I found an EVP in an iTunes song

I'm still here, been reading the messages. Not much to add really, I was just throwing it out there for you guys to discuss.

I'm not trying to say it's a ghost talking in the track, just that it's an EVP type sound, not meaning to imply anything supernatural.

I don't agree that it was MEANT to be there. If it was, you could hear what it's saying it seems like.

And for it to accidently get there doesn't make alot of sense to me either, since it seems like they take huge measures to insure noise doesn't get into songs like that.

I don't know what to make of it really. Wish someone could isolate the clearest voice and enhance it or something to see what the voice might be saying. Maybe that would better determine where it came from.

OP I do hear some light whisper but can't seem to understand what he or she's saying. How did you hear that in the first place?

I'd like to offer my 'professional' opinion. I'm not a professional studio engineer by any means, but I'm a musician of 15 years and fairly competent when it comes to audio.

I can hear something there that definitely sounds out of place. Someone said it could be his fingers moving subtly across his guitar strings, which is both interesting and totally plausible. Could also very well be a case of tracks bleeding together.

Now, I can't guarantee 100% conclusive results, but I'm gonna download this sucker and try to isolate the frequencies so we can hear exactly what's on the recording. I'm not exactly dying to get to the bottom of this, because I doubt it's an actual EVP, so I'm only going to import the song into Garageband and mess around with the built-in Parametric EQ and Filter. If, for whatever reason, my level of interest happens to skyrocket during this process, I'll fire up ProTools and get my hands dirty.

And just for giggles, I'll offer this prediction: I will post again in this thread with a link to the enhanced audio, on which you can CLEARLY hear someone quoting Spinal Tap.

Originally posted by Forteana
I'm still here, been reading the messages. Not much to add really, I was just throwing it out there for you guys to discuss.

I'm not trying to say it's a ghost talking in the track, just that it's an EVP type sound, not meaning to imply anything supernatural.

While I appreciate that you're still posting in the thread, I thought I would point out that an EVP automatically implies a supernatural source, and you very much were too you in your original post. Why pull back now?

It's amazing someone hears something in a song and thinks it's some kind of paranormal entity. It's a song, man.

A SONG.

I can't even type much more to explain how ridiculous this is

reply to post by Forteana


Can you post it so we can hear it? What song? what artist?

reply to post by sith9157


The OP already told us the name of the song and artist.

I listened to the song on spotify, and it's there. I can definitely hear someone saying something. It's not a whisper but it's very faint. I can't make it out though.

I'll throw it into Audacity and see if I can tear it apart and narrow this down a little bit!

Ok so i listened to the song and it seems to be saying " is someone still there?" I had to crank up the volume on my earphones but that is what i'm getting. It could be someone talking in the background while they are recording it.

reply to post by Forteana


I just listened to it and wanna say Nice Catch!

Its after the religions and wars part, and sounds like someone whispering something really quick.

like a psspspspspss

Why is everyone so quick to jump on the EVP bandwagon... It's a song, recorded in a studio with microphones, that can pick up people talking lightly at the right time. Could it not have been just something as simple as that, or even purposely put in.

I hear vague background noise, like I hear on many tracks recorded in shabby studios.

If that's an EVP then the spirits must love hip hop music because background noise and voices are all over rap cds

I think after Religion and War someone whispers "its time"
cheers.

I'm looking forward to results from the sound software users! Thanks guys!

For those still wondering, it is indeed just something picked up in the studio by someone talking. A mic located somewhere across the studio floor was probably left on, or the input not turned down all the way, and it picked up someone talking. It is definitely there, but sounds too normal to be an evp, and a human voice makes the least assumptions, so that is what I am going with.

And to that guy Death_Kron, you need to tone it way down, and stop bashing people because you don't understand what they're saying. That's your problem, not ours, and I for one don't want to listen to your incessant whining on the forums.

@ the op, good catch. I didn't hear it the first time, but it was completely obvious the second time, even with the volume lowered, since I knew what the song sounded like from the first listen. Even if it isn't an evp, it's still a great catch.

Thanks for the "good catch"es everyone. I just happened to be really jamming JJ that day and wondered if I had voices in my head

The idea of a mic accidently left on is the best explanation I've heard. Because I'll stick to my gut feeling that it certainly wasn't added INTENTIONALLY and that it just isn't MEANT to be there. Just doesn't smoothly belong there to my ears. And I feel like I got a pretty good ear for those sorts of things. Which added to its mystery for me...

For the software users, anyone able to isolate and amplify anything yet?

So I finally got around to playing with the audio in question. I ran a number of different Garageband plugins on it, but the Parametric EQ, Filter, and Compressor used together did the trick. And now I know exactly what we're hearing.

Having recorded in many studios over the past 15 years, I've become familiar with the way that studio personnel talk. And they do. Quite a bit. But one thing I've noticed is that even while someone is recording a take, the producer, engineer, and the other musicians who are in the control room tend to make little comments about the take they're listening to. Sometimes, it's, "He's a little on top" (meaning ahead of the tempo), sometimes it's, "Man, I love the tone he's got on that amp"...it varies. And they can talk all they want, because they're not in the live room; they're behind a glass window where there are no live microphones. Except one.

The talkback mic is used for the producer and engineer to communicate with the performer in the live room. The performer can hear their voices coming through his headphones, and he can respond by just talking normally, because his voice will get picked up by the hot microphones that the people in the control room are using to record the take. The engineer can mute the talkback mic, leave it running, activate it by pressing a button and then releasing it after he's finished speaking, etc., etc. This mic is solely used for communication between the two rooms, but many times it gets recorded to it's own separate track so that all of the directions and conversation and commentary can be referenced later on, if need be.

Now, I'll bet that when this song was being mixed, the talkback mic's level was up juuuuuuust barely. Not enough to notice. So during the mixing process, the mixing engineer either didn't notice that the talkback fader was up just a hair, or left it in to give the song a little character. What you're hearing near the 0:50 mark is almost certainly the producer saying to the rest of the people in the control room, "Pretty good start". I've heard dozens of producers make similar remarks during a take, unbeknownst to the performer. And this makes perfect sense because it's near the beginning of the song.

With that said...BOOYA.

reply to post by gimme_some_truth


Thank you, thank you, thank you for clarifying. Some here just dont get it that its not a phenomenon of any sort: its a recording artifact, blemish, bleed...IT HAPPENS.

Same with videos and tv stations that pop up with weird screens...sometime engineers hit worng buttons or hit 2 simultaneouslu and you see and hear thing.

It certainly is not a conspiracy or God or aliens...

reply to post by Forteana


Heard it. Sounds like the guys in the booth.
Nice of you to freak out about it and all.

reply to post by Forteana


Wait...

Was this a threat? To the site? Uh... smooth one dude.

I heard the thing, still reading the thread...