USU creates a path to professional audio technology

From recording and mixing to post-production, Utah State University’s new certificate of proficiency in audio technology prepares students for sound engineering careers.

The Music Department will award its first round of certificates at the end of the 2025 spring semester.

“We started offering the intro course about four years ago,” said Ryan Conger, adjunct professor over the audio technology courses. “We’ve just been slowly rolling out the courses, and this calendar year is the first year that all of the courses are going to be available.”

Over the course of 16 credits and seven classes, students begin with the fundamentals of audio technology and end with an individual capstone project and internship.

“This certificate has just been approved this year,” Conger said. “These new programs always take a while to get through, especially when we’re designing all of the courses from scratch, rolling them out and then getting them approved for a certificate program.”

The program begins with MUSC 1360: Intro to Audio Technology, where students learn the basics of signal flow and processing, audio file handling, microphone applications, live sound and audio mixing.

“The goal of that class is to get you introduced to all of the main topics that we cover in depth in some of the later courses,” Conger said. “The two main things we focus on with music technology at USU are the live sound aspects and studio recording and mixing.”

Aspects of live sound include sound reinforcement, running mixing boards and proper set up and take down of equipment, laying the groundwork for high fidelity production.

The course provides experiences utilizing different audio equipment to create a variety of projects.

“We do a lot of hands-on practicum experiences. We’ll do several multi-track recording sessions and even a live recording session with the class, and then they get to do some real mixing as well,” Conger said.

Next in the certificate path is MUSC 2360: Live Music Production, which dives further into live recording, microphone and mixing board operations.

“In this course, we partner up with USU Student Media and Aggie Radio to put on the Logan City Limits show at the end of the year,” Conger said.

Logan City Limits is an annual music festival hosted by Aggie Radio in early April meant to spotlight local musicians.

MUSC 2370: Music Recording and Post-Production is the last general course in the program to provide a broader overview of audio technology skills. The course tasks students with recording and mixing projects and proper use of recording software.

“In this class, we do get into a lot of recording software —  MIDI, mixing and mastering — and publishing audio in that class,” Conger said. “The other classes are more like wrap up classes, but these are the really important ones.”

The final courses to obtain the certificate include a private instruction, capstone and an internship.

“There’s a practicum class which students are required to take two credits of,” Conger said. “The students all get a few hours of one-on-one instruction with me, working through specific music projects that they’re working on with their portfolios. It’s a real portfolio and specific skill-building course.”

The capstone course builds further on a student’s resume and curriculum vitae, tailoring portfolios for specific careers in audio technology a student might want to explore.

The last step to obtaining the certificate is a 60-hour minimum internship working with an audio technology company, which the program helps place students with.

“We’ve placed students all the way to Provo to locally here in Logan with different jobs,” Conger said. “It’s just a good resume and experience-building opportunity through that.”

This new certificate pathway is meant to fit with any degree plan regardless of major.

“Any student could come and take these 16 credits and walk away with a certificate,” Conger said. “They could also complete this alongside another four-year degree in another area. Most of my students so far have been ones pursuing other four-year degrees, but I also have students in the program who are just pursuing this.”

Many students within the program pursue degrees outside of the music or arts department.

“I would say a majority of my students come into the intro class with little or no experience in audio technology, and they do just fine,” Conger said. “We really do start from ground zero on everything.”

Nate Jefferies is a second-year exploratory student pursuing the audio technology certificate.

“I have always enjoyed music and have been playing music since high school,” Jefferies said. “When I came to Utah State, I had it in my mind that I would try a lot of different things. I wasn’t set on doing anything related to music or audio tech, but I was hoping there would be something.”

Historically, USU has been known for agriculture and engineering. According to the Office of Data and Analytics, some of the most popular undergraduate degrees include economics, mechanical engineering, computer science and psychology.

“USU is definitely more geared towards agriculture and different sciences, and it was just kind of lacking in the music department when I first came here,” Jefferies said. “It was good timing when I had finished all my generals and wasn’t sure what to do, so I started taking classes for this.”

Jefferies hopes to become proficient in skills such as mixing and mastering.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time on my own trying to learn studio mixing, so that way if I write and play a song for myself or with friends, I want to be able to record, mix and master it properly,” Jefferies said. “I’m excited for the class because we can really dig into that and learn how to do that up to professional standards.”

According to Conger, the university intends to roll out more short, career-oriented certificate programs in the coming years to offer students more ways to fulfill their specific goals, with 10 certificate programs approved during the 2024-25 school year.

“The idea behind these certificates is to offer some different size packages for different students,” Conger said. “The four-year degree isn’t always the best fit for every student, and it isn’t always the best fit for certain fields.”