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Yanny vs Laurel


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My guess is that if you put a HP filter on it, at some point as the lower frequencies disappear, the word becomes more ambiguous.

 

There's a little high-pitch noisy "eee" sound at the end of "laurel" - that's the clue I found my guess upon...

 

But I'm a bit busier with other stuff (e.g. things that matter even if only slightly) to perform experiments...

 

nat

 

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My guess is that if you put a HP filter on it, at some point as the lower frequencies disappear, the word becomes more ambiguous.

 

 

I think you're on to something...

 

The story I read is that it is a computer-generated voice that was recorded from a vocabulary site, but via a miked laptop speaker - which explains the poor recording quality and the added HF noise. And IMO, it's the extraneous noise that's throwing people and making them hear "yanny" instead of laurel, but if you focus on the main speech fundamentals, it's definitely laurel.

 

I attribute my getting it right to years of listening to tape hiss and multi-generational multitrack bounces... ;)

 

The first time I heard it was on my ADAM A7's, while the first time my wife heard it (she's team yanny), she was listening to it on her iPhone 6S's built-in speaker, which doesn't have nearly the LF reach of the ADAMs.

 

 

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When I saw that there was no audio. Thanks for posting it.

 

First listen - and just the first time, it started with Y and then said Laurel. Subsequent repetitions had Laurel superimposed over that pseudo psychic ventriloquismic yanni ...

 

 

That's my contention and you're sticking to it.

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Listened to it on iPhone X' date=' definitely Laurel, wife however on hers, heard Yanny. Supposedly younger ears are attributed too?.[/quote']

 

The noise and distortion components that people are interpreting as Yanny are mainly in the high frequencies, so some are theorizing that younger people with better HF hearing might be more inclined to interpret it that way.... it's also more likely you'll hear Yanny if you are listening on a system with poor lower frequency reproduction, since in that recording, that's where the fundamental frequencies of the word Laurel are located.

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Yesterday, on a Yahoo News site I was hearing Yanny, today I tried some other sites, and heard Laurel.

 

This is the original web site that started the whole thing: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/laurel

I hear Laurel there, while still hearing Yanny on other sites.

 

Here is where it gets weird, this is an interview with the guy that recorded it: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/voice-laurel-yanny-revealed-jay-aubrey-jones-024822152.html

 

There is a Yanny/Laurel vote recording at the end. My wife and I listened to it repeatedly at the same time and she thinks I'm nuts for clearly and distinctly hearing Laurel while she is clearly and distinctly hearing Yanny,

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This is the whole "blue/black vs gold/white dress" debate all over again.. lol

 

I definitely heard Laurel. I'm not hearing "Yanny" one bit. (must mean I'm old now, right? :lol:)

 

I tried doing the pitch shift test on the clip. When I lowered the pitch it started to sound like "Yelly"?? :confused2:

 

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My wife and I both heard Yanny through the small TV speaker. Take two - listen to it through headphones on my laptop. Still Yanny, until I could finally hear Laurel. Couldn't hear Yanny anymore. Intrigued, I searched for a couple other sources. The one with a slider sounded like Laurel at the midpoint and Yanny only at the extreme upper end. I'm not convinced that all the sources are processed the same for broadcast. In conclusion, you can change what you hear, but I don't think you can change back!

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This is maddening! I recorded the pronunciation to Audacity from the original at vocabulary.com. It came out Laurel, then I used the bass/treble effect to lower the bass 30db and increase the treble 30db (exact frequencies not given). Now I heard Yanny

 

I attempted to replicate a series of the pronunciation, altering the tone from full bass to full treble in 10db increments which I planned to upload so we could all hear it changing from Laurel to Yanny, but now ALL I heard was Laurel.

 

I took a break and once again listened to the treble version... it came out Yanny. I increased the bass 10db, and lowered the treble 10db... Yanny. then I listened to the original, followed by the two more treble versions... Laurel Laurel Laruel!

 

Took another break, came back and listened to the treble versions again... Yanny

Listened to all three again... Laurel Laurel Laurel!

 

I give up.

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I'm in the Yanny camp. I listened on my Dynaudio Acoustics BM15A monitors and my Audio-Technica ATH-M50x headphones.

 

The video below pitches the audio file up and down, so you'll probably be able to hear one and then the other depending on the pitch.

 

[video=youtube;yDiXQl7grPQ]

Best,

 

Geoff

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I just listened on my iPad and still heard "Yanny;" but then, I tried plugging up my ears and I could hear "Laurel" and "Yanny" simultaneously. Then, I unplugged my ears and I could still hear them both simultaneously. It was like hearing a poor harmony between the brighter "Yanny" and the deeper "Laurel."

 

It's a little akin to hearing the individual instruments in an orchestration. Once you've learned what the timbres sound like, you recognize each instrument immediately—like seeing the face of a friend or acquaintance.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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