When People Talk Backwards

This is an Amazing, Amazing episode!

Also, "Here Be Dragons" should be required viewing for everyone on earth.

You're on a roll Brian!

Matthew Hoefler, Los Angeles
June 17, 2008 1:16pm

Brian, one of the best episodes ever (and that's saying something). Simply one of the best examples of paradolia in action I've ever heard. Your examples, when listened to without preparation, are meaningless noise. When prepped by your commentary, they're impossible to miss. Wonderful job of researching and writing!

John Rummel, Madison, WI
June 17, 2008 4:02pm

I agree, Brian is on a roll. "Here be Dragons" is amazing and I think this has been my favorite Skeptoid episode so far. It was certainly the funniest. People at work must think I'm nuts because I started laughing so hard when Brian said that "Jim Morrison's true intention in life was to inform us that he's Sata-Schnigel." Pareidolia is truly incredible, I can see why people think they hear messages in random noise. I remember growing up in the 80's when everyone was playing records backwards to see if there were "messages" in them. However, I had never heard of the reverse speech thing. Just when I think I have heard all of the crazy beliefs, another one pops up. Oh, and I made the mistake of watching the Indian video on youtube and I can't get the song "My lurid barn is fine, Benny Lava" out of my head!

Randy M., California
June 17, 2008 4:05pm

While it's pretty clear that reverse speech is pareidolia, the 'sinewave' examples make rather terrible evidence for this.

For instance, I immediately understood the first example, word-for-word. Human speech, clear as day. Upon hearing the original recording, it was obvious why: it <i>was</i> human speech. It was the same recording, digitally altered (this is confirmed on Matt Davis' page). This means that this is not chaos, but order.

It's simply not relevant to the article, and is more akin to being able to recognise a face in a portrait that's been heavily filtered, or even filling in the missing letter in a game of hangman.

Gwilym, Christchurch, New Zealand
June 17, 2008 6:36pm

Kudos on yet another great podcast Brain, very informative episode. Though I find myself wondering "Are there really people who believe this crap?"

@Gwilym,
actually, they are just pseudorandom sine-waves, nothing but a mathematical formula put directly into a speaker. It really is a coicidence, not an altered speech clip.

I 'recently' caught a smiliar, though much shorter version of this on Bad Astronomy, with another very cool clip.
http://www.badastronomy.com/bablog/2008/04/12/praydolia/

Marcel, Reykjavik, Iceland
June 17, 2008 7:36pm

@Marcel:
"Sine-wave speech is a form of artificially degraded speech first developed by Robert Remez and Philip Rubin at Haskins Laboratory."

"Lexical information drives perceptual learning of distorted speech: Evidence from the comprehension of noise-vocoded sentences."

You are correct that the audio is not literally that which existed as the person spoke, and is a computer's synthesised approximation of it - but this is true of signal processing as a whole. I could even go so far as saying it's true of all digital information, but I won't. :)

The audio is the resulting output of a scientific analysis of a given sound. It simply cannot be defined as chaos. It's not the tree that looks like Ernest Borgnine, it's Ernest Borgnine's likeness carved in wood.

Gwilym, Christchurch, New Zealand
June 17, 2008 8:06pm

Fascinating episode. I just wanted to make sure one thing was clear about "backwards masking." Backwards masking is a technique used in genuine research in cognitive psychology, and has nothing to do with playing sound backwards. Instead, backwards masking interferes with perception of a stimulus (usually visual) to prevent it being processed completely. For example, a participant in an experiment is asked to read a word on a computer screen. However, this word appears on the screen for only a brief time (say, 500 ms) before being replaced with a random jumble of letters or a block of random dots. This would be a backwards mask, since the mask interferes with perception of the stimulus that appeared before it. Without this backwards mask, the stimulus would be much easier to perceive. The theory is that this overwrites visual working memory and prevents further processing of the stimulus.

