School Policies

Studio Warning System

As a student of SEM, you must abide by the school rules listed below when at SEM. Tutors and Tech Support will be checking whether they are being followed. If a member of SEM staff sees one of these rules being broken you will be politely reminded of the studio rules.

If the offence is repeated or if the student is not present at the time of a member of staff discovering the issue you will receive a written warning via email.

In a 3-month period each student has a maximum of 3 written warnings starting from the date of the first offence. After 3 written warnings your Room Booking account and studio access will be temporarily suspended for 3 weeks. Any sessions pre-booked in this time period will be deleted.
SEM has the right to deny access to the studios and school without multiple written warnings if we feel the nature of the offence is severe.
Students can appeal for their access to be reinstated through an appeal process via the Student Support Officer Lawrence Allen. Please visit him in SEM Reception, ring 0161 833 4722 or contact info@semmanchester.com.

01. Food and Drink

Food and drink (including cans and coffee cups) are not allowed to be consumed anywhere on the school floor or in the DJ Lab. This includes all classrooms, practice studios and corridors. All food and drink must be consumed downstairs in the designated Student Social Space. The only exception to this rule is with capped water bottles, which are allowed in lessons and practice sessions but must be kept well away from any studio equipment.

01. Visitors

SEM students studying Introduction to Music Production, Advanced Music Production, Audio Engineering or the BA (Hons) Music Production are only allowed to bring visitors into SEM if the visitor is beneficial to their work i.e. the student is recording a vocalist for their track. All other students (such as DJ students) are not allowed visitors to SEM.

Visitors must not enter SEM premises without being signed in. They can be signed in at SEM Reception on weekdays from 10am – 6pm, or with Tech Support (07904 876 269) on weekdays between 6pm – 10pm, and on weekends 12 – 9pm. The visitor must exchange a form of photo ID for a visitor’s pass.

Visitors must be accompanied by the student they are with at all times whilst at SEM. If a visitor arrives before the student, they must wait in the school space downstairs until the student they are here to see arrives.
Visitors must read the SEM Visitor’s Induction and sign the document upon arrival. Students are responsible for their visitors whilst in SEM, and should ensure their visitors understand and abide by SEM’s rules prior to coming on site. SEM will hold students liable for any damage caused by visitors.

03. Punctuality

Students must be on time to all studio sessions. If you know you will be late to a studio session, you need to contact Tech Support a minimum of 30 minutes before the session begins. If you need to cancel a studio session you need to ring or email Tech Support a minimum of 2 hours before the start of the session. You should contact Tech Support via email: tech@semmanchester.com, or via phone: 07904 876 269 (live from 12pm 7 days a week). If your session is before 12pm, ring SEM Reception on 0161 833 4722. You will not be able to use the Room Booking system to cancel or edit a studio session, you must ring or email Tech Support/SEM Reception.
For each studio session, you should be packing up and saving your work 10 minutes prior to the end of the session, and ensure you have left the studio before the session expires so that other students can use the studio on time.

04.Microphones

Introduction to Music Production, Advanced Music Production and BA (Hons) Music Production students will gain access to all microphones but must complete the SEM Microphone Induction. This will be covered in a lecture by your tutor, but for students that would like to use the school’s microphone selection before this lesson, they must book a microphone induction with Tech Support. This is similar to the studio induction procedure, and will cover how to setup the microphone correctly and in a safe way to reduce the risk of damaging the equipment.

05. Equipment

You must treat the equipment and studios at SEM with respect. This means not slamming cue buttons or mixer faders, or misusing keyboards and controllers. If there are decksavers for CDJs and mixers, please re-fit these after use. Please remove any hand/wrist jewellery prior to DJing or playing on keyboards as this can easily scratch the equipment. There is acoustic panelling in SEM Studios, you must not lean on this or put chairs against them.
If you have borrowed a microphone or any extra equipment, you must ensure this is all packed away 15 minutes before the end of your session. Once packed away, you should then contact Tech Support so they can collect the equipment. For Audio Engineering students, all the equipment needs to be put away into the Studio 1 Live Room cupboard. All cables should be neatly coiled and placed back on their assigned hooks, and any amplifiers returned to their correct place.

All equipment (including DJ desks) throughout the school must not be moved or unplugged. If you need to unplug any USBs, power supplies or cables from a workstation, DJ setup, or studio, then you must always contact Tech Support first, regardless of how minor the issue may seem. Unplugging or moving equipment can result in damaging the ports, or cause the equipment to become faulty.
Equally if you need to plug anything in to existing setups and workstations such as a DJ controller, please contact Tech Support. Absolutely no phones or appliances other than USB sticks should be plugged in via the CDJs, as this has previously caused several power surges which has damaged equipment.

Do not change any settings on the back of any speakers. The speakers have been calibrated at a specific level to protect your ears and the equipment.
All equipment must be powered on in the correct order at the start of every session. When turning the equipment on, make sure to turn the CDJs/turntables and the mixer on before turning on the speakers. In the DJ lab the main speakers are on a separate plug, so make sure to turn the mixer plug on before the speakers plug.

