We call confirmation bias a ghost fader/knob. Tell the client it does something and give them control. Let them play with it till they're satisfied so they'll let you keep doing your job. It's an amazing tool in the studio lol.
Also a good way to trick a stagehand. Was in New York working a show and a stagehand comes running up telling me I have to turn the bass down, I say "Turn it down for what?" he goes on to tell me the bass is to loud and they can hear it across the river into Manhattan. I looked down at the board, turned a knob that wasn't being used and said "There, I turned it down by 4, any lower and the artist will be upset".
Haha…there is always a drunk who yells ..turn it down! We would make a show of turning things down while not. The drunk is happy and we usually play louder.
I used to use this when working live audio for college kids Parents come up saying "little Tommy needs to be turned up" Push on an unconnected fader and they think it sounds better 😅 Also, we called it the dead fader effect
Mercedes have included very loud sound coming out of the speakers when the car has detected an incoming crash, in order to trigger your stapedius muscle before the sound of the actual crash damages your ears. Such sound also triggers other brain reactions to make your body instincively brace for impact.
I heard bracing for impact is what causes damage. When we tense up, we're more brittle essentially. Going limp is ideal. But I suppose it would give you a moment to position yourself slightly better. OR I'm just wrong lol. But bracing for impact is probably an old defensive mechanism that didn't account for metal objects weighing several tons smashing into you at 100 km/h.
thanks for explaining the Mcgurk effect. as a child i noticed that some clocks seemed to sound like "tick tick tick" and others seemed to sound like "tick tock" however, if i focused my attention, I could "force" myself to hear them as "tock tock tock" or "tock, tick tock tick." i was very confused and suspected i could influence reality, not realizing i was just influencing my perception of it.
The "wason effect" startled me for a sec because I considered myself to be very good at hearing these kind of details in music. But I couldn't hear any difference. Good that there wasn't any. Also thought that this mic sounded to good for $85.
Haha I had the same... I perceived the "cheap" version as " a very subtly low passed version of the second (though considering the difference in price in hindsight the difference in quality was too. And... well I have been busy with (digital) music production (from sound design to mastering and everything in between). So yeah that was good for the self-esteem. But you know, don't worry about it. Sound/music perception is an inherently subjective experiences. And placebos can even work when some is aware they are taking. In the end our brains are going to be dictating what we are going to perceive and how. And those things are anything but objective. Edit: ... wtf I still hear a difference (very subtly), after knowing about it... well that not good 🙄
Same here, but I stoped the video right away, grabbed my wife's headphones that have much better freq. response and couldn't here the difference either.
Thanks for that Wason Effect demonstration. I was seriously doubting my ears for a minute, lol. But yeah, tweaking a knob to perfection in an audio plugin and then realizing it was disabled the whole time has happened to me too.
Fun fact about the stapedius effect! Some movies that have explosions mimic that reflex to make the explosion seem more dramatic, where you just hear a short initial "crack" of the explosion followed by a loud, more muffled drone. I can't think of a specific example right now but I swear I've seen some movies or TV shows do it.
Many microphones do the same thing to prevent damage, you can hear the effect quite clearly in videos of things like gunshots, where the sound is quickly extremely loud, then the mic compensates, but by then the sound is already gone so you hear a drastic drop in background noise. ruclips.net/video/ZpCu4bEUuQM/видео.html Skip to 2:14 if it doesn't automatically, you can hear it very clearly. the camera overcompensates, and at the wrong time. Not to be confused with what is heard at 2:47, which is caused by the bullet arriving before the gunshot itself is heard. that's a completely different phenomenon, and while it is quite interesting on its own, doesn't really have anything to do with this video lol
Often this effect is caused by any sort of audio dynamics processing that has an "attack" time, including compressors and noise gates. Sometimes it's not part of the program, but part of your playback system that you don't realize is there. For example, they'll have a "Loudness" feature on your TV, that evens out the audio dynamics, but there will be some latency between when it detects a loud noise, and when it clamps down on that noise. So, you hear it full blast, and then a split second later the "Loudness" feature clamps down on it, and it becomes more muffled. Your phone might be running something like this in the background, to help its speakers sound louder or better - and you wouldn't necessarily be aware of it.
I think the lowering of environmental sounds while speaking mentioned in the end of the third chapter of the video is working like this: I also don't perceive a lower volume of environmental sound while talking but I do perceive it while thinking and I think the average person doesn't / does too. But I realized people (me too) aren't good at listening to other people while talking themself it is even more clear when you listen to and podcast on speakers and then talk about a topic which isn't mentioned in the podcast and try to remember what was said in the podcast while you talked. I think the brain fills in the delusion and making you think that the volume is the same while it is lowering wich results in the loss of details and contexts.
I’ve had an issue with my hearing since having brain surgery. Sudden sounds, eg:- say, if a plate or similar object is quickly placed on a bench top, or a china cup suddenly put down on a table top, these will cause a ‘whooshing’ sound/feeling to go through my brain. A kid suddenly yelling will cause the same. In my 60’s now, and have tinnitus. Have noticed when moving my eyes around, when my eyes are shut, I still get that ‘whooshing’ sound/feeling through my head, and it varies the tinnitus too, like a volume knob on a radio tuning up and down radio static.
Producer here, during the conformation bias test i was like "I of all people should be able to discern the difference between these mics", the relief that they were the exact same was real. Always trust your ears :0
Bone Conduction: An piece of work by the artist Laurie Anderson consisted of a table with two indented areas in front of the viewer. There was no audible sound but if you placed one elbow in one indent and sat your jaw in your hand you heard the word red. If you place to your other elbow in the other indent your bones conducted the word blue to your ear. If you set both elbows in the indents the word purple would be conducted through your bones up to your jaw and into your head.
I can read lips very well and McGurk has never worked on me. Then again, I have synaesthetic qualities and a passion for Japanese so... funny enough, the only one out of the illusions in this episode that got me ... was the "wason effect" xD (and that was an "I /guess/ I can hear a difference? But it's subtle.")
McGurk bit me hard, but then, I have up to 60 dB of hearing loss at the high end so I do a LOT of lipreading. Even with hearing aids I struggle, without them a lot of unintentional comedy ensues because I miss much of what is said to me- and my phonemic restoration wetware is seriously borked.
I'm with you on the "teeth/nails" thing for the chalkboard effect. I recently had the experience of accidentally chomping off the tip of a chopstick, about a week after completing a root canal. The resulting noise made me cringe and then panic until I spat out the hard object and realised it was my chopstick. It was the same cringe feeling as if somebody had run their nails down a chalkboard. If you dine at Nobu Perth and one of your chopsticks is 3mm than the other, sorry about that.
Yup, munching away on lentil stew and suddenly finding a small pebble that made it through the sieve between your teeth does the same thing: Instant sudden release of chewing muscle tension. The reflex definitely saved my tooth.
I was really wondering how I could connect to all of these phenomena, at least to some degree, until I got to the McGurk effect. That was cleared up when you added that people with ASD usually aren't affected by this.
It's harder to get a McGuire effect when you only listen and don't watch. Since this was about audio, i wasn't actually watching while the video played.
