What would a simulated urban landscape be without the noise of traffic and the chatter of crowds, or a final showdown with a powerful enemy without a pulse-pounding musical score? Sound and music play a critical role in how we experience games, animated films, and other forms of entertainment, making skilled sound designers essential to a project’s success.
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The Bachelor of Arts in Music and Sound Design focuses on the creative and technical aspects of music and sound design, production, and implementation. You’ll study composition, theory, performance, audio recording and mixing, and technical sound design for video games. Moreover, you’ll gain four years of valuable experience creating and implementing original music and sound for student game and film projects.
This program prepares students to pursue roles as musicians, composers, and sound designers in any creative industry.
Who Should Pursue This Degree?
If you can’t imagine a career doing anything other than creating music and audio content, but you also want an education designed for modern career opportunities in the digital entertainment industries, the BA in Music and Sound Design could be a great fit. To succeed, you’ll need to become well-versed in music theory, as well as put in many hours of practice on your musical instrument of choice. At the same time, if you’re excited at the prospect of gaining firsthand composition and sound design experience, this program will give you ample opportunities to explore your musical capabilities in a collaborative and creative environment.
As a student in this program, you will:
Academic Roadmap
As a student in the BA in Music and Sound Design program, you’ll divide your time between classroom lectures, learning and practicing with a private music performance instructor, and working in the DigiPen sound labs. Beginning with foundational music theory classes, you’ll work your way toward more advanced music courses in subjects like composition, conducting, and adaptive music for video games. Throughout the program, you will also be involved on a range of sound design projects, producing and implementing music, sound effects, and voice recordings for student games and films.
Admissions Requirements
The ideal candidate for the BA in Music and Sound Design degree program will be passionate about music and able to demonstrate proficiency on a musical instrument (or voice) by recording and submitting a performance portfolio for review by DigiPen’s admissions committee. Candidates must be able to read music and should have an intuitive grasp of concepts such as pitch, intervals, melody, harmony, and rhythm, and how these elements coalesce to form unique musical expressions.
Topics Covered
Students in the BA in Music and Sound Design program will focus on the following subjects:
