Develop your own unique approach to music and sound
Our practice-based programmes help you develop and refine your own unique artistic voice and creative practice. Courses specialise in the fields of electronic music production and performance, sound engineering and studio recording, sound design and creative composition for visual media. Prepare yourself for a career as a practicing artist, composer, music producer, sound designer, audio technician or sound professional.
At Catalyst you'll hone your creative and technical skill set, while strengthening your critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Guided by industry-acclaimed experts and surrounded by fellow creatives from film, acting and visual arts programmes, you'll find endless opportunities to collaborate and exchange.
Undergraduate courses
Creative Audio Production & Sound Engineering BA (Hons) / HE Certificate
Discover your sonic fingerprint as a music producer or sound engineer in a programme that combines vocational technical training, creative practice and critical thinking.
Music & Sound Design for Visual Media BA (Hons) / HE Certificate
Develop your own creative voice as an audio storyteller and sound designer across film and a range of visual media in this interdisciplinary, project-based and collaborative programme.
Electronic Music Production & Performance BA (Hons) / HE Certificate
Compose, perform and produce electronic music through hands-on experimentation, as you define your voice as contemporary electronic music artist.
Postgraduate courses
Creative Production (Music) MA
Reshape your music practice and pursue your chosen area of interest, desired specialisation or passion project through practice-based artistic research.
Applied Creative Psychology MA
Explore how creativity drives personal growth, wellbeing and social change by blending artistic practice with evidence-based research in Europe's first Master’s in the psychology of creativity.
Summer short courses
Studio Recording – Short Course
Level: Beginner
Learn the fundamentals of recording and producing bands, soloists or electronic artists in a professional studio environment.
Electronic Music Production – Short Course
Level: Beginner
Learn the core principles of the craft of the electronic music producer and hone your skills to express your creative ideas.
Music and Sound for Experimental Gaming – Short Course
Level: Beginner / Intermediate
Course length: 4 weeks
Explore new approaches to music, sound design and storytelling in games, film and hybrid media. Advance your practical understanding of how sound can shape interactive and immersive experiences.
Mixing & Mastering Electronic Music – Short Course
Level: Intermediate / Advanced
Advance your creative and technical approach to refining and finishing your tracks as an electronic music producer.
Advanced Sound Design – Short Course
Level: Intermediate / Advanced
Course length: 4 weeks
Already started your journey in electronic music production? This short course is for the artist or producer who is ready to stretch their capabilities and take their work to the next stage in its evolution.
Learn by doing
You won’t find any “traditional” classrooms, lectures or exams at Catalyst. It’s hands-on from day one and you’ll be collaborating with other motivated creatives on interdisciplinary projects. You’ll produce work under challenging creative and logistical constraints that will both stretch and empower you. You’ll use this momentum to form a foundation of technical skills and theoretical understanding, then build upon it with expert guidance by our expert tutors.
Gain access to professional music production facilities
Based at the iconic Funkhaus, our riverside campus is part of the historic building that was once home to the GDR’s broadcasting station and was one of the world’s largest multi-studio complexes during the Soviet era.
It’s a technological playground with cutting-edge facilities, including 29 studios and production suites for music and sound (five of which are vintage), an electronic music performance spaces with stage or spatial sound and multiple computer labs with all the production software you need.
You’ll also have access to tons of bookable analog and digital audio equipment, including mixing consoles, musical instruments, synthesisers, drum machines and sequencers, effects pedals and microphones.
Taught by practicing artists and sound experts
Our courses are delivered by a team of expert tutors and internationally-acclaimed visiting industry professionals, with a genuine passion for passing on their specialist knowledge to others.
They'll ask the difficult questions you've been avoiding, set challenges that stretch you in ways you didn’t know you were capable of, provide insights into new ways of thinking, heap praise where it's due and prepare you for professional opportunities.
Learn to think critically about the tools you use
Learn with tutors who are working artists making real decisions: when AI-assisted mastering serves the track, when modular synthesis gets you somewhere unexpected, when to combine approaches no tutorial covers.
Your sound design scores student films. Your spatial audio work gets performed in theatre pieces. Your tracks get feedback from producers who are currently releasing music and not just teaching it.
We teach Ableton. And Pro Tools. And when to ignore both and patch a modular system instead. Because creative judgment comes from experimentation across all the tools available, not devotion to one.
More than just workshops
Host your own show on our student-run station. Present spatial audio work at From All Sides forum. Join T.A.P.E., our experimental ensemble exploring improvisation and avant-garde repertoire. Present your artistic research at our international MA Symposium.
Our music students stage public projects across Berlin venues, release albums as semester submissions and exhibit installation pieces annually. Your cohorts include filmmakers who need scores and actors rehearsing next door – Hundreds of student projects cross disciplines each year.
At Catalyst, your learning experience extends far beyond the studio or classroom, with Berlin's vast music scene also becoming accessible through countless partnerships.
Choose your focus
Nobody puts you in a box. Music students here aren't tracked into single genres or locked into one approach. You explore what resonates, experiment with what challenges you, and define your own practice through supported creative risk-taking.
You'll work across analogue, digital and emerging tools - not to master every piece of gear, but to develop judgment about what serves your creative vision at any given moment. Our tutors are practicing artists who ask questions rather than give you answers. They help you discover your own approach to music making and sound, not conform to theirs.
This is genre-agnostic, tool-agnostic learning. Your artistic voice emerges through experimentation, iteration and the freedom to fail productively. Whether your sound fits existing categories or creates new ones, you'll have the space, facilities and guidance to pursue it.
Which music production programme at Catalyst is for me?
With four distinct programmes in our School of Music & Sound, finding your path can be a creative decision in itself.
This guide breaks down the key differences between our Bachelor's, HE Certificate and Master's music courses, so you can choose the one that matches your artistic goals, skill level and creative ambitions for the future.
If you still need support, our Admissions team will be ready to help you find the course that best fits your needs.
