Hearing voices in white noise Options

[m00k0w]

Every time I play noise, usually pink noise, I will hear what sounds like faint vocals behind the ripping fuzz of noise. Typically I am generating the file for system tuning, and the voices catch me off guard every time. I cannot make out any content, but there is a clear (usually) male voice, at times screams, laughs, etc. However, the vocalizations are not randomly hallucinated simply because there is noise present in the room. That is, I'm not crazy, I promise If I seek to the same spot within the file over and over, the same vocalizations (tone, pitch) repeat, especially after some sort of notable colorful deviation from a comparatively monotonous mumble. I can seek to, and repeat this especially loud vocal over and over.

Is this the brain picking what it can out of a ton of data, because some parts or patterns at certain frequencies of the sound somewhat resemble voice? I'd like to learn a bit more on this, and know if anyone else readily experiences this. If you've never noticed this, I can generate pink noise and listen myself until there are some notably loud sounds resembling a vocal, and save these parts with a description of what it sounds like is being said or hummed. As I said usually I can't pick even a single word out, although it sounds like the vocal flows and modulates like a real person speaking would. Good to try to emulate to add vocals or interesting melodies to your own sound.

This post has been edited by m00k0w: Oct 25 2012, 09:22

[fukdup]

reminds me of when i was a kid watching the static of an untuned television, i could see whatever i imagined in there. kept m,e entertained when the television channels switched off every evening.

[ojdo]

Would you mind uploading a short example of such vocal noise to the Uploads forum? That description made me curious.

[hlloyge]

Please, do that - generate pink noise ang give us excerpts where you think you hear voices.
I wonder - what kind of pink noise generator do you have if it inserts voices and screams inside?

Either you system catches AM Radio (google for Logitech speakers and AM radio receiving), but you couldn't rewind it if that is the case, or you need some heavy medications, mate.
But if you have analogue pink noise generator and recording it onto DAT or whatever, you could be picking up radio somehow and recording pink noise with the radio signal.

[senp]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomenon

"Auditory pareidolia is a situation created when the brain incorrectly interprets random patterns as being familiar patterns."

This makes sense, it would have been an evolutionary advantage to find false positives (instead of false negatives) when looking for patterns.

"For example, believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is only the wind does not cost much, but believing that a dangerous predator is the wind may cost an animal its life."

This can happen in eyesight too, where the brain is always seeking patterns and often finds one where there is none really.

This post has been edited by senp: Oct 25 2012, 09:52

[dhromed]

I'm definitely curious for a few samples of this noise, and more importantly, the method by which this noise was obtained. Clouds are random, but we still see familiar shapes in them.

[Destroid]

"Auditory pareidolia is a situation created when the brain incorrectly interprets random patterns as being familiar patterns."

This is also what I figured.

It would be like the auditory-sense of a similar phenomenon of endless accounts I have heard where people see "faces" in certain things they view. As a social human, I can accept that my visual senses are accustomed to seeing symmetrical eyes-nose-mouth, as well as being attuned to hearing sounds resembling oral language. It's "natural."

[Arnold B. Kruege...]

"Auditory pareidolia is a situation created when the brain incorrectly interprets random patterns as being familiar patterns."

This is also what I figured.

It would be like the auditory-sense of a similar phenomenon of endless accounts I have heard where people see "faces" in certain things they view. As a social human, I can accept that my visual senses are accustomed to seeing symmetrical eyes-nose-mouth, as well as being attuned to hearing sounds resembling oral language. It's "natural."

FWIW my wife and I just completed 9 days of hiking along Lake Superior. We encountered just two people on the trail during that time, going up to 5 days at a time without seeing another human there. My wife reported hearing undecipherable human voices on the trail. Obviously, there was no one there. The background noise was pretty much wind and waves - more like pink noise, but you get the idea.

[sheh]

I'm also curious for a sample.

usually I can't pick even a single word out

Usually?

This post has been edited by sheh: Oct 25 2012, 14:17

[Porcus]

It's the voice of G-d!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptions_o...tural_phenomena

[DVDdoug]

Or EVP (messages from the "spirit world"). ...I think maybe the ghosts should to get together with Dolby to see if they can reduce some of that noise!

That is, I'm not crazy, I promise

There is a fine line between being psychic and being psychotic.

This post has been edited by DVDdoug: Oct 25 2012, 19:56

[Nick.C]

[db1989]

Of course! Who else.

[ZAPNSPARK]

Diana Deutsch's website has some interesting sound files which demonstrate "hearing" words/phrases in stereo recordings.

http://philomel.com/phantom_words/phantom.php

Cheers.

