I can’t remember how I found out about the Radio Lab show produced by WNYC, but since I’m in Boston I was pleased I could snag the podcasts from the second season (the first season being tied up in rights issues preventing their distribution as MP3s).
What really caught my ear was the “Musical Language” episode. There was a great segment on audio illusions in which they interviewed Diana Deutsch, a professor of the Psychology of Music. Specifically, they were talking to her about an audio clip she’d accidentally created of her speaking which, when heard as a loop, sounded like music. It has to be heard to be believed: WAV | MP3.
NOTE: The track begins with Deutsch speaking the full sentence, followed by a few loops of the “singing words.” Listen to the entire track, then play it again to hear the sentence again.
I was intrigued enough to pick up her two CDs (Musical Illusions and Paradoxes and Phantom Words, and Other Curiosities) to hear more. I’ve only sampled a few of the tracks so far, but they’re incredibly interesting. Especially with my interest in Beispiele paranormaler Tonbandstimmen I was keen on the “Phantom Words” tracks. What they seem to show is the incredible power of our brains to try and sift through apparent randomness in an effort to impose order (in this case turning beeps into words).
… I hear voices.
March 13th, 2007 | 
