immersive installations. Module Breakdown The course takes place over three trimesters, covering 90 weeks across the two years of study. Over the course of five modules, you’ll be introduced to what it means to innovate across multiple disciplines, develop your own ideas within innovation, build a network of specialists within your chosen field and produce a final piece of work informed by your explorations and experiments in the previous modules. Practice In this module we encourage you to be bold and to try new things through practical investigation and experimentation; and push you to further develop your own ‘voice’ in the area of music production. You will demonstrate a strategic and creative approach to problem solving, while embracing experimentation and iterative processes to refine your innovative ideas. Exploration You will begin with an exploration of the theoretical concepts of innovation, examining studies of multidisciplinary collaborations where innovation has been implemented to generate new ideas and solutions to problems. This will introduce you to a range of theoretical and creative applications that will help form your future work. Integration This module encourages you to deepen your postgraduate technical practice, develop your strengths in creating a project, potentially working in a team, within the cohort across multiple disciplines; with an emphasis on technical integration, such as interfacing between software and hardware. Industry & Development You will identify and establish connections with specialists in their field, making use of networking potential, research hubs and forums, so that you may explore your chosen field of study more deeply. Collaboration can be sought with industry professionals, other institutions, businesses and international networks. Implementation The realisation of your final major project within your own chosen area of innovation; made up of a proposal, logs of progress, the final exhibition of your work presented as a 'portfolio' or 'showreel' and an evaluation.
Assessment method
How You'll Learn You will advance your practical skills in the recording, manipulation, production and mastering of audio, while also developing your critical thinking, networking and collaboration skills. Due to the nature of this degree, how you utilise those skills will be entirely up to you. You will also develop practical skills through practice-based workshops, and learn to evaluate and improve your work through group tutorials, and individual tutorials. Regular learning will come from lectures, seminars and our Virtual Learning Environment. In addition your learning will be supported by: Lectures and practical workshops Masterclasses and guest lectures Group and 1-2-1 tutorials Access to extensive studio facilities and bookable equipment Use of library resources and study spaces Access to our Virtual Learning Environment Access to supporting online resources including videos, reading and interactive activities Assessment is 100% coursework and will be a mixture of practical portfolios, critical evaluations, planning documents, proposals and presentations. On average you should allow for between 20 hours per week for your studies of which approximately 15% will be taught (c.3-4 hours) and 85% will be self-study.
Entry requirements
We welcome applicants with varied qualifications, but typically you'll need an undergraduate degree in a related discipline. Our typical applicants hold an undergraduate degree of 2:2 or above, or equivalent experience. We'll also welcome your application if you have formal or 'certified' learning (such as training courses not run by universities or colleges) and learning from work experience or self-study.
Fees and funding
Tuition fees
| England | £8500 | Whole course |
| Northern Ireland | £8500 | Whole course |
| Scotland | £8500 | Whole course |
| Wales | £8500 | Whole course |
Tuition fee status depends on a number of criteria and varies according to where in the UK you will study. For further guidance on the criteria for home or overseas tuition fees, please refer to the UKCISA website .
Additional fee information
No additional fees or cost information has been supplied for this course, please contact the provider directly.
Provider information
dBs Institute
2 Mitchell Lane
Bristol
BS1 6BU