(I sincerely apologize if this is in the wrong topic, I have no idea where to fit this question in. 
)
Hi, so I’ve found a subliminal audio from YouTube that I’d like to decipher the affirmations of. If you have no idea what a subliminal audio is, in short im looking for a way to figure out words hidden underneath ocean wave sounds. I really have no idea where to start and some help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
So called “subliminals” are mostly snake oil (unsubstantiated by other research).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_stimuli
Several different methods for creating “subliminals” are popular.
The most common being “amplitude modulation”. This “modulates” a very high (inaudible) frequency with the “message” signal, such that the very high “carrier” frequency pulsates according to the amplitude of the message signal. This process is much like AM radio, except that the “carrier” signal is a very high frequency audio signal rather than radio waves. In common with AM radio, it is undetectable by humans without the aid of “decoding equipment” (the “radio”). It can usually be identified by a thin, bright horizontal line in the spectrogram (https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/spectrogram_view.html), somewhere above 15 kHz.
The next most popular is “frequency modulation”. This is modelled on “FM radio”, and again uses very high frequency audio as a carrier. The spectrogram for this will typically have a bright band of varying thickness, high above the audio range (above 20 kHz) like this:
Then there’s various forms of “masking”, where audio is “hidden” by simply having the “message” at very low volume, so that it is entirely covered by louder audio. It is not possible to detect or separate out this type of hidden message if it is totally hidden. Sometimes the level is set so that the message is “just audible” if you concentrate, but this can be outweighed by auditory pareidolia effects (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia)
Didn’t the web page give you any hint at all what it was supposed to do? “Affirmation” is a pretty broad/fuzzy area. I can’t get Stuart Smalley out of my head.
I wonder if there isn’t anything in it but water and it’s intended to “open you up” to other thoughts and patterns in the same sense as walking on an actual beach can do that. “Boy this is intensely boring. I wonder…”
And it’s the “I wonder…” part that’s the goal. You have to think about other things. You can only stare at splashing water for just so long before you have to a) get in it, b) go home or c) let your thoughts wander.
The surfing people regularly screw this up by choosing a). You should choose c).
You can get the same effect with a crystal ball, candle and dark room. No, color videos don’t show up in the ball like Wizard of Oz. The object is to stare at the candle reflection in the ball until you get bored stiff and your head starts to wander. You can do it with a pan of water, too, but I can’t sell you a pan of water.
I have a 2-do job of recording crashing surf. I know it’s not that far away, but it’s harder than you think. I have to find free parking, no traffic or jet noises and calm winds so I don’t soak the microphones (stereo, right?). Last time I tried it, a nice couple on vacation from Ohio wandered by to chat. Half-way through the woman noticed the little recorder. “Oh, are we interrupting a recording?”
I have a terrific recording of Ohio-Speak with ocean in the background. There’s a combination.
Koz
Then there’s various forms of “masking”, where audio is “hidden” by simply having the “message” at very low volume, so that it is entirely covered by louder audio. It is not possible to detect or separate out this type of hidden message if it is totally hidden.
Except if you do it yourself and you keep a copy of the foreground sound/noise you can subtract it out* to hear the subliminal background.
And that’s easy to do in Audacity…
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Otherwise, you bump into the restriction that Audacity can’t split a mixed show into individual voices, instruments or sounds.
There is a corollary to that which states for us to “clean up” a voice, it has to be louder than the trash. No subliminal product can pass that.
Koz
from YouTube that I’d like to decipher the affirmations of.
Did you write to them? What did the comments say?
Koz