During April we took our annual trip to Real World Studios with our Year 2 Level 3 Music Technology students. Real World is owned by musician Peter Gabriel and known to be one of the best studios in the world. The studio has been used by countless professionals and artists such as Alicia Keys, Charlie Simpson, and Harry Styles. Real World boast an impressive 72 channel SSL (Solid State Logic) 9000K mixing console. They also have an array of impressive outboard equipment.
Students spend the academic year becoming familiar with the college’s 24 channel SSL Duality console, along with AVID Pro Tools industry standard software. This enables our students to be confident about using the equipment when entering the control room at Real World Studios. We are currently the only Further Education college to boast an SSL console. This level of equipment is usually only seen at universities and higher education facilities.
Putting theory into practice
Our students have learned about the use of EQ (equalisation), Compression, and effects such as Reverb and Delay. They are taught the theoretical knowledge behind the equipment and get hands on with both hardware and software equivalents.
The idea behind this trip was to allow the students to demonstrate all of the knowledge they have built up and put it into practice. It was an opportunity to put their first foot forward into the industry as a working professional, not just as a student. Students were able to work on the equipment many professionals over the years have used. They could also ask the staff any questions they had, allowing them to expand their knowledge and gain outside perspectives.
This experience ties into one of their assessed modules involving song creation in groups, recorded at the College. The visit to Real World was used to further record and mix their songs to achieve the best sound possible. This mu
sic is then released as part of the assessment and is out there for the world to hear.
We would like to thank Real World Studios and extend our gratitude to Bob and Fraser, the in-house engineers, for their help and support towards our students. It was an amazing opportunity for our students and a privilege to be given this exclusive access.
If you’re interested in studying a music course, head over to our courses page to get further information and apply today!
