Freesound Forums

I have a few audio files.
I believe someone is coming into my home when i am not there.
I have tried various filtering software, but am a newbie to audio.
I am an network administrator with 20 years experience, so I am savy, but audio is not my thing.
Could someone help me get down to the whispering conversations on these tapes.
my wife thinks i'm absolutely out of my mind.
Im pretty sure I hear a police radio in the background, my neighbor also tells me he saw a group of white men on my porch the same night.
scopion@optonlne.net
Please, please, my family things I'm crazy because they dont hear anything. could someone confirm or deny my insanity?

Thanks!!!!

blowncover wrote: ... Could someone help me get down to the whispering conversations on these tapes. my wife thinks i'm absolutely out of my mind.
Im pretty sure I hear a police radio in the background ...

If you can only make out the occasional word in the "whispers" that's consistent with audio-pareidolia , which is the audible analog of the Rorschach inkblot test ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_voice_phenomena#Psychology_and_Perception
i.e. not crazy . There are examples audio-pareidolia on Freesound, e.g. ... http://www.freesound.org/people/Timbre/sounds/123879/

Timbre's explanation is probaly more likely. But if you are still worried, here are some things you can do:

Not sound related, but here is another idea: as a network admin, i am sure you can easily setup a surveilance system. Webcams can be used to do this and there are dedicated cameras also (in the UK, you can find them at Maplin). Some record video and audio.
I tis possible to record to a hard disk. It is possible to have the camera motion triggered and sending photo stills to your email or to a repository place on the web.

If you are trying to record audio. A handheld recorder such as the Zoom H1 is the size of a mobile phone so can be easily concealed in a room. with a 1Gb mem card can easily record 24h of audio atr an acceptable quality using mp3 encoding. - just make sure the batteries will last that long!
Cost ~£100. you can probably find cheaper ones second-hand.