Overview
Push sonic boundaries and take control of your own sound design direction on our intensive 4-week short course. You’ll be learning alongside other artists or producers who are already comfortable using a DAW and have a grasp of the fundamentals of electronic music production, as you hone your skills together in a specialist field.
Built on a foundation of learning by doing, this course encourages you to get your hands on our vast toyshop of music and sound gear as much as you can – analogue and digital hardware synthesisers, first-class production studios, digital workstations and more. Progress your craft through play and experimentation.
Combine in-depth practice with expert tuition from industry professionals to expand your sonic palette and sharpen your listening and production skills. Connect technology, tools, approaches and philosophies to enhance your work and help you create engaging, diverse and rich sound productions.
Get ready to nerd out on the principles of sound, level up your synthesiser and percussion skills, understand sample-based sound design and tailor an electronic setup to your needs. You will come out of the four weeks with the momentum to develop a stronger sonic direction.
Course structure
Topics covered
The course content will focus on the following subject areas:
- Synthesis (additive, subtractive, FM, AM, granular, modular).
- Experimental recording with a variety of microphones.
- Custom analogue and digital effects chains.
- Audio manipulation tools and techniques.
- Sound design philosophy.
- Reamping and physical sound processing.
- Advanced DAW operations.
- Using voltage control hardware sequencers.
- Using hardware.
Weekly breakdown
Week 1 – Synthesis concepts
Project: Essential methods and tools within synthesis.
- What is sound? Sound walk with a mobile recorder, sample editing.
- Subtractive synthesis.
- Exploring the EMP Lab: analogue synthesisers.
- Studio listening session and feedback round.
Week 2 – Synthesising drums
Project: Build a drum playback with your own drum sound creations.
- Rhythm theory.
- Recording with microphones (drums and percussion) and distorting samples.
- Additive synthesis and frequency modulation - drumming with synthesisers.
- Electronic percussion, drum machines.
- Studio listening session and feedback round.
Week 3 – Sampling and modular synthesis
Project: Create your own sound universe.
- Sampling culture.
- Sample recording, processing with Ableton’s Sampler.
- Modular synthesis – software.
- Modular synthesis – hardware.
- Studio listening session and feedback round.
Week 4 – External sound processing
Project: Create your own workflow.
- Creative thinking processes.
- Experimental recording techniques and re-amping.
- Granular synthesis.
- External sound processing, stomp boxes.
- Studio listening session and feedback round.
Skills gained
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Apply in-depth understanding of the principles of sound.
- Work with modular and hardware synthesisers at an advanced level.
- Undertake a variety of recording procedures and synthesis techniques.
- Understand sample-based sound design techniques.
- Synthesise electronic drums and percussion sounds with hardware and software.
- Process sounds with various effects and analogue gear.
- Combine various electronic devices in a functional setup.
- Critically evaluate your work.
Progression
Whether you want to spend four weeks exploring which specific synthesising techniques are the perfect vehicle for your sound 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 equip you with a broad range of techniques for creating, editing and manipulating sound.
The course will also provide you with workflows for connecting technology, tools, approaches and philosophies, giving you the kind of oversight and creative expression that is in demand in the music industry. You will develop and receive feedback on projects that will help you develop skills for roles including: 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.
Your technological playground
Get hands-on access to cutting-edge facilities and tons of bookable gear.
“Having a solid chunk of lecture time and then also getting a fairly balanced amount of time in the studio... I found that was the key factor that really let all the concepts sink in”
– Advanced Sound Design alumna
Student work
Check out some student projects in these soundcloud playlists
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.
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 March 31 2026 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
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. Production suites, mix suites, communal workspaces, digital workstations and equipment from the tech shop 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
Early bird deadline: 31 March 2026
Final application deadline: 29 May 2026
Spots fill up fast. Once a course is full, you'll be placed on the waiting list.
Save €150 with the Early Bird Discount
Apply to any Summer Short Course before 31 March 2026 to secure your spot early and receive €150 off your tuition fee.