Properly used, this term really has nothing to do with playing sound backwards, so if these reverse speech people do use this term, they use it in a completely different way and are simply appropriating real terminology to dress up their unfounded claims. Perhaps this is a minor point, but I need to put my degree in Psychology to some kind of use!

Peter, Waterloo, Canada
June 17, 2008 9:19pm

You are right about the fact that
the "Benny Lava" songs are from India. The language is Kannada which
is a Dravidian language spoken in
the Indian state of Karnataka.

Rajeev P, Bangalore, India
June 18, 2008 3:50am

"Backward masking" is an incorrect term, though one frequently applied to this concept. Playing audio backwards is called "backmasking." Slight difference.

Marshall, Ogden, UT
June 18, 2008 8:36am

I really liked this episode! That was a great explanation on audio pareidolia with some amazing examples. The sine wave constructions were really cool. I'm sure you've heard the Stairway to Heaven demonstration done by Michael Shermer?

Shawn Shelton, Tulsa, OK
June 18, 2008 11:54am

@Gwilym
Thanks for the correction. I realised the same after I posted.

Still, it does function for the purpose of showing that people are more likely to see something when someone points out that it's there.

Marcel, Reykjavik, Iceland
June 18, 2008 12:03pm

Interesting topic. I like how you very briefly mentioned the crackpots out there.. and then gave all the examples.

If this gets released in book form you will definitely have to include a CD in it with these examples.

I also appreciate the fact you mentioned them cutting off the entire word to cherry-pick their phrases. That sorta points at their methods being bunk.

David W., Chicago, IL
June 18, 2008 12:04pm

Interesting topic. I actually think that the new Pixar film "Wall-E" is primarily voiced through sine wave construction or at least the sounds are artificially made without voice actors.

Juan R, Baltimore
June 18, 2008 6:37pm

Thanks for analyzing the Tamil Song.

You will love this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_tree_phenomenon

Edwin, Singapore
June 19, 2008 7:06am

I could hear "It was a sunny day - the children were going to the park" even before you revealed that was exactly what I was supposed to hear. It's hard to get my self to accept that this wasn't originally speech that was then modified and distorted but I suppose that's why that particular sample was chosen. Very interesting stuff...

Argh, Now I can't stop singing "I hear the nuns are gay" in my head... Thanks Brian ;)

Carl, Long Beach, CA
June 19, 2008 8:23am

This was a really interesting episode Brian. I loved it.
Just want to add that I have just finished watching the movie and you did a sterling job there! It is a must-see film as far as I'm concerned and I have already sent out a multiple BCC'd email to everyone I could think of, telling them to get over there and watch a great and FREE movie.
I think you could easily have a series of those. I don't know what your past experience is either but you are very watchable and seemed to be 'cool' in front of the camera. The programme covered many of the basics for us skeptics and serves as a great intro to friends and family for me, to get them to open their eyes and ears to the various scams around them.
I would love to see a TV series and I only wish you well for the future.
One thing: How many changes of clothing in one movie??
:-D

HitMe WithIt, Eastbourne, UK
June 19, 2008 8:27am

i am glad to hear that that stuff got edited. i suspected from the start that that "you're sad lean on me." thing was touched up.

but i found the how power of suggestion thing or what ever you were trying to get across with the "it was a sunny day and the children went to the park" clip. i heard the words before you had even pointed them out.

p.s. don't judge me for useing a screen name.... or elce

celestial-salamander, Australia
June 19, 2008 7:04pm

Similar to paradolia is the phenomena of apophenia, the experience of seeing patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.

By coincidence (unless it wasn't!), after listening to this episode, I got to work and my assistant told me about his interest in "special numbers". Not numerology, he assured me, but the seemingly random appearance of certain numerical sequences that hold special meaning and help him make decisions. I asked for an explanation to which he could only stammer that it was something he had observed more regularly when he began to pay attention (hmm, do I detect confirmation bias?).

