Electronic Voice Phenomena
Any seasoned ghost hunter will have plenty of stories about odd equipment malfunctions, but EVP Recordings fall into an unusual category.
EVP (Electronic voice phenomena) are electronically captured sounds that seem to resemble human speech, but occur in parts of a recording where no human speech should exist. Usually, EVP sounds are short, only a word or two, but longer EVPs have been recorded in recent years.
Earlier generations of ghost hunters simply ignored the “static and background noise” and usually assumed that the more obvious EVP were caused by equipment malfunctions. However, better microphones and digital recording equipment and digital editing programs, such as Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro, have made it possible for ghost hunters to more closely examine these sounds and have opened up the world of EVP recording to serious ghost hunters.
Most paranormal investigators assume that EVPs are a form of communication from ghosts or other entities existing beyond the physical realm of existence, usually as a form of post death communication. However, sometimes, particularly in the case of shadow men and demons these EVP recordings are not so friendly.
Some people claim there are natural explanations for EVP recordings such as apophenia (finding significance in insignificant phenomena), auditory pareidolia (interpreting random sounds as voices in their own language), equipment artifacts, and simple hoaxes.
Recordings of electronic voice phenomena are often created from background sound by increasing the gain (i.e. sensitvity) of the recording equipment. Seeking out EVP recordings is probably the most technically challenging area of ghost hunting, because many, perhaps most, EVPs are recorded when the investigators heard and saw nothing out of the ordinary. Your equipment needs to be good quality and you need to really understand you equipments strengths and weaknesses to get good results. Also, it really takes patience.
A Short History of EVP
EVP’s were know to sound engineers from the earliest days of recorded sound, but they were generally ignored as mistakes or anomalies. Some paranormal experts were curious about the unexplained sounds and during the early 1900’s many scientists and researchers, including luminaries such as Thomas Edison, attempted to build devices that would capture spirit impressions electronically, with much difficulty and disappointing results.
However, it was not until 1959 that Friedrich Jurgenson, a Swedish film producer and artist, began to seriously investigate EVP as a unique and separate phenomenon. Jurgenson was tape-recording bird songs in the countryside, when on playback, he heard a voice discuss “nocturnal bird songs.” The voice was male and the language was Norwegian, and at first he thought it was interference from a radio broadcast.
Nonetheless, Jurgenson made other recordings to see if the same thing happened again and this time he heard numerous voices when listened to his recordings. The voices shocked him, some gave personal information about Jurgenson, plus instructions on how to better record EVPs.
At first, word of Jurgenson’s discoveries did not have a major impact, but as the price of electronic recording equipment fell and the reliability and capability of the equipment increased many paranormal investigators began to examine EVPs.
Many of the early researchers were engineers and electronics experts who devised sophisticated experimental equipment for capturing the voices, but what makes EVPs so fascinating for modern part-time ghost hunters is that today anyone can buy much more sophisticated and reliable equipment than the early researchers had for less than $100.
EVP Rating System
In 1982, Sarah Estep developed a rating system for EVPs: Class C are the faintest recordings, sometimes indecipherable; Class B voices are louder, clearer, and make more sense; and Class A voices are clear, can be heard without headphones and can even be duplicated onto other tapes. This system gives a new researcher a way to describe the EVPs he discovers to others in terms they will understand.
EVP’s are one of the easiest and most exciting phenomena for any beginning paranormal investigator to examine. With the right equipment and a little patience you should not have any problem recording unexplained sounds and noise.
Hi,
I’ve already purchased an RCA model Voice Recorder. What I’m interested in is a software program, for my computer, that will let me view and enhance what I’ve recorded so I can “see” and clean up sounds I’ve gotten. I’ve already contacted the manufacturer and they sent me to you.
Can you help me?
@Beth
I would try Audacity. It works on Mac and PCs and it is absolutely free! If you want to spend some money you could look at ProTools or Logic (that one is mac only)
Protools and Logic are pretty expensive and have a big learning curve, so I would try out Audacity first and if it can’t do all you need, then think about moving up to one of the paid solutions.
Good Luck!
i building my own équipement based on raudive diode and plug to a professionnal mixer to increase the volume record. i am planning to add Extrem Low noise amplifier card at the end of my electronic shematic an then manage the noise filtering through my mixer and pream again the output signal to be record. will see what will happen 🙂
duz nebody kno where to find some cheap shyt for ghost hunting
GhostStop.com has everything in one place and pretty good prices – or if you want to search around a bit you could try Ebay or Amazon – just be careful of substandard gear being re-branded as ghost hunting equipment. Plus GhostStop has great support if you have questions.
This shit is fucking crazy. we cant believe it We were watching one from taps when were heard “help me” from alyssas hallway. And we listened to the tape serveral more times to see if was in the evp but it wasnt. HER HOUSE IS HAUNTEDDDD!!!!!!:/
There are really some amazing quality EVP’s out there.. They cover the spectrum of intelligent to residual hauntings .. Just really makes you wonder
What are you guys listening to also can you email it to me I want to test out Audacity to see if it works
Thanks
Rick
Jumpa13@Gmail.com
Hu tê valesc varnzo dé coolûra? Darschvidon! ;D
I have several tapes I just use small micro tape recorder and i
placed them on a grave of a loved one and i get different sounds
quite clear. My question being how do i transfer this info to one
tape or to the web. i have no clue. Please advise.
could get sum jack leads and hook it up 2 ur audio input then use audacity. hope it helps.
On my recorder what mode do I want to use it in?
I’m using a RCA digital recorder to record a Ghost box radio then using Audacity to enhance small segment of the reording. I’m getting astounding results!!!
Thankyou for posting a great blog post on this topic
Thanks for the awesome entry! Definitely feel more knowledgable!
Electronic Direct-Voice Phenomenon (EDVP)
Minimum equipment required: A plastic ice/cooler chest, to serve as a soundproof echo chamber, two (2) cell phones, and an optional digital voice recorder.
Instructions: 1. Call up one of the cell phones, place it in the speaker mode, with the volume turned up, and place it in the chest. 2. Place the optional recorder in the chest, turned on, with the volume turned up.. 3. Close the lid of the chest. 4. Put the other, calling phone, in the speaker mode, with the speaker turned up. .5. Try to communicate with any entities using the calling phone.
Ask them to speak as slowly and as loudly as possible. Keep trying until you are successful!
Note: You do not need a noise source for a sound energy source – voice energy is the source. Listen carefully, and encourage the entities to speak louder, even if no one hears them speaking. You will not have to try to hear the entities over “white noise”. Larger chests, that are square in one dimension and rectangular in the other dimension, will make a better echo chamber. Previously recorded messages do not convince anyone. You must prove it to yourself by doing it yourself!
I’m new to this. Where would I get a good digital voice recorder that don’t cost alot of money. Also is there a way I could upload it to my laptop. I have Toshiba. Thanks in advance
Hi Jennifer, You can get great recorders for ghost hunting and other ghost hunting equipment here: http://www.GhostStop.com/category-s/1.htm
This is great, I want to try and get some recorings myself and this information is very useful, I also think the information here
and also is very useful, what do you think?
Jennifer most of the recorders available on the market have a cd program with them that will allow you to upload them, at least for most of the digital ones
Used to do these all the time when I was growing up, it’s much harder than it looks.
Are there any cheap EVP recorders?
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