UNKNOWN ARTEFACT: Sound Engineers, apply here!
- Thread starter sohara
- Start date
I'm very skeptical of this. That's a very strange way to speak numbers. It's really the seventy (or is it seventy-seven?) that bothers me. If I'm going to relate a long series of digits, I'm either going to break up the whole number into couplets with an extra digit at the beginning, or I'm going to read off the individual digits. I'm not going to read all individual digits, and then throw in a couplet. Especially when it could cause the ambiguity I mentioned.
I reject the notion that this is a single number "870766492" or "87766492". If it's authentic, it's a sequence of numbers, 8, 70, 7, 6, 6, 4, 9, 2 (or 8, 77, 6, 6, 4, 9, 2).
That back ground buzzing whine thing caught my attention from the first one I heard. If there's something fishy in the file, that's the first place I'd look. Not sure if that's really related to your line of inquiry (don't know enough about radio). Though as I said before, I suspect the answer is something a little more apparent than requiring tinkering with the sound itself.
All numbers are interesting. Consider the following proof by contradiction:
Suppose there exist uninteresting numbers. By the Well Ordering Principle, there exists a smallest uninteresting number. That's pretty interesting!
No, but seriously, what is the significance of 144 in this case?
EDIT: Hrm. The Well Ordering Principle (Really, Frontier, you edit the abbreviation thereof? :eyeroll: ) for a set of positive integers. That's what I get for trying to be mathy late at night.
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An FFT/spectrum of the sound does not support a modulated signal. When the high/low sounds are heard you see the harmonics all through the spectrum. A modulated signal would have a condensed spectrum around the carrier frequency.
This is a theory of mine, I think we will find that it makes different opening sounds in different systems which may be signalling some sort of tracking to a location - the old hot and cold game if you like.
I want to test this by picking 6 systems in a 3d point cross formation, then analyse the the tracks overlayed with each other to see if there is a spectral difference in the first instance.
The embedded voice/binary string could quiet easily be a explanation string on how to use. Theory most likely does not hold up but can we please try and test this. IF we have 6 audio files from 6 locations then we can take a look.
Did the same 3 days ago on the main thread, but (nearly) nobody listened ^^
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=141038&page=265&p=2193144#post2193144
Result : https://soundcloud.com/meliok/ua-analysis-some-sort-of-voice-present
Coming back to this after sleeping on it, I'm not attaching any particular significance to what I perceive to be numbers. The fidelity is too garbled to be *sure*, but since 7 is the only two syllable integer, you can see where I was getting the 7's from.
What I'm hoping is that others can independently come up with their own processed audio clips and decide for themselves what the message is (if we can call it a message).
If we have a number of people working with a plurality of sources, we should be able to come to a collaborative decision as to what the content of the chittering is.
What we know so far is that the chittering shows variation between the different sources.
The points to be confirmed/denied are:
i) whether the audio varies from the same artefact within the same system
ii) whether the audio varies from the same artefact in different systems
What I'm hoping is that others can independently come up with their own processed audio clips and decide for themselves what the message is (if we can call it a message).
If we have a number of people working with a plurality of sources, we should be able to come to a collaborative decision as to what the content of the chittering is.
What we know so far is that the chittering shows variation between the different sources.
The points to be confirmed/denied are:
i) whether the audio varies from the same artefact within the same system
ii) whether the audio varies from the same artefact in different systems
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Isn't the problem that they deteriorate too quickly to confirm?
Yes, I was listening to the 'long' mp3 and and had a moment of panic when I heard a message about fuel scooping thinking I was logged into the game (I wasn't) /Edit I mean the 'cargo scoop' message - brain fade there)
It sounds like there is something meaningful encoded in the sounds, but we need a Rosetta stone.
The best we can do for now is to collect, analyse and catalogue the patterns we find, having pristine recordings helps.
Is it a thargoid mumbling in a can ?
or a secret message ?
stay tuned...
