Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Michael Ward
Course Director
Michael Ward is a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for BSc (Hons) Music Technology. His specialist areas are sound reproduction, mastering and computational models for machine listening.
About
Michael Ward is a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for BSc (Hons) Music Technology. His specialist areas are sound reproduction, mastering and computational models for machine listening.
Michael Ward is a Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for BSc (Hons) Music Technology. His specialist areas are sound reproduction, mastering and computational models for machine listening.
Following an undergraduate degree in computing, Michael spent many years working concurrently as a software engineer and sound engineer. Deciding to combine the two, he undertook a research degree into computational models for machine listening to percussion. Michael now draws on his practice as a Mastering Engineer to deliver modules in this area and uses his expertise and passion for sound reproduction to teach technical modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
In his role as Course Leader of two awards, Michael strives to build programmes of study that meet the needs of the professional audio industries while allowing students to explore and develop their own creativity.
Michael continues to work on projects as a Sound Engineer and Mastering Engineer. Michael has mastered and engineered work by artists with international distribution and works have been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 6 and Channel 4 as well as many international alternative radio stations. Michael masters work for release on CD and digital download but most works have been released on vinyl.
Research interests
Michael's research interests lie in what could be broadly described as ‘listening’. Michael has undertaken research projects in machine listening and in the development of critical listening skills within and educational environment.
Current and future research projects seek to look at other applications for machine listening and to develop research informed teaching with regard to critical listening, acoustics and the critical discourse around his practice of Mastering.
Publications (2)
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Critical listening and acoustics as an essential part of the audio production and sound technology curriculum.
27 July 2013
50th International Conference: Audio Education (July 2013) Journal of the Audio Engineering Society Murfreesboro, TN, USA
Thompson P, Mosley B, Ward MDrawing upon current literature, qualitative and quantitative data, this paper describes the authors’ experiences of curriculum development and delivery of a dedicated module in ‘Acoustics and Critical Listening'. In addition, it outlines the initial impact this module has had on the development of students’ skills and knowledge in this area and discusses some of the challenges faced through teaching acoustics and critical listening in the classroom.
En Bas Quartet
14 September 2015
Benett SComposition for String Quartet without the bottom octave
Current teaching
Michael delivers modules on the following awards:
- BSc Music Technology
- BSc Audio Engineering
- BA Music Production
- MSc Audio Engineering.
Current module delivery:
- Level 4 Acoustics and Critical Listening
- Level 5 Mixing and Mastering
- Level 6 Sound Reproduction Systems
- Level 6 Music Technology Project
- Level 6 Mastering
- Level 7 Audio Software Engineering
