Laurel vs Yanny : VOTE POLL & Someone please explain!

[gregorio]

In the OP version I heard a rather robotic sounding Laurel, with what sounded like a little girl talking in the background, although I couldn't make out what she was saying.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/16/upshot/audio-clip-yanny-laurel-debate.html
So the New York times created a slider that changes the pitch and it's super weird. You can really mess with your brain. If you move the slider very slowly, i can almost get all the way in the Laurel side before I actually start hearing Laurel. If I hear Laurel, and start moving slowly back to the yanny side I can get just past the middle before I hear yanny again. Normally, in the middle I hear yanny. About one increment over is where I hear Laurel if it's fresh and not playing in a loop.

It's worth playing around with that NYT tool. In the centre position I hear Laurel but with a quite loud oscillating background noise. That's with my IEMs but in that same position using my (crappy) built-in laptop speakers I hear Yami. There's a position (a different position depending on IEMs or laptop speakers) where I can consciously switch between hearing either Yami or Laurel. This position changes though depending on which side (laurel or Yanni) I approach it from, provided I approach it slowly.

G

 

[SciOC]

Try this.

Thanks. I looped this on my hiby r6 with standard +-12 db EQ, and magic 8 ball. Most of the tonal changes to the word itself are between 125-4000 hz with an emphasis on the 125-500 hz range. Anything beyond that really just enhanced/changes the background noise/hiss (which could still be important).

I was unable to hear anything but yanny, but that may be due to having it on infinite loop and hearing it so many times that I got accustomed to it.

Looking at the standard sensitivity of the ear to the frequency range, I can only really suspect that people who hear Laurel are less sensitive to high mids and beyond (2k and above) and have a larger than normal dip in ear sensitivity around 1100-1200 hz than normal. That's just a guess since I wasn't able to EQ it to hear Laurel at all...

Personally, I prefer a warm sound signature that emphasizes bass or a v shaped profile, and I hear only yanny, so it may be that I'm more sensitive to mid frequencies than average and my hearing is a little less sensitive to low and high frequencies.... I am sensitive to "boominess" (100-200hz) and tinnyness (1-2k)but to be honest, intense bass depth, sibilance (4-9k) or brightness(6-20k) doesn't particularly bother me.

 

[ev13wt]

Would be fun to do this biased with: You hear the "word" yami, right? on someone that does not know the challenge

 

[SciOC]

Would be fun to do this biased with: You hear the "word" yami, right? on someone that does not know the challenge

Based on the descriptions I read and what I know about my hearing and age I expected to hear Laurel..... It's weird that some people describe being able to hear either. I have played with this quite a lot and I hear either yanny or Laurel very clearly, never both.

It reminds me of a peripheral vision test where you see where you can sense color versus your brain making assumptions in your peripheral vision. Only in a narrow range of your Central vision can you really tell color, so if someone walks on the outside of your peripheral vision with a colored object that you haven't seen before, your brain won't know what color it is until it is almost directly in front of you, but can fill it in and it goes back into the periphery...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/put-your-peripheral-vision-to-the-test/

I almost wonder if something akin to that is in play. If someone just overhears it but wasnt specifically paying attention to the details, their brain might be more or less likely interpret it correctly as Laurel.... There's a lot of experiments that I could think of to run to figure out how our brain is using hearing, and it could very well be very different from person to person based on things like this.

 

[ev13wt]

Based on the descriptions I read and what I know about my hearing and age I expected to hear Laurel..... It's weird that some people describe being able to hear either. I have played with this quite a lot and I hear either yanny or Laurel very clearly, never both.

It reminds me of a peripheral vision test where you see where you can sense color versus your brain making assumptions in your peripheral vision. Only in a narrow range of your Central vision can you really tell color, so if someone walks on the outside of your peripheral vision with a colored object that you haven't seen before, your brain won't know what color it is until it is almost directly in front of you, but can fill it in and it goes back into the periphery...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/put-your-peripheral-vision-to-the-test/

I almost wonder if something akin to that is in play. If someone just overhears it but wasnt specifically paying attention to the details, their brain might be more or less likely interpret it correctly as Laurel.... There's a lot of experiments that I could think of to run to figure out how our brain is using hearing, and it could very well be very different from person to person based on things like this.

If you can hear one or the other, switch between them in your brain as fast as you can. Then suddenly you "hear" hear both.

Interesting is the link with the slider: I think the strength at which the brain holds on to to either image while moving the slider at one speed left to right or vice versa, is the same amount of strength at play with sighted, pre biased reviews.

I.e. cable sound "heard" differences.

