Adelaide producer and sound designer, Tim Whitt recently released his latest album 'Geisel'.
'Geisel' is no ordinary album; it was created using sound samples from the city of Adelaide.
With his portable recorder always in hand, Tim has documented the world around him. From the roaring crowd at the 2016 A-League Grand Final to the everyday sounds of Adelaide’s trams, trains, and pedestrian crossings, nothing was off-limits and nothing stayed as it was heard.
Tim also collaborated with nearly a dozen vocalists and instrumentalists to accompany his instrumental production. Together they wrote about their city, their personal experiences and how their own reflection on the city they call home carved their personal identity.
'Geisel' is available now.
Tim has written an open letter about his experience recording and making 'Geisel'.
'The decision to start creating music from recorded sounds wasn’t a calculated or premeditated decision, but rather the natural resolution of numerous chance occurrences that happened one after the other, much like stumbling down a flight of stairs in the dark.
'So there I was, fresh out of uni where I studied a Bachelor of Music (focussing on sonic arts) with my portable recorder, walking around and recording everything I could find; the rarer the better. It was literally like Pokémon Go.
'The sounds I wanted to capture the most were peaceful, nature ambiences and animals, like ducklings quacking or wind blowing gently through reeds next to a peacefully bubbling brook filled with tiny frogs. Whatever.
'The problem I kept running into was that these types of sounds are very quiet and to get a good recording, you need the background noise around you to also be very quiet. Yet no matter where I went, there was always some kind of constant loud noise from a man-made source that I didn’t notice until I’d set-up my microphone and started really listening hard.
'The thing is, once I took my headphones off I could still hear the sound, clear as day. It had always been there but I had just always tuned it out. 'Give it a try now (or don’t. It might ruin your favourite quiet space.) Close your eyes and listen to the sounds around you. Once you’ve identified a sound, look for another and then another.
'You’ll be surprised at how noisy the world around you is at all times, yet you don’t notice. The whoosh of the air coming from your air conditioner. Then the low thrum of the air conditioner’s motor. Then the slight rattle of the plastic rudder that directs air flow. It’s all there, just like the guy playing the triangle in the crescendo of Aerosmith’s 'Don’t Want To Miss A Thing'. (Enjoy hearing that for the rest of your life).
'Eventually I gave up trying to capture beautiful, nature recordings and decided to turn my attention instead to recording all the inescapable noise of the city. I became obsessed with exhaust fans early on because I found that if you listen closely, some have a distinct pitch to them like a long trumpet blast.
'I would then take my recordings and load them into some audio software (Ableton Live is my personal preference) and from there you can actually plug in a keyboard and play the sound like an organ or an string quartet and write a piece of music with it.
'By now I had realised the music I was making was being influenced by the everyday sounds I heard around Adelaide as much as everything I did, so I just went with it.
'Now I carry my recorder with me at all times (I now have recording FOMO), so I can capture every object that makes a strange click, clank or thump.
'I bought a 'contact microphone' that you stick to objects and it records the tiny vibrations that you can’t hear with your naked ear. I stuck it to the wire of a long, paddock fence outside of Lobethal and it sounded just like a horror-movie soundtrack as the wind blew.
'For awhile I was recording people’s drunken arguments down Hindley Street because their words get very sharp when they’re angry and you can make a good Major Lazer-style pitched vocal melody with their expletives.
'My favourite recorded sound is from securing a pair of microphones under the train tracks and having the carriages run overhead. You can hear the sizzle of the rails as it approaches and it just sounds so powerful. That made it onto the album.
'After I had all of these sounds, the serendipitous path just kept on unfolding as I received a position in the Jon Lemon Artist in Residence Program from the Music Development Office to turn all of the music into an album.
'Eleven of my close musician friends came in and laid down vocals and instruments over my bits and pieces of sounds. I received further grants through The Helpmann Academy and The Adelaide City Council to release the album on a new, interactive mobile app called SoundPocket that will allow people to hear the music for free at specific locations around the Adelaide CBD to create a fully immersive listening experience from the album.
'It’s been a wild ride since I first learned that noise could be music but now I’m here and to be honest, the world sounds a lot more interesting to me now. I highly recommend it, so get out there and hear something.' - Tim Whitt
'So there I was, fresh out of uni where I studied a Bachelor of Music (focussing on sonic arts) with my portable recorder, walking around and recording everything I could find; the rarer the better. It was literally like Pokémon Go.
'The sounds I wanted to capture the most were peaceful, nature ambiences and animals, like ducklings quacking or wind blowing gently through reeds next to a peacefully bubbling brook filled with tiny frogs. Whatever.
'The problem I kept running into was that these types of sounds are very quiet and to get a good recording, you need the background noise around you to also be very quiet. Yet no matter where I went, there was always some kind of constant loud noise from a man-made source that I didn’t notice until I’d set-up my microphone and started really listening hard.
'The thing is, once I took my headphones off I could still hear the sound, clear as day. It had always been there but I had just always tuned it out. 'Give it a try now (or don’t. It might ruin your favourite quiet space.) Close your eyes and listen to the sounds around you. Once you’ve identified a sound, look for another and then another.
'You’ll be surprised at how noisy the world around you is at all times, yet you don’t notice. The whoosh of the air coming from your air conditioner. Then the low thrum of the air conditioner’s motor. Then the slight rattle of the plastic rudder that directs air flow. It’s all there, just like the guy playing the triangle in the crescendo of Aerosmith’s 'Don’t Want To Miss A Thing'. (Enjoy hearing that for the rest of your life).
'Eventually I gave up trying to capture beautiful, nature recordings and decided to turn my attention instead to recording all the inescapable noise of the city. I became obsessed with exhaust fans early on because I found that if you listen closely, some have a distinct pitch to them like a long trumpet blast.
'I would then take my recordings and load them into some audio software (Ableton Live is my personal preference) and from there you can actually plug in a keyboard and play the sound like an organ or an string quartet and write a piece of music with it.
'By now I had realised the music I was making was being influenced by the everyday sounds I heard around Adelaide as much as everything I did, so I just went with it.
'Now I carry my recorder with me at all times (I now have recording FOMO), so I can capture every object that makes a strange click, clank or thump.
'I bought a 'contact microphone' that you stick to objects and it records the tiny vibrations that you can’t hear with your naked ear. I stuck it to the wire of a long, paddock fence outside of Lobethal and it sounded just like a horror-movie soundtrack as the wind blew.
'For awhile I was recording people’s drunken arguments down Hindley Street because their words get very sharp when they’re angry and you can make a good Major Lazer-style pitched vocal melody with their expletives.
'My favourite recorded sound is from securing a pair of microphones under the train tracks and having the carriages run overhead. You can hear the sizzle of the rails as it approaches and it just sounds so powerful. That made it onto the album.
'After I had all of these sounds, the serendipitous path just kept on unfolding as I received a position in the Jon Lemon Artist in Residence Program from the Music Development Office to turn all of the music into an album.
'Eleven of my close musician friends came in and laid down vocals and instruments over my bits and pieces of sounds. I received further grants through The Helpmann Academy and The Adelaide City Council to release the album on a new, interactive mobile app called SoundPocket that will allow people to hear the music for free at specific locations around the Adelaide CBD to create a fully immersive listening experience from the album.
'It’s been a wild ride since I first learned that noise could be music but now I’m here and to be honest, the world sounds a lot more interesting to me now. I highly recommend it, so get out there and hear something.' - Tim Whitt
