sound like wow?

April 20, 2009 5:03 AM

hey, does this sound like a "wow"?
posted by defmute to grab bag (6 comments total)

Can you put it someplace where we don't have to download an unknown file to our computers?
posted by Houstonian at 5:05 AM on April 20

Approximately-ish.
posted by JMOZ at 5:29 AM on April 20

It sounds a bit like an electronically generated 'wow' repeating over a lot of noise, but I don't know whether I'd have heard it that way if your question hadn't suggested that it might sound like 'wow'.
posted by pracowity at 5:46 AM on April 20

It's an example of auditory Pareidolia. See also Electronic Voice Phenomenon. There is a whole CD of this kind of thing if you are really interested. It is based on the work of Konstantin Raudiv, who convinced himself he could hear the voices of dead spirits and aliens in tape noise. I have it and the accompanying booklet has some interesting essays on the subject in it.
posted by tallus at 6:16 AM on April 20 [1 favorite]

It sounds like electronic noise that I could imitate by making a noise in my throat and moving my lips between "mostly closed" and "open and round." I use the same mechanism to say "wow," but the two sounds are only marginally similar.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 9:14 AM on April 20

I don't think I would have necessarily gone to "wow" if you hadn't suggested it, though I can see where you are coming from, it does indeed sound like an electronic effect along the lines of wawa that suggests (but doesn't actually duplicate) the vocal W sound. If you focus your mind on it being an "Ooh-Ah" sound or a "Weigh-Oh" sound while you listen to it you may conclude that it is fairly ambiguous from the perspective of comparing it to human speech. Your brain is going to try to find whatever sound you tell it is there, some will fit better than others.
posted by nanojath at 12:04 PM on April 20