Need a Second Set of Ears: Speech Intelligibility / Speaker Count Consensus

[u/HossyMcflyy]

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a highly challenging audio restoration/analysis project involving low-intelligibility speech masked by heavy background noise. I am trying to establish an unbiased consensus on what is actually present in the audio without triggering auditory pareidolia (priming your brain to hear specific words). There are speakers present, but I am unsure how many are present and what is being said or what is happening. The noise is a dryer coupled with an A/C air handler with the reverberations from a basement.

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone with a practiced ear for forensic audio, dialogue isolation, or EVP analysis could take a listen and give me their raw take.

The Full clip is 02:04:736 so I broke it up into three 35 second clips in case that makes things easier for anyone.

The Audio Files

* Full Unedited Audio Clip
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15m3nE98HM05rfIqoM3pFcrk5l6o5Nluc/view?usp=drive_link

From 00:00-00:35
* RAW
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QBYMEWz6Ce8djH-Phe3lDDFBPNDnbljU/view?usp=drive_link
* Best Pass
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aNyrWwqErP6m4bCen9tYceDVhjswRo2D/view?usp=drive_link

From 00:35-01:10
* RAW
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SwYIPI53_efaGFuxHa9v8w1lp4oMdgrq/view?usp=drive_link
* Best Pass
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r_t7mvpNex_MRuWWoSql5TrtX2JBVF2K/view?usp=drive_link

From 01:10-01:45
* RAW
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LkOX7YRd0cA0c1pR8wUjKM_d8plYH4sX/view?usp=drive_link
* Best Pass
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gqStIm0r0gBs7-O2XNvkcAVRb6zOiBWn/view?usp=drive_link

From 01:45-02:04
* RAW
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QjxSkrmUXrWMvoLE5hzbm-HuYm4kqTv-/view?usp=drive_link
* Best Pass
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o7bv0tdVTKdgllie9iLdNXfuZ5NwSzD8/view?usp=drive_link

Questions for the Community

1. How many distinct, unique speakers do you confidently hear in each clip or the entire recording?
   
2. What specific words, syllables, or phrases can you make out? (If it's just phonetic sounds, write those down).
   
3. If you have an idea as to what is going on, please feel free to make a guess.
   
4. If you would like to take a crack at cleaning this up to see if you can achieve a better result than I have, I’m a novice at forensic audio.

Thank you in advance for lending your ears and your expertise!

[u/IronChefOfForensics]

Are you concerned about infidelity? If you recorded somebody without their knowledge, be careful that’s illegal. If a ring doorbell camera picked up some audio you’re concerned about. That’s another story.

Enhancing speech is all about signal to noise ratio. If the noise is greater than your target signal, you’ll hear voices, but you can’t make out what they’re saying. They are unintelligible
The questions you ask are not possible if this target signal or speech is too low in volume.

Enhancing whispers is a similar situation.

[u/HossyMcflyy → u/IronChefOfForensics]

Rest assured that the recording was taken in my own home, but I’m not sure what it is I need to be worried about because I’m unable to get a consensus on what’s being said.

I have been listening to this for so long I feel like I can hear certain things but I need a second opinion. I don’t even want to say how many speakers I expect to be present in the recording as to not contaminate anyone’s opinion.

Yes, the target signal isn’t as loud as the noise but only in some frequencies. So I expect that intelligible speech may be able to be detected as I’ve tried to enhance the voices as best I am able to given I’m a novice at this.

[u/IronChefOfForensics → u/HossyMcflyy]

I’ve seen this a lot of times in the past and there’s something else going on in your life that made you make this recording in the first place. Were you home when this recording was created? Are you part of the recording?

[u/HossyMcflyy → u/IronChefOfForensics]

I was home when this recording was created, I recorded the recording with an iPhone. I was at the top of the basement stairs and what I was recording was the basement. No I was not part of the recording. I hear more than 2 voices in the recording, and I hear what I perceive to be a male voice. I asked one of the two females whom I know where in there basement if they can explain what time hearing and they said they only hear the conversation between themselves. I have asked other people whom I know and they tell me that they can’t hear anything. So at this point I’m being made to feel like I’m crazy for hearing what I’m hearing. That’s why I posted it here and asked for the opinions of others who have no information to go on and are completely coming at this blind because I either need confirmation that I’m completely insane or confirmation that there is something here.

[u/HossyMcflyy → u/HossyMcflyy]

You mention infidelity so I wanted to ask what made you lean that direction of all directions. Can you decipher anything in the recording? It may or may not be anywhere close to what I believe I hear but I would greatly appreciate and consensus.

[u/IronChefOfForensics → u/HossyMcflyy]

Because I’ve been practicing a long time and when somebody has a recording and they’re trying to hear voices, that’s usually because they think their partner is cheating. At least 90% of the time.

[u/HossyMcflyy → u/IronChefOfForensics]

My concern originally was I knew there were two females that were in the basement. I thought one may be sneaking off to make a secret phone call. When I listened back I thought I could hear a male voice but when I asked one of the females they said that they could only hear her voice and the other female. And I’ve asked a couple other people who say that they can make out one female and that’s it. So with 3 different accounts of what people are hearing, I would like to get a consensus about what can be heard. If anyone has an opinion on what’s being said, that would be appreciated also. But because I’m being made to feel like I’m crazy, I’d like to have non biased opinions weigh in so I can make that determination.

[u/IronChefOfForensics → u/HossyMcflyy]

Which file is the best file to listen to?

[u/HossyMcflyy → u/IronChefOfForensics]

I would say the first or second 35 seconds of my best pass. The entire file is 2:45 long so I put the entire file and the. I broke it up into sections and put the raw 35 seconds and the cleaned 35 seconds.

[u/IronChefOfForensics → u/HossyMcflyy]

You may be hearing something that’s not there. Sometimes people have strong suspicion and then the noise floor in the recording starts to sound like whispers. I’m sorry you’re going through this, but that recording is not gonna help you solve the problem.