I have noticed a different audio ambience in different systems. I'm going to pay more attention to these sounds.
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Just so there's no ambiguity, this is my own naming convention for the different sections of each sequence.
To summarise so far...
The Howls come regular as clockwork every 30 secs. When sped up to 3x speed these sound like a clarinet playing a sequence of notes, 2 sequences alternating. Others with a more musical ear than me have determined the actual notes.
The Chittering has structure to the sounds, and the section is identical in each sequence for a given artefact in a given recording. There is also a sound like cicada buzzing underneath the chittering section which is regular, and only continues as long as the chittering plays. The chittering also has different lengths in different recordings. When the chittering is longer, there are less purrs, and the two never overlap.
The Purrs were the first section to be investigated more thoroughly. They are 2 tones ("low" and "high") that sound like a brass instrument when sped up 3x. The variation and lack of ambiguity in low/high have led many to speculate that there is some sort of binary encoding. The pitch also rises over time at the same rate the artefact decays. Opinions to any significance differ, but one possibility is that it is a countdown before the artefacts "pops".
To summarise so far...
The Howls come regular as clockwork every 30 secs. When sped up to 3x speed these sound like a clarinet playing a sequence of notes, 2 sequences alternating. Others with a more musical ear than me have determined the actual notes.
The Chittering has structure to the sounds, and the section is identical in each sequence for a given artefact in a given recording. There is also a sound like cicada buzzing underneath the chittering section which is regular, and only continues as long as the chittering plays. The chittering also has different lengths in different recordings. When the chittering is longer, there are less purrs, and the two never overlap.
The Purrs were the first section to be investigated more thoroughly. They are 2 tones ("low" and "high") that sound like a brass instrument when sped up 3x. The variation and lack of ambiguity in low/high have led many to speculate that there is some sort of binary encoding. The pitch also rises over time at the same rate the artefact decays. Opinions to any significance differ, but one possibility is that it is a countdown before the artefacts "pops".
This is a great summary, and matches my own findings. I feel that the chittering is an important (and overlooked) part of the audio; we should try to spend more time finding variations of this particular section. It has already been stated that there's a longer version, evidenced by the youtube video posted of Murp's encounter in 109 Virginis.
So, a new objective:
Identify and decompose variations of the 'chittering' section.
I'll update the original post to provide emphasis on this area of investigation.
Good work guys
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What's left out is whether the Purrs and the Howls overlap.
I believe they do as in my recordings I sometimes can hear one or two Purrs mixed in with the Howl. That led me to believe that there is a constant number of Purrs in each block, just shifted backwards (in which case the Purrs start earlier than usual) or forwards (in which case they overlap with the Howl).
If this is true then we should be able to recover 7 Purrs per block which could change a lot.
If I find time later today I'll put up my recordings.
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That's an excellent summary! It bears mentioning that the spacing between purrs varies significantly. They're not nearly so regular as the howls. I also like your naming convention.
EDIT:
To my ears, it sounds like the purrs and the howls most certainly over lap. Sometimes the howl falls right on top of a purr. Sometimes just after a purr starts. Sometimes there's another purr at the very end of a howl. Sometimes the purr is very short compared to other purrs.
In the samples I've been looking at, there are usually 5 purrs outside the howl, but sometimes there are 6. There is always at least one purr inside the howl, sometimes two, but I've never seen or heard 6 purrs outside the howl and two purrs inside the howl.
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I've just scooted past 2 black holes on my way back to the pill so i can get involved with the "testing" going on but both of them have a eerie almost whale like signature when listened to. Its not exactly the sound given off by the UA's but its close.....i have a feeling that the "recording" may just be the local stars/bodies around the system the probes where created/let loose.
Sadly my mic is not up to scrach so my recording was so low quality it wasn't worth uploading at all. But with each new system i go through (about 200 so far) and listen to i become more and more convinced that we are hearing the local star signatures associated with that...there probably is much more to it then that buts its a solid start.