6:06 I was all "What that mic sounds great! What's the deal here?" 6:29 "Ok seriously I don't hear a difference is there a huge scam going on in the mic department?" 7:09 Ahhhh that makes more sense
The Repetition Pitch effect is probably my favourite phenomenon. I remember sitting for several minutes just tapping my nails against a hard surface, most often wood, to hear how the sound constantly changes. And getting that effect while cracking both my thumbs at the same time is just sooooo satisfying~
Going back to the stapedius muscle, I happened to be chewing on some trail mix and listening with my headphones while you were explaining that the brain compensates sound when you're about to speak. I also have tinnitus but from a car accident. Yet, when I chewed, I perceived the sounds around me as softer than when I stopped chewing. The bone conductivity coupled with my headphones made the chewing sound particularly loud. I realize my environment isn't changing volume-wise but I perceived it as different.
The teeth/nails theory on chalkboard and plate scraping makes a ton of sense to me. I dont know why, but i've always described the experience of those sounds as "feeling them in my teeth", if that makes any sense whatsoever. It's psychological that's for sure, but strange.
For me it's when a knife gets stuck between fork tines. Omg I get bad bad bad chills and feel it in my teeth and it HURTS. I can even semi feel it by just thinking about it.
I can engage the stapedius muscle at will, and sometimes I would habitually do it when I know a loud sound is about to occur. I can hold it for about 10-20 seconds depend on how hard I use the muscles and it makes a rumbling sound in my ear while suppressing outside sound. I always thought that was a natural mechanism for protecting your ear against loud noise and, now I know what it's called. I also find I use that muscle when I yawn or when I flinch/get goose bumps from cold or other stimuli.
I can't control that muscle, but I'm very aware that I basically go deaf every time I yawn, but I'm not sure if it is due to an entirely physical process (e.g. the movement of the jaw compresses muscles or the ear canal itself) or if the brain "switches off" my hearing when it's busy doing the important task of telling me to go to bed.
3 года назад+15
4:37 "Sorry if I intimidated you" - Naaaah... When I thump my cheast, it's at least an octave lower than that! I stumbled across this series just now, quite interesting. Thanks!
"Bone Conduction" - I used this from time to time when I wanted to hear my bass guitar in a loud room, but without plugging it in. I rested my bass guitar on my leg either sitting down or standing up, put IEMs in my ears and put my chin on the bass. I played and opened my mouth to various shapes to hear my bass better. It looks silly, but it works!
That's misophonia, certain sounds create a 'fight or flight' reaction for some people including us. Nails scraping affects many people and if I hear someone eating crunchy food it's unbearable!
Thankyou for pointing out the Confirmation Bias effect!!! I've been listening/watching many "mixing" videos or videos about EQs and Compression over the last few years and I, for the most part, can't hear the differences between the bypassed sound and the wet sound. Now, I know my hearing might be slightly "damaged" and perhaps my headphones aren't good enough - who knows. But honestly, I'm beginning to suspect it's a case of the Emperor's new clothes - or to put it another way: confirmation bias.
Watched part 1 and 2. This is such a valuable piece of information. I am a musician, composer and singer. This information has completely changed my perception of sound entirely. I am quite positive that this will lead me to make better sounding audio, although I will need to train my ears and brain extensively. Thank you so much for all your efforts in putting all this together for us in such a detailed and technical manner. Will be watching parts 3, 4 & 5 after this. :) Liked and subbed. Best wishes from India. :)
The chalkboard scraping / metal on ceramic really reminds me of the mental discomfort one feels when hearing a baby crying in distress. Amazing how our brains are tuned to react in such ways to sounds.
This two-part (so far) series has been very educational for me. Thanks for producing it. One question: for people (audiophiles) who evaluate the sound produced by various audio products, are they better trained to detect and ignore some of these audio effects? Or are they just really good bullshitters who can convince people of the subtleties that they hear from sound reproduction, which are not really there?
I think it will depend on the audiophile. With practice you can certainly learn to hear subtle aspects of sound... an experienced mastering engineer really can hear all kinds of things that the average person does not, there is no doubt of that. And so I would say that, yes, on average they would be less susceptible to some psychoacoustic effects, at least those that depend on lack of awareness of acoustic detail. For example, binaural beats happen to anyone that can hear them, regardless of experience. But effects such as the Stereo Salesman Trick would be unlikely to work on anyone with some experience mastering audio in a studio. All that said, there are indeed plenty of audiophiles that are bullshitting either themselves or other people, to be sure. There is a frightening degree of confirmation bias, mythology, and wishful thinking going on. If you are trying to decide whether a given audiophile is reasonable or not, a great rule of thumb is whether that audiophile blind tests themselves, or is willing to submit themselves to statistically meaningful blind tests (meaning, not just a single trial to see if they can tell which is which, etc). Audiophiles that refuse, claiming "trust me, I can tell" are perhaps not to be taken seriously.
Haha WoW! I actually passed the confirmation bias, I can see others commented about that too. I was rewinding and feeling bad and raising the volume and stuff but couldnt really hear any difference. My initial conclusion was "that china mic is as capable, what a waste of 3 grand". Im glad it was a trick because otherwise Id have to reconsider spending as much on HiFi as i usually do! :D Great series of vids btw, gonna watch the rest now. :D ....oh, and im really gonna have my classically schooled opera singer girlfriend try that one *grins*.
I must congratulate you because you are the first person (out of ~32k views so far) to be brave enough to admit this! I think my example audio wasn't very good for demonstrating the effect, so maybe it's true that most people aren't being fooled, but I always wonder about the confirmation bias in terms of public responses. I might do a follow-up version that lets people respond anonymously. :-) Anyway, thanks for commenting.
@@CaseyConnor By the third listen (I rewound) I thought I may have noticed something different at one point, but still wasn't sure before the punchline came. Maybe would work better if the audio had a mix of high and low quality parts so the listener could more readily focus on what they were expecting, or maybe some background noise that could also be interpreted as low quality recording?
The confirmation bias bit (before the reveal) actually just made me sad because I chalked my inability to discern a difference up to losing my high frequency sensitivity as I get older!
Interestingly REALLY good headphones (hd800 in my case) seem to help with some of the effects. I noticed that in the confirmation bias tracks they sounded really similar and I couldn't really point out any differences and in the stereo salesman trick it also didn't feel any different.
Best feature about acoustic illusions I found so far on YT - you definitely got me by this fake Wason effect ... in the first (longer) example i was surprised the difference wasn't more obvious, but after influencing the listener once more I definitely felt the 2nd one sounding richer than the 1st ..... this is reminding me of comparing takes when cutting my CD recordings together with my sound engineer and once starting hearing the grass grow ... 🤣
The confirmation bias had me thinking my hearing got worse since the last time I checked it. I know I'm pretty much deaf to anything above 12k. I got a little sad thinking how bad it must be now, lol.
Ha - on the section on "Watson Effect" - I kept thinking "I wish he hadn't told us ahead of time which one is supposed to sound better." I think I still did hear a difference just the same. Waaaaah.
I believe the part on the Stapedius Muscle dropping the volume when you speak. There is this one guy at work that is quite soft, and a little difficult to hear in Teams calls, but we can hear him, even when someone else is talking over him. But if I am talking and he speaks, I don't hear him. But maybe that's just the sound of my voice traveling through my skull?
