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MSc Audio and Music Technology 

Hashim Riaz

"With a background in music technology, composition and live sound, my passion is working with audio software and hardware. Having completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Technology I found myself working in London, the musical heart of the country. Forever wanting to dive deeper into musical acoustics and programming I searched for postgraduate courses that could 'fill in the gaps' in my knowledge and provide me an opportunity to experiment.

The MSc Audio and Music Technology course (AMT) at the University of York takes a holistic approach to music technology. The course covers some of the fundamental physics of sound and psychoacoustics, through to audio signal processing and spatial audio. As well as learning new skills and making the most of the facilities, I was lucky enough to conduct some research in collaboration with the iconic Abbey Road Studios. The research was designed to identify appropriate recording techniques and workflows to capture live music for virtual reality (VR). The research presented some interesting insights and was received well at the 143rd Audio Engineering Society (AES) convention in New York last year.

It was a dream to record in Studio Three at Abbey Road and I managed to build a professional relationship with staff. After graduating, I took up the position of Junior Programme Manager at Abbey Road Red, which is the open innovation department at the studios. Studying the AMT course has helped to prepare me for working with some of the latest innovations in music technology and to extend my professional network."

Aishwarya Sridhar

"I am Aishwarya Sridhar, an aspiring Acoustic Engineer. I hail from India (Hyderabad) but grew up in Dubai (United Arab Emirates). After graduating with a bachelors degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Dubai Campus, I wanted to continue my studies by taking up a Master’s Course abroad. Having come from an electronics engineering background and having the passion for music, my goal and interest for a long time was to learn, develop and create my future career path in a field where I could combine sound (or music) and technology. This motivated me to take up the MSc. Audio and Music Technology degree at the University of York.

The experience that I gained after being a MSc student in AMT has confirmed that the University of York was the best choice I have made as it was something beyond what I expected. The style of teaching and the approach towards modules like Audio signals, iOS Programming and Virtual Acoustics was quite different from what I have experienced before. The focus was more on the practical knowledge that students can learn and develop rather than it being theory based.

AMT at York is a place where you can definitely gain a lot of experience, learn a lot and enjoy the course as well. Interactions and discussions with my course mates and professors with different academic and cultural background has widened my vision on audio technology. The overall experience during my MSc journey was very good at the University of York. The beautiful city of York is indeed a great place to live in and study.

During my journey at university the concept of creating immersive virtual acoustic environments, acoustic measurements and acoustic modelling interested me the most. This inspired me to choose a career in the field of acoustics.  I currently work as an Acoustic Engineer at a firm called, Design Confidence Consultancy based in Dubai. Be it soft skills or technical, my journey as an AMT student helped me grow and prepared me for the industry experience."

Alexander Duffell

"Upon completion of my masters I had decided to enter the workplace. iOS development had been a large focus of my studies at York and I decided to look for a job in that space. I was able to use the apps I had made during the MSc to showcase my iOS skills, quickly landing a job as a software developer in a Newcastle based tech company. I am currently working in the cyber security space, producing cross platform mobile apps that integrate with enterprise grade IT solutions. I am currently using my position to learn as much about the software industry. I aim to take this experience and the skills I develop to move into the audio software space.

Since graduating I have begun writing up app development tutorials on my website as well as beginning to contribute to open source projects on GitHub. I am currently working on 2 iOS applications, one of them is a reimagining of an app that I wrote during the MSc course. I have expanded upon what I learnt during the MSc to create a musical instrument app with recording / playback functionality. I am also currently writing my first VST plugin which can be used to automatically generate guitar cabinet impulse responses, here I am combining my knowledge of audio with my programming skills to develop something useful to musicians and producers alike. In the future I would like to work in audio technology as a developer, bringing ideas to life in apps and plugins.

I am very grateful for my time at York and am incredibly pleased with my decision to study there. I left my undergrad with no real direction in what I wanted to do. York took me down a different path, one that I much preferred and I now feel much more prepared to journey out beyond education. It is very much thanks to York, both the staff and the students, that I am at a point where I am today. During my time studying I was encouraged to push myself and achieved things that I hadn’t realised I was capable of previously. Studying at York was easily one of the best decisions I ever made, it opened me up to a new side of audio and taught me new skills that could be applied beyond the field of audio technology."

Fei Sha

"After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering specialising in Imaging and Audio Engineering in China, I wanted to further my study in related fields for a Master’s degree abroad. For my final project at the University in China, I had found a book on Acoustics by Prof. David M Howard really useful and interesting which inspired me to apply for the MSc in Audio and Music Technology at the University of York.

The experience of being a MSc student in AMT has confirmed that York was the best choice for me.

The modules such as Audio and Signal Processing, IOS Programming and Acoustics and Psychoacoustics have not only broadened my theoretical knowledge about audio engineering but have also exercised my practical skills through different labs as well as the assignments we have completed.

One aspect of the AMT programme I have particularly liked is the choice between two different pathways in the second term.  I chose to join the music department to learn more about recording and mixing skills. During that term I gained knowledge and experience which I hope to put to use in the future as a studio engineer.

The facilities at York such as the Mac labs, the studios and the media suite as well as all the speakers, microphones, headphones, instruments and mixing desks are all first-class. The AMT programme at York is a place where you experience a lot, gain a lot and enjoy a lot.

After finishing my MSc final project, I chose to stay in the UK and finally found an internship developing multi-media tools at Epilepsy Action in Leeds. Basically I am doing filming and post-producing for short animations and promotional videos for them. I did interviews of different people around the UK and edited the videos into one promotional short film. The skills and knowledge from the MSc course gave me the knowledge to do this and confirmed my decision to develop my future career in the multi-media field. Recently I applied for a project which is a joint project with the Chemistry department and led by the Audio Lab at the University of York and fortunately I’ve got the offer. The skills and the knowledge I gained in the courses really gave me the qualification to successfully get this opportunity."

Marc Green

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"Having studied an undergraduate degree focusing on the artistic aspects of Music Production, the MSc in Audio and Music Technology was a great opportunity to fill in the blanks in my knowledge of the science of sound and audio-related electronics. The course is pitched very well to work for incoming students from a variety of backgrounds, giving a broad overview of the many different areas of contemporary research in audio technology. By the time I began work on my final independent research project I was able to utilise the skills I had learnt so far and conduct research at a level I would not have imagined possible less than a year before.

At the start of the final term of my MSc, I was successful in my application for the job of Associate Lecturer in Audio and Music Technology at York. My new role involves developing learning materials and delivering lectures to students at all stages, from first year BSc up to MSc level. I am very pleased to be staying within the department and developing my academic career. The MSc course very directly prepared me for this position, not only from the development of my core knowledge in programming and acoustics, but also in the preparation of presentations, session planning for school visit events, and public speaking."

Michael Lovedee-Turner

"I started the MSc in Audio and Music Technology (AMT) back in 2014, immediately after graduating from a BSc (Hons) in Audio and Recording Technology at De Montfort University. I was drawn to the MSc in AMT by the comprehensive approach it took to Music Technology, providing a wide range of different modules and two different pathways (in the second term) allowing me to mould the MSc around my interests. To that extent, I focused my learning around Analysis and Programming, having done modules similar to the Audio Technology pathway during my undergraduate degree.