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Auditory illusions with examples from Daft Punk

258 points by ugurs 3y ago

AlbertCory 3y ago
Funny about them: I can hear the words either as "Mexican lucky" or "to get lucky" (the correct lyrics) depending on what I want to hear. Usually, once you know the right words, you can't hear anything else. https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-mexican-lucky-and-why-is-he-up-for-him/740327 https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-mexican-lucky-and-w...
- mhh__ 3y ago
  "Legend of the penis" "Rob a Mexican" etc
- bloopernova 3y ago
  I've always liked the incorrect lyrics "we're robot Mexican monkeys". Not sure who first came up with that. I remember reading it on reddit back when the short preview clip of Get Lucky was released to great excitement.
  - Hamuko 3y ago
    The version I saw early was "We'll rub a Mexican monkey".
- p00dles 3y ago
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1fVkeSUXE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1fVkeSUXE I wonder how many people knew the correct lyrics before this commercial, I certainly did not
- hydrok9 3y ago
  "we're up all night to pet puppies"
- tagyro 3y ago
  The last comment on that page has another gem: https://youtu.be/BQ4c54rCJ_k https://youtu.be/BQ4c54rCJ_k
adamrezich 3y ago
for the Robot Rock one, the author should've clarified that it's not referring to the actual `rock. robot rock` voice part, but the part where the guitar chords sound like that. skip to about 1:50 in the linked video to hear the robot voice, then listen to how similar just the guitar chords after 2:00 sound like the robot voice saying `rock. robot rock.`
- ugurnot 3y ago
  You are right. That part seems a little bit vague, I will update it.
- brookritz 3y ago
  ...and the author should have clarified that this Daft Punk song is copied from a 1980's single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b0jWlPtP5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b0jWlPtP5o
  - spondylosaurus 3y ago
    Isn't Daft Punk pretty famous for sampling/referencing other artists' songs?
    - rtuin 3y ago
      Yes: https://www.whosampled.com/Daft-Punk/samples/ https://www.whosampled.com/Daft-Punk/samples/
    - rifty 3y ago
      Sure, but it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t just a Daft Punk thing. Electronic music and especially House music going back to its roots was shaped by sampling great moments or vocals of tracks into loops and mixing them together into new tracks on top of a 4/4 kick. The funky/disco/french house era was particularly prolific with sampling though.
  - veave 3y ago
    HN discovers sampling in electronic music.
Groxx 3y ago
>Open the song Aerodynamic and fast-forward to 2:28, start listening to the passage. I hear the higher pitch on my right and the lower one on my left ear. What about you? tbh I'm not sure which notes they're referring to here. There are a couple overlapping high/low pairs in that segment, and I'm not sure which is the octave/those frequencies. One seems like higher is more in my left, but it clearly follows the left speaker on my headphones. The others warble around for me, though I'm pretty strongly right handed. --- Even after reading and listening to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_illusion I'm totally lost as to what this post or wikipedia are describing. Are people hearing like: left ear right ear ------------------------- high (nothing in right ear) low high low or something else? I mostly hear: left ear central right ear -------------------------------------- high low low low low high high low low low low high I'm definitely hearing "low" while hearing "high" on the opposite ear, though it feels like there's a basically constant central "low" as well. The high tone clearly moves between sides. Maybe worth mentioning: I've had a hearing test in the past year and I'm essentially completely balanced, so there likely isn't a tone-deafness issue on one side that could cause a reception imbalance. Could the illusion just be hearing damage? And then handedness just follows which ear takes more damage due to more noisy things happening / less protection on that side? That could also explain why left-handed people are less strongly sided, as they're forced to do things more balanced due to right-hand-only stuff existing.
- gizajob 3y ago
  It's the Shepard tone effect running in the background of the actual notes, which produce a mild illusion that they're ascending when they're not, but nevertheless they're moving up and then down in pitches so it's not a brilliant example. I think the author is a little confused in this short essay about a few things. His "talking piano" effect is just standard vocoding, which has made me think this is all fairly new to him and he's not an expert. THIS is a talking piano: https://youtu.be/muCPjK4nGY4 https://youtu.be/muCPjK4nGY4
  - 3y ago
samstave 3y ago