A little later, a digital counter we use landed on the number 555. "Here's an example", he said. He then pulled out his iPhone and shared with me his collection of maybe a dozen license plate photos that all ended in 555. I'm not making this stuff up.

He went on to tell me about the unbelievable coincidences to be heard while listening to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" while watching the Wizard of Oz.

When I got home I e-mailed him links to articles about apophenia, including the wikipedia entry that also links to another one about "The Dark Side of the Rainbow" (the supposed Floyd/Oz connection). I also suggested he watch "Here Be Dragons", particularly the part about confirmation bias and the law of large numbers. Finally, I suggested the book "Innumeracy" by John Allen Paulos.

I think it will be no coincidence if he never speaks to me again.

Ian Dodd, Culver City
June 19, 2008 10:09pm

You took the discussion of reverse speech in an interesting and revealing direction I didn't expect. Laugh out loud funny at times. Thanks for the video links. Good for some more smiles. Been listening for a couple of months now and really enjoy. Keep up the good work!

Steve Hall, Highland, IL USA
June 20, 2008 11:39am

This episode was excellent and helps explain a lot of things.

Yes, I rewound and listened to the Benny Lava lyrics repeatedly.

Bill, Cleveland
June 20, 2008 3:41pm

The "Benny Lava" song is definitely an Indian language called Tamil, spoken in southern India. Really one of the best episodes in terms of entertainment and as always very informative. Keep up the good work.

Vijay Kishore, Mumbai
June 21, 2008 8:36pm

I don't usually post, but had to for this one. this is one of the funniest episodes yet! Kudos Brian, keep up the good work...

Kooz, Rochester, NY
June 22, 2008 8:19am

Fascinating, as always, but I was left assuming that the sine waves you quote have no connection with speech. However, when I went from Matt Davis's page to the papers in PubMed ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7233191?dopt=AbstractPlus ) I found that the researchers had used this tool (though not necessarily these specific examples) to compare people's response to sine waves based on speech recordings with their response to sine waves based on music recordings.

This is the aural equivalent of the difference between a pixelated image of a face compared with random squares of colour.

The researchers seem to be exploring how much signal can be removed before something turns in to noise rather than the tendency to make patterns where none exist, which is what you seem to be discussing here.

I've no quarrel with with your argument that people are first class at finding patterns where none exist (or find signal in what is actually noise) but the sine waves you quote are not the aural equivalent of the face on Mars, they are the aural equivalent of Pointillism or black and white newspaper photographs.

I'm only bothering to comment on this because I am so impressed by the rest of your work. Keep it up; I'm always fascinated by your podcasts which are a highlight of sanity every week.

Ben Warsop, West Yorkshire, UK
June 22, 2008 2:12pm

"A skeptic is more likely to dismiss these guys as conspiracy nuts and laugh at what paranoid delusionals they are..."

I would agree with the delusional part, but I'll save the 'conspiracy nut' arguments for the truth-911 people.

eric thorn, Seoul, ROK
June 23, 2008 1:49am

Brian, I'd just like to say that I thought that this was a great episode. Thought provoking and funny. I'll never watch another Bollywood movie in quite the same way again.

When are the Benny Lava t-shirts going on sale?

Alan Wolfe, New Zealand (at the moment)
June 23, 2008 7:51pm

Brian, this was probably the best episode yet ! Excellent demonstrations made the whole audio pareidolia issue very clear indeed. I'd not heard them before and examining the way my brain makes patterns out of gibberish was a revelation. Fantastic stuff, keep up the good work dude. DtD.

Dave The Drummer, Basingstoke, UK
June 24, 2008 4:48am

So you're saying Paul isn't dead?

Kris, Portland, OR
June 24, 2008 10:57am

I left with the same confusion as Ben Warsop about the Sine Wave recordings and it took a read of that page for clearification. I can't believe you incorporated a Buffalax YouTube video into a Skeptic's podcast. But as a long time fan of Beni Lava I'd just like to say.. Who put the goat in there? The yellow goat I ate. Keep up the good work.