With the confirmation bias, I heard the first one, thought "Man, I don't think this sounds good" and then the second played, "Okay maybe I just don't like this music"
20+ years later, I still remember the most dramatic flanging effect I've heard. There was a jumbo-jet flying high overhead, producing a constant drone in the background. I was walking through an courtyard surrounded by a variety of flat angular concrete buildings and surfaces, constantly changing the distance between by ears, the flat surfaces, and the jet. It sounded like it was computer-generated, but was all just a product of natural physics.
SPOILER: I relistened to the "Wason Effect" section over and over looking for the harmonic difference, going "Is this why I'm bad at mixing, and I don't know it?", but at first I did believe there was a difference. Then after the fifth time, when I was about to isolate them and hard pan them to hear the difference, I finally thought "Y'know they sound very similar, I'm probably being trolled". So well played, well played.
The McGurk effect is really intense in the show "BattleBots" when the computer-generated (or highly-effected) voice says "Red Team Ready" and "Blue Team Ready". Sometimes I hear "Green Team Ready", or some random swap of team names.
Love reading everyone else’s experience with the confirmation bias section. For me, I heard the first one and thought “Wow, this actually sounds really good.” Then I heard the second one and thought “Oh god, someone spent $3400 on this? Doesn’t sound any better.” Lol
I've always exercised my Stapedius muscle; I'm well aware of it, especially when tense, even if I didn't have a name for it. I have also learned to relax it and never noticed it coming into play or going out of play in any of my activities. This might be because I have a preference for instrumental Mood music. The more I stress, the more this muscle comes into play. I do not clench my teeth when stressed; I tense my jaw, which invokes the Stapedius. I never thought to determine if there was a name for this muscle. Thank you for naming it for me. 🙂 Confirmation bias: At first, I thought, dang... why can't I perceive this is a cheap microphone. But I can now confirm that I established the bias with a bit of help from you. Before the first playback was through, yes, I thought I heard some flanging. This disappeared on the second playback, but again, it was present before you cut it off. The second playback was much shorter than the first. Once I established the bias, I could invoke this more quickly.🙂 Drats to you!!! (I shake my fist) lol Forevermore, will I second guess myself. Thanks a lot! 😕
Me too. And I hear the rumbling, too. But I do know where I learned it - it is the same move for diving, when you need to equalize pressure in your ears!
I know sound engineers who have pretended to turn knobs or move sliders to tell bands they've sorted the sound issue when in fact they've done nothing to change it but the band on stage have been quite happy with the apparent change in sound
The McGurk effect has never really worked for me, although I do understand the "mechanism" behind how someone could fall for the trick. I have taken a big interest in linguistics, especially phonology, for the past few years, and I was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was very young, so I guess that does play into seeing past the trick.
@@MetalKabu So I thought a bit about this as I also couldn't really hear a difference between the two examples and am german. My hypothesis is that for certain cultures that are very used to seeing dubbed media, it is much easier to differentiate what they see from what they hear, because they are very used to hearing voices that don't match the mouth movement at all. Although that probably depends a lot on the individual person.
About the McGurk effect, it didn't work at all for me. Although, i think the fact that it was you in both recordings was probably the biggest reason...
Yeah, in retrospect I'm starting to think that I should have included the suggested words under the image... I was so deep in the production of the video that it was easy to lose the perspective of someone coming to it for the first time. Maybe try watching it a few times and focusing on the mouth and the supposed words. Or maybe you're just one of the people it doesn't work for.
The "Wason Effect" just made me very aware of my high frequency tinnitus; because I could not hear anything wrong with the "bad" one and no different with the "good" one so I started to suspect that it it must be some sound in the high pitch area where CRT televisions have this horrible whine that I used to be able to hear until I was about 30 but I now no longer can hear in the real world but have this sound as a constant presence in my tinnitus; I normally don't think about it except when it's really quiet or I try to listen for something in the upper register of my hearing. Weirdly I can still hear bats echo locating squeaks which seems to be even higher frequency than the TV-sound; it sounds to me like very intense sibilant sounds that have all the low frequencies removed and only keeping the painfully high ones; so I guess I might just have lost a few frequencies around that TV sound area.
I could hear a distinct difference in the confirmation bias section, but then when you played them quickly back to back they reversed. Then it made sense when you revealed the trick, very interesting stuff!
When trying to demonstrate differences in amplitude when your viewers are on a PC they might not hear the differences at all because most operating systems have built in effects that are trying to do automatic gain control to smooth out amplitudes. So unless you've turned the effect off like me you might not tell any difference in some demonstrations where amplitude is a factor.
Thanks -- I'll put a mention about that in any subsequent videos. In general, the vagaries of the various sound reproduction pipelines people use makes precise audio pretty hard to do. :-)
@@CaseyConnor … yep and it's getting worse. I bought an Alexa ball to use beside my bed. First impression was awesome. Finally a clock radio with basss…! (I play bass). Then I started noticing the complete lack of crispy highs. Ah probably so she can hear her name while playing. Then later I noticed some instruments sounded weaker than others, some recordings seemed to have more reverb than necessary…aha…they compromised on stereo somehow and lose stuff that is in the wrong phase!
I think the lowering of environmental sounds while speaking mentioned in the end of the third chapter of the video is working like this: I also don't perceive a lower volume of environmental sound while talking but I do perceive it while thinking and I think the average person doesn't / does too. But I realized people (me too) aren't good at listening to other people while talking themself it is even more clear when you listen to and podcast on speakers and then talk about a topic which isn't mentioned in the podcast and try to remember what was said in the podcast while you talked. I think the brain fills in the delusion and making you think that the volume is the same while it is lowering wich results in the loss of details and contexts.
Regarding the confirmation bias. I felt that I heard a difference in the fret noise but it would most likely be that I was waiting to hear that part and it was familiar to me and therefore I could literally hear more of the sound. In the same way that you can listen to a piece of music that you know well and still find nuances that you hadn't noticed before.
On the wason effect: I was about to comment about how RUclips's audio compression was affecting the clearance of the sound, making the effect too subtle to notice it clearly. Well played my friend, well played.
@@CaseyConnor you shouldn't. the original Halo trilogy (Halo Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3) have fantastic OSTs with dynamic instrumentation and great sound design in general. if you have any interest in game soundtracks at all, it's worth looking into.
When you were talking about repetition pitch, I was thinking about modulation effects - so I was happy to see phasing and flanging next. I couldn't hear the Wason effect. Likely due to my poor ear-bud headphones. Alternately, its possible that everything I think sounds good really sounds like garbage to others.... LOL. Great joke. That's what I get for commenting along with the video.
Experienced almost no difference with the McGurk effect. Speculated that it might be an Asperger's side effect since I rarely look at peoples faces when they talk to me. Next slide: "... ASD ..." Heh.
I’m actually blind, also happen to have ASD, but because I only have light perception I don’t really care to look at peoples’ faces anyway, so this illusion had no effect on me whatsoever. It sounded like an identical audio snippet played over twice with a person repeating the word “fib”. It’s interesting how the ability to see can change auditory perception, and how that perception is different from somebody like me to somebody with sight
My ex speculated whether I might be on the spectrum in some minor capacity, and not being severely affected by this makes me think about it all over again.
