Music Engineering Technology

The Music Engineering Technology degree option is an innovative fusion of arts and STEM education, providing students with both the aesthetic skills and technical ability to create audio hardware and software. A collaboration between the Virginia Tech Music program and the Bradley Department of Electrical Engineering, this program is for musicians who think like engineers and engineers who think like artists. The curriculum blends deep studies in music, audio production, and computer music with an extensive STEM education in math, physics, and engineering. Students learn music, recording, computer music, circuits, electronics, signal processing, and digital systems in order to design the next generation of audio hardware, software, and immersive music technologies. This program prepares technologically literate musicians and artistically creative engineers for careers in the audio, audio-video, multimedia, and internet industries.

Electrical Engineering Emphasis

This emphasis is designed for musicians interested in audio hardware design, acoustics, and music technology innovation. Students pursue a course of study that integrates the music core with specialized coursework in circuits, audio electronics, signal processing, and digital systems. Graduates gain a competitive edge in artistic and technical fields, with career opportunities in audio engineering, acoustic consulting, audio hardware design, and music tech startups. This track focuses on training students to be inventors and designers of new music technologies.

Who should consider Music Engineering Technology?

Students who produce music and want to understand the electronics behind sound. Our students not only learn how to produce tracks but also want to build their own tools, such as synthesizers, microphones, speakers, plugins, and spatial audio systems. The MET degree connects artistic practice with technical invention. Our students graduate with professional portfolios sought by both industry and academia that communicate the unique skill sets they developed throughout their education at Virginia Tech.

Industry forward-leaning and career pathways

With an industry-forward focus, the Music Engineering Technology program prepares students to meet the evolving needs of both the creative industries and academic research. Through hands-on learning in cutting-edge facilities, students not only learn how to operate professional studios and audio systems but also how these systems work, how they are designed, and how new systems can be invented. This combination of artistic training, technical fluency, and applied experimentation prepares graduates for careers in emerging audio industries while also equipping them with the research and design skills increasingly valued in industry and contemporary academia. Music Engineering Technology students develop practical and conceptual skills in the fields such as:

• Audio hardware and software design
• Digital signal processing
• Immersive and multimedia systems
• Audio production
• Music technology
• Human-computer interaction design
• Acoustics
• Hi-Fi audio systems and speaker design
• Sound for games
• Film industry and Foley
• XR/VR applications
• AI-assisted audio tools
• Spatial audio systems
• Computer music