University of Leeds

Leeds

Leeds College of Music

smokey hotpants smokey

Any one else applying to Leeds College of Music? :confused:

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Reply 1

spiked_elf

my boyfriend is, we went to the music production open day on saturday. it was a nice place, small though and he said that the class sizes were huge and the fact that you were only allowed 2 hours in the studios in first year was appauling. was that just him being picky or is it a general criticism?

University of Leeds

Leeds

Reply 2

smokey hotpants smokey

Yeh, that's not so great, but the tutors seemed like they really knew their stuff. There don't seem to be so many courses for music production. Where else is he applying?

Reply 3

spiked_elf

yeah, he really liked the tutors. he's applied at:
sae liverpool,
salford,
leeds college of music,
newcastle doing music
lipa doing sound tech
lipa doing music

and some others on cucas that i can't remember

what about you?

Reply 4

smokey hotpants smokey

LCM
Liverpool : music/popular music
Sussex :music
Goldsmiths: popular music studies
Lipa: music
Leeds uni: popular and world musics
I've had confirmation from liverpool and LCM and that's all. lcm letter said decisions maybe only if Feb! :eek:

Reply 5

peachmelba

hey my brother might be applying to LCM next year.

he looked at it for BTEC National, as it was the only specialist music college offering it. but it had just failed its ofsted inspection and he was very underwhelmed by the open day. apparently applications for undergrad at lcm fell through the floor last year. not sure why.

he said the building was quite nice and modern but facilities were dump compared to the Performance Academy at Newcastle College!

have you (or your boyfriend) visited any of the other places you've applied or any general comments on the difference between the courses? seems like it's hard to get much unbiased information compared to courses like english. do you know anything about the independent places like acm in guidlford or guitar x in london.

thanks for any advice you can give

Reply 6

Kristafon

I am applying this year for Music Production. Even when I asked the tutors I still couldnt get a straight answer if I needed a level music or not but there you go. Atleast I have my Grade V Theroy.

I did a course there this summer over four days. The studio (as far as I can tell the only one!) is actually pretty damn nice. It has a Pro Tools system (industry standard and only one of the very few UK establishments that use it), a bit of outboard gear and is pretty big. The shame is that the big wigs in suits had decided to buy a mixing desk that wasnt actually compatiable with the software, so a lot of features on it couldnt be used. The tutor actually said that buying the correct desk would infact have been CHEAPER.

Though I dont know about the other programs (whats this about failing an inspection) but though the tutors were extremely talanted and experienced, they seemed to lack in organisation. It would have been nice if they could just have done some power point presentations instead of just coming in and talking to you, it would have been nice if they could actualy had followed the program I had been give and it would have been nice if on the first day the second tutor had turned up, instead of leaving the first one high and dry.

If you have any other questions ask me and I will try my best!

EDIT: Not comforting to see anouther LIPA Sound Tech "combatant". But then again he is also applying to Salford, which I managed to get into!

Reply 7

Scimitar_vc

I'm doing the music production degree and I think you lot are totally missing the point about the course. It’s not a music tech course, it’s a production course (The only one in the UK at that!). It takes a holistic approach to music production, that’s why you need to be reasonably good at music, technology and everything. I have to say that it's a brilliant course, and the result is that even though the equipment is inferior to other establishments I can speak from experience when I say that the results are far superior. Just because you have fancy gear doesn't make you a better engineer. In fact, until you learn how to get the best out of minimal equipment, loadsa gear will just hold you back.

At somewhere like lipa you'll learn all the maths and electronics behind what you're doing in a very sterile manner and not how to use technology creativly. As i've said I've seen results from both and its very interesting indeed.

Another benefit of the course is the fact it’s in the largest music college in the UK. There are so many amazing musicians to work with! The class sizes are small, there’s 35 people in my year and seminar groups are of about 6 people. There’s a reason why they get around 1000 applicants a year for those 30 places :P

Up to you at the end of the day but any questions, please ask!