Sadly my mic is not up to scrach so my recording was so low quality it wasn't worth uploading at all. But with each new system i go through (about 200 so far) and listen to i become more and more convinced that we are hearing the local star signatures associated with that...there probably is much more to it then that buts its a solid start.
I'll double check this in my sound studio tonight for verification, but on listening to the track a few times, you are missing one note in the fist line and one note is wrong.
On the second line, your octavation is also slightly out.
It actually goes:
D (27) - A (34) - D (27) - A (22) - C (25)
F# (32) - D (27) - E (29)
I've listened a few times and there are definitely 5 notes in the longer phrase.
I'm not sure that the second line is entirely correct - there is a major cadence evident... but I need my Korg at home to double check. (I'm not as pitch perfect as I used to be! Lol)
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Some thoughts :
- Why inverting ? This seems to have no sense. Would you emit a transmission inverted ? There are no benefits to do so, I think... ( tell me if i'm wrong )
- The only useful audio functions are :
-- normalisation
-- Background noise reduction
-- Pitch and speed variations ( due to their different metabolism, aliens probably emits/perceive different frequencies )
-- That's probably all ...
Concerning the "Tuba Sound", I accelerated the original track 25x time, and at this speed, we clearly hear, that the pitch is also increasing, which tends me to think that it is a sort of countdown ( perhaps simply countdown to the artifact's own destruction, this can be tested with longer samples... )
Fly Safe !
- Why inverting ? This seems to have no sense. Would you emit a transmission inverted ? There are no benefits to do so, I think... ( tell me if i'm wrong )
- The only useful audio functions are :
-- normalisation
-- Background noise reduction
-- Pitch and speed variations ( due to their different metabolism, aliens probably emits/perceive different frequencies )
-- That's probably all ...
Concerning the "Tuba Sound", I accelerated the original track 25x time, and at this speed, we clearly hear, that the pitch is also increasing, which tends me to think that it is a sort of countdown ( perhaps simply countdown to the artifact's own destruction, this can be tested with longer samples... )
Fly Safe !
Really enjoying all this mystery!
Have done a little toying with one of the recordings myself, at work at the moment so can't post my findings but I think (emphasis on think) that the first half of each chitter is different. This might have been noted before but not sure? Would be great if someone else could test and corroborate. All I did was cut everything but the chitter sections and play those parts back to back (dislaimer: I have no idea what I'm doing with audacity and potentially my clipping of each section was just completely off). No clue what the significance is of having strings of data where the last half is the same each time and I haven't tested any of the other recordings for consistency, not very scientific really. I recall that one of the videos of the UA had a particularly long chitter section, might be worth looking at that one?
Have done a little toying with one of the recordings myself, at work at the moment so can't post my findings but I think (emphasis on think) that the first half of each chitter is different. This might have been noted before but not sure? Would be great if someone else could test and corroborate. All I did was cut everything but the chitter sections and play those parts back to back (dislaimer: I have no idea what I'm doing with audacity and potentially my clipping of each section was just completely off). No clue what the significance is of having strings of data where the last half is the same each time and I haven't tested any of the other recordings for consistency, not very scientific really. I recall that one of the videos of the UA had a particularly long chitter section, might be worth looking at that one?
It's gross.
So I was chatting to a work colleague who doesn't play Elite about all this yesterday. He's into shortwave radio and signal processing and stuff so I sent him this ...
http://youtu.be/pmfcAqK48po
Today he emails me and says "does elvill gateway mean anything to you?". I nearly had a heart attack! It turns out the nearest station to 109 Virginis is "Melville Gateway" so I guess it's just in the background noise. Damn he has good ears tho!
http://youtu.be/pmfcAqK48po
Today he emails me and says "does elvill gateway mean anything to you?". I nearly had a heart attack! It turns out the nearest station to 109 Virginis is "Melville Gateway" so I guess it's just in the background noise. Damn he has good ears tho!