South Plains College sound programs give students hands-on mixing and live-sound experience

South Plains College instructors and students described how the college’s Sound Technology and Live Sound tracks prepare graduates for jobs in the audio industry, emphasizing semester-long lab work, on-campus performances and a mixture of studio and live-sound training.

The programs give students repeated, graded opportunities to mix live performances that are open to the public. “We do the throughout the semester the different music ensembles will have live performances,” said Dolph Guardiola, an instructor in the Sound Technology department. Guardiola said students mix lunchtime and Thursday-night shows and that many students mix multiple bands: “I think each one of my students is mixing three, three bands.”

The hands-on work is paired with classroom fundamentals. Guardiola said Audio Engineering I covers “the fundamentals” — “learning about the physics of…