In the realm of electronic music production, tools, hardware, and digital audio workstations (DAWs) typically dominate conversations about workflow. Producers obsess over the warmth of analog saturation, the precise transient shaping of a compressor, or the harmonic resonance of a boutique synthesizer. Yet, for visionary composer, producer, and sound designer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, the most vital instrument in her signal chain cannot be patched into a Eurorack modular system, nor can it be found in a plugin catalog. It is her own neurology.
Appearing recently as a featured guest on MusicTech’s acclaimed My Forever Studio podcast—produced in partnership with Audient—Smith pulled back the curtain on her deeply unconventional creative process. Speaking candidly with hosts Will Betts and Chris Barker, the acclaimed artist discussed how synaesthesia—a neurological phenomenon wherein stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second, concurrent pathway—serves as her ultimate guiding compass.
While popular culture often reduces synaesthesia to the simple act of "seeing sounds" as colors or geometric patterns, Smith’s lived experience is far more complex, physical, and tactile. For the composer, sound translates into hyper-specific bodily sensations and emotional landscapes that dictate every mix decision, arrangement choice, and sonic juxtaposition. Rather than relying solely on traditional music theory or trial-and-error sequencing, Smith lets her internal sensory ecosystem dictate when a track is finished, what frequency adjustments are required, and how an arrangement breathes.
This comprehensive report explores Smith’s unique creative methodology, contextualizes the science and prevalence of synaesthesia within the broader music community, and examines her appearance on My Forever Studio, where elite creators design their fantasy workspace with absolute disregard for budget or physical limitations.
Detailed Chronology: The Evolution of Smith’s Sensory Workflow
To understand Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s music—characterized by its shimmering modular synthesis, organic vocal processing, and cascading wave-like structures—one must trace the evolution of how she learned to trust her neurological responses over standard industry conventions.
Early Discoveries and the Modular Awakening
Growing up with a deep fascination for the natural world and classical composition, Smith initially studied composition and sound engineering with a focus on classical guitar and voice. However, her true artistic breakthrough occurred when she discovered the world of Buchla modular synthesizers. Unlike standard keyboard-driven MIDI setups, West Coast-style synthesisers allowed her to sculpt sound through voltages, tactile patching, and continuous waves rather than rigid twelve-tone increments.
It was during this period of intense experimentation that Smith recognized how her synaesthesia operated as an automated editing tool. When working with complex, evolving patches on hardware that lacks preset memory, maintaining a cohesive sonic vision can be overwhelming for most producers. For Smith, however, the synthesis process was continuously monitored by her physical senses.
Refining the Dialogue Between Sound and Sensation
As her discography expanded through critically acclaimed releases on studios like Western Vinyl and Ghostly International, Smith refined how she communicated her ideas to herself and collaborators. She realized early on that her condition did not present as a rigid, unyielding dictionary where a specific pitch always equaled a specific shade of blue or a exact physical pain. Instead, her synaesthesia is fluid, imaginative, and deeply contextual.
During her discussion on My Forever Studio, Smith articulated this distinction clearly, explaining that her condition bypasses traditional emotional responses entirely to focus on pure, unadulterated physical feeling. This realization allowed her to stop second-guessing her mixes. If a frequency clash or an over-compressed transient triggered a negative physical sensation—such as a sharp feeling of her shoulder being grated—she knew instantly that the mix required immediate surgery, regardless of what an RTA (Real-Time Analyzer) plugin or a reference track might suggest.
Supporting Context & Metrics: The Science of Synaesthesia in Music
To fully appreciate the weight of Smith’s creative process, it is essential to examine the neurological mechanics of synaesthesia and its historical footprint within the music industry.
What is Synaesthesia?
According to cognitive neuroscientists, synaesthesia is a harmless, non-pathological neurological condition estimated to affect approximately 2 to 4 percent of the global population. It occurs due to cross-activation between neighboring sensory regions in the brain. For instance, the brain area responsible for processing auditory input may have hyper-connected neural pathways leading to the visual cortex or the somatosensory cortex (which processes physical touch and bodily sensations).
Common variants include:
Grapheme-color synaesthesia: Perceiving letters or numbers as inherently colored.
Chromesthesia (Sound-to-color): Hearing sounds or musical notes and automatically seeing corresponding colors, flashes, or shapes.
Lexical-gustatory synaesthesia: Tasting words or spoken language.
Tactile/Somatosensory synaesthesia: Experiencing physical touch sensations or bodily awareness in response to auditory or visual stimuli.
Synaesthesia in Music History
Smith is far from alone in harnessing this neurological trait to pioneer new sonic frontiers. Music history is rich with legendary artists who attributed their creative genius to synaesthetic perception:
Duke Ellington: The iconic jazz composer and bandleader famously described his orchestra not in terms of traditional instrumentation, but in colors. He perceived every musician in his band as having a specific, distinct hue that dictated how he wrote arrangements for them.
