Help me debunk these EVP's

[Jenk]

Hi! This is my first post here. I run a group, Grave Babes. I tend to lean more toward the skeptic side of things. I have a few evps I would like to share and see if they can be debunked.

I know it may be difficult to go on my word that in some of these I was the only person present in the room. I have posted these to a a hard core skeptic group and was accused of adding on the "voices". As a slight skeptic myself I have absolutely nothing to gain from doing that. These have not been modified. I used Audacity only to cut out the clips, no filters or even amplification was used.

The creepiest one we captured was while recording during a client interview, not expecting to pick up anything. You will know it when you hear it. Please let me know if you have any problems listening to these.

These two I was the only person present in the room:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ctpkipi8peclktl/Yes%20very%20clear.wav

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ahau3xmaet5qyqh/f_in%20b_tch.wav

This one was recorded during a client interview, while performing a slight cleanse using salt;

https://www.dropbox.com/s/liecgtxsnxy3g6n/all%20three%20.wav

Thank you!

[PPI Brian]

Hi Jen, thank you so much for joining the PPI forums, and thank you for sharing these clips with us. I look forward to spending some time this evening reviewing your audio clips and posting my thoughts, and I'm sure other PPI members will too. Thank you for telling us the audio editing software you used. Could you please tell us the make and model of the recorder you used to capture these anomalies?

[Jenk]

Sure! I used an Olympus VN-702PC. Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!

[PPI Brian]

Thanks Jen. I do have a couple of other questions. I have an Olympus VN 960 PC, a VN 7200 PC and a DS 30, and of these three models the DS30 has a superior frequency response compared to the VN series. We learned a lot about these recorders by using them in the field over the years. I pulled up the specs on your recorder and the frequency response is variable depending upon the audio format and sampling rate you selected. Also, the mic sensitivity is variable depending upon the setting. Knowing the settings helps a lot when analyzing anomalous audio recordings. Do you recall the settings you selected at the time of the recording? Was it MP3 or WMA format? Was it set to conference or dictation? This might help explain your EVPs, or it might not.  

Here's a link to the VN702 spec sheet: Olympus 702PC

[PPI Brian]

Hi Jen,

Once again I wanted to thank you for sharing these audio clips with us. One of the important steps in analyzing anomalous data is peer review. I don't know where the audio clips were captured, or the time and date, so I can't offer any speculation regarding the possible environmental influences that could have contributed to these captures. I'm also taking them at face value. Normally when we conduct an investigation we keep extensive logs of the time and location of everyone involved that we cross check when we discover an anomaly. I'm assuming you took similar measures to control the environment, and I don't have any reason to believe you would try to deceive us.

Transcript

Source: Yes very clear.wav
Investigator: "So you're listening to us, aren't you?"
[pause]
CTX: [Yawn]
EVP: [Whisper] "Yes"

The overall audio quality of this clip is very good, and the ambient environment is quiet. I'm assuming this is indoors, in a relatively controlled environment. The anomalous capture is interesting because it appears to be a direct response to the investigator's question. However, there is a contextual sound that precedes the audio capture that might help explain it; a clear yawn, presumably from the investigator who asked the question. The vocal characteristics of the yawn are apparently consistent with the vocal characteristics of the possible EVP. When I checked the waveforms of the audio file using Audacity I found that neither the yawn or the possible EVP registered, but when I checked the spectrum of the audio file, the possible EVP is much more obvious. (See Figure 1) This crude technique gives a rough indication of the frequency of the possible EVP, but it isn't definitive. So based on face value, I'd have to say there's a strong possibility the source of the yawn and the possible EVP are the same individual.

Figure 1


Transcript

Source: f_in b_tch.wav
Investigator: [Unintelligible]
EVP: [Male voice - whispering] "Doctor Vince."

Once again, the overall sound quality of this clip is very good. The clip begins with an unintelligible fragment of a sentence, and is followed by the anomalous capture described in the file name as "fucking bitch". I hear what sounds like a male whisper saying "Doctor Vince" or "Doctor's in." But when I loop the anomaly it takes on mechanical characteristics that could explain the capture as a contextual misinterpretation of a sound in the ambient environment. Once again checking the spectrum of the possible EVP you can see clear blocks of sound that are usually indicative of a mechanical source. The only way to really make a definitive determination is to review a larger sample of the audio file, and have a secondary recording to make a direct comparison.

Figure 2


Transcript

Source: all three.wav
CTX: [Conversation in the background, setting up and breaking down equipment]
Investigator: [Unintelligible] "...laying natural rock salt, you know, for now..."
EVP: [Groan]
Investigator: "...so we have borders..."
EVP: [Groan]

This is an interesting clip, because we have also captured audio anomalies during the set up and interview process with clients. This might happen because there is so much noise in the environment that any entity that might be present might be able to modulate some of this background noise and use it to communicate. But it also creates an environment for possible audio compositing - a digital artifact that many Olympus VN series recorders are prone to because of their hard-wired frequency response. Another possible explanation for the demonic groan is vocal stretching. During a residential investigation one of our investigators was speaking as she stretched to place her audio recorder and the resulting capture sounded like a demonic voice. It was very startling because it happened at the exact moment that I started my recorder, and it would have been difficult to explain if we hadn't had multiple recorders running and synchronized at the time. The sound also reminds me of the sound a flat faced dog makes when its breathing hard. Because the background noise is so distracting it's impossible to suss out any details using the spectrogram feature in Audacity.

Once again, thank you for sharing your audio files with us. I hope these notes help you find the answers you're looking for.

Sincerely,

Brian Miller,
Pacific Paranormal investigations

[PPI Karl]

I'm just catching up with this thread. Thanks for sharing these.  Very interesting.  I'll give these a lesson and offer some input this week.