Sound design
This programme will broaden your sonic experience to help you design new projects inspired by and developing from sound.
Milan
On campus
ITA
First Level Academic Diploma in New Art Technologies - Sound Design
Language
Italian
Start date
October 2025
Frequency
Full time
Fruition
On campus
Duration
3 Years
Credits
180
Course Coordination
Painè Cuadrelli
Learn how to describe an idea with sounds and enjoy a unique learning experience with the first-ever Sound Design course available in Italy.
Listening as a way to look: the three-year Sound Design undergraduate course will allow you to learn how to work with a visual experience that turns into sound, just as a sound can suggest an image. We will provide you with the skills, knowledge and know-how required to develop a sonic project where audio and visual elements are put together to bring ideas and perceptions to life.
The project approach to sound will be like a light to illuminate your experience with us over the years, expanding your sonic horizon with the help of lecturers and professionals from the industry who are always by your side to help you grow and maximize your potential.
Over the three-year programme, you will be involved in soundtrack design for events and installations, managing audio post-production for use on the radio, cinema, TV and commercials, and also developing corporate sound identities and interactive systems such as apps and video games. And that's just the beginning, now press Rec.
Issued Degree:
Diploma Accademico di Primo Livello (DAPL), corresponding to a Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA) – EQF6 Level (European Qualification Framework).
Credits:
The course awards 180 CFA (Academic Formative Credits), corresponding to 180 ECTS (European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System).
Information to decide
A comprehensive course covering all creative and professional areas of sound design.
Over the three years, we will go into different methods of studying and applying sounds. We will move from theory to practice using a strong hands-on approach to the production of sound contents, and eventually moving into multimedia experimentation.
The aim of the course is to help you develop creativity and technical skills while working self-sufficiently on assigned tasks. You will also have the opportunity to gain critical thinking of sound design, and learn how to use cultural and technological tools of sound production and post-production to embrace new and unexplored language forms of expression.
An in-depth study of different areas such as recording, sync sound, mixing techniques, sound editing and sound effects will be carried out through cooperation with agencies, firms, institutions and professionals, while at the same time you will be able to undertake specific projects to improve your skills and expand your potential in the job market or in further studies.
The course is for anyone who wants to explore the possibilities, styles and formats of sound, undertake research projects in the field of sound design and give expression to their own ideas and personality within the universe of visual arts and through the use of the most widely used technologies.
This course focuses on open-mindedness and curiosity about all the multimedia, video games, music and professional environments where sound as a project is the key element: if you have experience with music production software or have a special connection with sound, the three-year undergraduate course in Sound Design will first make your passion become part of your studies, then a life experience and also a true career path.
With IED you will feel part of a community of students and lecturers. You will challenge yourself by applying your skills to real projects for international brands, working through a variety of creative and professional fields. Basically, you will become familiar with what sound designers do best: connecting people and areas that are far apart and making different languages communicate with each other as part of an all-embracing experience.
The three-year undergraduate course in Sound Design was the very first in Italy in the early 2000 to combine the areas of sound, music and sound production with the world of project design and multimedia. Since then it has been further developing, always taking a multidisciplinary and open-minded approach.
The typical audio courses are offered in combination with sound projects for audiovisual contents, animation and documentaries, sound performances (musical, immersive and multimedia), interactive installations, VR, AR and video game projects, as well as partnerships with museums, festivals and areas of fashion, design and communication.
Taking this course means exploring the many applications of sound with a markedly practical, design-oriented and experience-based approach: the laboratory and experimental method, combined with the study of cultural contexts, is central to the academic career as it is fully reflected in the real-world project works that you will be given the opportunity to carry out over the three years of study.
With a special focus on market needs, the course features a faculty with lecturers comingfrom a variety of industries to bring up-to-date professional methodologies and tools into the classroom. The sound designer is highly in demand for creative and technical jobs: with this course you will be given the opportunity to develop a strong sensitivity to visual arts, while expanding your knowledge through the use of technology as a full part of sound expression.
Syllabus
First Year
Over the first year you will become familiar with the main tools and working method, gaining a better understanding of multiple cultural contexts and learning the basics of a practical approach to sound transforming new creative forms into projects.
HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ART
THEORY AND ANALYSIS OF CINEMA AND AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITAL APPLICATIONS
ARTISTIC COMMUNICATION: TOOLS AND METHODS
PERCEPTION THEORY AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FORM 1
SHOOTING TECHNIQUES
SOUND DESIGN 1
AUDIO AND MIXING 1
SEMIOTICS OF ART
HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC 1
Second year
During the second year you will be exploring the fields of sound application along with contamination with other forms of language. You will acquire technological know-how for project development of sound logos, commercials, digital apps and installations.
PERCEPTION THEORY AND THE PSYCHOLOGY OF FORM 2
SOUND DESIGN 2
AUDIO AND MIXING 2
PHENOMENOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS
MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGIES AND METHODOLOGIES FOR ENTERTAINMENT PROJECTS
INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS 1
HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC 2
PERFORMANCE TECHNIQUES FOR VISUAL ARTS
SOCIOLOGY OF COMMUNICATION
Third year
The last part of the course will be focussing on how to develop a complex project. The core of your activity will be the drafting of a dissertation, where you will be able to express your design identity working self-sufficiently across all phases, from the original idea to actual development and presentation.
THEORY AND METHOD OF MASS MEDIA
SOUND DESIGN 3
INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS 2
MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
SOUND DESIGN 4
ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY ECONOMICS AND LEGISLATION
HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC 3
Faculty
Painè Cuadrelli
Music Producer, Sound Designer, Dj
Course Coordinator
Franco Fabbri
Co-director of the Routledge series Studies in World Popular Music
Claudio Gabbiani
Guitarist and composer
Gak Sato
Composer, music producer, sound artist, Thereminist
Paolo Solcia
Composer
Dario Gavezotti
Interaction Designer, system integrator, lecturer
Taketo Gohara
Music producer, arranger and sound designer
Matteo Milani
Music & Sound Designer
Dario Paini
Acoustic Designer
Mattia Trabucchi
Sound Designer
Alberto Ricca
Lecturer in Synthesis and Performative Techniques for the Visual Arts
Leopoldo Di Lenge
Musician producer and sound designer
Claudio Buja
Chairman of Universal Music Publishing Ricordi
Fabrizio Foti
Sound Designer, Live Sound Engineer
Federico Pecoraro
Sound Engineer and Sound Designer
Riccardo Santalucia
Electro-acoustic composer, audio engineer, sound designer
Lorenzo Sattin
Sound Designer, Dj, Producer
Lorenzo Di Tria
Audio Designer and Music Producer
Jacopo Panfili
Sound Designer
Sergio Messina
Musician, Radio Author, Teacher, Researcher
Raffaele Solaini
Philosopher and semiotic expert
Tiziana Gemin
A Lecturer in Phenomenology and Curator of Media Art
Giovanni Emilio Simonetti
Economist
Vincenzo Santarcangelo
Ermanno Guarneri
Founder of Shake
Inside the labs
+5
SOUND DESIGN LABS
+4
SCANNER LASER 3D - G-SCAN
Projects
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