I have a weird auditory illusion that happens to me ; I have tinnitus, and a super weird auditory response thing that happens to me occassionally: So when I cant hear the high-pitched tinnitus squeal (very low volume, but still hear it) - there is something weird that happens which is that I can "hear" some sort of radio station - which plays music in the really faintest and far away sounding volume... The other thing that happens, is that when laying in bed, attempting to sleep - there are times that when the house makes a "creak" sound of settling or whatever (you know how your wall may 'pop' or 'creak' at times - but the weird thing is that it simultaneously coincides with a pop and a flinch of my body, or 'sound' in my head. There are times when this happens and I get a bright flash in my closed-eyes... Anyone know what this is? Sodium defficiency? or aliens?
- jrmg 3y ago
  The flash thing sounds like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
- Groxx 3y ago
  Radio receivers in your head! https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3638/is-it-possible-to-pick-up-radio-signals-from-dental-fillings https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3638/is-it-poss... Also perhaps most famously: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lucille-ball-fillings-spies/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lucille-ball-fillings-spie...
- SpaceNugget 3y ago
  I don't hear radio stations, you might want to get your antenna checked. But I get the same sounds when I am laying in bed before I fall asleep and they also coincide with twitches or flinches and sometimes visual flashes.
  - samstave 3y ago
    EDIT: I said "radio station" only because thats what most would recognize... its not a radio station its just a really really faint sound of music playing - like jazz or something. its too dim to make out. ALSO - eveyone should checkout mynoise.net --- Yes! This literally usally happens right on the cusp of falling asleep... I equated it to what I had read a long time ago that "in order for one to fall asleep the body shuts down the sensory systems, and the last one to turn off prior to sleep is hearing" So I thought that it was caused by the creaks hitting my ears at time of turning asleep -- but it happens when even I am not fully asleep. But the body twitches really freak me out. I'll basically hit 'asleep' and Ill have a flash in my internal vision (white light looking like an iris of an eye is best way to say it) - and a full body twitch, it jolts me back awake. The morbid thought in my head is that this may be associated with sleep apnia and my body twitching back 'alaive' after stopping breathing ; however - this happens when I am not even fully asleep... So I am at a loss - I presume it is a vitamin defficiency, so I just bout some multi-Vs this week...
jcims 3y ago
I wonder how many folks that spend thousands of hours in front of a synthesizer or making electronic music or beats have identified similar illusions but don't really think of it as something 'interesting'. Like, 'oh yeah if you do this it kind of sounds like that'. Probably a whole catalog of tricks.
- whiddershins 3y ago
  Yes
- v64 3y ago
  Happens all the time. Most common one for me is when you're making a patch on a synth and by chance dial in those frequencies that align with formants (similar to the Robot Rock effect the post mentions). Yesterday I was working on a bass drum beat, and after adding some synths playing on top of it, I started to hear the bass drum echo. So, my first thought was I had accidentally enabled some kind of reverb or echo effect on it while I was setting up the synths. After confirming I hadn't and isolated the track to ensure the bass drum was sounding as intended, I chalked it up to some weird illusion between the synths and drum that was making it sound like an echo. I know it's not there in reality, but I can't unhear it. In this case, I went back and added a little echo to the drum to make the effect intentional, which turned out to sound good, but sometimes I'll try to make the illusion reality and it doesn't have the same effect.
  - mergejoin 3y ago
    would you mind sending a mp3 of that effect? just curious :)
    - v64 3y ago
      unfortunately as I said in an adjacent comment, I didn't end up making any recordings of this session, but will keep it in mind if I can make it happen again in the next couple of days!
  - metamet 3y ago
jonbell 3y ago
TIL the term “brown study”
beautifulfreak 3y ago
The Brainstorm/Green-Needle auditory illusion is more noticeable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g88BXUhR2a4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g88BXUhR2a4
- saghm 3y ago
  When my fiancee showed me this, it took me almost a dozen watches to finally hear the one I didn't initially hear. I don't remember for sure which one I could hear at first, but I think I only heard "green needle", which was higher pitched, and it took me a lot of concentration to block that out and focus on the lower pitch enough to be able to parse out some semblance of speech. If my recollection is correct, my troubles with the lower pitched sound is a little ironic because I play bass and often try to point out bass parts I like to my fiancee, but she sometimes has trouble parsing out exactly what I'm referring to due to not having had any musical training and it not being as obvious to her which part is the bass when I'm showing her a song with lots of different guitar and keyboard tracks and lots of heavy bass drum.
stigz 3y ago
In a similar vein, here's an analysis of the illusion in Radiohead's Videotape I found interesting. https://youtu.be/p_IHotHxIl8 https://youtu.be/p_IHotHxIl8
Waterluvian 3y ago
