New Classes and Emphases for AET Majors

Curb College’s Audio Engineering Technology department is bringing changes and additions to the program that will be effective starting in the fall 2025 semester.

Two permanent courses and one pilot course will be added to the Audio Engineering Technology curriculum along with the creation of four new emphases for students to choose from, giving them a personalized direction through the different steps of their education.

“The idea is that during your freshman and sophomore year, you’re getting some generalized knowledge and exposure to what these emphases include, and then by the time you start taking these specialized classes, you would have gone through the core curriculum of the program,” said Eric Tarr, Associate Professor of Audio Engineering Technology.

Audio Engineering Technology students will take introductory level courses during their freshman and sophomore year to learn the foundations of audio, then have the opportunity to choose a specific emphasis based on their interests as juniors or seniors.

These emphases include Music Recording and Production, Live Audio Production, Audio Post Production and Audio Technology and Design.

There are no current emphases in the Audio Engineering Technology department; implementing these four emphases into the program provides courses that focus specifically on students’ chosen area of interest.

“It’s really nice because it could go ahead and give you a firm track to follow,” said Caleb Tolbert, sophomore Audio Engineering Technology major.

Curriculum is also being revamped to give freshman and sophomore students a more in-depth learning experience in basic audio before moving into emphases and specialized courses– Signal Flow will be a required prerequisite for freshmen to take before Audio 1 and Sound Reinforcement 1.

This will give students an understanding of signal flow before taking Audio 1 and Sound Reinforcement 1, whereas students currently learn signal flow as a part of Audio 1 and Sound Reinforcement 1 their sophomore year.

“It was a steeper learning curve than I was expecting… but I think that if I had it as its own separate thing to focus on, it would have made the transition a lot smoother,” said Tolbert.

Having a better understanding of foundational courses that apply to what students will work with in a professional setting will let them hone in on a specialization before they reach graduation.

“It gets them moving towards a specialization a little bit earlier on, whereas maybe they would have realized their senior year that they were really interested in live audio but may not have a lot of time… this would force them to decide… what path they want to take in audio,” said Dr. David Tough, Professor of Audio Engineering Technology.

Students tend to gravitate towards a specific area of interest at a later point in their education, and the creation of these emphases formalizes the process for them to focus on specializations they’re interested in pursuing, he said.

The Video Game Sound Design and Track Production pilot courses will become permanent in fall 2025; Game Audio Design and Implementation will be the new name for Video Game Sound Design.

“They can differentiate themselves and gain a higher level of expertise while as a student before entering the job market,” said Tarr, “We’re always trying to look for opportunities in our curriculum to balance student interest with industry needs and expectations to match up our students with jobs in the industry.”

The new emphases and addition of new and permanent courses in Curb College’s Audio Engineering Technology Program will allow students to specialize in different areas of the audio industry earlier on and at a deeper level.

This article was written by Georgina America