White Noise... The Movie

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Member Since: Mar 16, 2005

Probably ought to introduce myself.

Hey, I'm Jeff. I lurk a whole bunch. I use the search engine a lot.

I figured this idea would be fun here.

I checked out the film "White Noise" recently. I walked into the whole deal with my BS flag flying. This will come up later.

The whole thing revolves around something called EVP. Electronic Voice Phenominon. I liked seeing Michael Keaton working again, but they had to add on to make it palateabe to whatever audience, so we got visuals as well. Not the case in real EVP. I guess we don't use our ears nearly as well as our eyes these days ;).

EVP is basically the dead talking to the living via recording. Record something, and the dead speak on there. You have to listen. You have to KNOW what to listen for. I'm hoping your BS flags are flying like mine were.

I'm reminded of the whole "Rock is recording subliminal messages via interesting breathing techniques backwards" crap from the 80's. There was something interesting in there however.

On the DVD (US) version, there is a tutorial on how to do your own EVP experiment. It went like this: If you use analogue, you need a white noise generator in the background. Running water, ect... Then you would hear the "voices".

Here is what interested me. They used a digetal recorder. They didn't need a white noise generator! It picked it up on it's own!

What the hell are they hearing! My knee-jerk reaction tells me internal circuirty (sp?) noise. I'm of the opinion that it is all wish-fullfillment and such. Stare long enoug at static on a TV set an you will find patterns.

I'm reminded of a John Cage story I once heard about a supposedly soundproof chamber. I can't remember the finer details, but silence seems to be an unnatural state.

I'm neither here nor there on ghosts or such, but the implications are interesting.

Oh yeah, what board should I buy? ;)

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Member
Since: Mar 16, 2005


Jun 19, 2005 03:46 am

PS- I'm a Ninja in real life.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Jun 19, 2005 10:04 am

I am actually glad to see Michael Keaton working again too, he's a great, Johnny Dangerously is one of my favorite comedys.

Anyway, I have not seen to movie yet, but I hope to, I get intruiged by all ghost, supernatural, alien abduction or other such topic...I have not seen how they record or anything, so now tya got me interested.

Oh, Buy a behringer... :-)

Hold 'Em Czar
Member
Since: Dec 30, 2004


Jun 19, 2005 03:08 pm

there is a such thing as anechoic chambers....speaker and mic companys use them for product devlopment, and frequency spectrum plots...

www.bell-labs.com/org/113...oicChamber.html

they say when you speak, the sound seems to stop right in front of your nose, and yes it's very unnatural

Cone Poker
Member
Since: Apr 07, 2002


Jun 19, 2005 05:21 pm

More evidence of how weird I truly am... I was part of a team that did ghost hunting in houston and we used a few EVP gadgets. You can do it with a small handheld recorder, condensor mic (large diagram) and then import it into something like wavelab and listen for a while...

...bringing sexy back
Member
Since: Jul 01, 2002


Jun 19, 2005 05:24 pm

now thats something i GOTTA hear loki...

Perdido
Member
Since: Dec 15, 2004


Jun 20, 2005 09:18 am

But the whole point here... and I agree with it 100%, was not that there are no ghosts... but rather, How horrible the movie was, In terms of research. I wont ruin the movie for others, but it goes from something that is very real and very eerie, to another stupid ghost movie.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Jun 20, 2005 10:39 am

there ARE ghosts...of that there is no doubt, I lived with a couple once...

Perdido
Member
Since: Dec 15, 2004


Jun 20, 2005 10:51 am

there ARE ghosts...of that there is no doubt, I lived with a couple once...


I had no arguement against that. I was raised in a house that was haunted. I have seen WAY too much to say there are no ghosts.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Jun 20, 2005 10:51 am

amen brotha!

I lived for a couple years in a haunted house as a kid, my parents still think I'm nuts when I talked about "ya, back in the haunted house"...

Hold 'Em Czar
Member
Since: Dec 30, 2004


Jun 20, 2005 11:09 am

send a few my way!!!!

i've never seen any, but welcome the experiance.....

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Jun 20, 2005 11:50 am

the missus has had quite a few harrowing experiences, being lifted off the bed when a child, seeing forms, etc. quite a lot. I've seen a few myself, but not nearly as much as her. She's quite a clairvoyant.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Jun 20, 2005 11:53 am

That's crazy pjk...

My foot hurt for two days after some weird ghost attack, I couldn't see anything that particular time, but something grabbed, bit or otherwise squeezed my foot cuz it hurt like hell...Other than that one time my haunted house was weird, but not violent at all...that one episode was strange.

Prince CZAR-ming
Member
Since: Apr 08, 2004


Jun 20, 2005 12:31 pm

Yeah, there's a bunch of wierd tales in her past. She doesn't really bring them up much, or dwell on them as she's been raised by the major religion that deems any 'other-worldly' activity as demonic and or evil. (I'll let you guess which one so as to not tick off any readers =). She doesn't see it as demonic, but gets uncomfortable with it.

She's been raised in a few haunted houses, one or two with some real hair raising activities going on. Actually, most houses have activity in them, it's just that everyone is at different levels of awareness. Some can see / sense / hear / smell / etc ghosts in places, where others cannot. No biggy, really, just people being different.

It's funny, going to one of our band practices, the missus stayed upstairs with the parents of the house while we played in the basement. After we left, the missus noted to me that she kept seeing forms moving in differnt parts of the house. I saw it once, but that's it. I didn't mention it to her until after we left, and she brought it up. We told the owners of the house and they were totally oblivious, almost disregarding it as poppycock. Oh well.

