If I was taking a class of the sort decribed above--I'd try to set up a project that showed off the skills I had learned in the class---- good folk recordings require lots of live recording---which equals studio time--Hip Hop and rock stuff can be done with relatively little live recording, with lots of synth tracks and samples cut and pasted on the the computer--the sort of thing a student could do in their own room--

On the other hand, it is possible to use synth sounds to fool the ear into thinking that it is hearing acoustic folk music when it is really hearing techno--our own Justapicker made it look easy with his recording of "Don't Think Twice"--