Something else to consider, and I find it enjoyable as to what being played and what I see in my minds eye. I have synesthesia, I hear sound I see color, and I see color I hear sound. Sound is a very important part of my life. It is like fantasia by Disney, 24/7. I listen by both color and sound, and yes I experienced the sound fill in. Also to sound system trick never worked for me. All that happened is the colors became a little brighter, but the same colors, not richer sound.
5:17 the trouble with demonstrating this on youtube is that youtube compresses audio down to 192kbps, which is gonna affect most of the same frequencies that the difference in microphone affects EDIT: LMAO, i couldn’t hear the difference and i was sitting there thinking “am i losing my hearing already, or is the difference really subtle enough for youtube compression to ruin it???” lol. i knew from experience that the cheaper microphones aren’t gonna be much worse and that a lot of those don’t make much of a difference to most people, but still you sold the hell out of that lmao.
Some people can purposely make those ear muscles rumble. Just as Casey mentions, you can only do it for a couple of seconds at a time, max. I can do it by thinking of clenching my jaw muscles, but not actually clenching. Several years ago I had surgery on my left ear. Once healed, I lost my ability to rumble that side. I knew what makes the rumble from a RUclips years before, so my surgeon was impressed when I asked if he had cut that muscle. They had removed what remained of the stapes, which of course included that very muscle.
I do the vocalization to start the acoustic reflex every time i turn the radio in my truck from my phone to the regular FM station because it is always much louder, didn't know that "priming" the acoustic reflex was a thing. great to know.
As a professional sound tech for over 40 years, I couldn't tell you how often that Wason Effect happens. I have been asked many times to turn up the monitor for example, and before I could even move the knob or fader, the performer shakes their head and gives me the thumbs up. Same when they ask for a slight EQ adjustment. It's prevalent enough to where sometimes I'll grab the knob and stare at them until they they give me the thumbs up.
I have audio processing disorder and many of the things don't work on me, or i can choose to make them not work (or for example the McGurk effect works even when i don't see anything (the sound is ambiguous to me without visual - hence the audio processing disorder and why i hate phone calls). When i heard the confirmation bias, i was so happy there was something that was working for me 😂 but I was confused because I know i'm very bad at differenting "good" vs "bad" quality audio (it's an advantage really, bad audio doesn't bother me one bit). Louder audio helps me a lot when listening to podcasts without visual.
For the stapedius/tensor timpani muscles - there's actually a very small % of the population that are able to consciously tense these muscles (ask me how i know). As a kid, i always asked people around me if they could "clog" their ears and make a rumble sound inside them... And noone knew what i was going on about, until i found out its kinda a superpower of mine 😂
The McGurk effect reminds me of my recent realization that most of the world (so far, everyone but me!) treat "sign" and "sine" (and "deign" and "Dane") as identical sounds. When I say these words my tongue does not do the same thing, and it sounds different to me, but I have never recorded myself and played it back to see if I can actually distinguish the difference. I think I would have a hard time making the recording without deliberately exaggerating the difference in pronunciation.
I totally have the same thing going on for various homophones. "cock" and "caulk" comes to mind: feels totally different to say, but probably indistinguishable in reality.
i worked as a front of house sound engineer and we could always tell a amateur sound guy by how much they would tweek the EQ. live sound in small clubs you get the best results only pulling the frequencies that are feeding back. If the band doesn't know how to adjust there sound for themselves there is nothing you can do to help. The more you try to change the sound to satisfy your bias the band will hear something that they are not familiar with playing. Also every time a knob goes above zero on any frequency you create distortion. You don't turn up the bass, you turn down the high and boost the volume.
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"Run your circular saw or other loud tools and change the shape of your mouth"
...
"You wanna know how I got these scars?"
Thanks for warning me ahead of time ... I was getting ready
Doesn't work with the nailgun either... both shots just nailed my jaw shut.
We call confirmation bias a ghost fader/knob. Tell the client it does something and give them control. Let them play with it till they're satisfied so they'll let you keep doing your job. It's an amazing tool in the studio lol.
Also a good way to trick a stagehand. Was in New York working a show and a stagehand comes running up telling me I have to turn the bass down, I say "Turn it down for what?" he goes on to tell me the bass is to loud and they can hear it across the river into Manhattan. I looked down at the board, turned a knob that wasn't being used and said "There, I turned it down by 4, any lower and the artist will be upset".
Wow! Just wow!
fucking genius
Haha…there is always a drunk who yells ..turn it down! We would make a show of turning things down while not. The drunk is happy and we usually play louder.
I used to use this when working live audio for college kids
Parents come up saying "little Tommy needs to be turned up"
Push on an unconnected fader and they think it sounds better 😅
Also, we called it the dead fader effect
Mercedes have included very loud sound coming out of the speakers when the car has detected an incoming crash, in order to trigger your stapedius muscle before the sound of the actual crash damages your ears. Such sound also triggers other brain reactions to make your body instincively brace for impact.
Cool
Whoa, neat.
@@CaseyConnor "How do you know"
I've read that somewhere but never had any confirmation. I still haven't I suppose, but cool to hear it again!
I heard bracing for impact is what causes damage. When we tense up, we're more brittle essentially. Going limp is ideal. But I suppose it would give you a moment to position yourself slightly better. OR I'm just wrong lol. But bracing for impact is probably an old defensive mechanism that didn't account for metal objects weighing several tons smashing into you at 100 km/h.
Haha, the confirmation bias was making me feel insecure about how I can't pick up on audio differences.
Same. Firstly you think "Oh no, am I stupid?" and then "Hehehehehe"
Yeah, I was really confused. I have pretty nice headphones that usually reproduce even subtle differences in sound. I couldn't hear the difference.
I thought I heard a slight deffrence but I was honstley really just enjoying the nice guitar😂
Yep. I was like "guess i'm deafer than I thought".
haha same, thought I was missing something. Tricky!
thanks for explaining the Mcgurk effect. as a child i noticed that some clocks seemed to sound like "tick tick tick" and others seemed to sound like "tick tock" however, if i focused my attention, I could "force" myself to hear them as "tock tock tock" or "tock, tick tock tick." i was very confused and suspected i could influence reality, not realizing i was just influencing my perception of it.
"Yea, your cat may be able to hear a difference, but they have a weird taste in music anyway" XD
The "wason effect" startled me for a sec because I considered myself to be very good at hearing these kind of details in music. But I couldn't hear any difference. Good that there wasn't any.
Also thought that this mic sounded to good for $85.
I had the same exact feeling. I replayed it several times because I couldn't believe I wouldn't pick it up and was perplexed by the quality.
Me too. I thought "that's a damn good mic for $85, where can I buy one?"
Haha I had the same... I perceived the "cheap" version as " a very subtly low passed version of the second (though considering the difference in price in hindsight the difference in quality was too. And... well I have been busy with (digital) music production (from sound design to mastering and everything in between). So yeah that was good for the self-esteem.
But you know, don't worry about it. Sound/music perception is an inherently subjective experiences. And placebos can even work when some is aware they are taking. In the end our brains are going to be dictating what we are going to perceive and how. And those things are anything but objective.
