Overview
Learn the core principles and practical skills needed to produce your own electronic music during this intensive 4-week course. Through the use of sound synthesis, field recordings, synthesis, loops and even the basic physics of sound, you’ll get to grips with a broad range of techniques for creating, editing and manipulating sound.
Whether you’re a total beginner, or an aspiring producer who has taken their first steps into music production, you may feel there are musical ideas or sounds bubbling up inside you, but you're not yet sure how to express them. We’ll give you the keys to unlock this skill. Learn through workshops that include using Ableton Live 12, operating hardware synthesisers, performing with drum machines and arranging and mixing a track. You’ll also learn from your peers in a highly collaborative environment that encourages exchange, and receive feedback on your experiments and tracks.
You will come out of the four weeks with a foundational understanding of electronic music production – and, most importantly, the fuel to forward your artistic journey.
Course structure
Topics covered
The course content will focus on the following subject areas:
- Ableton Live 12 fundamentals.
- Sound design basics.
- Listening skills and analysis.
- Source materials and sound libraries.
- Audio editing and manipulation.
- Sequencing, generating and editing MIDI events.
- Software and hardware sound generators, drum machines and other input devices.
- Composition and arrangement tools, tricks and techniques.
- Production approaches such as genre, style, characteristics and format.
- Effects processing, including equalisation and compression.
- Mixing tools and techniques.
- Create, 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. You’ll also have the opportunity to work with our Filmmaking Short Course students in scoring their films.
"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
“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
Your technological playground
Get hands-on access to cutting-edge facilities and tons of bookable gear.
Tutors
Our tutors are industry-acclaimed experts in their field, with a passion for passing on their knowledge to others. Here are some of the tutors that will be supporting you throughout your learning process.
Student work
Have a listen to some of the tracks created by our previous students during this course.
Essential information
Tuition fees
Enrolment fee*: €495
Course fee: €1,755
Total: €2,250
Early Bird Discount: Enrol in a Summer Short Course before the end of February 2025 and receive a discount of €150 off the tuition fee.
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 and class size
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.
You can expect to be in a class of 12 to 16 students.
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, although exceptions can occasionally be made by the Admissions Team where parental consent is obtained. 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! Please reach out to us at admissions@catalyst-berlin.com or call us at +49 30 2900 9052.
Application deadlines
Once a course is full, we will no longer accept more applications, so applying as soon as possible increases your chances of getting a place. The official deadline for applying to a Short Course is Friday 23 May 2025.
Open days, Q&As & taster workshops
Get a feel for Catalyst and our courses at a range of both online and in-person events. Join us at a Virtual Open Day or an Open Day at our campus in Berlin, check out our facilities with a campus tour, join an Admissions Q&A, or try a taster workshop.
Primer Workshop - Access to Higher Education
Designed for those wishing to join our main programmes, but lacking the formal education requirements to apply through standard entry.
These free workshops run at the same time as your short course programme and cover writing skills, reading, structuring arguments, debate and understanding context.
They utilise task and project-based learning methodology to ensure that you’re prepared and ready for our longer HE Certificate or BA programmes.