Travis, Columbus, OH
June 24, 2008 1:10pm

As an animator, I have seen the phenomena of pareidolia many times:
In school, we would animate a piece without sound, and randomly choose a sound track.
Inevitably, there would be some uncanny moments of synchronization between the two,
much like the "Dark side of the Rainbow" phenomena where you listen to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon While watching The wizard of OZ.
Pareidolia also lets me be a lazy lip-synch artist: our brain wants the moving lips to match the heard speech so badly that I can get away with a lot of poor/unrealistic mouth shape frames.

However, I noticed a slight flaw in Your audio examples. According to Matt's web site:
"Sine-wave speech is generated by using a formant tracker to detect the formant frequencies found in an utterance,
and then synthesizing sine waves that track the centre of these formants."
This means that the sine wave speach audio was derived from the frequency pattern of the actual spoken phrase.
You had described the sine-wave audio as "consisting of nothing but sine waves" which while technically true, sort of implies that it did NOT contain any "real" speech information.
It's more akin to noise filtered by the frequency pattern of actual speech, A blend of real speech and random noise.

so those specific examples are somewhat poor, although they certainly don't negate the overall premise. The backwards recordings were more substantive support inn this case.

+1 Keep up the good work!

Logan Bender, Seattle WA
June 24, 2008 3:07pm

Great episode.
I've been a recording artist for 30 years and more, and it's a long time ago since I first time heard all the stupid claims and checked them...in a studio with good equipment (first time in mid 80's) and came to more or less the same conclusions you make here.
And the reason I bothered to spend time checking is because I NEW it HAD to be bull...

Keep it up man, you rock...most of the time anyway (just like the rest of us :-)

POS

per ove sleen, stord
June 25, 2008 5:07pm

POS,

First, I understand why you knew it had to be bull, but real science shouldn't start with the conclusion.
Second, you might reconsider using those initials, POS.

Max, Boston
June 25, 2008 5:21pm

You state "Recordings of alleged ghost voices, usually called Electronic Voice Phenomena, fall into three categories: First, hoaxes; second, undetermined; and third and most commonly, audio pareidoliac cases of mistaken identification."
Apparently you haven't seen a lot of the Ghost Hunters series, some of the voices that come through are actually quite clear, in one episode it even had the appropriate British accent. Also there is Ghost Hunters International, These EVPs are usually in the native language of that country or the language spoken at the time the spirit originated.
You should also note that GH doesn't recognize EVPs as proof of a haunting.

Paul Confer, Denver, CO
June 25, 2008 10:32pm

Excellent show as usual. Just another example of how the human brain attempts to take something that doesn't make any sense to us and interpret it as something that is, even if it's completely wrong.

Also I loved that you used the 'Benny Lava' song examples, which is a favorite of mine.

Kyle Richardson, Washington
June 30, 2008 3:29am

Paul,

I believe Ghost hunters fall into that first category. Granted, it's a hoax for entertainment purposes, but it's still bogus.

Adam, Albany, NY
June 30, 2008 8:27am

The human brain is built to recognize patterns; unfortunately, it's _so_ good at it that it assumes that everything is a pattern. If we don't see a pattern, then we just assume that the pattern is more subtle than we expected. This is how we get Reverse Speech; it's also how we get 9/11 truthers and other conspiracy theories.

Density Duck, San Jose, CA
July 01, 2008 9:35am

This is by far your best and funniest podcast yet!!!!
Keep up the great work.

Clarence, Las Vegas New Mexico
July 01, 2008 10:10pm

I know so many people who actually watch things like Ghost Hunters and Monster Quest because they are "entertaining." I have, not even a tiny bit regretfully, lost the ability to appreciate the "entertainment" value of such unmitigated garbage. Funny though, but even in my early, more credulous years, I somehow knew the backwards speech business on my rock and roll albums was a bunch of baloney. Good episode, Brian.

