Subliminal/Supraliminal help

[Mawen]

Hi every one.
I could use your help.

I am aware that many here do not believe in subliminals, or how they can work, but I know that you are ready to help anyway.

I would like to make a subliminal as well as a supraliminal

Subliminal Audios - Affirmations in high frequency, usually around 16000-17500 Hz which most adults can't hear consciously but within the 20 - 20000 Hz range and hence detected by the ears. (masked/unmasked)

Supraliminal Audios - Affirmations in Low volume, masked by audio such that you don't interpret the affirmations consciously even if you might hear them. (it is recommended that you hear whispers).

When it comes to subliminals:

1. I heard that you don't convert the audio file to 17500 Hz, so what actually happens? What is the difference between choosing 16500 or 17500?

What most people do is to "convert" their 44,100 Hz sound file to 17,500 hz and then use the original sound file to assess the sound level.

However, I saw in another comment that Steve referred to the following method:

OK. To make a "silent subliminal" like the one in your first post:

1. Start with a good clean vocal recording. The one in your sample sounded if it was created with a "text to speech" application. If you produce this recording in another application (rather than recording it yourself), ensure the file is saved as "WAV, 16-bit 44.1 kHz sample rate", then import the file into Audacity. If you record the speech in Audacity, ensure that you record at 44100 Hz sample rate (the default for Audacity).
2. With the track selected, Apply the "Normalize" effect, and normalize to -1 dB (default setting).
3. With the Nyquist Prompt, apply the following code:

   Code: Select all

   ;version 4
   
   (setf cf 16500) ;modulation carrier frequency
   
   (defun bandpass8 (sig lo hi)
     (lowpass8
         (highpass8 sig lo) hi))
   
   (setf *track* (bandpass8 *track* 100 3000))
   (setf *track* (mult *track* (hzosc cf)))
   (bandpass8 *track* 15000 19000)
   
   

4. Normalize to -23 dB

Step 4 isn't strictly necessary, but is just included to give you an output level similar to your sample.

What difference will it make?

I've also seen methods (that I can't quite find) that first change the sample rate to 192000 Hz, then -1db, use .ny promt and then normalize to -23.

What difference will it make to a subliminal versus just converting it from 44,100?

The theory is "basically, when we say the affirmations are inaudible, it means that the human ear cannot hear the frequency because the auditory hair cells in your ear that are responsible for processing (hearing) this pitch have become very insensitive (usually a result of aging).

This is where the confusion occurs because so many people are led to believe that the brain can't process something we can't hear, and that is very incorrect. Your ears are responsible for hearing noises, but it's the brain (auditory cortex) that's responsible for processing and decoding the information.

Sound is what we hear while the brain interprets it. You can totally not hear something and still interpret it on a subconscious level. This is how subliminals work. Just because you can't hear the affirmations doesn't mean it isn't being picked up by your brain. We know this because of the way sound waves work.

When you play the subliminal, you obviously won't be able to hear anything, but does that mean the affirmations are just not there? Of course not. The sound waves are still there, causing your eardrums to vibrate where your brain processes and decodes these vibrations. The only difference is that your ears aren't hearing it."

What I would like to ask for help with is:

Make sure the frequency is not too high. I saw in the analytics in Audacity that my highest frequency is almost 21000 Hz and make sure that the data is intact in the higher frequency.

In addition, I would like to hear what the difference is in the sound level when the frequency increases to avoid hearing damage.


2. As above, a supraliminal (masked) has the same effect as a subliminal, the advantage is that you can "hear" the messages, while the disadvantage is that they are not exactly "silent".

The idea is to mask the affrmations recordings with ambient sounds BUT it must still be possible to hear the whispers/mumbling without it being possible to understand what is being said. This is because the sound waves must be strong enough to enter the ear, and if you mask the voices completely the effect will not be that great. I have done this successfully but the white noise I use is incredibly loud and I have difficulty finding a good balance. Besides this, there can be a difference in whether I can hear the words, depending on how loud I turn up the volume. Is there an option here to "lock in" the whisper/mumbles when I find the right volume, so no matter how much I turn it up or down, I only hear the whisper/murmur.

So how to mask the affirmation recording without getting hearing damage from a jet engine.

I saw this suggestion from DVDdoug but I don't know if it has the same effect?

You mean the simple non-patented "drown-out" method, right?

"just below" audibility could be tricky and it will probably require some trial-and error.

I assume you have a music file and a subliminal file...

- Open the subliminal file, select the whole thing and then use the Amplify effect at -20dB to reduce the volume. (If that turns-out not to be quiet enough go back and start-over a bigger negative number.)

- Use File -> Import to import the music file into the same project.

If you Play in audacity with both files open they will mix and that will give you an idea of what you're going to get.

- File -> Export -> Export as WAV. and the new file will be the mix. That's it. You're done! (You can try MP3 later but I suggest you "play with" WAV first.)



-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, if you want to reveal the subliminal message -

- Clear-out those files and/or start fresh with Audacity.

- Open the original music-only file.

- Select the whole thing and run the Invert effect. This changes the positive samples to negative and vice-versa, flipping the wave upside down. It will sound the same and probably look the same but it's going to subtract-out when we mixed back-in.

- Use File -> Import Audio to bring the subliminal mix into this new project.

When you play the file the inverted music will mix with and cancel-out the music in the mixed-file and you should hear the subliminal message (quietly since you reduced the volume before mixing).

You can export and you'll get that new "mix" with just the recovered/decoded message. Then you can open and amplify that if you wish.

...I hope I didn't miss any steps.