 

[Jones Bob]

I hear “Covfefe”.

 

[SciOC]

I hear “Covfefe”.

Thanks for reminding me of something insane Trump did so long ago that I've forgotten because of the newer insane things he's done since then. It feels like ancient history at this point.

And I've tried to hear both, I really have, but it's a quick shift from hearing one to the other, there's no both for me. It's never ambiguous in my brain. Also similarly I've NEVER been able to see a "magic eye" picture, not once.

 

[KaiFi]

The slider was really interesting. The first time I tried it, I heard "yanny" as soon as the slider started moving to the right. The second time I tried it, I heard "laurel" as it moved to the right until it got about halfway between the middle and the right when I could hear both, then only "yanny" (including when I slid it back toward the middle!)

By default I hear "laurel" though.

 

[Maelob]

It’s not really a matter of how good is our hearing it is a matter of how we perceive sound in our brain-I think that’s the reason why some of us prefer warmer sound or slight increase in bass and others prefer more energy on top. I think this test was really eye opening and reason why freq response graphs and curves are not all inclusive- I will continue trusting my ears and not let measurements be the only indicator of quality. By the way I am a Yanni who love his Z1r

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Some explanations ladies and gents:

Careful with this particular one, even though it mentions what the original word WAS it doesn't say if it's the original recording -- it may have been processed along the line.


And from a neuroscientist being interviewed.


Just some thoughts and I wonder if there's science to back this. I remember awhile back reading something about people's sensitivity to frequencies and that people who have sensitivity to higher pitch sounds are more towards caregivers -- example hearing a baby cry at a distance or really faint. Ever hear someone cry? Usually it's higher pitch than how they speak.

Now the people who hear lower tones, the laurels, are the protectors and

And just for @bigshot we make it light:


*edit: corrected the first video as it was just the same video of Guillermo

 

[ev13wt]

Here is another 10 second timewaster - kinda cool!

https://twitter.com/tomangouk/status/997095118023942144?s=21

 

[gregorio]

I think this test was really eye opening and reason why freq response graphs and curves are not all inclusive- I will continue trusting my ears and not let measurements be the only indicator of quality.

That's strange! To me, this test demonstrated pretty much the exact opposite. Using the NYT tool, which changes the frequency response, I hear Laurel or Yami depending on where I set the frequency response slider and as far as I'm aware, everyone who's used that tool has observe the same phenomena. Additionally, with the slider in the central position I hear Laurel with my IEMs, which emphasise low freqs (reduce mid-high freqs) but using my laptop speakers, which do the opposite (reduce LF, emphasise mid freqs) then I hear Yami. This further supports the hypothesis that whether we hear Laurel or Yami/Yanny is dependent on the frequency response of the playback.

However, FR is of course NOT a measure of "quality", it's a measure of fidelity. Quality is a personal preference which doesn't necessarily correlate with fidelity and has little to do with one's ears.

G

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

First time I heard it, unknown source from my girlfriends Galaxy S3 - Yanny.

I got the original clip up, on my OnePlus 2 and we could both clearly hear Laurel, using the NYT slider I could only hear Yanny on the last notch.

 

[LazyListener]

Thanks. I looped this on my hiby r6 with standard +-12 db EQ, and magic 8 ball. Most of the tonal changes to the word itself are between 125-4000 hz with an emphasis on the 125-500 hz range. Anything beyond that really just enhanced/changes the background noise/hiss (which could still be important).

I was unable to hear anything but yanny, but that may be due to having it on infinite loop and hearing it so many times that I got accustomed to it.

Looking at the standard sensitivity of the ear to the frequency range, I can only really suspect that people who hear Laurel are less sensitive to high mids and beyond (2k and above) and have a larger than normal dip in ear sensitivity around 1100-1200 hz than normal. That's just a guess since I wasn't able to EQ it to hear Laurel at all...

Personally, I prefer a warm sound signature that emphasizes bass or a v shaped profile, and I hear only yanny, so it may be that I'm more sensitive to mid frequencies than average and my hearing is a little less sensitive to low and high frequencies.... I am sensitive to "boominess" (100-200hz) and tinnyness (1-2k)but to be honest, intense bass depth, sibilance (4-9k) or brightness(6-20k) doesn't particularly bother me.

See, that's really strange, because I consider myself sensitive to high mids, and also prefer a warm tonality, but I hear Laurel, except when near the far right on the NYT pitch slider.

 

[ZenErik]

Here is another 10 second timewaster - kinda cool!

https://twitter.com/tomangouk/status/997095118023942144?s=21

I never hear 'brainstorm' with this one because there are 3 syllables.