Sound Recording

Overview

Why choose this programme

Our world-class facilities include industry-specification sound-recording studios and edit suites, and an ITU-R BS.1116 standard critical listening room equipped with a 22.2-channel reproduction system.

Our research aims to provide tools to assist in any area where assessment of the quality of audio as perceived by human listeners (either overall or in terms of specific timbral or spatial attributes) is desirable but, for one reason or another, potentially problematic; and to provide complementary tools to allow appropriate adjustment where the assessed quality is not as it should be. More generally, we aim to engineer perceptually-motivated signal analysis, processing and control systems. If we have a single over-arching goal then it is simply this: to make sound better.

What you will study

The Sound Recording programme at the University of Surrey will prepare you for success at each stage of your project. The structure is designed to provide intensive graduate preparation for a future career and is suitable for either part-time or full-time candidates.

Completion of the programme requires submission of a thesis and an oral viva with external examiners.

The normal length of study leading to a PhD is three years full-time (or around 33 months to 48 months). Part-time PhD study normally takes six years (45 months to 96 months). The normal length of study leading to a MPhil is two years full-time (21 months to 36 months). Part-time MPhil normally takes four years (33 months to 72 months). The differences between an MPhil and PhD is in the volume, originality and significance of the work you will do.

You’ll begin your project with a thorough review of previously-published academic literature in relevant areas, which will lead to a critical/analytical report. The conclusions to this report will suggest an appropriate next step, which will normally be some sort of experimental study, designed to test a hypothesis you have formulated from your literature review.

Your study might involve, for example, software design, acoustic measurements and listening tests. The results of this study will be written up in another report (and possibly as a conference paper) which will include a discussion of their significance to your project. Your literature review and experimental study, perhaps together with some additional reading or experimentation, will lead to either:

• MPhil: A thesis (around 50,000 words) drawing appropriate conclusions, and a viva examination. Alternatively, it may be possible at this stage to transfer to PhD registration.

• PhD: A full progress report drawing appropriate conclusions, refining research questions and detailing a research plan to allow these questions to be answered, together with a viva examination.