Huddersfield, UK (May 25, 2023)—Immersive music has gone mainstream, but there’s still so much to learn and discover about it. With that in mind, the University of Huddersfield has announced the new Andrew Scheps Music Production Scholarship, open to applicants engaging in research on any subject related to spatial audio music production, particularly popular music production and mixing. Applications are due by June 9, 2023 for international applicants and June 30, 2023 for home applicants.
Huddersfield’s scholarship is for new UK, EU and International PhD students starting in October 2023, and will provide an opportunity to explore spatial audio mixing within popular music genres to understand better the influence of production and mixing strategies on the end listener. For example, research could investigate the use of height and rear speakers, the impact of spatial mixing on instrumental cohesion within music production, the extent to which the precision of the mixing controls aligns with human psychoacoustic capabilities and other areas of study within spatial audio mixing, which will inform the music production industry on best practices and approaches to create end listener satisfaction and immersion.
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In a statement, Scheps himself noted, “I’m very excited to be a part of the Andrew Scheps Music Production Scholarship at the University of Huddersfield. Immersive production and mixing is an exploding field within the music business, and its impact on the business as well as consumers is something that needs to be better understood from technical, sociological and practical perspectives. Huddersfield has the perfect balance of creative and practical music technology studies and a history of rich and varied academic research in a field that is historically hard to quantify. I very much look forward to working with the recipients to help them through their research and I will certainly learn a lot along the way myself.”
The successful candidate’s primary affiliation will be within the Music and Audio Production (MAP) research group, which is part of the Centre for Centre for Audio and Psychoacoustic Engineering (CAPE) within the School of Computing and Engineering. Members from the group and research center have a successful track record in spatial audio research and are hosting the 2023 AES Internal Conference on Spatial Audio and Immersive Audio.
The successful candidate can expect a full fee waiver of tuition fees; full-time PhD study for three years, beginning in October 2023; supervision from the academic staff, including support from Andrew Scheps; a £3k per annum stipend; access to financial support relating to the scholarship; and access to music production and research facilities, including a Dolby Atmos-equipped studio and purpose-built spatial audio critical listening room. Applications, due June 9, 2023, should be accompanied by a proposal outlining the project.
