Music Technology in Maynooth or Ballyfermot?

eoinhartwieg

Hi everyone,

I've recently been accepted into both the music tecnology course in maynooth and the music technology course in ballyfermot and i am having trouble deciding which course to do. As far as i understand it the course in Ballyfermot is more practical orientated as opposed to a more arts and accedemical approch in Maynooth. The one in maynooth leads to a degree, the one in Ballyfermot a BTEC diploma.

I am terrible at making decisions and any opinons or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Eoin

dav nagle

eoinhartwieg wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I've recently been accepted into both the music tecnology course in maynooth and the music technology course in ballyfermot and i am having trouble deciding which course to do. As far as i understand it the course in Ballyfermot is more practical orientated as opposed to a more arts and accedemical approch in Maynooth. The one in maynooth leads to a degree, the one in Ballyfermot a BTEC diploma.

I am terrible at making decisions and any opinons or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Eoin

Degree I think is best

eoin5

eoinhartwieg wrote: »

Hi everyone,

I've recently been accepted into both the music tecnology course in maynooth and the music technology course in ballyfermot and i am having trouble deciding which course to do. As far as i understand it the course in Ballyfermot is more practical orientated as opposed to a more arts and accedemical approch in Maynooth. The one in maynooth leads to a degree, the one in Ballyfermot a BTEC diploma.

I am terrible at making decisions and any opinons or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Eoin

The recording studio they have in maynooth is beyond class! I know a few of the lecturers there and they know their stuff for sure. Its an excellent campus too, I did comp sci there a few years ago.

studiorat

You can usually skip into a degree after a btec. I do some BTEC lectures students after that can do a Degree in a year so it's probably easy enough either way.

Depends on what you want to do afterwards, for recording studios and pa companies do the shortest course and then just start looking for work. If you want to get into something more academic do the degree, the degree only seems to matter to people who know nothing about recording:rolleyes:

if6was9

I'd say to go with whichever has more years with you having access to the equipment- probably the degree one in maynooth.
If yer driven you'll spend as much time as you can on your own in their studio working at learning by yourself, thats where the real education is- doing it for yourself you learn so much more than reading about it or having someone telling you about it.
I'm going into my final ( 4th ) year in L.I.T where we only got the gear during last year- i'm going to miss not having access to that way more than my lectures.

PaulBrewer

eoin5 wrote: »

The recording studio they have in maynooth is beyond class! I know a few of the lecturers there and they know their stuff for sure. Its an excellent campus too, I did comp sci there a few years ago.

Very Nice Audient Desk there .....;)

cornbb

I haven't done either of those courses but I did the UL course, I have friends who've done the Maynooth course and I understand they're quite similar.

Be very careful about what you choose, each course could be oriented towards very different things. It possible the Maynooth course is much more general/theoretic, or academic as you put it. It might suit anyone who wants to get into music programming, electronic music, "art" music, teaching, and a number of other things but it might not suit someone who wants to get in as much pure Pro Tools/studio work as possible.

As I said, I haven't done the course myself, but the similar course I did in UL wasn't oriented specifically towards studio work, so that might not suit you. Maybe ask the advice of the staff and try to talk to someone who's done the course.

Is it a bachelor's or masters degree out of interest? And would what area of music technology/production are you hoping to get into?

PaulBrewer

cornbb wrote: »

I haven't done either of those courses but I did the UL course, I have friends who've done the Maynooth course and I understand they're quite similar.

Be very careful about what you choose, each course could be oriented towards very different things. It possible the Maynooth course is much more general/theoretic, or academic as you put it. It might suit anyone who wants to get into music programming, electronic music, "art" music, teaching, and a number of other things but it might not suit someone who wants to get in as much pure Pro Tools/studio work as possible.

As I said, I haven't done the course myself, but the similar course I did in UL wasn't oriented specifically towards studio work, so that might not suit you. Maybe ask the advice of the staff and try to talk to someone who's done the course.

Is it a bachelor's or masters degree out of interest? And would what area of music technology/production are you hoping to get into?

It seems to me, and I could be wrong, that Courses' 'flavours' are driven by the people who give them i.e. their area of interest or (lack of?) expertise ....

cornbb

PaulBrewer wrote: »

It seems to me, and I could be wrong, that Courses' 'flavours' are driven by the people who give them i.e. their area of interest or (lack of?) expertise ....

To an extent yes, at a day-to-day level, but the syllabus and general gist of a course would be decided upon by some sort of committee or academic council at some stage, at universities anyway. I haven't got a clue about the ins and outs of that process :eek:

PaulBrewer

cornbb wrote: »

To an extent yes, at a day-to-day level, but the syllabus and general gist of a course would be decided upon by some sort of committee or academic council at some stage, at universities anyway. I haven't got a clue about the ins and outs of that process :eek:

Yes indeed, but a page is easily turned!

eoin5

From what I've heard about the Maynooth course theres plenty of practical stuff involved (group recording projects with limited tracks etc) but the staff I know are very computer orientated so expect plenty of heavy maths, white papers, fourier transforms and everyones favourite programming language, matlab

jtsuited

Maynooth is a University and as such has the ethos of a well rounded education to it's music technology courses.

I did my MA there and know a few people doing the undergrad.

At the end of the day with Maynooth you can get a real university education that should be life-changing.

Looking at your life long term (especially with the state of the global economy), you'll realise that a university education is far more beneficial than having just practical training in one specific area of music technology.

The courses do take an academic/theoretical approach, but imo that is far more useful than being able to make a drumkit sound good (not to mention that making a drumkit sound good is not an achievement worthy of a National University degree by any stretch of the imagination.

There's plenty of practical stuff in the undergrad to keep you in the studio also.
Most of my time doing my MA there was spent in the studio doing lots of non-college related stuff.
You're pretty much getting to do a University degree while having access to a decent studio, mics, etc.

No brainer if you ask me.

PaulBrewer

eoinhartwieg wrote: »

I am terrible at making decisions

That's exactly what the job is!!