Member
Since: Mar 16, 2005


Jun 20, 2005 04:47 pm

By the way of disclaimer, I DO believe in ghosts, although it is grudgingly.

I had a very strange experience in my teens involving doors opening, shutting and in two instances locking and unlocking themselves. The first locking one was one of those lift and slide type of locks. I heard the lock working on my side of the door in a hallway. When I rounded the corner, it was done, but the door was locked. And wierd that is as well. Who puts a bolt lock on the OUTSIDE of an attic door!? My friend and I got locked in there a few times. Nothing creepy, just a pain in the @rse. The second was a spring-bolt lock that unlocked itself, then the door proceeded to open and close in full view of myself and two witnesses. A few doors in the hallway managed to open and close themselves as well. All of this in the course of fifteen minuets. It was at this point I was informed by my friend the house was haunted, ect... His parents were uber-christians, so this must have been horrifying. After a few years of contemplation, it only begged one question of me. Exsistance is moot. What I wanted to know, is exactly what are they?

As far as recording them goes, is it the proverbial "ghost in the machine" or some nice internal interfearance? How do you differentiate between the two? And why isn't every single recording from the last, oh, I dunno, ten years rife with them!?

If I was dead and wanted to talk, I'd be on every album I could get on! I won't name names, but there is an album or two that would have my disembodied voice saying: "This is shite. Drop-D is for people who can't play real chords. They are lazy! It's cool for a song or two, but you can't make a career out of it. And stop whining!" Well, something like that anyways.

I'm still wondering about the magic digital recorder that needs no white noise generator. With a dictiphone mic (I strongly suspect I just invented that term), it should only use proximity noise, yet they clearly had no one speaking when it went off. Wierd, that is.

@Loki- What kind of gear other than the recording gear did you use? I'm more curious than anything elce. And did you have a medium or some sort? It all seems pretty wierd to me. Not that it shouldn't be explored, but the appropriate ammounts of sodium chloride need to be applied.

@WHD Thanks! I so totally couldn't remember the name of that chamber! I'd like to step into one just for the sake of it all.

And finally for the all-mighty DB. I was sold on an UB 2442FX-PRO long before I even found this place! I was looking for reviews and I found this joint! Thankfully, I'm cashing in some vacation time and the board shall find my home via Musician's friend, via here. Tis the least I can do for every bit of stuff I took away from this place. For my own volition, I picked up an Alesis condenser from MF and I'm hoping you saw a cent or two off of that. What is the proper route?

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Jun 20, 2005 04:58 pm

Thanks, Ihave seen a few buys recently, which is great, summer months are always tough on the HRC budget.

The proper channel is just clicking to MF thru any link or advertisement on this site, once there, surf anywhere and buy anything, it should all get credited to HRC.

And thanks for your support...truly glad HRC has been useful to you.

"all-mighty", eh? sweeeeet :)

a.k.a. Porp & Mr. Muffins
Member
Since: Oct 09, 2002


Jun 20, 2005 06:09 pm

Quote:
She doesn't really bring them up much, or dwell on them as she's been raised by the major religion that deems any 'other-worldly' activity as demonic and or evil. (I'll let you guess which one so as to not tick off any readers =).


I don't see a reason to find that offensive. It doesn't bother me to hear you state what I believe as long as you don't misrepresent it. I don't understand why someone who can accept the existance of ghosts would find it hard to accept the existance of demons. We are talking about the supernatural either way.

A friend of mine is a "ghost buster" of sorts. He's a pastor in Utah and has related quite a few stories of haunted houses that he has been called to pray over. After going through the place and praying over each room the strange happenings stop.

The youth pastor at my church also has similar stories.

I believe it. I'm not 100% positive what it is, but I tend to think that it is something like demonic activity as that usually seems to fit with things.

Hold 'Em Czar
Member
Since: Dec 30, 2004


Jun 20, 2005 06:23 pm

i used to have an ouija (sp?) board back when i was 12 or 13 and that piece of crap never worked...we tried EVERYTHING to get it to work....i've messed with wicca, astral projection, buddah, and terrot cards and none of it ever 'worked'. ever since then, i stopped believing in any sorta afterlife.


i wanna be posessed!!!!

www.TheLondonProject.ca
Member
Since: Feb 07, 2005


Jun 20, 2005 06:24 pm

dB, I'd click through to MF for sure but they don't ship to Canada. Sorry dude.

Administrator
Since: Apr 03, 2002


Jun 20, 2005 06:30 pm

I used to read Tarot and mess with Ouija a lot, had a pretty crazy experience once, suffice it to say I'll never do it again and I'll leave it at that...

I don't lump ghosts in with demonic activity right away, obviously the more menacing ones are likely moreso demonic, but many times they are just pranksters...I kinda see it as somebody not accepting they are dead yet...kinda caught between planes...but eh, what do I know, I've never been dead.

Oh, and BeerHunter, I am actively trying to find a gear seller that will ship to Europe and Canada that I can affiliate with...MF bums me out that way...

edit0r
Member
Since: Aug 17, 2004


Jun 20, 2005 07:00 pm

Quote:
My foot hurt for two days after some weird ghost attack, I couldn't see anything that particular time, but something grabbed, bit or otherwise squeezed my foot cuz it hurt like hell...


My dog did that once.

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