Introduction to music production
Choose a start date
- Course Code: MK508
- Dates: 15/06/24 - 16/06/24
- Time: 10:30 - 17:30
- Taught: Sat-Sun, Daytime
- Duration: 2 sessions
- Location: Keeley Street
- Tutor: Max La Villa
Course Code: MK508
Choose a start date
Duration: 2 sessions
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
Learn to realise your musical ideas, record using a microphone and/or digital instruments, and use a musical MIDI keyboard to play in (notate) musical ideas. Edit your tracks to create a final product.
What will we cover?
• Building a track from a variety of instruments and recordings
• Playing in musical ideas using a MIDI keyboard, and software instruments
• MIDI editing to correct mistakes in playing or to create ideas from scratch
• Recording and importing audio
• Basic corrective audio editing
• Basic mixing with attention to sound balance and stereo position.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
• Build a track from a variety of instruments and recordings
• Play in musical ideas using a MIDI keyboard and software instruments
• Edit this MIDI information to correct mistakes in playing and create ideas from scratch
• Record and import audio into an audio editing program
• Perform basic corrective audio editing
• Perform a basic mix with attention to sound balance and stereo position.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
You need to be confident with computers and IT, including file management, but otherwise the course is suitable for beginners in music production.
You will need to be able to follow written and verbal instructions in English, engage in class discussions and take notes in English.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
Tutor demonstration and explanation, class discussion, followed by practical work on individual projects. You will present work in progress and receive feedback and support from your tutor and peers.
You will work on individual Mac workstations running Logic or GarageBand, but you will be able to export your projects to run on other software, including on PCs You will make best progress if you can work on your projects between sessions.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Visit our Music technology: equipment advice page for more detailed information about hardware and software, so that you know what you might need to work on your projects at home. Ideally, you need access to a laptop or desktop, but it is also possible to use a tablet or iPad, although functions in apps are more limited.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Visit our Music production overview blog for a description of courses we offer during the year, and check our list of current courses. For further advice email the Music office .
Max’s musical training began in New York City where he was lucky enough to have major session musicians as neighbors in his building teaching him guitar as a child. By his early teens he was studying classical guitar, alongside theory and orchestration, at the High School of the Performing Arts. He relocated to Spain to further his classical guitar studies under the esteemed guitarist/ teacher Jose Tomas. While there Max ran a commercial recording studio, where he began immersing himself in the emerging digital technologies. After moving to London, he continued working as a session musician. He has recorded, toured and collaborated with artists including Kevin Ayers, Paul Weller, Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction), Jah Wobble, Carl Barat (Libertines) and Marc Almond. In 2011 he was commissioned to compose recitatives and an aria for a production of “The Coronation of Poppea” by the Théatre du Châtelet in Paris which centered around virtual instruments and sampling delivered by multiple computers live on stage with the players. Max continues working with artists of every genre in mixing, sound design, drum programming, bass and keyboards.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
