Music and Sound Design for Visual Media BA hons Degree

Design your creative approach to audiovisual storytelling

Explore and define your creative voice as a sound designer, audio specialist, and music-making practitioner for film, TV, animation, games, apps, VR and other immersive multimedia formats. 

Develop your creative identity and gain comprehensive knowledge of the technical skills and creative techniques required to work as a professional sound designer and music composer for the multifaceted media industry.

Learn how to ideate, design and deliver distinct sound palettes and original musical pieces in a programme that prepares you for both linear media formats, such as music scoring for film, television, animations as well as the evolving area of non-linear media formats, such as sound design for video games, interactive installations or immersive technologies, digital medias and sound art.

From studio recording, linear and non-linear composition and arrangement to mixing, sequencing, sound design and synchronisation, this hands-on and highly collaborative course is designed to give you valuable experience from day one. Working closely with our film production and visual effects students, you'll gain experience in providing creative and technical sound and music solutions for short film scores, theatre sounds, as well as interactive and immersive installation work. 

Gain access to professional music and film production studios, all sorts of analog, electronic and digital music-making tools, as well as the industry-standard software you’ll need to make any creative idea come to life.

Throughout this course you’ll be building a unique portfolio of highly creative and industry-relevant work as you take on a range of creative roles in the music production and sound design process for a wealth of multimedia formats. Steer your creative interests and personal ambition towards your chosen area of specialisation from early on, thanks to our project-based curriculum and tailored approach to learning. 

Our Music and Sound Design for Visual Media course is designed to give you the technical skills and creative insight needed to deliver quality musical work and to overcome the challenges of any new creative or technical project or workflow that comes your way.

About Music and Sound Design for Visual Media

Our Music and Sound Design for Visual Media programme is about working towards something bigger than an idea alone: it’s about working alongside other creative practitioners as sound specialists, creative visionaries and innovative technologists. 

Through workshops and project based learning you will develop a critical perspective on the growing field of creative sound and music practice and its relationship with media culture. You will gain an in-depth understanding of the impact of specific technologies on the music composition, production and sound engineering processes.

Spend three years working on a diverse range of sound/music projects across the media industry formats and develop an understanding of the software and hardware tools needed to complete specific briefs. By the end of this learning experience you will have built a media portfolio of high level work that will demonstrate and define your own unique and creative voice as a sound and music technician and artist.

Maximise your hands-on access to audio production and sound engineering gear

From Hollywood to Sundance, to Epic Games or the Webby awards, sound designers and specialists are gaining growing recognition for delivering iconic sounds across the media and filmmaking landscapes. 

The growing need for professional sound design and music composition in the media and arts sectors is expanding alongside the gaming, social media, film and TV industries. This course responds directly to the increasing demands for audio technicians and creatives who are able to deliver quality solutions for different media formats. 

By gaining a thorough understanding of how specific technologies impact the music composition, production and sound engineering process, you will be able to ride the wave of shifting formats and industry-shaking developments.

Our tutors are industry-experienced professionals and creatives with a passion for passing on their knowledge to others. Say hello to some of the tutors that will be supporting you throughout your learning process. 

In the end it doesn’t matter what we say or do. What matters is the work of our students. Have a listen and decide for yourselves.

Welcome to Catalyst’s student-run radio platform. Whenever we’re sharing sounds by the resident talents of our creative music and film production institute, Etikett Radio is the place to listen. 

Spanning everything from DJ mixes and improvised live performances, to voice acting and film discussions, the etikettradio.com programme features over 25 shows. Our SoundCloud is a melting pot of trailblazing music and game-changing ideas from Catalyst’s students and tutors. What’s more, we have recently begun live streaming our collaborative parties and educational workshops, taking place in some of Berlin’s most famous venues. 

Etikett Radio was founded in 2014, a year after the official launch of Catalyst, which was until September 2020 known as dBs Berlin. Broadcasting daily from our legendary Funkhaus location – once home to the world’s largest radio station – our eclectic roster of student presenters continue the legacy of the renowned artists who have recorded in our unique studios.

Catalyst is a unique creative-production learning community based at the extraordinary Funkhaus facility. We offer BA (Hons) and Master degree programmes, short courses and workshops in electronic music production and performance, audio and music production, studio recording, sound engineering, film production, filmmaking, visual effects and acting with over 330 students, 400 alumni plus 50 tutors all coming from 55 nations. We are a team of dedicated professionals aiming to create an active learning environment that encourages students to push their creative boundaries and excel beyond what they thought possible.

www.catalyst-berlin.com

Etikett Radio

Study sound design & music composition for film, TV, gaming and emerging media. Build your portfolio as an audio specialist for the film & media industry.

Music and Sound Design for Visual Media BA (hons) Degree

Music and Sound Design for Visual Media - BA Degree - 3 Year

Music and Sound Design for Visual Media HE Certificate

Bring visual narratives to life through sound 

Develop your creative voice as you explore the principles of sound design, audio production and music composition for film, TV and emerging audiovisual storytelling formats. 

This hands-on and highly collaborative course has been designed to give you a broad overview with focus on your potential. You will learn the technical skills and creative techniques required to develop a rewarding career as a sound designer, audio specialist and music maker for the filmmaking and media industry. 

Gain first-hand experience from day one by working across a broad range of linear media productions such as soundscapes and scoring for film, tv and animation, as well as the basic principles of sound design for nonlinear audiovisual narratives. Throughout this course you will be learning how to enhance audiovisual and multimedia projects with audio solutions.

From studio recording and post-production, to linear composition, mixing, sequencing, sound design and synchronisation, you’ll be thrown into a range of specialist and creative roles for diverse multidisciplinary projects in close collaboration with our film, visuals effects, acting and music students. 

By the end of the year, you will have built a portfolio of creative and industry-relevant work, and walk away with the ability to work on music or sound briefs with confidence, making use of a range of technical tools and processes that will allow you to take on any new creative endeavour that comes your way. 

Maximise hands-on access to audio production and sound engineering gear

From Hollywood to Sundance, to Epic Games or the Webby awards, sound designers and specialists are gaining recognition for delivering iconic sounds across the media and filmmaking landscapes. 

Music and Sound Design for Visual Media BA degree

Project-based & collaborative learning in sound design, audio production and music composition for Film, TV, animation, gaming and emerging multimedia.

Music and Sound Design for Visual Media | Undergraduate

Music and Sound Design for Visual Media - HE Certificate - 1 Year

Alejandra Rios Ruiz is a sound designer for audiovisual media and sound artist born and bred in Mexico City. She has worked for many multidisciplinary projects, hybrids: in-between film and theatre, that have been supported and sponsored by the Mexican Department of Culture such as Better times & Mujeres pájaro, crónicas de vuelo.

Alejandra also collaborated in creating the original music and sound design for an exhibition at Museo Jumex in Mexico City. One of the projects for which she made the original score was selected for a screening at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico. In 2022 she started working at an audio post production studio as a foley operator and editor. She moved to Berlin to pursue a masters degree in Sound Studies and Sonic Arts at UdK (The University of Art). In the past few years, her work has been directed towards understanding sound and language, words and sound in embroidered poetry. She is interested in working with palimpsests, and the possibility of sonic and visual hypertexts as creators of new interwoven imaginaries. Her current research involves audio-reactive textiles for making audible needle work and emphasising the act of embroidering words, the unsaid, as an act of suturing, stitching wounds with words. 

Researcher, curator and art director Alejandra Rios Ruiz teaches on our MSVM programme. Click for Alejandra Catalyst profile.