Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with voices

It's the buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear, or, making my amplifier a tinfoil hat to stop GSM noises from my phone.

Halle — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 06:22:38 -0800

It's the buzz buzz buzz in the drum of the ear, or, making my amplifier a tinfoil hat to stop GSM noises from my phone. Like many others, I have GSM buzz in my speakers. But, I frequently don't have the option of setting my phone to silent while I'm working, because I'm working on the phone. That leaves the options as a) not getting to listen to music while working, or b) letting hideous noises that come out of my speakers every hour at a much higher volume than the music make me aggro. So, I've done some research (and read the old and inconclusive GSM noise questions here in AskMe) and I've concluded that it's most likely my amplifier lacking shielding. I'm going to put ferrite chokes on my speaker and audio cables just in case, but the main plan of attack is to put a faraday cage around the amp since it's out of sight. What is a good way to construct the cage with the following specs:

1) blocks interference really well,
2) isn't terribly expensive,
3) will last/can be moved (i.e. alternatives to tinfoil),
4) has some possibility of heat dispersal so it doesn't kill the amp.
5) no negative electrical safety implications (I can't imagine what these could be but I thought I'd throw it in there in case there is anything I'm overlooking in this department).

Thank you!

Diagnosing Schizophrenia

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:25:42 -0800

Is there any good data on the sensitivity and specificity of symptoms of schizophrenia in its diagnosis? How often are symptoms like relatively general but nevertheless involved and paranoid delusions, or hearing voices, not symptoms of schizophrenia and/or an 'early-stage' psychotic state?

The delusion that has me concerned in this case centers around the total control of the media by a few very wealthy families whose goal is world domination--it actually has some basis in fact, but comes along with lots of false, paranoid elaborations about how the families installed President Bush into office and have 'armies of people with IQs over 200' who are working to keep the public oblivious of their control. I've seen violently debilitating paranoias in schizophrenia before and this is clearly not that, but in conjunction with hearing voices it has me worried about this person (who is a college-aged male).

Who originated this buffoonish accent.

IndigoJones — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:32:27 -0800

Skipper in Penguins of Madagascar. Zapp Brannigan of Futurama. Even Mr Peterman of Seinfeld. You know the voice. Sounds like a B list fifties movie star or something. But that's the question- Who did it first? Kirk Douglas, even John Wayne (sort of) come to mind, but I'm wondering if you have any other suggestions. (And if it was done straight originally, who first made it an intentional joke?) Thanks in advance.

Hallucinations ain't all bad?

cmoj — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:30:54 -0800

Does anyone know anything about benevolent/useful hallucinations? Years ago I was hooked on over the counter sleeping pills. I know it's a strange addiction, but it got so bad that I was extremely paranoid and depressed and experienced mild visual and sometimes auditory hallucinations. I was eating a lot of blue pills. The weird thing is that the auditory hallucinations were supportive and sometimes informative. One of them helped me make my decision to change majors, which was a very good decision. On another occasion, it told me someone's name when I couldn't remember it.

I never see any reference to this kind of thing, though. Does anyone have any information, or just anecdotes? I'm really just curious about this.

Incidentally, I kicked the habit years ago and don't even like how benadryl (diphenhydramine, same stuff as sleeping pills) makes me feel now. Any hallucinations I experience nowadays are pre-planned and consensual.

Prepare to have a song stuck in your head if you take this question.

rileyray3000 — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:08:58 -0800

Baio-Foster-Filter: In the song "You give a little Love" from the movie Bugsy Malone, played HERE there are two voices I can swear I know from saturday morning cartoons. Who are they? Okay the first voice comes in at 1:40. The second voice comes in at 1:49. It would be great to know who these voices are. But it'd be even better if I knew what cartoons I knew them from. Later on I know I hear Henry Gibson, so don't say him. It's the other two that drive me nuts with half-nostalgia when I hear them.

Can you hear voices without being ill?

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 07:39:39 -0800

I'm looking for scientific information on whether a person who is not suffering from mental illness can experience ongoing, coherent auditory hallucinations, specifically voices. I'm trying to help a friend who is suffering from mental illness but refuses to get medical help. She claims that she hears voices but says that she is not ill. According to her, the voices are coherent and she can have conversations with them. She understands that hearing voices can be a symptom of mental illness but claims that if she was mentally ill enough to be hearing voices, she would be acting crazy in other aspects of her life, and she isn't. Therefore the voices are not an illness but are spirits.

Is she right about this? If you are talking to voices in your head because of mental illness, can you keep everything else together? How unwell must you be before you can have a conversation with the voices?

Peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals would be ideal. I'm not sure if a logical, reasoned discussion about this will work, but I'd like to try it. Even if my friend rejects good evidence that hearing voices is a sign of illness, that will tell me a lot about her attitude to getting help. Thanks.