Tori Amos: The singer-songwriter has frequently spoken about her ability to "see" songs as multi-dimensional spatial structures or physical ribbons of color weaving through the air around her piano.
Pharrell Williams: The super-producer has openly discussed his chromesthesia, explaining that he cannot create music effectively in an environment devoid of the correct visual color palette corresponding to the chords he is playing.
Lorde: The pop innovator has described experiencing synaesthesia during live performances and writing sessions, translating visceral sonic textures into vivid visual landscapes.
What makes Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s perspective distinct is her focus on somatosensory and physical feedback rather than mere chromatic visualization, utilizing her body as a living, breathing mixing console.
Official Statements & Insights from the My Forever Studio Podcast
The conversation between Smith and MusicTech hosts Will Betts and Chris Barker provided rare, intimate insights into the mindset of a modern electronic auteur.
Trusting the Internal Compass
Reflecting on how she navigates the vast, often paralyzing choices available in modern music production, Smith emphasized the absolute necessity of intuition:
"I usually just let my synaesthesia lead me," the producer explained to Betts and Barker. "It’ll tell me when it’s wrong. It’ll tell me what I need. And then I just know how to do it."
This absolute trust in her internal feedback loop allows her to bypass the cognitive fatigue that plagues many modern producers. While artists frequently fall down rabbit holes tweaking plugins for hours, Smith’s neurological response provides an immediate, binary validation: does the sound cause physical harmony or physical friction?
Redefining Emotional Translation Through Sound
Perhaps the most striking revelation from the podcast episode was Smith’s nuanced breakdown of how her synaesthesia decouples music from traditional emotional binaries:
"I get really intense feelings, not emotions," she detailed. "Physical sensations, where my shoulder feels like it’s grated. It’s really specific feelings. And it’s not limited. My imagination is very connected to that part, so it’s not like that sound will always create that feeling."
She continued, offering a profound look into her psychological relationship with composition:
"Maybe because of my synaesthesia, my emotions don’t connect that much to music. So there’s no good or bad feeling for me in music. It’s just feelings."
Inside My Forever Studio
The podcast format itself serves as a fascinating psychological exercise for elite creators. Created in partnership with audio hardware pioneer Audient, My Forever Studio strips away financial reality and asks artists to curate a fantasy recording space consisting of precisely six items, with zero regard for cost, logistics, or availability.
However, the hosts maintain strict boundaries:
The Hard Limit: Exactly six items are permitted. No bundles, no loopholes.
Strategic Choices: Guests must balance nostalgia, workflow utility, and sonic ambition.
No Hand-Holding: The selection must represent a self-sustaining, elite creative ecosystem.
While Smith’s specific equipment picks during the episode highlight her love for tactile, analog signal paths and generative sound sources, her overarching philosophy remains clear: no matter how high-end the gear, the true processing happens within the artist’s mind.
Future Outlook: The Intersection of Neurology, AI, and Future Sound Design
As music technology continues to evolve at a breakneck pace—with artificial intelligence, spatial audio, and neural-driven processing entering mainstream studios—Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s methodology offers a timely reminder of the irreplaceable value of human biology.
The Limits of Automation vs. Human Neuromorphic Processing
Modern digital audio workstations increasingly rely on intelligent mixing assistants, automated EQ matchers, and algorithmic mastering tools designed to tell producers what sounds "correct" according to mathematical averages. Yet, art that endures often lives in the margins—in the glorious friction of subjective human perception.
Smith’s reliance on synaesthesia highlights the concept of embodied cognition in music production. As spatial audio and immersive formats (like Dolby Atmos) transform how we experience sound physically in three-dimensional space, producers who possess heightened tactile or spatial relationships with audio—whether naturally occurring via synaesthesia or cultivated through decades of deep listening—will likely lead the charge in defining how these new mediums feel.
What’s Next for Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
With her appearance on My Forever Studio further cementing her status as one of electronic music’s most thoughtful innovators, Smith continues to push the boundaries of how organic textures and electronic synthesis intersect. Whether she is scoring for contemporary dance, building intricate generative patches, or exploring new dimensions of vocal processing, her work remains a masterclass in trusting one’s internal sensory landscape.
For producers and music technologists tuning into the podcast, Smith’s testimony serves as both an inspiration and a challenge: to look beyond the screen, step away from the metering plugins, and learn to listen—truly listen—to what your body and mind are telling you about the art you are creating.
To hear the full conversation with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, subscribe to the My Forever Studio podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and explore past episodes via the MusicTech Shows portal.
