Chasing Ghosts: EVP

EVP stands for “Electronic Voice Phenomenon”, and it describes the instance when anomalous voices or sounds appear on recordings that were not heard by the people present at the creation of that recording. Most frequently it’s used to describe sounds that are identifiably produced by a human being, and most ghost hunters have strong opinions about EVP. These opinions range from the credible to the skeptical and all areas in between. The debate has engendered more than one fairly heated discussion amongst the ghost hunting populace.

No matter whether you believe that EVP represents attempts by ghosts to communicate from “the other side”, or think the voices are probably nothing more than interference of some sort, EVPs can still be fun, interesting, and amazing. You don’t need a lot of equipment to capture EVPs, but you do need a lot of patience. If you’re not willing to spend twenty or thirty hours to find a single instance, then chasing EVPs probably isn’t for you. It can be very tedious listening to every minute of a four hour long recording just waiting for some hint of a word or phrase. But when you find one, the excitement is hard to beat.

The first thing you’ll need is a recording device. Most ghost hunters use voice recorders designed for vocal note-taking. It can be tape-based or digital, but must have AGC – automatic gain control. AGC, as its name might suggest, adjusts the gain – the recording volume – to match incoming signal levels, so quiet sounds get recorded louder, but louder sounds don’t overwhelm the recording media. AGC is important because nobody is sure just what the sound pressure level of a ghost whispering might be.

Then you’ll need a place to record. EVPs have been captured nearly everywhere, so location probably isn’t critical. Some ghost chasers recommend you avoid recording for EVPs in your own house; getting a particularly creepy EVP can change your perception of a place! People have gotten good results in old buildings, graveyards, old homes, nearly anywhere people have been living for a long time. Some EVP recorders carry on conversations, while others set up recorders and let them run for hours at a time, poring over the recordings later. It’s really up to you how you go about it, but it’s worth noting that it’s a lot more difficult to sort out EVPs from normal speech if you’re recording your own voice, too.

If you use a digital recorder, you can move the files to your computer and open them in a program like Audacity – a free audio editor for Windows, OSX, and Linux – and scan long periods of time by eye, looking for peaks and valleys that indicate changing sound levels. There are also quite a few audio plugins for Audacity that will help discover EVPs embedded in your audio – equalizers, noise reduction plugins, etc. You can use the computer and Audacity to cut out the bits that sound like EVP to you and export them as individual files, all without changing the original file (if you don’t save changes). You can use almost any sound editor, but Audacity is free and works on every platform.

It may seem simple, but that’s because it is. All you need to develop EVPs is a voice recorder and a big chunk of time. But if you catch a good one, you’ll be hooked for life. Whether you think they’re simply strange interference patterns or voices from beyond, EVPs are amazing, interesting, and can be a little bit chilling… Have fun!

Want to get your questions answered about ghosts, spirits and hauntings? Vist Ghost Chat and chat live with ghost experts. If you prefer talking with someone one-on-one about spirit contact and the afterlife, check out Call Spirit Guides, or contact them at 1-800-340-8374 (24/7 live support will help connect you to the perfect reader to help you with your questions at no charge).

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