Edit: ... wtf I still hear a difference (very subtly), after knowing about it... well that not good 🙄
Same here, but I stoped the video right away, grabbed my wife's headphones that have much better freq. response
and couldn't here the difference either.
@@Quadr44t McGurk Effect simply via text prompt? D:
Thanks for that Wason Effect demonstration. I was seriously doubting my ears for a minute, lol.
But yeah, tweaking a knob to perfection in an audio plugin and then realizing it was disabled the whole time has happened to me too.
Yep…blush
Same! I thought..."oh no!...my audiophile days are over!"
Fun fact about the stapedius effect! Some movies that have explosions mimic that reflex to make the explosion seem more dramatic, where you just hear a short initial "crack" of the explosion followed by a loud, more muffled drone. I can't think of a specific example right now but I swear I've seen some movies or TV shows do it.
The Pianist. Including temporary hearing loss and tinnitus. And other movies of course.
Many microphones do the same thing to prevent damage, you can hear the effect quite clearly in videos of things like gunshots, where the sound is quickly extremely loud, then the mic compensates, but by then the sound is already gone so you hear a drastic drop in background noise.
ruclips.net/video/ZpCu4bEUuQM/видео.html
Skip to 2:14 if it doesn't automatically, you can hear it very clearly. the camera overcompensates, and at the wrong time.
Not to be confused with what is heard at 2:47, which is caused by the bullet arriving before the gunshot itself is heard. that's a completely different phenomenon, and while it is quite interesting on its own, doesn't really have anything to do with this video lol
Often this effect is caused by any sort of audio dynamics processing that has an "attack" time, including compressors and noise gates. Sometimes it's not part of the program, but part of your playback system that you don't realize is there. For example, they'll have a "Loudness" feature on your TV, that evens out the audio dynamics, but there will be some latency between when it detects a loud noise, and when it clamps down on that noise. So, you hear it full blast, and then a split second later the "Loudness" feature clamps down on it, and it becomes more muffled. Your phone might be running something like this in the background, to help its speakers sound louder or better - and you wouldn't necessarily be aware of it.
I think the lowering of environmental sounds while speaking mentioned in the end of the third chapter of the video is working like this:
I also don't perceive a lower volume of environmental sound while talking but I do perceive it while thinking and I think the average person doesn't / does too.
But I realized people (me too) aren't good at listening to other people while talking themself it is even more clear when you listen to and podcast on speakers and then talk about a topic which isn't mentioned in the podcast and try to remember what was said in the podcast while you talked.
I think the brain fills in the delusion and making you think that the volume is the same while it is lowering wich results in the loss of details and contexts.
The beach landing in "Saving Private Ryan", although that could also depict just extreme stress response
Confirmation bias or: "Why tf I have spent the whole day on that shitty snare with the compressor on bypass"
I’ve had an issue with my hearing since having brain surgery. Sudden sounds, eg:- say, if a plate or similar object is quickly placed on a bench top, or a china cup suddenly put down on a table top, these will cause a ‘whooshing’ sound/feeling to go through my brain. A kid suddenly yelling will cause the same. In my 60’s now, and have tinnitus. Have noticed when moving my eyes around, when my eyes are shut, I still get that ‘whooshing’ sound/feeling through my head, and it varies the tinnitus too, like a volume knob on a radio tuning up and down radio static.
This is such an underrated series
9:14 hey, spaniard here, actually, the word we use for that is ''dentera'', not ''grima'' : )
También usamos grima
Y repelús
does this give the name to Grima wormtongue in lord of the rings?
and your not noticing that tinnitus is pronounced tin-eye-tis.
yeah yeah and you use vosotros as well your opinion is now invalid
Producer here, during the conformation bias test i was like "I of all people should be able to discern the difference between these mics", the relief that they were the exact same was real.
Always trust your ears :0
Bone Conduction: An piece of work by the artist Laurie Anderson consisted of a table with two indented areas in front of the viewer.
There was no audible sound but if you placed one elbow in one indent and sat your jaw in your hand you heard the word red.
If you place to your other elbow in the other indent your bones conducted the word blue to your ear.
If you set both elbows in the indents the word purple would be conducted through your bones up to your jaw and into your head.
And if you put both elbows, jaw and right leg into the same indent, you'll find yourself miserably busted onto the floor! :)
The McGurk one was weird because I heard the same thing both times, but I can't really read lips at all.
I can read lips very well and McGurk has never worked on me. Then again, I have synaesthetic qualities and a passion for Japanese so... funny enough, the only one out of the illusions in this episode that got me ... was the "wason effect" xD (and that was an "I /guess/ I can hear a difference? But it's subtle.")
McGurk bit me hard, but then, I have up to 60 dB of hearing loss at the high end so I do a LOT of lipreading. Even with hearing aids I struggle, without them a lot of unintentional comedy ensues because I miss much of what is said to me- and my phonemic restoration wetware is seriously borked.
I'm with you on the "teeth/nails" thing for the chalkboard effect. I recently had the experience of accidentally chomping off the tip of a chopstick, about a week after completing a root canal. The resulting noise made me cringe and then panic until I spat out the hard object and realised it was my chopstick. It was the same cringe feeling as if somebody had run their nails down a chalkboard.
If you dine at Nobu Perth and one of your chopsticks is 3mm than the other, sorry about that.
Interesting, thanks. I definitely like this explanation better than the common ones I've read.
Yup, munching away on lentil stew and suddenly finding a small pebble that made it through the sieve between your teeth does the same thing: Instant sudden release of chewing muscle tension. The reflex definitely saved my tooth.
I was really wondering how I could connect to all of these phenomena, at least to some degree, until I got to the McGurk effect. That was cleared up when you added that people with ASD usually aren't affected by this.
It's harder to get a McGuire effect when you only listen and don't watch. Since this was about audio, i wasn't actually watching while the video played.
@@timkramar9729 There is no effect at all when you don‘t have visual input. If you only listen, you will Just have two identical sounds
Is it phonemic restoration when I hear an "f" sound at the start of a bleep and a "k" sound at the end?
6:06 I was all "What that mic sounds great! What's the deal here?" 6:29 "Ok seriously I don't hear a difference is there a huge scam going on in the mic department?" 7:09 Ahhhh that makes more sense
The Repetition Pitch effect is probably my favourite phenomenon.
I remember sitting for several minutes just tapping my nails against a hard surface, most often wood, to hear how the sound constantly changes.
And getting that effect while cracking both my thumbs at the same time is just sooooo satisfying~
For the McGurk Effect all I can hear is "FIB" no matter which clip I'm watching :/
I think it's a RUclips issue, they seem To have change something about audio compression
That's because the audio is ever so slightly out of sync. Check this if you can hear the difference ruclips.net/video/aFPtc8BVdJk/видео.html
I just hear Bib
i just hear FBI! even when im not watching the video
I hear vimpe lol
Going back to the stapedius muscle, I happened to be chewing on some trail mix and listening with my headphones while you were explaining that the brain compensates sound when you're about to speak.
I also have tinnitus but from a car accident. Yet, when I chewed, I perceived the sounds around me as softer than when I stopped chewing. The bone conductivity coupled with my headphones made the chewing sound particularly loud. I realize my environment isn't changing volume-wise but I perceived it as different.
