Edit: I am augmenting this entry due to something I noticed on the Ghost Hunters episode from 4/7/2010.
I posted more stuff from the lemp mansion recording on that thread. I apologize if I seem to be harping on the subject.
I was trying to see what the concepts behind EVP classification were and why they were classed as A, B and C. It turns out that Raymond Cass came up with that somewhere in the 70s. I guess. Anyway, in looking at those classifications and then comparing it to the audio I am painfully going through. (okay, so i am bored with listening to me and my wife sleep) I figure that the 3 classifications can be expanded to at least 5.
Cass has his classified as:
A - Easily Heard
B - Fairly loud and clear and sometimes audible with headphones
and
C - Soft and indecipherable
This fails to take into account more recent technology and techniques, so I propose a new set of classifications:
A - Easily understood without any audio manipulation. Also the audio in question shows up on a audio/frequency display.
B - Easily understood without any audio manipulation but does not appear on an audio/frequency display.
C - Somewhat understood, but easily understood after audio manipulation.
D - Somewhat understood after audio manipulation or a result of signal artifacts. (robotic sounding no matter how clear is a result of audio artifacting and should not be considered anything above a C in my book)
E - Not completely understandable but still present in the audio after audio manipulation.
F - Barely able for trained ear to hear. (or after listening to audio for hours)
Edit: I have made a change to classify the difference between a class A and the new class B. Everything else has been shifted by one letter. There could be an argument for class B being switched with class A. The reason for that order, is that in a true class A EVP, you should be able to look at the graphic representation of an audio clip and see that there is something there. Class B would mean that you can easily hear it, but can't see the audio visually. A spectral analysis would be in order at that point. However, I do not have enough pieces of evidence of class A and B EVP's to make a definitive analysis about the results from spectral analysis. I would be ever so happy to entertain such clips for further study. (end edit.)
I base this on the grading system from grade school through college. Frankly, if you're getting a E or F, yeah it's probably an EVP, but who really wants to hear it.
I did get a chance to hear some class A EVP's and those are really nice. Pretty much all of my lemp mansion audio is C- through F. I am not completely proud of the quality, but I wasn't about to sacrifice comfort for a disembodied voice.
I tried audacity again for the first time in awhile to see if it was any help in working with the lemp mansion recordings I have, and to be honest, I freaking hate the thing. It wouldn't pull in the audio from the recorder (apparently WMV is a premium format, so it's only available in the beta software). The equalizer in the software was pretty useless, as all it had were presets. I stopped trying to get the darned thing to work before I had successfully chomped off my arm.
Don't get me wrong, cakewalk has its issues as well.
So in the past year, I started documenting anything and everything that strikes me. It's all a part of this idea that I have that I'm not really driving right now, but instead riding. Perhaps a surfer would be a good analogy here (or not, I have no idea), as the wave takes me from one location to another.
Do I have a clue where I am headed? At this point, I am saying no, because really. I have no clue. If I did know, then I wouldn't be spewing these random thoughts onto a blog. On one hand I wish I did know where I was headed, and on the other, I really don't want to know.
Maybe it's more like a roller coaster. Lots of twists and turns, perhaps a loop, but at the end you still end up safe where you need to be.
I know this much, it feels like I am riding backwards. I can't see where I am going any more than I can see the wind. Yeah I can tell which direction it blows, but if it swirls, then I have no clue.
It works though. It's a really fun ride. I can say that I enjoy the experience very much, even though it takes me in directions I did not see myself going. So why fight it?
It's just as simple as the release of floating on water. I am better off by not fighting against it. It's kind of like living in Ecclesiastes 3.
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