Ghost Voices: Capturing EVPs
The Challenges Involved In Recording Electronic Voice Phenomena.
Jul 30, 2008
You will need a recorder; many investigators use digital recorders which are easy to buy and easy to use. They have the advantage that it’s simple to move a recording to a computer and use any of the available media players to listen to the recording. Other investigators claim that the best EVPs are recorded on analog devices – like cassette or tape recorders, although when using these it’s important to employ an external microphone so you don’t also record the mechanical sound of the tape recorder itself.
Environment.
When at the investigation site, think carefully about where the recorder, or recorders, will be placed. Putting them in areas which have a natural echo or resting them on materials that vibrate may cause distortion . It’s also worth thinking about how easy it would be for an investigator to knock, move or accidentally interfere with the recorder. All these things should be avoided where possible.
Control.
Other things to think about include how many people are in the location and whether or not sounds from other rooms will be clearly audible. Some groups have protocols, or ways of behaving, when a recording is taking place. These vary from group to group and, since this is not an exact science, there is no “right” way to go about it. However, the more control you have over the people and the environment the easier it will be to determine whether a sound is natural or something unusual.
Perhaps the most important thing to do is limit the number of human voices that you have to sort through. IF EVP work is your goal, take a small team and make sure you know where they are when the recording is done.
If they are all in the same space, try to limit movement and conversation, although since this sort of phenomena never happens to order it means keeping a certain amount of discipline throughout the course of the investigation.
Let your team know if you are running recorders of any kind, and you may find it a good idea to have them announce when they enter and leave a room. You might also find it useful to have investigators announce movement sounds, sneezes, and other involuntary noises.
If they are able to identify environmental noises as they happen that will also be helpful later on, when you come to review the recordings that you’ve made.
When is an EVP not an EVP?
The simple answer is, when it’s a sound that can be heard with the human ear. It’s tempting, when trying to catch EVPs, to just clear out the people and let the machines do the work. If you choose to take that approach, you will miss out on the opportunity to have a set of human ears available during the recording to identify natural or background sounds.
While it’s not foolproof, it can save time during the process of reviewing the recording later. One of the challenges in substantiating an EVP is determining whether it genuinely is a sound that was not present during the recording and any measure taken to make that determination easier is a good idea.
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