Your EVPs |
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This page outlines a method of determining what you have captured once you get your tape home and begin to analyze it. This procedure assumes you have some form of analog filter at your disposal and will be using it to hear any EVP may have captured. It involves multiple passes and has been designed to minimize the possibility of hearing false signals and attributing them to EVPs. You should pace yourself so that you listen for no more than 15 minutes at a time since the steady background sound from your tape can have an almost hypnotic effect and cause you to either hear something that is not really there or possibly miss a valid EVP as it passes by. Generally for every 15 minutes you should back away for 5 before continuing your session. And after two hours you should take at least a two hour break. This allows your mind to be working at peak efficiency. This is also why it is a good idea when recording EVPs to break the sessions into 15 minute increments at the time the tape is made.
The first thing to do is determine how long your tapes are. Set up some form of stopwatch or clock so you can time your tapes. Set this to 00:00:00 at the start of the tape. I do not recommend using the counter on your cassette deck since counters vary from one machine to another. If your tape is later played on a different machine the log you create will be inacccurate on the other machine.
If there is more than one person going to evaluate the tape each should do so independently of the other. You should not consult with each other until all evaluation has been completed and you each have written your reports on what you have heard. This prevents the other listener from influencing your findings or you theirs.
PASS NUMBER ONE
Set your playback system so that the filters are essentially flat. I recommend using a good quality set of headphones, however some listen on speakers. Either is acceptable, however speakers may, depending on your listening room, be affected by the acoustics of the room.
Start your tape and the timer simultaneously. The timer will display the duration of the tape as you go. This time will become the basis of the log you create for this tape. With the exception of the session time as mentioned previously, do not stop the tape regardless of any suspected EVPs. Simply note the time of EVERY suspected sound which MIGHT be an EVP. Later passes will make the final determination. Log all unknown sounds; some EVP may be embedded in other noises. You do not have log what has been identified on the tape such as a noise or speaking by an investigator unless you want to use that as a point of reference on the tape.
Once you have completed the first pass and logged any hits, it is time to go back and try to clarify them.
PASS NUMBER TWO
This is where you begin to try to pull out your EVP from the background noise. Set your filter to boost the low frequencies and the high frequencies to be cut and then do another pass. Thumps, booms, and other non-vocal noises will be emphasized on this pass. You should log them, then compare them to the first pass times recorded earlier. Chances are you will still not be able to understand any vocalizations at this point, but some questionable sounds from pass number one may be able to be eliminated as background noise on this pass. Vocalizations may be heard but the fricatives which add intelligence to voice will be suppressed. You should be careful to log any muffled or mumbling voices heard here, since these may be brought out in Pass Three later.
Some non-vocal EVP may be heard better in pass two than any other pass. For example, some claim to have heard the sounds of a battle along with EVP recorded on a battlefield. These will be heard more clearly this time since hiss and tape noise will be lowered.
PASS NUMBER THREE
The setup here is just the opposite from Pass Two. You want to boost the high frequencies and cut, but not eliminate the lower ones. In Pass Three it is advantageous to change your approach. By now you should have at least heard and noted all suspected sounds on the tape. Using the time logged, go directly to that part of the tape containing the first suspected EVP. If it is typical of most EVP it is only a few seconds long. Play just that segment several times in rapid succession listening to hear any identifiable words. Keep in mind many EVP have accents or sort of a sing-song pattern to them. Some words may be slurred or run together. This is the time to use various filters available to you. Some audio boards have emphasis filters which boost only the extreme high frequencies. These are particularly useful at pulling "S" and "Z" sounds from the background.
The exact process you apply here will be determined by your hardware. If you are fortunate enough to have time domain filtering now is the time to use it. Some people have inserted white noise and claim that helps them. It may, but it may also create a false EVP. You will have to decide if it helps based on your own experiences. You might also try digital processing here. The important thing about that is while it is alright to use it to try to decipher something, once you hear it on digital go back and listen in analog. If you find you hear it on digital and not in analog there probability is the EVP is a false artifact of the digitizing process and is not real. In other words, digital might be good for helping you decide which of two words are what is spoken, but if something totally different comes out then be wary of it.
PASS NUMBER FOUR
This is an optional step. Sometimes, once you have processed the tape and decided what is there it is good to simply go back and repeat the pass just as you did in Pass Number One. That is, no filtering applied. If someone else also worked with you on the tape now is the time to share information. Play it back using each other's data and see if possibly yours or theirs may be more accurate. EVP is sometimes a matter of interpretation. There are times that it is somewhat subjective. That has to be taken into consideration as well. There are many times when the final analysis is done that you wind up with more than one possibility.