That chill down your spine when he mentions a chalkboard
The teeth/nails theory on chalkboard and plate scraping makes a ton of sense to me. I dont know why, but i've always described the experience of those sounds as "feeling them in my teeth", if that makes any sense whatsoever. It's psychological that's for sure, but strange.
Absolutely -- I feel it in my teeth and in my fingernails!
For me it's when a knife gets stuck between fork tines. Omg I get bad bad bad chills and feel it in my teeth and it HURTS. I can even semi feel it by just thinking about it.
I can engage the stapedius muscle at will, and sometimes I would habitually do it when I know a loud sound is about to occur. I can hold it for about 10-20 seconds depend on how hard I use the muscles and it makes a rumbling sound in my ear while suppressing outside sound. I always thought that was a natural mechanism for protecting your ear against loud noise and, now I know what it's called. I also find I use that muscle when I yawn or when I flinch/get goose bumps from cold or other stimuli.
I can't control that muscle, but I'm very aware that I basically go deaf every time I yawn, but I'm not sure if it is due to an entirely physical process (e.g. the movement of the jaw compresses muscles or the ear canal itself) or if the brain "switches off" my hearing when it's busy doing the important task of telling me to go to bed.
4:37 "Sorry if I intimidated you" - Naaaah... When I thump my cheast, it's at least an octave lower than that!
I stumbled across this series just now, quite interesting. Thanks!
"Bone Conduction" - I used this from time to time when I wanted to hear my bass guitar in a loud room, but without plugging it in. I rested my bass guitar on my leg either sitting down or standing up, put IEMs in my ears and put my chin on the bass. I played and opened my mouth to various shapes to hear my bass better.
It looks silly, but it works!
Me too. Also used doors to lean the bass against so I can hear the notes without an amp.
9:18 here in spain we also call it "dentera" or "tirria". We use "grima" as an insult.
Totally got me on the"blind spot," didn't notice at all until you said it, then you can't unhear it!
WHY DID YOU TALK ABOUT CHALKBOARD NOISES... MY SKIN CRAWLS JUST THINKING ABOUT IT>
I literally couldn't stop my brain from imagining a utensil scraping a plate for like 30 seconds. Absolutely brutal.
That's misophonia, certain sounds create a 'fight or flight' reaction for some people including us. Nails scraping affects many people and if I hear someone eating crunchy food it's unbearable!
CHALKBOARD NOISES
CHALKBOARD NOISES
NAILS SCRAPING
SCREEEEEEEE
are you in pain yet
Thankyou for pointing out the Confirmation Bias effect!!! I've been listening/watching many "mixing" videos or videos about EQs and Compression over the last few years and I, for the most part, can't hear the differences between the bypassed sound and the wet sound. Now, I know my hearing might be slightly "damaged" and perhaps my headphones aren't good enough - who knows. But honestly, I'm beginning to suspect it's a case of the Emperor's new clothes - or to put it another way: confirmation bias.
Watched part 1 and 2. This is such a valuable piece of information. I am a musician, composer and singer. This information has completely changed my perception of sound entirely. I am quite positive that this will lead me to make better sounding audio, although I will need to train my ears and brain extensively. Thank you so much for all your efforts in putting all this together for us in such a detailed and technical manner. Will be watching parts 3, 4 & 5 after this. :) Liked and subbed. Best wishes from India. :)
4:50 - Very nice, I heard this effect in Alan Wake game!
In the masking portion, I heard the background music as two loud clanks.
The chalkboard scraping / metal on ceramic really reminds me of the mental discomfort one feels when hearing a baby crying in distress. Amazing how our brains are tuned to react in such ways to sounds.
Wason Effect. You didn't fool me, but for a second I thought I was going to have to give up music production! lol
Phasing/flanging is the word I will now finally use to describe the Oracles voice from halo.
Talking into the box fan in the summertime...
This two-part (so far) series has been very educational for me. Thanks for producing it.
One question: for people (audiophiles) who evaluate the sound produced by various audio products, are they better trained to detect and ignore some of these audio effects? Or are they just really good bullshitters who can convince people of the subtleties that they hear from sound reproduction, which are not really there?
I think it will depend on the audiophile. With practice you can certainly learn to hear subtle aspects of sound... an experienced mastering engineer really can hear all kinds of things that the average person does not, there is no doubt of that. And so I would say that, yes, on average they would be less susceptible to some psychoacoustic effects, at least those that depend on lack of awareness of acoustic detail. For example, binaural beats happen to anyone that can hear them, regardless of experience. But effects such as the Stereo Salesman Trick would be unlikely to work on anyone with some experience mastering audio in a studio.
All that said, there are indeed plenty of audiophiles that are bullshitting either themselves or other people, to be sure. There is a frightening degree of confirmation bias, mythology, and wishful thinking going on. If you are trying to decide whether a given audiophile is reasonable or not, a great rule of thumb is whether that audiophile blind tests themselves, or is willing to submit themselves to statistically meaningful blind tests (meaning, not just a single trial to see if they can tell which is which, etc). Audiophiles that refuse, claiming "trust me, I can tell" are perhaps not to be taken seriously.
Haha WoW! I actually passed the confirmation bias, I can see others commented about that too. I was rewinding and feeling bad and raising the volume and stuff but couldnt really hear any difference. My initial conclusion was "that china mic is as capable, what a waste of 3 grand". Im glad it was a trick because otherwise Id have to reconsider spending as much on HiFi as i usually do! :D
Great series of vids btw, gonna watch the rest now. :D
....oh, and im really gonna have my classically schooled opera singer girlfriend try that one *grins*.
You got me with the Wason Effect.
I must congratulate you because you are the first person (out of ~32k views so far) to be brave enough to admit this! I think my example audio wasn't very good for demonstrating the effect, so maybe it's true that most people aren't being fooled, but I always wonder about the confirmation bias in terms of public responses. I might do a follow-up version that lets people respond anonymously. :-) Anyway, thanks for commenting.
@@CaseyConnor By the third listen (I rewound) I thought I may have noticed something different at one point, but still wasn't sure before the punchline came. Maybe would work better if the audio had a mix of high and low quality parts so the listener could more readily focus on what they were expecting, or maybe some background noise that could also be interpreted as low quality recording?
The confirmation bias bit (before the reveal) actually just made me sad because I chalked my inability to discern a difference up to losing my high frequency sensitivity as I get older!
Interestingly REALLY good headphones (hd800 in my case) seem to help with some of the effects. I noticed that in the confirmation bias tracks they sounded really similar and I couldn't really point out any differences and in the stereo salesman trick it also didn't feel any different.
Best feature about acoustic illusions I found so far on YT - you definitely got me by this fake Wason effect ... in the first (longer) example i was surprised the difference wasn't more obvious, but after influencing the listener once more I definitely felt the 2nd one sounding richer than the 1st ..... this is reminding me of comparing takes when cutting my CD recordings together with my sound engineer and once starting hearing the grass grow ... 🤣
The confirmation bias had me thinking my hearing got worse since the last time I checked it. I know I'm pretty much deaf to anything above 12k. I got a little sad thinking how bad it must be now, lol.
Ha - on the section on "Watson Effect" - I kept thinking "I wish he hadn't told us ahead of time which one is supposed to sound better."
I think I still did hear a difference just the same. Waaaaah.
