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A regular feature in which I ask you to listen to a sound file with no idea what it’s going to be. Sometimes it’s voice, sometimes music, once it was just a noise. This one’s not super-obscure, but it’s ages since I actually listened to it, and to this day I find myself humming it when someone says the word ‘online’. It is dorky in the extreme.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Update! It’s not supposed to be all crackly and fucked up. But it’s sounding that way for some. See the comments for a link to the video.

 
 

Spy: That fuzzy background noise is getting on my nerves.

wowbagger: This is so dumb that I think I like it.

KaffN8ed: I found myself adjusting my speakers, before realizing that it was supposed to sound like that.

...Right?

Roadrunner: Reminds me of Jonathan Coulton. But I bet there's alot of that kinda stuff about these days.

radomaj: Just as Roadrunner, at first i thought it was Jonathan, but after a couple of minutes it hit me: ze frank - the greatest man on the Web (sorry Tom).

 
Pentadact: No problem, I agree.
 

J-Man: Hehehe... the bit about "taking the picture of you taking the picture of you holding the camera in the bathroom mirror" is actually incredibly accurate. Nearly all my female friends on facebook have endless photo albums of those.

Smurfy: Fix the motherflippin' sound quality you flippin' motherflipper!

J-Man: Sound quality is fine fo' me.

Littleedge: What is this song? It's actually really awesome.

Smurfy: http://www.youtube.c... ...3b3e1-nvJ0

My latest GTA IV machinima... but it's not an ordinary machinima...

Roadrunner: That is some damn fine machinima.

Smurfy: Gee whiz, squire!

Spy: Nice machinima Smurfy

But can you give us a bit of background on Dar's E-funeral? That's like the most amazing vid I've ever seen and I don't understand it.

 
Pentadact: That was great fun. I like what happens if you play it safe at every turn.

Also: love Imogen Heap.

Littleedge: as Radomaj correctly notes, it's a song by internet vlog-o-star Ze Frank.

People with sound quality issues: buh? It really does sound fine on my machine. Try watching the video here.
 

SenatorPalpatine: I liked it.

Jason L: OK, there's something wrong with the player plugin then. I had thought it was just a (misguided) artistic decision until I went to the movie and checked out the MP3 file itself. Both of those play OK, but through the player here it's consistently screwed up.

It's so hard to describe sound-screwed-upness! There's this low-frequency electrostatic buzz that's present throughout the song and fills, then echoes every sound for maybe half a second. It hates bass the most - it's sort of like dynamic range clipping but at the low end? I don't have time to record it until tonight.

For extra fun, I checked out a couple of other Trust Mes and they're still fine - so there's just something about this file and maybe our browsers that the player really doesn't like. Firefox WinXP 2009032609.

Roadrunner: Jason L, Does the noise slightly echo, almost like a tiny tiny delay?

Smurfy: I built a new computer and it sounds fine now.

 
Pentadact: Holy shit, that's a hell of a length to go to. I'll see if I can get a different version of it and re-upload. I should buy it, actually, didn't realise it was for sale until now.
 

Jason L: There's certainly something going on with the definition and frequency profile of the sound itself - it's not just a problem of superimposed noise - but I'm not an audiophile. It seems deeper but not timeshifted? There may be an echo, but if so it's very very fast and subtle. It doesn't sound anything like overzealous bitrate compression or destructive-phase channel muxing, the two MP3 sound problems with which I'm familiar. The superimposed buzz does echo on a macroscopic scale, which suggests to me that the problem doesn't fit in an MPEG frame and must be something external to the file e.g. the player's interaction with the browser and sound device. And again, having ganked the MP3 file itself it sounds fine when played with anything outside of the browser. No biggie.

 
Pentadact: Try it now, I've just switched the MP3 with a different copy. Kind of an oxymoron, but might help.
 

Jason L: I may have been wrong about the echo; it's hard for me to tell, since the song has lots of echo by itself. Anyway, here's what it sounds like on my machine.

http://rapidshare.co... ...x.mp3.html

Jason L: Wow, ninja'd. No, it still sounds the same after a complete browser shutdown and restart.

Jason L: Oh, and the new PCGPC plays just fine so it's not some grandfather clause.

This is why I don't read mystery novels.

Littleedge: I heard it fine (and loved it). And woah. Pentadact addressed me and answered my question. My life is complete once I get Chris over at First Person Shouter to do the same ^^

Keep up with Trust Me With Your Ears. Or any music, really. I've probably gotten half of the music you've linked (probably more).

Rev. Name Withheld: Awww, I thought it sounded real good with all the fuzz - like a low-grade WAV file. Realy early internet style.
 
 

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