I’ll have to figure out which Daft Punk song I’m thinking of, but there was this segment where I swear there’s this really swingy chord progression but when slowed down to study it turns out to be the same chord repeated over and over. It’s the other voices that are progressing.
- mergejoin 3y ago
  commenting, in case you figure it out
- MAGZine 3y ago
  it sounds like you're referring to Daft Punk's "Giorgio by Moroder" from their album "Random Access Memories." The segment you're describing involves a repetitive chord progression, but the perceived variation comes from the evolving layers and elements surrounding the chords. This technique creates a sense of progression while maintaining a consistent base. -- by chatgpt
wantguns 3y ago
i have always felt some unexplained effect while listening to Veridis Quo [1]. the melody start sounding different from the 0:38 mark, just as the kicks come in. it seems like some supporting keys are added with the kicks, to make the sound more full, but at the same time it could be my brain getting tricked. sorry for botching the explanation, i have never studied music. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCd6PfxOy0Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCd6PfxOy0Y
- gzalo 3y ago
  Hmm, do you experience the same effect here? https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/daft-punk-veridis-quo-tab-s32835t0 https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/daft-punk-veridis-quo-tab-s3... It could be just the other instruments providing harmonics and changing the feel of the melody
aatd86 3y ago
One that mix engineers use a lot and that is not mentioned is the Haas Effect. (micro delay between left and right channel that gives a stereo sensation to a mono source)
monkpit 3y ago
First off, I love Daft Punk and I’ve heard all of these song countless times. But, sorry, I don’t buy it. I am aware of the talking piano effect, but even the wiki page [0] says it’s a vocoder, which is something entirely different. Similar to other commenters here [1], I don’t hear the pattern described for the octave effect either. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Rock_(song)https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Rock_(song) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Rock_(song)https://en.... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37104083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37104083
- ugurnot 3y ago
  It is not the vocoder but the guitar riff that sounds like robot rock.
  - lamp_book 3y ago
    The “guitar” is actually a synth with guitar pedals, and yes the effect is from a vocoder. Linked in the wiki: https://web.archive.org/web/20080221104737/http://www.thedaftclub.com/news.php?item.49 https://web.archive.org/web/20080221104737/http://www.thedaf...
- jpalawaga 3y ago
  Switched on Pop dived into Daft Punk[1] and definitely identified Daft Punk's robot voices as vocoder. Actually, most robot voices are. [1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/52t5WCspFuFkow374P88wA https://open.spotify.com/episode/52t5WCspFuFkow374P88wA (but also Ep 1 and 3).
a-dub 3y ago
my favorite are shepard tones, which literally look like the barber pole illusion in a spectrogram.
ilyt 3y ago
This is a better demonstration of octave illusion, I had no clue wtf the article meant until I listened to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMsK9rjBWo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMsK9rjBWo But I heard the lower tone in the middle of my head and higher tone bouncing from left to right. Not the "low on one side, high on the other side" article mentioned. Kinda interesting to think some people might hear completely different thing in same song...
- x3n0ph3n3 3y ago
  Thanks for sharing this. Oddly enough, I don't hear the illusion at all and it seemed very clear to me that they were alternating sides.
  - yencabulator 3y ago
    Left-handed or more ambidextrous? The illusion doesn't work as well on us freaks.
    - x3n0ph3n3 3y ago
      Neither, actually!
anArbitraryOne 3y ago
Would someone please send him a tweet telling him that you can start videos specific timestamps on YouTube by adding "&t=0s" where 0 is the desired number of seconds to the URL? I'm not making a new Twitter acct just to contact a person who has "Contact Follow me at Twitter: @ugu_rs" as the only means of such on their blog
- pests 3y ago
  You can use 1m2s format too.
sublinear 3y ago
https://youtu.be/1oD2DWf4CjQ https://youtu.be/1oD2DWf4CjQ Com Truise - Fairlight I wouldn't call this an illusion as much as an interesting effect. Put on a good pair of headphones and listen to the intro at moderately high volume. There's a buzzing note in there that seems to resonate in a way that feels like it's coming from inside your head or maybe even your throat.
distantsounds 3y ago
This article is horribly written and executed for many reasons, but the primary one being that the vast majority of the music credited as Daft Punk is just sampled music from other artists. You can eloquently see this broken down here: https://youtu.be/lBSWw7RdZLk https://youtu.be/lBSWw7RdZLk At least get the original works correct.
- 0x008 3y ago
  <Wow i never knew their music was so complex. That video is amazing
- teolandon 3y ago
  The article is poorly written, but all of the examples presented are about effects that Daft Punk made and do not appear in the original works.
- eyluo 3y ago
