New Music Skills Suite
The new Music Skills Suite was opened to the students of ICMuS at the beginning of March 2010. The Suite, which was a PC lab, has been transformed with CETL initiative under the Music Skills Project to make better use of the existing computers and augment its facilities with the latest as well as time-honoured equipment.
When it is not in use as a state-of-the-art lecture space with a touch-sensitive smartboard and full AV capabilities, the room can be booked by the students to explore and improve their own music skills. For example, the room has 12 computers (both PCs and MACs) with their own M-Audio keyboard and Pro-Tools sound card. Each of these digital workstations has a wide range of music skills software including the latest versions of Sibelius, Auralia, Musition, Pro-Tools and Logic.
The room also has six practical workstations (an M-Audio Keyboard alongside a Yamaha Digital Drum Machine) where the students can quickly realise and experiment with the compositional and theoretical practicalities of both pitched and non-pitched performance and notation. Finally, three technical drawing boards have been installed so that students who are undertaking courses in notated composition, analysis, or any other module which requires a level of musical calligraphy can practice and complete their work with the best resources at their disposal.
