Overview
Learn to produce music for the dancefloor during this 4-week summer short course. Through weekly workshops in rhythm, sampling, synthesis, arrangement and mixing, you will work with the dancefloor aesthetics that club culture has shaped and apply them to tracks of your own.
The course is genre agnostic. It is not about reproducing a particular commercial or club sound, it is about how functional music works: how rhythm is constructed and why it holds attention, how sounds are built rather than simply chosen, how a track develops across its full length, and how a mix carries in a room rather than only through headphones. These principles come out of dance culture and travel, which is why this course suits people who want general electronic production techniques and approaches as much as those set on producing music for the dancefloor. Experimentation is the method throughout: you test ideas in the studio, get feedback, and shape how you want your own music to be felt.
Although many of our students arrive having spent years listening closely or making tracks at home, you do not need to know how to use a DAW, programme drums, synthesise sounds, arrange or mix a finished track. You'll learn by doing: through practical workshops using Ableton Live 12, hardware synthesisers and drum machines, where what you learn gets applied to your own material. All this in a collaborative environment that encourages exchange and regular feedback in professional music studios, led by musicians and producers working in electronic music in Berlin.
Gain a practical understanding of the instruments, recording processes, rhythms, sound design, arrangement and production techniques used in dancefloor music and in electronic music more broadly. Leave with finished tracks of your own, a way of working you can carry on using, and a clearer sense of what you want your music to do to a room full of people.
“The course was just what I needed. For the past few years, I have been experimenting here and there, but found that I needed more fundamental knowledge to fully understand what I was doing in my electronic music production.”
– Thanisa Durongkaveroj, Electronic Music Production alumna
Course structure
Topics covered
Across four weeks you will work through the tools, techniques and creative principles behind dancefloor production, from the first drum pattern to a finished mix:
Ableton Live 12 essentials
Build confidence with the core tools and workflows that power modern production.
Sound design & creative listening
Shape original sounds, sharpen your ear and learn how to analyse the music you love.
Samples, sources & sonic textures
Craft your own palette using sound libraries, field recordings and found audio.
Audio & MIDI mastery
Warp, edit and manipulate audio while sequencing expressive MIDI patterns that bring your ideas to life.
Instruments, synths & drum machines
Work with software and hardware tools to expand your sonic identity.
Composition & arrangement
Learn how to structure tracks with energy, movement and musical intent.
Genres, styles & production approaches
Experiment with different aesthetics and techniques to find your sound.
Effects, processing & mixing
Use EQ, compression and other effects to build clarity, depth and punch.
Finishing your track
Polish, mix and finalise your music - ready to share with the world.
Weekly breakdown
Week 1 – Electronic music explorations
Project: Build a drum playback with your own samples.
- Introduction round.
- Setting up Ableton Live 12 and programming a MIDI drum playback.
- What is sound? First recordings with a mobile recorder, simple editing techniques.
- Make some noise! Exploring gear from our tech shop.
- Studio listening session and feedback round.
Week 2 – Creating audio material
Project: Create a loop-based performance with your own recordings.
- Sampling culture.
- Audio editing in Ableton Live 12, warping.
- Recording basics, dynamic microphones.
- Loop-based performance.
- Studio listening session and feedback round.
Week 3 – Synthesis week
Project: Create your own sound world.
- Electronic music instruments.
- Software synthesisers in Ableton Live 12.
- Recording instruments.
- Exploring hardware synthesisers and drum machines.
- Studio listening session and feedback round.
Week 4 – Production finalising
Project: Mix your own track.
- Mixing 101.
- Arranging a track and making final adjustments.
- Performance and jamming with synths.
- Studio listening session and feedback round.
Skills gained
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Understand the basic principles of sound.
- Undertake basic recording procedures.
- Use dynamic and condenser microphones.
- Record various instruments.
- Record MIDI drums and process audio files in Ableton Live 12.
- Understand basic synthesis techniques.
- Arrange a self-written piece of music.
- Operate hardware synthesisers at a basic level.
- Understand basic mixing principles.
- Critically evaluate your work.
Progression
Whether you want to spend four weeks building a broad foundational knowledge of electronic music production and connecting with like-minded individuals, or you’re preparing to advance to one of our longer HE Certificate, BA or MA programmes and need practical experience, this short course will provide you with the tools, knowledge and community with which to take those initial steps.
The course will also provide you with access to thousands of items of music and sound equipment and digital workstations to experiment and explore with. You will develop and receive feedback on projects that will help you take initial steps into roles as a: producer, composer, arranger, sound designer or sound engineer.
Your technological playground
Get hands-on access to cutting-edge facilities and tons of bookable gear.
"My producing and recording skills improved immensely during the summer program. The course introduced me to new concepts and techniques that provided a strong foundation for developing my sound."
– Jess Ornstein, Electronic Music Production & Performance BA / HE Cert student
Learn from the experts
Throughout the programme you’ll learn from industry-acclaimed experts in their field, with a passion for passing on their knowledge to others.
Student work
Have a listen to some of the tracks created by our previous short course students.
Essential information
Tuition fees
Enrolment fee:* €495
Course fee: €2,005
Total: €2,500
Early enrolment bonus: Apply before the 31st of March to receive a €150 discount on your short course.
Multi Course Discount: Enrol in both a Summer Short Course and a degree course with us in the same year, and receive a discount of €500 off the total tuition fee.
*Enrolment fee is non-refundable.
Timetable
We can’t provide an exact timetable until we know how many students will attend the course. However, you will have an average of 16 hours per week of workshops. Alongside this, you will have some technical inductions and timetabled opportunities for collaboration with students from other programmes.
Our campus facilities are open for the students to use beyond the timetabled workshop hours. Electronic music production suites, mix suites and studio production rooms are bookable from 10:00 until 19:45 during the Short Course term. Each student has 3 hours per week of bookable time, as well as ad-hoc bookings depending on availability of the facilities.
Entry requirements
The most important prerequisite for attending this course is that you must be passionate about building and developing your skills within electronic music production.
Our Short Courses are designed to be accessible to anyone, so we do not require any level of academic certification to apply. Generally, applicants must be 18 or over when the course begins. If you're coming from outside the EU, a holiday/travel visa will usually suffice.
For more information, please contact a member of the Admissions team. We love to chat! You can reach out to us at:
Email: admissions@catalyst-berlin.com
Phone: +49 30 2900 9052
Application deadlines
Applications for 2027 Summer Short Courses open 15 October, 2026.
Apply by 31 March and save 150€.
Final deadline: 21 May, 2027
Courses fill on a first-come, first-served basis. Once full, further applications are waitlisted.