  Whatever chopping and sampling Daft Punk does that the author tries to communicate in the article is pretty independent from the original works.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- sowbug 3y ago
  You seem to have a bone to pick with the idea that artists who sample can be colloquially credited as the songwriters of the songs they wrote. It's a surprising position to take; most people get by just fine saying that MC Hammer wrote You Can't Touch This, as one of many examples. Please tell us more.
IndySun 3y ago
"...Their albums have a variety of musical diversity..." I like Daft Punk, but I, and they, I'm sure, never described themselves as such. It's worth addressing this sentence, it being an early sentence.
justsomehnguy 3y ago
Slightly offtopic: One of my favourite comments on Youtube I saw was on some RATATAT song (probably Wildcat?), AFAIR: "Those guitars are definitely trying to tell me something. I can't get a word but they do sing!" And if you enjoy Daft Punk but never heard of RATATAT then you def should try, first albums for a more raw and hard sound, later ones for more electronic sound.
- otherme123 3y ago
  For guitars saying things, Steve Vai has plenty of them, also laughing, crying, meowing...
nerf0 3y ago
I want to make this random off-topic comment: For years I've been collecting various audio clips, where "environmental" sound (voice, noise, etc.) transitions into music, or vise versa, in songs, movies and TV shows. I've searched the web and the closest term I can find is "diegetic switch", but not quite. Here's the (short) list: - https://youtu.be/9j9bVl3rfNk?t=29 https://youtu.be/9j9bVl3rfNk?t=29 In The Defenders, repeated piano note transitions into background music. - https://youtu.be/isZyX1xd1VQ?t=159 https://youtu.be/isZyX1xd1VQ?t=159 (The Great American Nightmare - Rob Zombie) - https://youtu.be/pU_mZ1X69Ho?t=364 https://youtu.be/pU_mZ1X69Ho?t=364 (Out of Control - Miraculix) - Justice League the movie where the song "Everybody Knows" transitions into the ambulance siren. Sorry I can't find this footage.
- jcims 3y ago
  I don’t know if this counts but it’s one of my all time favorites. - https://youtu.be/IXdNnw99-Ic https://youtu.be/IXdNnw99-Ic (Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd)
  - oefnak 3y ago
    Or the Gunners Dream, where a shout turns into a saxophone ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSE7qdjy3Q0&t=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSE7qdjy3Q0&t=1
- mgdlbp 3y ago
  - "Worthless" in The Brave Little Toaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UfsEj7AOGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UfsEj7AOGI - the chant in The Dark Knight Rises https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXxw-zXRqOs&t=130s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXxw-zXRqOs&t=130s Probably a lot of variations in musicals, but most will be mundane.
  - stickfigure 3y ago
    Wow, growing up in the 80s and thoroughly indoctrinated with musical theatre by my parents... how have I never heard of the Brave Little Toaster until now? I'm not sure whether I should thank you or curse you. Let's see what my 6yo says. The article reminds me of Pepe's Burningman operas from the mid 90s... "Devil's Delight, The Fire Tonight" blended into "Devils Do Light The Fire Tonight""
milleramp 3y ago
I am not sure I buy the argument here, but I really enjoyed listening these three Daft Punk songs!
gzalo 3y ago
There's one weird thing that I've noticed with Daft Punk's The Brainwasher, my brain has two different interpretations for the main loop offset: If starting here, I hear a loop that starts with fast notes and then has a silence. (warning: loud) https://youtu.be/RdVEQbWjaTE?t=91 https://youtu.be/RdVEQbWjaTE?t=91 If starting a few seconds earlier, the previous melody seems to fuse with the part that starts at 1:30, and it sounds different, like a bit slower. (warning: loud) https://youtu.be/RdVEQbWjaTE?t=80 https://youtu.be/RdVEQbWjaTE?t=80 Not sure if that makes sense, hopefully some one else also hears both versions! I'm assuming it may have to do with interpreting the last note of the loop as part of the next one, but it could be something else too. It really is a brainwash :P
joecool1029 3y ago
Not sure if it counts as an illusion but one that comes to mind is Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood. There's a line "remember that it's all in your head" that was mixed in a way that phase cancellation will make it inaudible on mono playback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_xRb0x9aw&t=176s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_xRb0x9aw&t=176s Now go and install: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/soundfixer/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/soundfixer/ and set output to mono and replay it.
- teddyh 3y ago
  > was mixed in a way that phase cancellation will make it inaudible on mono playback. That’s just what happens to the surround channel in audio tracks produced using Dolby Stereo, when, as you say, they are naively mixed to mono. This happens all the time.
rvieira 3y ago
Perhaps it's not really a "talking" instrument (as an actual voice is modulating), but Peter Frampton always comes to mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7rFYbMhcG8&t=345s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7rFYbMhcG8&t=345s

258 points by ugurs 3y ago

Funny about them: I can hear the words either as "Mexican lucky" or "to get lucky" (the correct lyrics) depending on what I want to hear. Usually, once you know the right words, you can't hear anything else. https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-mexican-lucky-and-why-is-he-up-for-him/740327 https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-mexican-lucky-and-w...

mhh__ 3y ago
"Legend of the penis" "Rob a Mexican" etc
bloopernova 3y ago
I've always liked the incorrect lyrics "we're robot Mexican monkeys". Not sure who first came up with that. I remember reading it on reddit back when the short preview clip of Get Lucky was released to great excitement.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  The version I saw early was "We'll rub a Mexican monkey".
p00dles 3y ago
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1fVkeSUXE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qN1fVkeSUXE I wonder how many people knew the correct lyrics before this commercial, I certainly did not
hydrok9 3y ago
"we're up all night to pet puppies"
tagyro 3y ago
The last comment on that page has another gem: https://youtu.be/BQ4c54rCJ_k https://youtu.be/BQ4c54rCJ_k

adamrezich 3y ago

for the Robot Rock one, the author should've clarified that it's not referring to the actual `rock. robot rock` voice part, but the part where the guitar chords sound like that. skip to about 1:50 in the linked video to hear the robot voice, then listen to how similar just the guitar chords after 2:00 sound like the robot voice saying `rock. robot rock.`

ugurnot 3y ago
You are right. That part seems a little bit vague, I will update it.
brookritz 3y ago
...and the author should have clarified that this Daft Punk song is copied from a 1980's single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b0jWlPtP5o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b0jWlPtP5o
- spondylosaurus 3y ago
  Isn't Daft Punk pretty famous for sampling/referencing other artists' songs?
  - rtuin 3y ago
    Yes: https://www.whosampled.com/Daft-Punk/samples/ https://www.whosampled.com/Daft-Punk/samples/
  - rifty 3y ago
    Sure, but it’s worth mentioning that this isn’t just a Daft Punk thing. Electronic music and especially House music going back to its roots was shaped by sampling great moments or vocals of tracks into loops and mixing them together into new tracks on top of a 4/4 kick. The funky/disco/french house era was particularly prolific with sampling though.
- veave 3y ago
  HN discovers sampling in electronic music.

Groxx 3y ago

>Open the song Aerodynamic and fast-forward to 2:28, start listening to the passage. I hear the higher pitch on my right and the lower one on my left ear. What about you? tbh I'm not sure which notes they're referring to here. There are a couple overlapping high/low pairs in that segment, and I'm not sure which is the octave/those frequencies. One seems like higher is more in my left, but it clearly follows the left speaker on my headphones. The others warble around for me, though I'm pretty strongly right handed. --- Even after reading and listening to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_illusion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_illusion I'm totally lost as to what this post or wikipedia are describing. Are people hearing like: left ear right ear ------------------------- high (nothing in right ear) low high low or something else? I mostly hear: left ear central right ear -------------------------------------- high low low low low high high low low low low high I'm definitely hearing "low" while hearing "high" on the opposite ear, though it feels like there's a basically constant central "low" as well. The high tone clearly moves between sides. Maybe worth mentioning: I've had a hearing test in the past year and I'm essentially completely balanced, so there likely isn't a tone-deafness issue on one side that could cause a reception imbalance. Could the illusion just be hearing damage? And then handedness just follows which ear takes more damage due to more noisy things happening / less protection on that side? That could also explain why left-handed people are less strongly sided, as they're forced to do things more balanced due to right-hand-only stuff existing.

gizajob 3y ago
It's the Shepard tone effect running in the background of the actual notes, which produce a mild illusion that they're ascending when they're not, but nevertheless they're moving up and then down in pitches so it's not a brilliant example. I think the author is a little confused in this short essay about a few things. His "talking piano" effect is just standard vocoding, which has made me think this is all fairly new to him and he's not an expert. THIS is a talking piano: https://youtu.be/muCPjK4nGY4 https://youtu.be/muCPjK4nGY4
- 3y ago

samstave 3y ago

I have a weird auditory illusion that happens to me ; I have tinnitus, and a super weird auditory response thing that happens to me occassionally: So when I cant hear the high-pitched tinnitus squeal (very low volume, but still hear it) - there is something weird that happens which is that I can "hear" some sort of radio station - which plays music in the really faintest and far away sounding volume... The other thing that happens, is that when laying in bed, attempting to sleep - there are times that when the house makes a "creak" sound of settling or whatever (you know how your wall may 'pop' or 'creak' at times - but the weird thing is that it simultaneously coincides with a pop and a flinch of my body, or 'sound' in my head. There are times when this happens and I get a bright flash in my closed-eyes... Anyone know what this is? Sodium defficiency? or aliens?

jrmg 3y ago
The flash thing sounds like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia
Groxx 3y ago
Radio receivers in your head! https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3638/is-it-possible-to-pick-up-radio-signals-from-dental-fillings https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3638/is-it-poss... Also perhaps most famously: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lucille-ball-fillings-spies/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lucille-ball-fillings-spie...
SpaceNugget 3y ago
I don't hear radio stations, you might want to get your antenna checked. But I get the same sounds when I am laying in bed before I fall asleep and they also coincide with twitches or flinches and sometimes visual flashes.
- samstave 3y ago
  EDIT: I said "radio station" only because thats what most would recognize... its not a radio station its just a really really faint sound of music playing - like jazz or something. its too dim to make out. ALSO - eveyone should checkout mynoise.net --- Yes! This literally usally happens right on the cusp of falling asleep... I equated it to what I had read a long time ago that "in order for one to fall asleep the body shuts down the sensory systems, and the last one to turn off prior to sleep is hearing" So I thought that it was caused by the creaks hitting my ears at time of turning asleep -- but it happens when even I am not fully asleep. But the body twitches really freak me out. I'll basically hit 'asleep' and Ill have a flash in my internal vision (white light looking like an iris of an eye is best way to say it) - and a full body twitch, it jolts me back awake. The morbid thought in my head is that this may be associated with sleep apnia and my body twitching back 'alaive' after stopping breathing ; however - this happens when I am not even fully asleep... So I am at a loss - I presume it is a vitamin defficiency, so I just bout some multi-Vs this week...

jcims 3y ago

I wonder how many folks that spend thousands of hours in front of a synthesizer or making electronic music or beats have identified similar illusions but don't really think of it as something 'interesting'. Like, 'oh yeah if you do this it kind of sounds like that'. Probably a whole catalog of tricks.

whiddershins 3y ago
Yes
v64 3y ago
Happens all the time. Most common one for me is when you're making a patch on a synth and by chance dial in those frequencies that align with formants (similar to the Robot Rock effect the post mentions). Yesterday I was working on a bass drum beat, and after adding some synths playing on top of it, I started to hear the bass drum echo. So, my first thought was I had accidentally enabled some kind of reverb or echo effect on it while I was setting up the synths. After confirming I hadn't and isolated the track to ensure the bass drum was sounding as intended, I chalked it up to some weird illusion between the synths and drum that was making it sound like an echo. I know it's not there in reality, but I can't unhear it. In this case, I went back and added a little echo to the drum to make the effect intentional, which turned out to sound good, but sometimes I'll try to make the illusion reality and it doesn't have the same effect.
- mergejoin 3y ago
  would you mind sending a mp3 of that effect? just curious :)
  - v64 3y ago
    unfortunately as I said in an adjacent comment, I didn't end up making any recordings of this session, but will keep it in mind if I can make it happen again in the next couple of days!
- metamet 3y ago

jonbell 3y ago

TIL the term “brown study”

beautifulfreak 3y ago

The Brainstorm/Green-Needle auditory illusion is more noticeable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g88BXUhR2a4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g88BXUhR2a4

saghm 3y ago
When my fiancee showed me this, it took me almost a dozen watches to finally hear the one I didn't initially hear. I don't remember for sure which one I could hear at first, but I think I only heard "green needle", which was higher pitched, and it took me a lot of concentration to block that out and focus on the lower pitch enough to be able to parse out some semblance of speech. If my recollection is correct, my troubles with the lower pitched sound is a little ironic because I play bass and often try to point out bass parts I like to my fiancee, but she sometimes has trouble parsing out exactly what I'm referring to due to not having had any musical training and it not being as obvious to her which part is the bass when I'm showing her a song with lots of different guitar and keyboard tracks and lots of heavy bass drum.

stigz 3y ago

In a similar vein, here's an analysis of the illusion in Radiohead's Videotape I found interesting. https://youtu.be/p_IHotHxIl8 https://youtu.be/p_IHotHxIl8

Waterluvian 3y ago

I’ll have to figure out which Daft Punk song I’m thinking of, but there was this segment where I swear there’s this really swingy chord progression but when slowed down to study it turns out to be the same chord repeated over and over. It’s the other voices that are progressing.

mergejoin 3y ago
commenting, in case you figure it out
MAGZine 3y ago
it sounds like you're referring to Daft Punk's "Giorgio by Moroder" from their album "Random Access Memories." The segment you're describing involves a repetitive chord progression, but the perceived variation comes from the evolving layers and elements surrounding the chords. This technique creates a sense of progression while maintaining a consistent base. -- by chatgpt

wantguns 3y ago

i have always felt some unexplained effect while listening to Veridis Quo [1]. the melody start sounding different from the 0:38 mark, just as the kicks come in. it seems like some supporting keys are added with the kicks, to make the sound more full, but at the same time it could be my brain getting tricked. sorry for botching the explanation, i have never studied music. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCd6PfxOy0Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCd6PfxOy0Y

gzalo 3y ago
Hmm, do you experience the same effect here? https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/daft-punk-veridis-quo-tab-s32835t0 https://www.songsterr.com/a/wsa/daft-punk-veridis-quo-tab-s3... It could be just the other instruments providing harmonics and changing the feel of the melody

aatd86 3y ago

One that mix engineers use a lot and that is not mentioned is the Haas Effect. (micro delay between left and right channel that gives a stereo sensation to a mono source)

monkpit 3y ago

First off, I love Daft Punk and I’ve heard all of these song countless times. But, sorry, I don’t buy it. I am aware of the talking piano effect, but even the wiki page [0] says it’s a vocoder, which is something entirely different. Similar to other commenters here [1], I don’t hear the pattern described for the octave effect either. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Rock_(song)https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Rock_(song) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_Rock_(song)https://en.... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37104083 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37104083

ugurnot 3y ago
It is not the vocoder but the guitar riff that sounds like robot rock.
- lamp_book 3y ago
  The “guitar” is actually a synth with guitar pedals, and yes the effect is from a vocoder. Linked in the wiki: https://web.archive.org/web/20080221104737/http://www.thedaftclub.com/news.php?item.49 https://web.archive.org/web/20080221104737/http://www.thedaf...
jpalawaga 3y ago
Switched on Pop dived into Daft Punk[1] and definitely identified Daft Punk's robot voices as vocoder. Actually, most robot voices are. [1] https://open.spotify.com/episode/52t5WCspFuFkow374P88wA https://open.spotify.com/episode/52t5WCspFuFkow374P88wA (but also Ep 1 and 3).

a-dub 3y ago

my favorite are shepard tones, which literally look like the barber pole illusion in a spectrogram.

ilyt 3y ago

This is a better demonstration of octave illusion, I had no clue wtf the article meant until I listened to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMsK9rjBWo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMsK9rjBWo But I heard the lower tone in the middle of my head and higher tone bouncing from left to right. Not the "low on one side, high on the other side" article mentioned. Kinda interesting to think some people might hear completely different thing in same song...

x3n0ph3n3 3y ago
Thanks for sharing this. Oddly enough, I don't hear the illusion at all and it seemed very clear to me that they were alternating sides.
- yencabulator 3y ago
  Left-handed or more ambidextrous? The illusion doesn't work as well on us freaks.
  - x3n0ph3n3 3y ago
    Neither, actually!

anArbitraryOne 3y ago

Would someone please send him a tweet telling him that you can start videos specific timestamps on YouTube by adding "&t=0s" where 0 is the desired number of seconds to the URL? I'm not making a new Twitter acct just to contact a person who has "Contact Follow me at Twitter: @ugu_rs" as the only means of such on their blog

pests 3y ago
You can use 1m2s format too.

sublinear 3y ago

https://youtu.be/1oD2DWf4CjQ https://youtu.be/1oD2DWf4CjQ Com Truise - Fairlight I wouldn't call this an illusion as much as an interesting effect. Put on a good pair of headphones and listen to the intro at moderately high volume. There's a buzzing note in there that seems to resonate in a way that feels like it's coming from inside your head or maybe even your throat.

distantsounds 3y ago

This article is horribly written and executed for many reasons, but the primary one being that the vast majority of the music credited as Daft Punk is just sampled music from other artists. You can eloquently see this broken down here: https://youtu.be/lBSWw7RdZLk https://youtu.be/lBSWw7RdZLk At least get the original works correct.

0x008 3y ago
<Wow i never knew their music was so complex. That video is amazing
teolandon 3y ago
The article is poorly written, but all of the examples presented are about effects that Daft Punk made and do not appear in the original works.
eyluo 3y ago
Whatever chopping and sampling Daft Punk does that the author tries to communicate in the article is pretty independent from the original works.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
sowbug 3y ago
You seem to have a bone to pick with the idea that artists who sample can be colloquially credited as the songwriters of the songs they wrote. It's a surprising position to take; most people get by just fine saying that MC Hammer wrote You Can't Touch This, as one of many examples. Please tell us more.

