Sound and music computing

Alessandro

ENGINEERING APPROACH TO SOUND

"My name is Alessandro, I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering  and I studied piano as self-taught since I was a child. I found the Master’s degree in “Sound and Music Computing” particularly useful and suited to combine these two passions of mine, as a matter of fact this course is strongly addressed to the new technologies and the scientific analysis applied to the artistic context of music. As a result, it revealed to be perfect to me to exploit my technical background in programming and creation of software to the field of music production.

The teaching is very effective, because mostly imprinted on practical activities (even if the theoretical part is not neglected). In fact, for each exam you will sustain here, you are supposed to present a project that will contribute to your final evaluation. A remarkable aspect of this teaching approach is the possibility to have a high degree of customization of the course of study, since there are different courses that the student can choose and also the freedom to propose the topic of the project to develop.

The university has a lot of contacts with companies from all over the world, consequently it is possible, from the first semester of the second year, to make a request for an internship abroad. I personally had an experience in Italy in a company operating in physical modelling field, or rather the creation of physical models for the synthesis of sounds and musical instruments. I found very useful in carrying out this work the concepts I learnt during the academic classes, such as “sound processing”, “sound and music signal analysis” and “physical modelling”. This was to me a confirm of how this programme gives you knowledge and skills that you will be able to apply in the context of your job.

The university makes available facilities such as laboratories of virtual reality and electronics that you will be allowed to use to develop your projects.

Regarding the modality of study, you can develop the projects for the courses both on your own and in groups. It is totally up to you, even if generally for semestral projects is recommended to work in groups.
The professors are friendly and available for helps and explanations, moreover for most of the courses there are extra tutoring classes.

Finally, I suggest this course of study to those who, like me, are interested in sound both over an artistic and scientific point of view and want to learn more about the technologies applied to it."

Alexandro Cerioli, SMC student