Program Overview

Music Engineering Technology

The Music Engineering Technology program at the University of Miami Frost School of Music has been a pioneer in education in music and technology since 1975. It sets the standard by which the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) accredits other such programs around the United States. Alumni of the program have contributed significantly to the music and audio industries and, upon graduation, pursue careers ranging from recording engineer to software designer.

Overview of the Program

The Music Engineering Technology program offers a two-year Master of Science graduate degree for students who have completed an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering or computer science. These students study the software and hardware design of audio systems and perform independent research that culminates in a thesis project. Upon graduation, these students are widely placed in top corporations that span the audio industry.

Masters Programs

• M.S. in Music Engineering Technology

Course Offerings

The program includes a variety of courses that cover topics such as transducer theory, digital audio theory, audio software development, and current trends in music engineering. Some of the specific courses offered include:

• MUE 601: Transducer Theory: This course covers the fundamentals of electromagnetism and audio transducer theory, including loudspeaker and microphone systems.
• MUE 602: Digital Audio Theory: A study of the theory and practice of digital audio topics, including discrete time sampling, quantization, dithering, PCM, A/D and D/A conversion, digital filtering, oversampling, frequency transformation, spectral processing, and analog-to-digital transformations.
• MUE 603: Audio Software Development I: Theory, design, and development of audio signal processing techniques, including DSP architectures, systems design, algorithm development, and applications.
• MUE 604: Audio Software Development II: Theory, design, and development of computer audio synthesizers and analyzers, including analog and physical modeling, wave-table, wave-shaping, and FM designs.
• MUE 606: Current Trends in Music Engineering II: This course addresses current technologies, skills, and techniques employed in a specific aspect of the audio technology and/or music technology fields.
• MUE 608: Current Trends in Music Engineering III: MMI 608 addresses current technologies, skills, and techniques employed in a specific aspect of the audio technology and/or music technology fields.
• MUE 610: Computational Psychoacoustics: This course deals with the fundamentals of audition in human biological systems, including auditory sensory transduction, cochlear processes, neural pathways, cortical organization, and auditory illusions, with specific applications to perceptual data reduction techniques and auditory displays.
• MUE 611: Current Trends in Music Engineering IV: MUE 611 addresses current technologies, skills, and techniques employed in a specific aspect of the audio technology and/or music technology fields.
• MUE 620: Audio Technology for Musicians: Introduction and overview of audio technology with emphasis on music recording, production equipment, and techniques.
• MUE 621: Critical Listening for Audio Engineers: Students in this course will accomplish four primary goals: instantaneous discernment of ISO frequency regions and critical bands; aural identification of audio-processing techniques, artifacts, and problems; development of critical thinking skills and competence in current audio listening test methodologies; and successful completion of a comprehensive bank of critical listening “golden ears” tests.
• MUE 630: Music + AI: This course provides an overview study of the theory and practice of applying artificial intelligence to music-analytic and music-generative scenarios or tasks.
• MUE 640: Music in the Metaverse: A survey of conceptual and philosophical topics relating to music (and other activities/experiences) in the metaverse, followed by technical exploration of topics relating to sound in XR, such as source localization and HRTFs.
• MUE 650: Web Programming for Music: Theory, design, and development of web-based applications for music, including the software engineering lifecycle, version control, client and server architectures and languages, design and UML.
• MUE 694: Special Topics in Music Engineering Technology: Advanced group/classroom instruction pertaining to faculty member’s expertise and students’ areas of interest.
• MUE 705: Current Trends in Music Engineering I: This seminar-style course introduces new graduate students to research, the thesis process, and graduate-level music engineering topics, ranging from conceptual to practical.
• MUE 706: Current Topics in Audio Analysis and Signal Processing: MUE 706 surveys recent topics related to audio analysis, synthesis, and signal processing with an emphasis in software programming and practical applications.
• MUE 753: Transducer Workshop: Fundamentals of electromagnetism and audio transducer theory, including loudspeaker and microphone systems.
• MUE 793: Special Projects in Music Engineering Technology: Advanced individual instruction pertaining to faculty member’s area of expertise and student’s area of interest, including a culminating project.
• MUE 794: Special Topics in Music Engineering Technology: Advanced group/classroom instruction pertaining to faculty member’s expertise and students’ areas of interest.
• MUE 813: Master's Research Project: The student working on his/her master's research project enrolls for credit as determined by his/her advisor. Credit is not awarded until the project paper is accepted.
• MUE 820: Research in Residence: Used to establish research in residence and maintain full-time enrollment for the master’s degree after the student has completed the required hours of thesis or project credit.