Chris, San Antonio, Texas
July 02, 2008 10:13am

yrotsih ni seadi tsediputs eht fo eno fo nwod tup ynnuf dna tnaveler a si sihT

P Mackers, New Zealand
July 02, 2008 7:26pm

The song is "Kalluri Vaanil" from the Indian Tamil-language film "Pennin Manathai Thottu."

What you hear as "Benny Lava" is actually "-dha nilaavo."

It's a cute song, and thanks for sharing the video link :)

AmandaM, Indiana
July 03, 2008 8:02am

Paul is dead.

greghousesgf, california
July 03, 2008 3:19pm

Thanks for the links. Set up PRAAT and made a few myself. Can't wait to introduce this to my classroom.

erik, sauk rapids
July 03, 2008 5:39pm

Satan wants to wear your slippers.

Marius vanderLubbe, Nullabour Plain, Australia.
July 03, 2008 5:51pm

This was an amazing episode. I remember hearing about backmasking when I was a god-botherer (15+ years ago) and how all these 'evil' bands had been using it since the 70s. I half accepted it then, but couldn't explain it (I didn't look very hard).

Then very recently I finished the excellent game Portal and heard Jonathan Coulton's awesome ending song, "Still Alive." Shortly afterwards, a friend sent me the same song in reverse and that seemed to say related (and wacky) things. Jonathan seems to be the kind of guy who may well do something like this deliberately, but it's fascinating knowing it might be all in my head. :)

Original: http://tinyurl.com/yrl2ld
Backward: http://tinyurl.com/2mg3t3

And remember: Yah Yah likes slow walkies... ;)

Matt, Reading, UK
July 13, 2008 9:26am

Funny part of Back Masking

Queen
Another one bites the Dust became
"It's fun to smoke Marijuana"

The Ugly Part

and Judas Priest have gone to court as two kids blew their brains out allegedly because of one of their songs! you can even see clips of a computer analyzing the song and a part is labeled "Do it"

I love the back masking for stairway to heaven. I'm planning to write a metal song including those parts.

JeromeClemente, Manila, Philippines
August 06, 2008 12:49am

Fascinating article. You might be interested in a curious case of pareidolia I cam across while mixing a multitrack choral piece in French (a song by Debussy). An entry by the tenor line was just a little too low and was buried a little in the mix. In its place came a *spoken* phrase in English ("better now"). The phrase was not on any of the individual tracks when "soloed out", so it must have been created by the mix of tracks. Once I corrected the levels the tenor line resumed its entry correctly in French at that point and the phrase "better now" disappeared. Good thing I'm not superstitious!

David W Solomons, Sale UK
August 08, 2008 9:46am

Late to the show but the male singer in the Indian music video looked alot like Laurence Fishburne in his younger years.

Courtney Franklin, Sydney Australia
August 10, 2008 6:25pm

This is now my favorite article all due to Benny Lava. Now poop on them, Oliver!

Patrick Keville, West Chester, PA
August 16, 2008 1:40am

I loved fart on a duck but being Dutch and understanding the real lirics i have a hard time hearing the English interpetation, i guess it's dificult to distance yourself from the meaning and only listen to the sound.

PS.
My favorite Judas Priest backward message is "I asked her for a pepermint, a pepermint she gave me"

Roel Scheijde, The Netherlands
October 07, 2008 1:43am

Oops. I just realized that there were more than 5 comments to this article and that my point had already been brought up... I apologize.

Anthony Gallipeau, Charlotte/ NC
October 22, 2008 12:53pm

This topic reminds me of a news item from ten years ago, or so. An entertainer, "Mr. Backwards" made his living by being able to repeat in reverse anything said to him by his audience.

Unfortunately, Mr. Backwards was the victim of a murder outside his home. I think it was Letterman who relayed this story on his show saying "neighbors failed to respond to his cries of 'PLEH, PLEH'"

Holden McRauch, Hampton Bays NY
October 25, 2008 12:54am

@Holden:

No, that was Chevy Chase telling a joke news report on SNL Weekend Update over thirty years ago. You must be at least as old as I am.