Voices you either love or hate...

grumblebee — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:26:33 -0800

I like singers with strange voices. I don't like novelty songs (e.g. Betty Boop) and I don't like "songs" that are so avant-garde that they're basically noise (e.g. someone screaming into a microphone). So I'm not looking for strange music. I'm looking for traditional (melodic) music sung by singers with non-traditional singing voices. Examples of what I like: Joanna Newsom, Leon Redbone, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Elaine Stritch. This is obviously a matter of personal taste and interpretation, but I want to find singers with a lot of eccentric character -- not singers that are just putting on a weird act.

Where to find intelligent American female voices?

zaebiz — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:15:40 -0800

Some colleagues want to set up a voicemail system in the US for a small tech company in Australia and we need some intelligent, welcoming American female voices that sound at ease with technical jargon to do our answering messages. Any adult age. Slight accents ok. I haven't really been impressed with the sound of professional voice models - they're a bit too slick for our image. Any other suggestions? I've read one of the cheapest options (not my idea, I promise!) is to call phone sex lines and ask them to record un-sexy professional messages. I'm really not into that idea though. You can sort of tell the way a person talks whether they have some confidence in technical matters. ... and whether they have umm other things on their mind.

text to speech to mp3

D-ten — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:15:40 -0800

What's the best quality method for doing text to speech to mp3? In OS X 10.5, the Alex voice is able to make good quality speech output, plus a utility like Orator can turn text into an mp3 with the Alex voice.

The good: it's free, it's fast and it works. The bad: the voice is a bit clipped on the ends of words and the phrasing is a bit clunky. Overall, Alex is pretty good in pronunciation and rhythm, better than I thought it would be.

I'm wondering how else I could do this? Does Vista Home Premium have better speech voices? If so, how to make the step to an mp3 file.

Are there any other methods available for doing this? I don't want to spend any money for software on this project, though that could be a possibility in the future, so it would be useful to know if there are any killer commercial techniques for doing this.

Muffy, let's head to the country club....

emptybowl — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:16:25 -0800

Where does the "stereotypical rich white guy" voice come from? I've been doing it for years, but have no idea how it originated. Here's a good example, someone doing an impression of Judge Whitey on Futurama.

Voices in my PC

hoppytoad — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 14:53:39 -0800

My PC is literally trying to tell me something Occasionally, I'll hear someone's voice coming through my speakers when I'm not running anything that would produce sound. The voices are faint, and remind me of the few times I've overheared part of another conversation while on the phone.

Maybe my PC is possessed, or just really old and senile, but I suspect it's infected. My search for answers hasn't been very fruitful because the keywords I'm using are too generic as I'm not sure how to describe this behavior more specifically. If anyone has heard of anything similar, or could provide some troubleshooting tips, I'd appreciate it.

I'm running on a 5 year old Dell with Windows XP Home. Probably a good time to upgrade, but I'm curious about what may be causing this.

i want more voices!

localhuman — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 17:21:42 -0800

can i get more voices for my mac? a couple of months ago i started copying good new yorker/harpers/other articles on the internet into text edit and using the speech function to read them to me. it makes for a good long daily informational bath time.

my only problem is this: i'm tired of the voices which come standard in tiger. vicki is a good voice for this kind of thing, but she gets old. the rest of the voices are so annoying to me that i cannot even concentrate on the article.

so i'm wondering if there are any extra voices, preferably free, that a person could download for mac osx. and, if not, how are these voices created?

How do I find audio recordings of ordinary Iraqis and others in the middle east affected by U.S. occupation?

allterrainbrain — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 00:47:55 -0800

What are some sources for audio recordings of everyday Iraqis speaking -- telling their stories, talking about their experience of the war and occupation, or talking about their feelings on any subject? I know about the excellent War News Radio site; I'm looking for more sites like that. I'm equally happy to find voices speaking in English or in Arabic. If the speaking is in Arabic, it should be 1) accompanied by a written English translation and 2) uninterrupted (usually the problem on news shows is that you get a few seconds of a person talking in Arabic, but then their voice is buried underneath the voiceover of a translator speaking their words in English).

In addition to Iraqis I would be happy to hear voices of other people in the middle east who have also been affected by U.S. occupation.

This is for a non-profit personal project celebrating Iraqi voices and trying to represent some of the complexity of Iraqi wartime experience (and survival of Iraqi culture despite the war). So, ideally, the people responsible for the sites would consider letting me use or license their content (as War News Radio graciously agreed to do). In other words, probably the more "non-profit" or small the site, the better -- although I'm very grateful for all recommendations on any scale.

Who hears voices in their heads? Why?

cortex — Sun, 06 Nov 2005 07:08:18 -0800

Voices in your head. What mental disorders are associated with this? What other phenomena? Which historical and mythical figures? I'm working on a novel, and one of my central characters is just coming to terms with the abnormality of a voice in her head. I'm looking for angles and ideas. She's going to talk to a shrink, probably have a sit down with a priest (family is Catholic), and I'm looking for other folks she might talk to and some of the things they might throw at her, along with the sorts of things she might trip across in her own research.

I want to cover everything. Psychiatry, religion, and every other phenomenology y'all can muster. Details are awesome, but jumping-off points and references are welcome and probably more than a panicked writer deserves.