Sound Design
Request Information

Sound Design

Request Information

Sound Design TAC SFCM

Ever wondered how sound works in your favorite TV show, film, video game, or song? Sound design courses include everything from recording, to sampling, editing, scoring, and sound mixing. In sound design courses you will learn how to collect, edit, and create sound effects, ambient effects, for nearly every form of media.

Students learn field recording, (re-)sampling, synthesis, audio manipulation, editing and mixing to create just the right background ambiences, sense of space, and sound effects to fit the mood of a particular piece of media. Courses include Introduction to Sound Design, Building Applications for Music and Portfolio Building. Classes also include spatial audio, the latest and greatest in immersive music technology.

In this specialized program students also learn how to work to client specifications and needs of the target medium as to musical and sound qualities, from mood, character, story line, sense of time and place, all skillsets young musicians will need for a career in composing music.

TAC Studio G

TAC's new studios in the Bowes Center, inaugurated in late 2021, are home to digital Avid S6 and analog API 1608-II consoles, as well as a Meyer Sound 9.1.6 Dolby Atmos monitoring system, making them the perfect place for audio recording, post-production, and spatial audio experimentation.

TAC Michael Abels

Award-winning film composer Michael Abels met one-on-one with TAC students during a campus visit.

TAC Studio H and Sony

Each semester visiting artists from Sony Interactive Entertainment work with SFCM’s TAC students to record student scores for a fictional video game.

TAC Dolby Tech Hall

Students work with industry professionals in Studio G, the TAC program's technology hall, to adjust the variable acoustic and truss system in preparation for recording.

TAC Studio A

50 Oak Street's Studio A, a space designed for large-scale and advanced recording projects as well as clinics and master classes with visiting artists and professionals.

TAC Wires on stage

Bay Area's NPR affiliate KQED said, "One could call TAC the perfect marriage of technology, classical musicianship, and experimentation."

TAC Winter Term

Each January, SFCM students participate in Winter Term, a dedicated period of exploration outside one's primary focus area. During Winter Term, TAC students have participated in projects such as building hardware synthesizers, projection mapping in Hume Concert Hall, and performing with modular synths in a public concert.

TAC Future is Female

TAC plays host to SFCM's "Future is Female" concert in honor of International Women's Day.

a student in studio A

Technology and Applied Composition

SFCM’s TAC program offers students a direct path to careers in film, television and media scoring, sound design, and audio engineering. More than 90% of alumni are employed in the field of their choice—one of the highest job placement rates anywhere.
TAC Soundboard

Studios

SFCM’s TAC studios are the best around. They feature the latest versions of all major digital audio workstations on the market, as well as top-of-the-line hardware to suit your every recording and mixing need.

Beyond Your Major

Minors

Customize your degree with minors that deepen your musical interests or expand your skills across disciplines.

Academics

Explore music theory, history, humanities, and interdisciplinary coursework that broadens your perspective as both a musician and a scholar.

Ensembles

Perform in recitals, ensembles, orchestras, opera productions, chamber music, and more than 500 concerts each year.

The Bowes Center

Live, learn, rehearse, and connect in a residence designed to bring artists together in one creative community.

Life on Campus

Find community through student organizations, wellness resources, campus traditions, and life in the heart of San Francisco.