Brian said:

"Recordings of alleged ghost voices, usually called Electronic Voice Phenomena, fall into three categories: First, hoaxes; second, undetermined; and third and most commonly, audio pareidoliac cases of mistaken identification."

You missed a fourth category: wishful thinking. I once heard a ghost hunter play EVP clips on the Art Bell show (properly, "Coast to Coast AM", now hosted by George Noory, and the world's greatest resource of abysmally low standards of evidence). One recording supposedly said "I have to go now, I'm dead". It clearly said "I have to go now, I'm --" and then static; they had obviously picked it up from a cell phone conversation or the like. It might have been pareidolia to get "dead" out of static, but it took herculean wishful thinking to think the rest was supernatural.

Paul, Walnut Creek, CA
October 26, 2008 12:30am

Pareidolia is a phenomenon that also applies to normal speech. After all, I can understand an Asian man when he talks garbled English. Nobody has an identical pronounciation, tempo, pitch, tone, etc... We are not machines communicating with binary values. It is up to the brain to fill in the gaps.

I have to say that I am extremely skeptical towards the credibility of messages in reverse speech; However I do believe that it is an interesting area that needs to be researched more.

Tony, Melbourne
December 07, 2008 12:30am

to Holden McRauch:

I can do what you describe as Mr Backwards doing. I've been able to do it since I was seven years old.

The only exception is if you give me a sentence that includes a word that i don't know how to spell then i can't do it.

but seriously, you can say any sentence you like forwards, and i can instantly repeat it to you with each word spelled backwards, talking just as fast as i can forwards.

Sam Harper-Penman, Western Australia
December 08, 2008 5:59pm

To Mr Holden McRauch,

ive been a friend of Mr Sam Harper-Penman for quiet sometime and known about his ability to repeat spoken words backwards just as fast forwards, and even now i still find this quiet amazing.

i would be intrested to know the perctage of the population that can do this out of curiosity, also would they be left or rite dominante when it comes to using there brain

Gregory Roach, Western Australia
December 12, 2008 4:33am

You have no idea how many countless hours of pure joy this one episode of your podcast has brought me.

I am now a HUGE fan of Benny Lava!

And no, I have NOT been high today.

Also, I've linked to this topic a bunch of times, as you probably know, since a couple episodes ago you said you have a Google Alert to track that sort of thing.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure you were aware of the "Islam is the light" doll from Mattel that has some fundies all worked-up.

See this discussion on Democratic Underground (where I link to your post on Audio Pareidolia:

Some think doll says "Islam is the light" - oy vey
http://tinyurl.com/89rjvz

Ian, Boston, MA
January 07, 2009 3:23pm

Many, many years ago I read a book about backwards messages so I modified a Hanimex Boombox (a cheap cassette walkman) to play tapes backwards.

I always knew it was just the way we perceive random noise but it was fun and kind of cool anyway (at least for a short while).

The perceived backwards message that fascinated me the most was in the Velvet Underground song Heroin. The part where Lou Reed sings the long drawn out "Heroin", when played backwards says - "Heroin". Pretty cool.

Mark Dawson, Canberra, Australia
January 23, 2009 4:55am

Another (great?) example of people deliberately using this effect is in a youtube video entitled "OBAMA TELLS AMERICA - 'Serve Satan!' - This will floor you!"

I don't find that many examples on the internet of recent deliberate attempts to detect backwards masking, but I guess it's good to know that it's alive and well.

Seth, NYC
April 10, 2009 5:12am

You forgot to include how reverse speech has been used by police to solve crimes, but as long as you think it's ridiculous despite that fact and the science behind it, it must be ridiculous. Talk about cherry picking.

Mike, near Baltimore
April 16, 2009 9:00pm

I remember at church, when I was in middle school, the minister playing rock records backwards in front of the whole church. I always wondered 2 things 1 where did he get a cool record player that plays backwards and 2. Why does he bother playing it backwards, the foward lyrics arent very "christian" Backward anything makes no logical sense to me.

