Electronic Sound Design (ESD) Course

This advanced Electronic Sound Design training course is for electronic music producers who want to add the final polish to their productions, turning their tracks into killer dance floor smashes. On this course you’ll explore the best of the many creative toys available today, saving you time and helping you craft sounds exactly as you hear them in your head, easily using what we are calling ‘Electronic Sound Design’. Lots of the software used on this course is free too!

The ESD course is also for sound designer musicians who wish to equip themselves with the knowledge and tools to get a leg-up in the lucrative music and sound for sync and/or video game industries.

We have music licensing partners, Filmatography who are developing a library of music for their clients who include Quintessentially, Mandarin Oriental, Davidoff, Aston Martin and Andaz. This is a realistic opportunity for ESD students to get on their roster of composers and producers for their corporate clients, as well as hundreds of filmographers and photographers who need original music for their projects too. Read more here.

Prerequisites for this course are a reasonable knowledge of synthesis, or successful completion of our EMP course. An intermediate level knowledge of mixing would be beneficial, or better still, completion of our Mixing and Mastering course. Call ahead if you would like an assessment to find out if you’re ready.

As usual, not one, but a selection of pro producers and sound designers will show you their tricks of the trade, and how they get their sound, plus our sync and sound design for music and video games specialist, Dom Beken.

If you miss any sessions due to holidays or illness, we will do our best to engineer it so you can come back on a suitable future cycle to catch up.

To enrol, call or send us an email telling us which course you would like to do, when it runs and we will organise the rest!

Week 1 – Let’s Go

• Sound Science & SPEAR
• Advance Absynth workshop
• Ambient Textures
• Phase and Amplitude Modulation Synthesis
• Advanced wavetable synthesis

Week 2 – Sound Design & Music for Media & Video Games with Dom Beken

• Sync styles, trends and typical briefs: ref tracks and the general non-sensical blurb approach
• Tempo mapping/TC markers and TC basics
• Arrangement tips for orchestra and theme building/stem creation
• Sound design and music for video games
• Game score: loops which don’t sound like loops and how the game maker implements your music
• How to tap into and get gigs in this lucrative industry
• Choose and start your Fimatography project

Week 3 – Glitch

• Glitchy textures
• Advanced FM synthesis
• Rhythm science
• Modal synthesis
• Multi program routing beyond rewire
• Intro to Max/MSP

Week 5 – Reaktor

• Understanding Reaktor filetypes
• Brief tour of the building blocks of a Reaktor ensemble to see how it works and how you can tweak any ensemble to suit your sound
• Reaktor in your tunes: The very best of Reaktor’s synths, sample players and sound generators
• The best of Reaktor’s FX ensembles
• Making your own custom presets
• Building a library fit to make a whole record in Reaktor!

Week 6 – Real World In-The-Box Mixing Electronic Music Masterclass

Tom will mix down one of his tracks signed to New State Music all over again ‘in-the-box’. There will be lots to talk about; he’ll walk you through the entire process step by step, from EQing and initial balance to all the automation involved and finishing touches. Jam-packed full of top tips to:-

• Get your drums and bass working together and sounding huge
• Make just a few elements sound like a full record
• Make a track exciting with automation
• Getting that finished glossed top-end  

This course was written for people who use any DAW

New Year Fridays |11am – 6pm | £449

January 11, 18, 25, February 1, 8 and 15

Spring Wednesday & Thursday Evenings | 7.30pm – 10.30pm | £449

February 20, 21, 27, 28, March 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, 21, 27 and 28

Early Summer Thursdays | 11am – 6pm | £449

May 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, and June 6

Midsummer Sundays | 11am – 6pm | £399

June 16, 23, 30, July 7, 14 and 21

One Week ESD Summer School | 11am – 6pm | £449

August 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24

Early Autumn Wednesday & Thursday Evenings | 7.30pm – 10.30pm | £449

September 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25, 26, October 2, 3, 9 and 10

Early Autumn Saturdays | 11am – 6pm | £399

September 7, 14, 21, 28, October 5, and 12

Late Autumn Thursdays | 11am – 6pm | £449

October 17, 24, 31, November 7, 14 and 21

Check availability

“Being a professional self-taught producer, it was valuable to revise some things I already knew, but must importantly, I learnt so many things I did not know about before. I recommend Garnish’s advance courses to experienced professional producers who make electronic music. You will still learn loads!” Rui Da Silva  (@ruidasilva)

“Quality of instructors is very, very high” Ben Hurd

“ESD is a game changer for any amateur producer looking to go pro!” Tom Dordoy

“This course is really great if you want to take your skills to the next level. It is a wonderful shortcut for finding out how you can make the most of your soft synths and you are likely to discover they do a lot more than you thought.” Rob Mills

“I have learnt more on these courses than I did on my degree.” Anthony Kellaway