All equipment must be powered off in the correct order at the end of every session. This means powering down the computer/CDJs/mixer and then switching off the power on the plug sockets. The majority of the equipment will have an easily reachable power switch, which must be turned off before powering off at the plug sockets. There are a few pieces of equipment that do not, but you will be told about these in the relevant studio induction with Tech Support or your tutor. All equipment must be powered off at the end of any session even if someone is booked in that studio after you. The only exception is if the student booked in after you has arrived and spoken to you.

06. Litter in Studios

You should ensure your workstation is left in a clean state. All litter must be discarded in the bins provided, which are on the corridor entrances for the ground floor, 1st and 2nd floors, and by the 2nd floor toilets. Tutors and Tech Support will be checking after every studio session and class for litter.
Cigarettes should not be rolled in the SEM studios. Use the tables in the designated Student Social Space on the ground floor.

07. Student Work and Student Personal Accounts

All the Music Production workstations have a temporary student work folder where you can save your work to. Work can be kept there for 1 month; anything left for over a month will be deleted. It is your responsibility to backup and store your work on another device (such as a USB memory stick or external hard-drive, and then keep a secondary backup on another system at home or in the cloud.) SEM is not responsible for the loss of any work saved on any of the workstations so make sure to always backup your files. Any other folders such as the documents, downloads and desktop will be regularly cleared, do not save your work in these folders.

If you need to use a file cloud storage system, website or service that you need to login using your personal account, please ensure you sign out at the end of each session and make sure to uncheck the ‘remember this password’ box on entering your details. The cookies, passwords and internet data get cleared regularly but the SEM computers are seen as public systems and logging into your personal account on any of the school computers is done so at your own risk.

08. Headphone Jack Adapters

During lessons and practical time in the Midi Lab and Midi Lab 2 (iMac suites) you will need to use the Scarlett solo interface (Midilab) and the Logitech USB adapters (Midilab 2) to plug your headphones in. The headphone jack input ports on the back of the iMacs are not to be used under any circumstances.

You need to bring a 1/4 inch headphone jack adapter to every lesson and practical session in the Midi Lab. If your Scarlett Solo interface is not working please contact your tutor or Tech Support immediately.

1/4 inch Headphone adapters are available to purchase through the school for £2 via this link. Alternatively, please get in contact with Tech Support if you need to purchase one. Payment can be made by cash or card.

09. Studio Bookings

a. Whilst you are studying here at SEM you will gain access to use our studios outside of lesson time to practice. Depending on the module(s) you are studying will depend on what studios you will be able to use. The Midi Lab and Midi Lab 2 are the two main iMac suites in the school located on the top floor. You will gain access to these two rooms after your first lesson on all music production modules.

b. Below is a list of our modules and what studios you will be able to access:

Introduction to Music Production – Midi Lab, Midi Lab 2, Studio 3A, 3B, 3C
Advanced Music Production – Midi Lab, Midi Lab 2, Studio 3A, 3B 3C, Studio 2A, 2B
Audio Engineering – Midi Lab, Midi Lab 2, Studio 1 + 1 Live, Studio 3A, 3B, 3C, Studio 2A, 2B
Complete DJ – Midi Lab, Midi Lab 2, DJ Lab, DJ Lab 2
Electronic Music Composition – Midi Lab, Midi Lab 2
Music Business – Midi Lab, Midi Lab 2
Short Courses (Ableton, Logic, Maschine etc.) – Midi Lab, Midi Lab 2

c. On the Introduction to Music Production, Advanced Music Production and Audio Engineering modules you will be inducted into the studios by your tutor during one of your lessons. You will however be able to request via your tutor an early induction into the highlighted/bolded studios listed above. It is at your tutor and SEM’s discretion whether your early induction request is accepted; your class attendance and previous experience will be taken into consideration.

d. If you are studying multiple modules, you will have access to all the current and previous studios you have been inducted in throughout your modules. For example if you finish the Complete DJ course and then enrol onto the Introduction to Music Production Course, you will have access to the DJ suites and the Introduction to Music Production studios until your Introduction to Music Production access finishes.

e. If you are already a DJ and wish to use the DJ studios at SEM, we will require you to undertake a minimum of the Fast-Track DJ Course, or the Complete DJ Course, in order to access the DJ studios.

f. Studio 1 and Studio 1 Live are the only exception to this rule (9D) due to ensuring fair access to the recording facilities. After your Audio Engineering module finishes you will receive 3 months of access to Studio 1 and Studio 1 Live. Even if you are continuing to study at SEM, your access to these studios will end after this period, but you will still have access to any other studios you have inducted into.

g. Students are not allowed to use studios they have not been inducted into. You will only be allowed access to the studios that are assigned to the modules you are currently studying or any modules you have studied in the past at SEM, regardless of previous external training or experience. This is to protect the school’s equipment from being damaged and to ensure fairness of access to all students.