Ron Hughston, Mason City Iowa
April 21, 2009 6:37pm

Mike, near Baltimore - can you please provide a link or some details about this.

Mark Dawson, Canberra, Australia
April 30, 2009 1:04am

I am a new guy to skeptoid so only just going through the older episodes. I have thought about the pre condidtioned thing for a while now too, and the racy song proved me correct.

you are doing a great job, will have to start advertising this site

Thanks

Just noticed the maths question at the bottom, don't you have one on sport instead :o)

Jim King, North England
July 23, 2009 1:59am

@Jim King, because millions of people have no interest in and do not follow sport. We also do not all live in New England.

Can you tell me what the score was at the soccer game at Callan Park in Rozelle, Sydney, Australia last week?

If you cannot do basic maths you need to educate yourself.

This was also an interesting article.

DRC, Sydney
January 02, 2010 2:20am

Just in case anyone wondered, the "Benny Lava" song is in Tamil.

Martin, Southampton, England
January 10, 2010 9:43am

What I found interesting with the sine waves is I didn't need help from the second sound file telling me what I was supposed to hear. I heard it on the first file all by myself. It took multiple listens, each time I listened to it I heard the sentence more clearly. But what I heard without the preconditioning matched what the second file said I was supposed to hear (with one exception on the harder sample I heard a different first word). I guess what was happening was each time I listened I was preconditioning myself.I picked out something recognizable the first time so I heard that better the next time and that helped form more connections therefore each time I listened I heard the sentence more clearer.

Jason, Edmonton
January 16, 2010 7:27pm

GODDD DAMMMMN YOU! Now I can't listen to that Sine without hearing "It was a sunny day and the children were going to the pahk"

Andariel Halo, Miami, Florida
January 25, 2010 7:36am

I transpose sentences in my head backward phonetically all day long, something I've done compulsively since I was a child. I can read or speak backward on record, then reverse the sound clip, and it's understandable. This means that there are probably others out there who do this. Or perhaps everyone does it and only some dwell on it long enough to make it a conscious thought? Let me know if you read this and are acquainted with others or know if my behavior has a diagnosis?!!

Curious, USA
January 29, 2010 6:06pm

I was just watching the latest "Rocketboom: Know Your Meme" episode (Phonetic Translations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSJw-mB44rc) and was just thinking of this episode. Good stuff.

BTW, it looks like the Matt Davis link needs updating:

http://www.mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk/people/matt.davis/sine-wave-speech/

BTW, one slight comment about the "sine wave" sounds. From my extremely limited knowledge of signal analysis: Fourier theory says any "integrable" function can be created by the infinite sumation of (phase adjusted) sinusoids. That includes functions like a bounded y=x^2 to things like a finite analog transcription of your voice defined as a function. So to say we're just using "complicated sine waves" to make the sounds is a bit, well, unconvincing, as everything we hear--over some time span--could be represented as such an arrangement! What makes it clear to me in Matt's page is the following sentences

"Sine-wave speech is generated by using a formant tracker to detect the formant frequencies found in an utterance, and then synthesising sine waves that track the centre of these formants."

So basically, I think it looks like playing chords on a piano, where each key is a pure sine wave with frequencies determined by the relative "formant frequencies" of the original sound at any given time, with chords varying with the formants over time. Still pretty cool.

Sorry if this is a double post.

Jay, Texas
March 08, 2010 7:56pm

You made a complete fool out of me.

I was walking through the train station while listening to Skeptoid. The "Benny Lava" part came to me as a surprise and I started laughing uncontrollably.

People were watching me with my stupid smile. I even accidentally bumped into someone when.

Imagine me driving my car when listening.

So you seen, critical thinking can be dangerous, potentially even lethal.

Michel Grootjans, Vilvoorde, Belgium
May 04, 2010 11:28pm