Top 10 Incredible Sound Illusions

[bryan_kilco]

http://listverse.com/2008/02/29/top-10-incredible-sound-illusions/

Some of this is pretty cool.

Discuss?

 

[LeSedna]

I knew some of them but damn, no7 is incredible, no matter how hard I try, my brain still makes it go lower and lower !

 

[FIXXXER]

the "Sound for under 20s Only" made me

 

[Morgan C]

I knew some of them but damn, no7 is incredible, no matter how hard I try, my brain still makes it go lower and lower !

I think #7 and #8 are essentially the same. They have one low octave that starts off loud and is faded out. And one high octave that starts off soft and is faded in. Both of them are going down, so that when you get to the end you're back where you started.

edit: actually most of them are like this, #6 too. The normal-speed beat fades out while the half-speed beat fades in.

 

[JamieK]

There's a better version of the shepard tone here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_tone

 

[bryan_kilco]

I couldn't quite figure out #6.....it really does seem like it speeds up.

My one buddy was asking about the match one. I didn't listen with headphones, but to me it just seems like 2 mics in the room and panned out, and had the guy walk around them, shaking the matches? But they call it an "illusion".....

 

[Notuern]

My one buddy was asking about the match one. I didn't listen with headphones, but to me it just seems like 2 mics in the room and panned out, and had the guy walk around them, shaking the matches? But they call it an "illusion".....

Its 2 calibrated microphones in a dummy head with realistic ear canals to simulate the way we percieve sound.
What happens when you listen to the recording in headphones should be the same as hearing it in real life.

Its called binaural recording: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_recording

 

[TesticleMilkshake]

Pretty cool stuff!

 

[Mago]

dummy head recordings ONLY work if you listen to them on headphones. on earplugs it should work even better.

Some are really cool, on others I totally feel like I'm beeing trolled.

 

[outbreak525]

#5 is mind blowing from a producer's perspective.
It's done so well. I'd love to do something like it.

 

[Scott Horner]

I remember testing out my pair of ATH-M50s with the barber shop sample a while back. Completely blew my mind; especially when he puts the bag over your head.

 

[outbreak525]

especially when he puts the bag over your head.

That's the best part.

 

[Mago]

I remember testing out my pair of ATH-M50s with the barber shop sample a while back. Completely blew my mind; especially when he puts the bag over your head.

first time I heared it I didn't know that it was a dummy head recording.
I was on headphones, and I turned around every time when the door closed and opened, even if there was no door behind me
pretty confusing until I figured it out

 

[updog]

thanks for sharing. these are really interesting.

i had heard about the barbershop one before, but i hadn't tried it. closed my eyes, and found myself believing some of the sounds are real even if some are not - for example i was able to convince myself that the voice isn't there, but in the meantime, without realizing it, my mind had totally accepted that someone's playing guitar in the room an amazing experience really.

the nr1. didn't work for me really. just sounds like the word "no way" or "nowhere" on the right and something else on the left but i don't start involuntarily making up phrases. maybe i'll try it again later.

 

[updog]

oh and who else is able to hear the bonus one?? i'm 22 in a couple of weeks and i was able to hear it. i've thought my hearing isn't all that good but i guess it's better than i give it credit for.

it's weird because there's a non-flatscreen tv in the house and i don't think i can hear the 17kHz noise non-flatscreens make when they're on from that specific tv set. strange. maybe the models just before flatscreens didn't make that sound?

 

[Red Phoenix]

Some interesting stuff but i've expected a bit more. I'm more catched by optical illusions.
For me #8 sounds like someone is sweeping through the frequencies while the chords beeing the same...

When i push my speakers a bit i can hear the 'under 20 only' sample while i'm a few years older and my ears are a bit fucked up. Its like a fine needle is stabbing in my ear.

#1 i hear "No way" on the right and "many" on the left...so..who is psychologist and can tell me what that should mean for me?

 

[LeSedna]

I couldn't quite figure out #6.....it really does seem like it speeds up.

My one buddy was asking about the match one. I didn't listen with headphones, but to me it just seems like 2 mics in the room and panned out, and had the guy walk around them, shaking the matches? But they call it an "illusion".....

I think they play on the hits, some of them are hard, some are soft, to make the beat. And as you go forward in the recording the hard/soft beats change and or ar switched slowly, maybe they pass from a 8/8 beat to a 7/8 beat which then sounds like repeating more often and therefore seems like faster. The volume might change too, louder may sound like more powerful, assimilated as faster, probably something like that ? It's well done indeed !

And yeah I'm 24 and I can hear the 20s sound as well on my laptop's speaker. At 18/19 I remember in electronics classes I plugged an oscillator to an HP and controlled its freq with a variable impedance, I could hear up to 26ish khz, of course it was pretty low but I could tell when it was on. These high frequencies give me an instant headache, that's how I hear them ! Seems like almost everyone up to 30 can hear them, so their definition of "only to 20 and less" is a bit exaggerated !

 

[B36arin]

I can hear the bonus one very clearly.

#2 is still messing with my head though. I always close my eyes once in a while when I'm mixing as I feel it gives me a different perspective to what I'm hearing, but that video has blown my mind.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I'm going to be 30 in August and I can kind of hear the "Under 20's" one on my laptop speakers. I'm sure if I had bigger speakers cranked or phones on I would hear it no problem.

#8 still messes with me. Its like, the first time I hear it, the first set of notes sounds low. Then each time I play it back, I expect to hear the "low" notes I heard the first time, but it just seems to keep ascending!