ZAP

This post has been edited by ZAPNSPARK: Oct 25 2012, 21:38

[EagleScout1998]

reminds me of when i was a kid watching the static of an untuned television, i could see whatever i imagined in there. kept m,e entertained when the television channels switched off every evening.

I thought I was the only one that did that.

[ZAPNSPARK]

Here's a fun example of audio pareidolia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=playe...-ZnPE3G_YY#t=5s

(This could also be seen as an example of the McGurk effect)

ZAP

This post has been edited by ZAPNSPARK: Oct 25 2012, 22:40

[db1989]

reminds me of when i was a kid watching the static of an untuned television, i could see whatever i imagined in there. kept m,e entertained when the television channels switched off every evening.

I thought I was the only one that did that.

Ah, so many forms of DIY visual entertainment . . . washing machines, untuned TVs, those tape-loading borders of the ZX Spectrum et al. . . .

This post has been edited by db1989: Oct 25 2012, 22:48

[BFG]

No, there's no voices in the pink noise. At least, THEY don't want you to think so.

[smok3]

"You're just jealous because the little voices only talk to me"

I don't hear such voices, but i do remember that rumble of heavy machinery did produce a music for me (after some time) and it was hard to reboot that (unless leaving the place).

This post has been edited by smok3: Oct 26 2012, 08:33

[hlloyge]

And I think we were trolled.

[Nessuno]

And I think we were trolled.

How could we possibily know? The answer, my friend, is blowin in the pink noise...

[GeSomeone]

Easy to make fun of if you never experienced something similar .
Apparently lots of people (think they) hear vague music- or voice-like sounds when in a noisy environment. For example in an airplane or a factory. When I use the vacuum cleaner I sometimes think I left the radio on, but when I switch it off this is not the case.
In this article it is called "Pseudo-auditory Hallucinations".

In 2005 (a guy named) Peter van Cooten made 3 (ambient drone) mixes that were played on Dutch radio (obviously in a program for experimental music), the middle section is exactly inspired by this subject (and where I found the above link in the first place).

Some years later he put them on his website, for reference I added the links (if you're not into ambient, don't bother listening, however the notes on part 2 are related to the phenomenon discussed here)
1 Mantra of Walls and Wiring
2 Acoustical Illusions
3 The Hum in the Room

This post has been edited by GeSomeone: Jan 5 2013, 17:39

[jkauff]

Happens to me, too. Sounds like someone has a TV talk show on somewhere in the house, but there was never any break. I used to have a noisy PC, and was hearing those voices in the fan noise. Turning off the computer stopped the voices. My new PC is very quiet, so no more voices.

[Arnold B. Kruege...]

Happens to me, too. Sounds like someone has a TV talk show on somewhere in the house, but there was never any break. I used to have a noisy PC, and was hearing those voices in the fan noise. Turning off the computer stopped the voices. My new PC is very quiet, so no more voices.

Most of my experiences with hearing mysterious voices in random noise take place in the back woods or on wilderness beaches. Wind in trees and waves on a big beach from a slight distance are like spectrally shaped white noise. Sometimes my wife and/or I hear faint unintelligible voice-like sounds out there and occasionally people show up but usually they never do.

[Oki]

Every time I play noise, usually pink noise, I will hear what sounds like faint vocals behind the ripping fuzz of noise. Typically I am generating the file for system tuning, and the voices catch me off guard every time. I cannot make out any content, but there is a clear (usually) male voice, at times screams, laughs, etc. However, the vocalizations are not randomly hallucinated simply because there is noise present in the room. That is, I'm not crazy, I promise If I seek to the same spot within the file over and over, the same vocalizations (tone, pitch) repeat, especially after some sort of notable colorful deviation from a comparatively monotonous mumble. I can seek to, and repeat this especially loud vocal over and over.

Is this the brain picking what it can out of a ton of data, because some parts or patterns at certain frequencies of the sound somewhat resemble voice? I'd like to learn a bit more on this, and know if anyone else readily experiences this. If you've never noticed this, I can generate pink noise and listen myself until there are some notably loud sounds resembling a vocal, and save these parts with a description of what it sounds like is being said or hummed. As I said usually I can't pick even a single word out, although it sounds like the vocal flows and modulates like a real person speaking would. Good to try to emulate to add vocals or interesting melodies to your own sound.

Something like this?

Noise_file1

It was recorded in a drilling station. It led to some religious theories.

This post has been edited by Oki: Jan 24 2013, 04:26