Diploma in
Sound Engineering
and Digital Media (Temporarily Not Offered – teach out by 2025)

This module deals with the knowledge and skills needed for melody writing in the context of songwriting for popular music markets. You will learn song forms of popular music genres of different markets, primary(motif), secondary(musical form) and tertiary(song structure) components of songs, as well as approaches in creative writing that will culminate in producing what is termed a hit song.

This module develops the quintessential skills of listening to music and analysing it from a technical perspective. This course comprises of 2 segments: 1) from a musician’s perspective, you will learn how to listen to rhythm, time-signature, pitch and the relationship between note intervals, 2) from an engineer’s perspective you will learn how to listen to frequencies and how it affects different instruments (vocals, guitar, bass drums). At the end of the module, you will be able to analyse audio materials, identify unique musical ideas and integrate it into your repertoire.

This module equips you with the essential skills to effectively operate professional audio equipment. You will learn how microphones, microphone preamplifiers, and outboard gear operate; safe operating procedures; microphone characteristics, placement and essential studio signal flow to achieve the highest quality of audio production in a professional studio environment. You will apply the knowledge learned in this module to create professional-sounding audio recordings for song productions.

This module aims to prepare students to build a sustainable career within the music industry by providing them with a strong fundamental understanding and overview of the music business. This module will introduce: 1) Various key players in the music industry which includes publishing houses, labels, management companies, publicists, etc. 2) Singapore copyright laws and employment rights for a freelancer. 3) Impart practical skills like creating a feasible online portfolio, building a network, understanding target audiences, social media management and more.

This module covers the knowledge, techniques and skills needed for composing music (songs, jingles, film scoring, mood music, library music etc.) for moving images in audio post-production, whether it is for full feature films, movie trailers, TV commercials, online commercials, corporate videos, drama series, documentaries, animations, games or production music libraries. The module will also introduce the basics in creative management and industry practices in audio post-production.

This module equips students with the necessary skills to conceptualise and execute a music video. You will learn how to create a storyboard and make a case for your stories. You will also learn about the technical aspects of video production ranging from on-site shooting to post-production video editing.

This module equips you with skills in preparing a song for the post-production stage and it for online publishing and distribution. Topics include mixing concepts; tools used for tone shaping, audio levelling, and time-space localisation. You will explore traditional mixing workflow and modern mixing workflow; being able to describe the differences in both processes and determine the best pathway for a song.

This module equips you with essential knowledge of managing professional live sound equipment used in live performances. You will be taught principles of the live sound environment and various methods to set up, tune and run a live show.

This module will explore the production and implementation of music and audio in different interactive settings. These include immersive applications, games and installations. Students will be exposed to the interactive audio concepts and workflow, using tools like game audio middleware and game engines, where they will learn to use computational knowledge and logic to produce and implement audio for interactive applications.

This module aims to equip students with an understanding of audio post production. Students will learn the processes behind audio post production and the need for audio in the post production stage. Students will learn the various techniques used in audio post to achieve professional results for commercial projects including TV commercials, TV programs, films, corporate videos, trailers etc. Students will also learn how to handle sound design in a given project and techniques for dialogue replacement.

This module equips students with the intermediate skills to conceptualise and execute different types of video editing. Students will learn some tips in shooting to facilitate editing. Students will also learn about using text, effects, graphics, music and sound effects to polish and enhance their edit. Other than that, they will learn to edit teasers and trailers as well.

This module aims to equip students with an understanding of studio acoustic design for the project studio. With more and more music professionals building their own project studio and working out of them, it’s paramount that the space is treated acoustically to provide the best possible acoustic space for critical audio work. Students will first be equipped with fundamental audio principles like sound propagation, sound levels and decibels, sound reflection, refraction, diffraction and diffusion and an understanding of reverberation in small spaces. Students will also learn the principles of absorption and sound energy dissipation and how to calculate the modal response of a room. Students will then design their own acoustic treatment and learn how to effectively place them in the room to even out the room’s response. Students will also be exposed to listening positions and monitor setups for the most accurate listening experience in a room.

As part of the curriculum, you are required to undertake a project supervised by the facilitators. The Final Year Project Committee of our school will be entrusted to oversee the coordination of all final year projects. The Committee has prepared this set of guidelines so that you are aware of the various project requirements in terms of project schedule, project report, and presentation.

This programme is a non-graded programme which pairs up trainees with current industry professionals to develop your industrial awareness. Through constant 1 to 1 interaction with your mentors, you will be able to obtain first-hand information on how the music industry is changing and thus better hone skills which are suitable to meet the upcoming challenges. Mentors will also provide constant feedback for you to improve your craft and enable you to enter the industry as industrial-ready musicians capable of producing world-standard hits.