Controlled Vs. Uncontrolled Enviroments

One of the questions I have been asking myself as an investigator is how much of a controlled enviroment does one need to complete a successful paranormal investigation. The answer although not difinitive is as much control as possible. One of the biggest problems that we face on any investigation is sound contamination. Sound contamination can occur on any investigation whether you realize it or not. Sound recorders are often 5x to 50x more powerful then the human ear. What does this mean? Well sounds that you may not hear at the time will be captured, during the course of an investigation can be misconstured as evps. One of the ways that I have found to combat this is running multiple sound recorders time and data synced in various places during the course of the investigation. anyways just rambling 😆 ..

One of the questions I have been asking myself as an investigator is how much of a controlled enviroment does one need to complete a successful paranormal investigation. The answer although not difinitive is as much control as possible. One of the biggest problems that we face on any investigation is sound contamination. Sound contamination can occur on any investigation whether you realize it or not. Sound recorders are often 5x to 50x more powerful then the human ear. What does this mean? Well sounds that you may not hear at the time will be captured, during the course of an investigation can be misconstured as evps. One of the ways that I have found to combat this is running multiple sound recorders time and data synced in various places during the course of the investigation. anyways just rambling 😆 ..

Are you requoteing yourself Tim? 😉 This man wants to be heard.. 😁

Brenda

That's a good point Tim. I think this is one of the biggest reasons why people don't think about or realize that haunting don't have to just happen during the hours that the sun is down. People often also forget just how much of our everyday live's sounds get tuned out by our own minds. It isn't until you find yourself in a different environment that your mind picks up on a lot of sounds simply because they're different then what you usually hear rather then because they are actually louder. The same often happens with other forms of perception, just like feeling (notice how when you're sore you notice the muscles that get used during everyday activities, but didn't know they were used until you got sore) and smells.

Recorders don't have the 'tuning out' ability and when we listen back we noticed sounds that we weren't aware was being made at the time.

i'm in absolute agreement.
i know that one time.. (ok, this sounds like it begins as the popular "one time..at band camp", haha!) well one time, the team i am with went to a school, and although it was after 10pm, and only the cleanup staff was noted to be elsewhere on the property.. there was stuff picked up that sounded like kids playing. well, luckily for me, having been a child one time (oh ya, this spook has lived a child's life at one time! haha!), i thought perhaps there were kids playing outside in the parking lot area, near to the rooms we were investigating. sure enough, i checked and alas, what we may have caught on our digital recorders, turned out to be kids playing street hockey in the parking lot!

therefore, i believe it's very important one tries to gain as much control over the place one is investigating.
i find that often people like to invite their friends over to hang out in a room away from the investigation. alas, their voices can travel through vents (and/or ducts) etc, and cause EVP to come up with all sorts of conversations that sound like whispers or whatever.
i always ask owners if we can ask the family (at a residence) to hang out at the neighbours while we investigate. just a thought.. not all like to, but totally understand, and i rarely get a "no".

good point you are making Tim.. even when you are answering your own post.. 😉 hahaha!

spook