The human ear is a really interesting thing
Yep and just like a computer wich could also do magic things, like filling in missing data in accordence to those clues.
Interesting topic that I normally would never have thought interesting, but i love this series. Never know whats next and keeps me intrigued
I was really scared as a producer/mixer when I couldn’t hear the difference, only to find out it was the confirmation bias test
I believe the part on the Stapedius Muscle dropping the volume when you speak. There is this one guy at work that is quite soft, and a little difficult to hear in Teams calls, but we can hear him, even when someone else is talking over him. But if I am talking and he speaks, I don't hear him. But maybe that's just the sound of my voice traveling through my skull?
With the confirmation bias, I heard the first one, thought "Man, I don't think this sounds good" and then the second played, "Okay maybe I just don't like this music"
20+ years later, I still remember the most dramatic flanging effect I've heard. There was a jumbo-jet flying high overhead, producing a constant drone in the background. I was walking through an courtyard surrounded by a variety of flat angular concrete buildings and surfaces, constantly changing the distance between by ears, the flat surfaces, and the jet. It sounded like it was computer-generated, but was all just a product of natural physics.
The confirmation bias section is interesting, I genuinely didn't hear any difference in the sound, I was just impressed by the $85 mic lol
The chalkboard scraping and plate scraping, often makes my teeth hurt for some reason. Personally I think these sounds are for teeth/nail protection
I love his humor and how he so casually makes good jokes~
SPOILER:
I relistened to the "Wason Effect" section over and over looking for the harmonic difference, going "Is this why I'm bad at mixing, and I don't know it?", but at first I did believe there was a difference. Then after the fifth time, when I was about to isolate them and hard pan them to hear the difference, I finally thought "Y'know they sound very similar, I'm probably being trolled". So well played, well played.
3:43 WAKE IN A SWEAT AGAIN ANOTHER DAY'S BEEN LAID TO WASTE
one of the friendliest, most constructive and informative comment sections on the whole youtube server :) that's just beautiful
7:15, Wason effect, to me seemed like the higher quality mic recording was played faster at first. Haha
The McGurk effect is really intense in the show "BattleBots" when the computer-generated (or highly-effected) voice says "Red Team Ready" and "Blue Team Ready". Sometimes I hear "Green Team Ready", or some random swap of team names.
I was so sure that I was hearing the exact same thing
The Phenomic and Restoration effect is amazing! I was like wow!
Love reading everyone else’s experience with the confirmation bias section. For me, I heard the first one and thought “Wow, this actually sounds really good.” Then I heard the second one and thought “Oh god, someone spent $3400 on this? Doesn’t sound any better.” Lol
Same.
0:46 I always try to create some songs with that when i'm next to a fan but i do with my hand slowly closing my ear
not being tricked by any of these makes me worry that something is wrong with me
I've always exercised my Stapedius muscle; I'm well aware of it, especially when tense, even if I didn't have a name for it. I have also learned to relax it and never noticed it coming into play or going out of play in any of my activities. This might be because I have a preference for instrumental Mood music. The more I stress, the more this muscle comes into play. I do not clench my teeth when stressed; I tense my jaw, which invokes the Stapedius. I never thought to determine if there was a name for this muscle. Thank you for naming it for me. 🙂
Confirmation bias: At first, I thought, dang... why can't I perceive this is a cheap microphone. But I can now confirm that I established the bias with a bit of help from you. Before the first playback was through, yes, I thought I heard some flanging. This disappeared on the second playback, but again, it was present before you cut it off. The second playback was much shorter than the first. Once I established the bias, I could invoke this more quickly.🙂 Drats to you!!! (I shake my fist) lol Forevermore, will I second guess myself. Thanks a lot! 😕
Not gonna lie when the masking part came up and I heard the pan being hit it made me jump
Oh that chopping in that one test is killing me like when a cell phone breaks up. It’s like sleeping with a fan and then the power going out
I can voluntarily contract my tensor tympani.
Must be nice! :-)
@@CaseyConnor it's certainly at least a bragging point
Thanks for this comment! just realised what its called when I make my ears contract and rumble. ;D
I can do this too! I’ve done it for as long as I can remember
Me too. And I hear the rumbling, too. But I do know where I learned it - it is the same move for diving, when you need to equalize pressure in your ears!
I know sound engineers who have pretended to turn knobs or move sliders to tell bands they've sorted the sound issue when in fact they've done nothing to change it but the band on stage have been quite happy with the apparent change in sound
I felt so dumb for not getting the Wason Effect but now I feel like one of those know it alls who no one likes.
chalk board scrapping... A chill went down my spine at the mere mention of it. Thank you for not playing audio...
The McGurk effect has never really worked for me, although I do understand the "mechanism" behind how someone could fall for the trick. I have taken a big interest in linguistics, especially phonology, for the past few years, and I was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was very young, so I guess that does play into seeing past the trick.
doesn´t work with me neither, maybe because of my ADHD
same with me but i also have adhd
Same for me. I wonder what I have...
It didn't work for me as well for my gf. Could it be that native german speakers are unable to hear this specific case of the McGurk effect as well? I
@@MetalKabu So I thought a bit about this as I also couldn't really hear a difference between the two examples and am german. My hypothesis is that for certain cultures that are very used to seeing dubbed media, it is much easier to differentiate what they see from what they hear, because they are very used to hearing voices that don't match the mouth movement at all. Although that probably depends a lot on the individual person.
9:20 - I'm thinking J. R. R. Tolkien knew exactly what he was doing when he named Wormtongue "Grima" in the LOTR.
About the McGurk effect, it didn't work at all for me. Although, i think the fact that it was you in both recordings was probably the biggest reason...
Yeah, in retrospect I'm starting to think that I should have included the suggested words under the image... I was so deep in the production of the video that it was easy to lose the perspective of someone coming to it for the first time. Maybe try watching it a few times and focusing on the mouth and the supposed words. Or maybe you're just one of the people it doesn't work for.
Actually it didn't work at all for me aswell. Maybe I'm a japanese german.
The "Wason Effect" just made me very aware of my high frequency tinnitus; because I could not hear anything wrong with the "bad" one and no different with the "good" one so I started to suspect that it it must be some sound in the high pitch area where CRT televisions have this horrible whine that I used to be able to hear until I was about 30 but I now no longer can hear in the real world but have this sound as a constant presence in my tinnitus; I normally don't think about it except when it's really quiet or I try to listen for something in the upper register of my hearing.
Weirdly I can still hear bats echo locating squeaks which seems to be even higher frequency than the TV-sound; it sounds to me like very intense sibilant sounds that have all the low frequencies removed and only keeping the painfully high ones; so I guess I might just have lost a few frequencies around that TV sound area.
"ask me how i know"
well how do you know?
good ol' tinnitus
I could hear a distinct difference in the confirmation bias section, but then when you played them quickly back to back they reversed. Then it made sense when you revealed the trick, very interesting stuff!
It can be a pretty amazing effect sometimes!
When trying to demonstrate differences in amplitude when your viewers are on a PC they might not hear the differences at all because most operating systems have built in effects that are trying to do automatic gain control to smooth out amplitudes. So unless you've turned the effect off like me you might not tell any difference in some demonstrations where amplitude is a factor.