IndySun 3y ago

"...Their albums have a variety of musical diversity..." I like Daft Punk, but I, and they, I'm sure, never described themselves as such. It's worth addressing this sentence, it being an early sentence.

justsomehnguy 3y ago

Slightly offtopic: One of my favourite comments on Youtube I saw was on some RATATAT song (probably Wildcat?), AFAIR: "Those guitars are definitely trying to tell me something. I can't get a word but they do sing!" And if you enjoy Daft Punk but never heard of RATATAT then you def should try, first albums for a more raw and hard sound, later ones for more electronic sound.

otherme123 3y ago
For guitars saying things, Steve Vai has plenty of them, also laughing, crying, meowing...

nerf0 3y ago

I want to make this random off-topic comment: For years I've been collecting various audio clips, where "environmental" sound (voice, noise, etc.) transitions into music, or vise versa, in songs, movies and TV shows. I've searched the web and the closest term I can find is "diegetic switch", but not quite. Here's the (short) list: - https://youtu.be/9j9bVl3rfNk?t=29 https://youtu.be/9j9bVl3rfNk?t=29 In The Defenders, repeated piano note transitions into background music. - https://youtu.be/isZyX1xd1VQ?t=159 https://youtu.be/isZyX1xd1VQ?t=159 (The Great American Nightmare - Rob Zombie) - https://youtu.be/pU_mZ1X69Ho?t=364 https://youtu.be/pU_mZ1X69Ho?t=364 (Out of Control - Miraculix) - Justice League the movie where the song "Everybody Knows" transitions into the ambulance siren. Sorry I can't find this footage.

jcims 3y ago
I don’t know if this counts but it’s one of my all time favorites. - https://youtu.be/IXdNnw99-Ic https://youtu.be/IXdNnw99-Ic (Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd)
- oefnak 3y ago
  Or the Gunners Dream, where a shout turns into a saxophone ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSE7qdjy3Q0&t=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSE7qdjy3Q0&t=1
mgdlbp 3y ago
- "Worthless" in The Brave Little Toaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UfsEj7AOGI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UfsEj7AOGI - the chant in The Dark Knight Rises https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXxw-zXRqOs&t=130s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXxw-zXRqOs&t=130s Probably a lot of variations in musicals, but most will be mundane.
- stickfigure 3y ago
  Wow, growing up in the 80s and thoroughly indoctrinated with musical theatre by my parents... how have I never heard of the Brave Little Toaster until now? I'm not sure whether I should thank you or curse you. Let's see what my 6yo says. The article reminds me of Pepe's Burningman operas from the mid 90s... "Devil's Delight, The Fire Tonight" blended into "Devils Do Light The Fire Tonight""

milleramp 3y ago

I am not sure I buy the argument here, but I really enjoyed listening these three Daft Punk songs!

gzalo 3y ago

There's one weird thing that I've noticed with Daft Punk's The Brainwasher, my brain has two different interpretations for the main loop offset: If starting here, I hear a loop that starts with fast notes and then has a silence. (warning: loud) https://youtu.be/RdVEQbWjaTE?t=91 https://youtu.be/RdVEQbWjaTE?t=91 If starting a few seconds earlier, the previous melody seems to fuse with the part that starts at 1:30, and it sounds different, like a bit slower. (warning: loud) https://youtu.be/RdVEQbWjaTE?t=80 https://youtu.be/RdVEQbWjaTE?t=80 Not sure if that makes sense, hopefully some one else also hears both versions! I'm assuming it may have to do with interpreting the last note of the loop as part of the next one, but it could be something else too. It really is a brainwash :P

joecool1029 3y ago

Not sure if it counts as an illusion but one that comes to mind is Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood. There's a line "remember that it's all in your head" that was mixed in a way that phase cancellation will make it inaudible on mono playback. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_xRb0x9aw&t=176s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V_xRb0x9aw&t=176s Now go and install: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/soundfixer/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/soundfixer/ and set output to mono and replay it.

teddyh 3y ago
> was mixed in a way that phase cancellation will make it inaudible on mono playback. That’s just what happens to the surround channel in audio tracks produced using Dolby Stereo, when, as you say, they are naively mixed to mono. This happens all the time.

rvieira 3y ago

Perhaps it's not really a "talking" instrument (as an actual voice is modulating), but Peter Frampton always comes to mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7rFYbMhcG8&t=345s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7rFYbMhcG8&t=345s