Become a part of The Whittlesea Sound Project as we build a community sound library.
What sounds are you aware of and how do you respond to them at home, in your backyard, front garden, park, shopping centre, school or work-place and what is your role in contributing to the beautiful or noisy sounds that we are part of every day?
The Whittlesea Sound Project is about discovering, or reconnecting to, the diverse sounds around us, as COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease, and we venture back into our communities throughout the City of Whittlesea and beyond.
You are invited to join in by listening more closely to your environment. Consider how being aware of the sounds around you effects your connection to place and ask yourself, “is there anything in my environment that could be changed to improve the quality of sounds and the way we are living?”
The Whittlesea Sound Project also invites you to participate creatively by making your own soundscapes to share in the project.
This project is supported by the Whittlesea Creative Community Fund.
Sample sound files
Download the Set 3 Sample Files via Soundcloud
Download the Set 2 Sample Files via Soundcloud
Download the Set 1 Sample Files via Soundcloud
This is where you can get creative with sound. You are encouraged to be as inventive as possible, to adapt these samples to make up your own original sound-worlds. There are several sound files for you to download, to invent your own Soundscapes. As you experiment with these local sounds from the Whittlesea Shire, you may notice that your awareness of all sounds increases.
Thirty Whittlesea Shire field recording sample files, have been given a 'Creative Commons License'. They are available across Sample Sets 1, 2 and 3, for community members to freely download, to use for your own sonic creations.
Upload your creative soundscape
You could use free software such as ‘Audacity’ (audacityteam.org), or other Digital Audio software that you may have and import your file/s. If you need help, there are many music software demos on YouTube. Now get creative! You could copy, loop and repeat sections, cut them up and re-order different parts. Use effects to help you modify the sounds in interesting ways, such as playing them backwards, stretching the sounds, changing pitch, changing dynamics, using filters, EQ and much more…to produce your original Musique Concrète style composition. Then upload your own soundscape to join others in the Community Sound Library.
You can make your soundscape 1 to 2 minutes long. Mix it into a single stereo WAV file and upload it to The Whittlesea Sound Project - Community Sound Library. Include a Title for your piece, together with your Name and add some notes about your creative process, if you like.
Upload your creative Soundscape for the Community Library
Listen to Soundscapes in the Community Sound Library
Gary McKie/Silonics – Music Teacher/Composer/Producer
As director of this project, Gary McKie made field recordings in various locations within the City of Whittlesea, which were used as the raw material to create original soundscapes for the project.
Field recordings were made in Kinglake National Park, Mernda, Epping and Thomastown and samples of those
recordings are now available for creative community use, as we continue to explore the sounds around us...
This project was supported by a grant from the Whittlesea Creative Communities Fund.