There is one more thing that might improve quality... The mix of the music and subliminal will boost the volume (when you mix you are summing) and that can push your levels into clipping (distortion). It shouldn't be too bad since the subliminal is low level but you can prevent that if you reduce the music by 1 or 2 dB. Just make sure to save that slightly-reduced file if you want to recover the subliminal because the inverted file has to be an exact copy if it's going to subtract completely. In fact that's the issue with clipping... if the mixed file is clipped the music in that file is no longer identical and it won't subtract completely, The subliminal is distorted and damaged too.

...Sometimes I've said "subtract" and sometimes I've said "cancel". But as I also said that mixing is done by summation, When you invert and mix you are "adding a negative to a positive" which is the same as subtraction, and the result is canceled sound.

I hope you understand my questions, despite you guys being skeptical about it. So I need your professional objective help

[Mawen]

Ohh btw. DVDdoug also wrote this before the part i quoted:

...My "favorite" subliminal technique is to simply mix a quiet recording with a louder recording that drowns-out the "secret message". The louder sound can be white noise, pink noise, music, etc. Natural sounds like waves & rain usually have quiet parts where the subliminal might leak-through, and with music the same thing could happen if you have sublimibals between songs.

I like this method because you can later subtract-out the loud sound and boost the volume revealing the message (if you are careful about the process). This also "proves" that a secret message actually exists! It's also easy to do and easy to understand how the technique works. Some other methods might end-up mangling & destroying the message,

[Trebor]

Subliminal Audios - Affirmations in high frequency, usually around 16000-17500 Hz which most adults can't hear consciously but within the 20 - 20000 Hz range and hence detected by the ears.

"most adults can't hear ..." >16kHz. Full-stop. End of story.

"20 - 20000 Hz range" is nominal. In reality high-frequency limit declines steadily with age ...



Perhaps Audacity should include EQ preset curves to modify audio destined for grey & white-haired audiences, to compensate for their inevitable high-frequency hearing-loss.

[Mawen]

True that's not the issue here. You "cant" hear it, but it still creates vibrations. People get great results with subliminals but that's not what I'd like to discuss. I understand the sceptism, just want help

[steve]

but that's not what I'd like to discuss.

Then I'd suggest that you leave out bits like this:
"The sound waves are still there, causing your eardrums to vibrate where your brain processes and decodes these vibrations..... "
If you write things like that, expect to be corrected, because in the known universe, that's not how things work, no matter what anyone wants to believe. This forum is not the place to discuss beliefs, it's a place for talking about Audacity.

1. I heard that you don't convert the audio file to 17500 Hz, so what actually happens?

As I wrote in your other topic, the audio frequencies are modulated with a 17500 Hz carrier wave. This is called "Amplitude Modulation", and you can read about how Amplitude Modulation works here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplitude_modulation

What is the difference between choosing 16500 or 17500?

That is the frequency of the carrier wave. The lower it is, the more likely you will hear a high pitched whistling sound.

Amplitude modulation creates a band of frequencies that are centred on the "carrier frequency". The frequency band is symmetrical about the carrier frequency, so half of the modulated signal is above the carrier frequency, and half is below. This is called "double-sideband amplitude modulation".
However, because:
1. We want the frequencies to be too high to hear,
2. The modulated frequency band is symmetric,
we can remove the lower half of the band. This is done with a high pass filter and is called "single-sideband modulation". See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-si ... modulation

Digital audio has a frequency limit that is half of the sample rate. Thus for a sample rate of 44100 Hz, it is not possible to have frequencies above 22050 Hz.
If the carrier frequency is 17500 Hz, and we are using single sideband modulation, that means that we have a maximum audio bandwidth of
22050 - 17500 = 4550 Hz (4.55 kHz)
That's similar to telephone quality audio.

If we try using a carrier frequency that is much higher than 17500, with a sample rate of 44100, there won't really be enough usable bandwidth to represent the audio.

If we use a carrier frequency much below 16000 Hz, listeners are likely to hear it. It sounds like a high pitched swishing / whistling sound.
(Note that if your subconscious could hear the silent subliminal, what it would hear is this high pitched swishing / whistling sound).

What difference will it make?

What? Normalizing? That just amplifies the result to a specified level. See: https://manual.audacityteam.org/man/normalize.html

I've also seen methods (that I can't quite find) that first change the sample rate to 192000 Hz, then -1db, use .ny promt and then normalize to -23.

What difference will it make to a subliminal versus just converting it from 44,100?

Using a higher sample rate allows more bandwidth for the encoded audio. However, the actual bandwidth will still be limited by the playback capabilities of the hardware. Most audio playback systems are limited to around 20000 Hz (20 kHz) max.

On the other hand, if you are using AM modulation as a form of Steganography, a high sample rate will support fairly high quality audio encoding.

[Trebor]

... People get great results with subliminals ...

Can you point us to a double-blind trial that shows audio with "subliminal" messages works better than placebo audio (without added inaudible messages) ?.

[Mawen]

Dont need to show anything. I judge on results nothing else

[Mawen]

I know it works for several reasons. So you can believe what you want, I have 0 doubts, the reason I ask is to make it as much effective as possible and I want to take care of my ears. I am more comfortable with supraliminals because subliminals have a lot more possibilities for errors

[unbuildpain]

Can you point us to a double-blind trial that shows audio with "subliminal" messages works better than placebo audio (without added inaudible messages) ?.

They are kept top secret by military, etc so victims of that form of torture know it works but they cannot prove it.

[steve]

They are kept top secret by military,

That sounds like the work of the MIB that guard the "ice wall"