Reply 8

Scimitar_vc

Also there is more than one studio. Also the ofsted report you refer to just suggested some improvements could be made in the FE section which has nothing to do with HE (degrees etc). LCM did NOT fail.

Reply 9

Kristafon

I am aware that was for the FE section but its still the same place, the same subject area. I think you got the wrong about the facilities, the ones at LCM are actualy very good as I said in my post.

LIPA is actualy a very practically orientated course, only about 20% of it at most is theroy, the rest is devoted to putting you on project across the all the different areas of sound technology. The student I know there has already done in his first term so many different projects and performances. Surrey however is a different matter, on the Music and Sound Recording course you do a lot of electronics as you do on mine at the same place. However they must be doing something right looking at the career prospects, just looking at the Abbey Road entrants is pretty mindblowing. A "music tech" graduate going straight into the UK's most famous (and prehaps best equiped) studio? Unfortunatley for me however I left my interset in music too late to persue it academically. I honestly dont know that much about the LCM career prospects, but there is nothing I can find on the website and Mark told me that a lot of graduates "went into TV". Thats a bit worrying personally as I know that TV and alike seems to suck up a lot of "music tech" grads to low paying, long hours jobs. Its ok if your into that, but not everyone is. Looking at the booklet that LIPA happily gave me there have been some aboslutley fantastic careers that graduates have gone into across many areas. Maybe im wrong about LCM, infact if you could get me anymore information about destinations I would be very thankfull.

Is it really that high for applicants? Is that across all subjects or just Music Production. I had the same problem with LIPA but then found that I actualy had the overall figure which was seriously distorted by the acting and dance applicants, of which there are many! The class sizes sounded about the same at LIPA as they do at LCM.

I wish you all the luck in the future and LCM cant be doing that much wrong if your enjoying yourself that much!

Reply 10

Scimitar_vc

I can confirm that that figure is for music production earlier. And that FE section isnt the same department as production is only HE level.

At the end of the day, its what you make of it and if you've got the right stuff it doesn't matter where you study. I know several LIPA guys and i have a fair idea of whats going on at each place. I think im in the right place for my needs.

End of.

Reply 11

smokey hotpants smokey

Given the very high applicant levels for the Music Production course, do LCM interview every person that they make an offer to? Or do they ever make offers based just on the UCAS form?

Reply 12

Scimitar_vc

Interview about 100 people. The interview day consists of a music tech, produciton analysis and music theory test. Then you have the interview and they check out some of your work etc.

Hope that helps.

Reply 13

smokey hotpants smokey

Yes, thanks! Now all I have to do is hope I'm one of the ones invited for interview.

Reply 14

ledge

smokey hotpants

Yes, thanks! Now all I have to do is hope I'm one of the ones invited for interview.

I took an FE course there a few years ago and thought it was a dump

Poor teaching, awful facilities and pretty twatty students as a rule (no offence to anyone here)

Just my two cents

Reply 15

smokey hotpants smokey

ledge

I took an FE course there a few years ago and thought it was a dump

Poor teaching, awful facilities and pretty twatty students as a rule (no offence to anyone here)

Just my two cents

Maybe things have improved since then??? At the open day the lecturers suggested that the Music production BA required a fair amount of academic work and that grades were taken seriously.
Are you studying music now, and if so, where?

Reply 16

Scimitar_vc

I can't be arsed to argue etc with anyone :P so if anyone wants information directly about LCM and the production course, you can get me on MSN [email protected]

Cheers

Al

Reply 17

smokey hotpants smokey

Just got an offer for Music Production BA : CC to include Music Tech.

Reply 18

Kristafon

Lucky for some: just got my rejection last week!

Well I have my LIPA interview to come!

Their f@#king loss

Reply 19

smokey hotpants smokey

Well, I was rejected by LIPA! They must each have a profile of who they're looking for. I'm stronger on music than maths. I'm sure you'll get LIPA- from your other posts you seem to prefer it to LCM. I've now had all my offers and rejections and have to decide which to put as firm choice.