Spirit Studios - Manchester

Incupa

Had a prospective visit with Shane and Josh, they were really kind and helpful in offering details about the degrees and the facilities. Seems like a great place to be, would highly recommend.

Christopher M.

Studying here for my degree. Really great facilities with a huge range of sound systems and recording space.
Sometimes these get overly booked up, but this is manageable if you make sure to plan projects effectively.
The teaching staff are all extremely knowledgeable and approachable... It's a real pleasure to learn here and I've felt my abilities grow year round.

Rick M.

A superb well run and organised learning facility for a wide range of music production areas, very lucky to have such a amazing resource in Manchester. Access to world class equipment and industry experienced tutors who know how to use it, you get out what you put in to the courses by using private studio time. Easy going vibe, open all hours, positive attitude from everyone, clean, fun, rewarding.

Harvey B.

Having studied here for 3 years on the (BA) Hons Music Production course, I cannot recommend Spirit enough.

Excellent facilities throughout the building packed with top of the line, professional recording/production equipment. A huge selection of facilities designed to cater to specific needs (mixing, mastering, recording, production, post production ect.)

Extremely knowledgable and friendly staff who actively work in the industry allowing you to develop your skills and learn from some of the industry’s most talented professionals.

Frequent master-classes, tutorials and workshops designed to expand your skill set, learn from industry icons and visit various studios and venues across Manchester in order to explore possible career paths and opportunities.

As well as offering a wide range of courses designed to help you reach your full potential in whatever area of the industry inspires you the most, whilst developing your skills with likeminded people and creating valuable friendships and contacts within the industry.

Chris G.

Fantastic staff who have all been in the business for a long time. Excellent equipment including top end synths, microphones, amps, you name it. Great access options through the week for students even if on the industry courses (which I'm on my 2nd one year course now) highly recommend.

David H.

A very enjoyable session, great atmosphere and resources

Simon G.

Great place to learn, work and meet like minded people that are passionate about music and sound. Friendly and knowledgeable staff and accepting of all.

Philthy A.

I completed a 3 year Bsc(Hons) Sound engineering and production
Cons:
This, like any course linked with a degree, means that the course has to show certain academic qualities, meaning certain aspects of the course content seemed very much thrown in for the sake of 'we have to for your final grade'
There are size constraints - there are many great facilities at SSR, however it can be tricky to really share the facilities with all students across all courses effectively as the students want/need more time than is available.
Some lecturer's were amazing in terms of audio knowledge, however were not the best at lecturing/teaching - this also meant that some academic sides (such as correct use of references, formatting etc) would be interoperated by different tutors, meaning what was right for one tutor, would be a deduction of 20% to another (one example was the use of ( ' ) marks being used instead of ( " ) marks, when one tutor swore by one and the other by the latter, which did lead to a 20% deduction for some poor students in a written piece!)
It's not a university. It doesn't feel like a university, and that's ok. However
it needs to affiliate itself with other universities - and unfortunately it affiliated itself with the university of Bolton (but that's for another day)

Pros:
The studio's are open until 2am... 2AM!!! there's nothing like coming out of a 12-hour studio session (when you can find the free time) with a band and feeling like an absolute pro. and you will literally have no other way of getting free reign over gear like that without going to SSR. No studio would trust anyone on his or her own with studio equipment. and hey if you wanted to book an hour to practice something dead simple such as patching, signal flow, or even just getting to know a new desk, you had that opportunity, that taught me more than any course would!
the gear list is extensive - I didn’t realise how lucky I had been until I left and started building my own gear locker, just to realise that great gear which I maybe took a little for granted, would cost 7 or 8 grand! you can have very valid discussions with professionals about equipment, just because of the access students have to great mic's outboard and desks (and don’t get me started on the ludicrous amounts of expensive software and millions of audio samples at our fingertips!)
the lecturers are there to lecture you - they are also there as they have done the job we all want, and they share the same passions and common interests; if you ever want a chat about music, sound, a new album, one of your own tracks from home, then you will never find people more enthusiastic to chat to you about it. I swear every new home production I had made, would be extensively listened to by at least 2 of my tutors, just because they were more than happy to, and could criticise constructively, and teach you things that cant get covered by the course itself.
The course covered loads of additional smaller courses (such as official pro tools courses, British safety council certifications, D&B Audiotechnik software training) so you are coming away with more than just a degree qualification!
They keep in touch after graduation. This really made me feel like I had done something with my three years at SSR, I even emailed asking form some work I had done in order to apply for a job at a recording studio in Bristol, and sure enough they burned CD's and emailed them directly to me with all my old files on! They even emailed with some job opportunities!

Overall, they will always have some teething problems. If you can wangle your way into a live sound company, or a studio, then great - go for it! However that is like looking for unicorn piss. If you want to get the chance to use millions of pounds worth of audio gear, taught to you by actual audio professionals, then SSR is quite frankly, brilliant.