Thanks -- I'll put a mention about that in any subsequent videos. In general, the vagaries of the various sound reproduction pipelines people use makes precise audio pretty hard to do. :-)
@@CaseyConnor … yep and it's getting worse. I bought an Alexa ball to use beside my bed. First impression was awesome. Finally a clock radio with basss…! (I play bass). Then I started noticing the complete lack of crispy highs. Ah probably so she can hear her name while playing. Then later I noticed some instruments sounded weaker than others, some recordings seemed to have more reverb than necessary…aha…they compromised on stereo somehow and lose stuff that is in the wrong phase!
I think the lowering of environmental sounds while speaking mentioned in the end of the third chapter of the video is working like this:
I also don't perceive a lower volume of environmental sound while talking but I do perceive it while thinking and I think the average person doesn't / does too.
But I realized people (me too) aren't good at listening to other people while talking themself it is even more clear when you listen to and podcast on speakers and then talk about a topic which isn't mentioned in the podcast and try to remember what was said in the podcast while you talked.
I think the brain fills in the delusion and making you think that the volume is the same while it is lowering wich results in the loss of details and contexts.
Regarding the confirmation bias. I felt that I heard a difference in the fret noise but it would most likely be that I was waiting to hear that part and it was familiar to me and therefore I could literally hear more of the sound. In the same way that you can listen to a piece of music that you know well and still find nuances that you hadn't noticed before.
have a friend play them both for you while you turn the other way as a blinded test
On the wason effect: I was about to comment about how RUclips's audio compression was affecting the clearance of the sound, making the effect too subtle to notice it clearly. Well played my friend, well played.
4:44 you sound like 343 Guilty Spark from Halo
I'll take your word for it. :-)
@@CaseyConnor you shouldn't. the original Halo trilogy (Halo Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3) have fantastic OSTs with dynamic instrumentation and great sound design in general. if you have any interest in game soundtracks at all, it's worth looking into.
I remember reading somewhere that Aphex Twin noticed the phasing effect running towards a wall or something when he was young
4:50
I think this was the same audio effect that was done for 343 Guilty Spark's voice in halo
or at least similar in result.
When you were talking about repetition pitch, I was thinking about modulation effects - so I was happy to see phasing and flanging next.
I couldn't hear the Wason effect. Likely due to my poor ear-bud headphones. Alternately, its possible that everything I think sounds good really sounds like garbage to others.... LOL. Great joke. That's what I get for commenting along with the video.
Experienced almost no difference with the McGurk effect. Speculated that it might be an Asperger's side effect since I rarely look at peoples faces when they talk to me. Next slide: "... ASD ..." Heh.
i remember experiencing the mcgurk effect a couple years ago when i'd seen it on tv, but it didn't seem to really effect me now (also asd)
I’m actually blind, also happen to have ASD, but because I only have light perception I don’t really care to look at peoples’ faces anyway, so this illusion had no effect on me whatsoever. It sounded like an identical audio snippet played over twice with a person repeating the word “fib”. It’s interesting how the ability to see can change auditory perception, and how that perception is different from somebody like me to somebody with sight
Same here! I was just really bothered when the sound was not lining up with the movements of their mouth.
My ex speculated whether I might be on the spectrum in some minor capacity, and not being severely affected by this makes me think about it all over again.
Something else to consider, and I find it enjoyable as to what being played and what I see in my minds eye. I have synesthesia, I hear sound I see color, and I see color I hear sound. Sound is a very important part of my life. It is like fantasia by Disney, 24/7. I listen by both color and sound, and yes I experienced the sound fill in. Also to sound system trick never worked for me. All that happened is the colors became a little brighter, but the same colors, not richer sound.
5:17 the trouble with demonstrating this on youtube is that youtube compresses audio down to 192kbps, which is gonna affect most of the same frequencies that the difference in microphone affects
EDIT: LMAO, i couldn’t hear the difference and i was sitting there thinking “am i losing my hearing already, or is the difference really subtle enough for youtube compression to ruin it???” lol. i knew from experience that the cheaper microphones aren’t gonna be much worse and that a lot of those don’t make much of a difference to most people, but still you sold the hell out of that lmao.
Some people can purposely make those ear muscles rumble. Just as Casey mentions, you can only do it for a couple of seconds at a time, max. I can do it by thinking of clenching my jaw muscles, but not actually clenching. Several years ago I had surgery on my left ear. Once healed, I lost my ability to rumble that side. I knew what makes the rumble from a RUclips years before, so my surgeon was impressed when I asked if he had cut that muscle. They had removed what remained of the stapes, which of course included that very muscle.
Phasers and flangers are effects pedals use with electric guitars. A lot with synths, too. Cool video.
Soon as you started talking about chalkboards and nails i started feeling the effects of it.
7:07 So glad to hear that they were the same! I was thinking, Oh man, I thought my ears were decent, but I don't hear any difference!
I do the vocalization to start the acoustic reflex every time i turn the radio in my truck from my phone to the regular FM station because it is always much louder, didn't know that "priming" the acoustic reflex was a thing. great to know.
As a professional sound tech for over 40 years, I couldn't tell you how often that Wason Effect happens. I have been asked many times to turn up the monitor for example, and before I could even move the knob or fader, the performer shakes their head and gives me the thumbs up. Same when they ask for a slight EQ adjustment. It's prevalent enough to where sometimes I'll grab the knob and stare at them until they they give me the thumbs up.
I have audio processing disorder and many of the things don't work on me, or i can choose to make them not work (or for example the McGurk effect works even when i don't see anything (the sound is ambiguous to me without visual - hence the audio processing disorder and why i hate phone calls). When i heard the confirmation bias, i was so happy there was something that was working for me 😂 but I was confused because I know i'm very bad at differenting "good" vs "bad" quality audio (it's an advantage really, bad audio doesn't bother me one bit).
Louder audio helps me a lot when listening to podcasts without visual.
For the stapedius/tensor timpani muscles - there's actually a very small % of the population that are able to consciously tense these muscles (ask me how i know).
As a kid, i always asked people around me if they could "clog" their ears and make a rumble sound inside them... And noone knew what i was going on about, until i found out its kinda a superpower of mine 😂
The McGurk effect reminds me of my recent realization that most of the world (so far, everyone but me!) treat "sign" and "sine" (and "deign" and "Dane") as identical sounds. When I say these words my tongue does not do the same thing, and it sounds different to me, but I have never recorded myself and played it back to see if I can actually distinguish the difference. I think I would have a hard time making the recording without deliberately exaggerating the difference in pronunciation.
I totally have the same thing going on for various homophones. "cock" and "caulk" comes to mind: feels totally different to say, but probably indistinguishable in reality.
The Wason effect really had me worried. "How can I learn to play piano if I can't tell the difference?", as it turns out I got a "good ear"
i worked as a front of house sound engineer and we could always tell a amateur sound guy by how much they would tweek the EQ. live sound in small clubs you get the best results only pulling the frequencies that are feeding back. If the band doesn't know how to adjust there sound for themselves there is nothing you can do to help. The more you try to change the sound to satisfy your bias the band will hear something that they are not familiar with playing. Also every time a knob goes above zero on any frequency you create distortion. You don't turn up the bass, you turn down the high and boost the volume.