David Bennett discusses song that use 'Backmasking'
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I've used reversed sound in the theatre more than a few times. It's very effective at unsettling the audience without them understanding why they're unsettled. Reversed ambient sound is subtly disturbing. There are few sounds more disturbing than a scream in reverse.
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OK... interesting topic. Subliminal advertising.... very similar.... you insert images of one thing that look like something else to the subconscious. Movie theaters have flashed single frames of popcorn and drinks on the screen to encourage folks to visit the snack bar.
I saw a magazine in a store one night. It was US magazine. I asked my friend what he saw on the cover. He said Farrah Fawscet. I told him to look closer. After I described what I saw, he saw it too. The letters E and X were clearly visible in the way her hair was done.... with the S in US.... SEX was clearly visible across the cover of the magazine.
Musically.... I've been fascinated by this for a long time.
So this is easy to do in the studio. You simply reverse the audio and put it in..... However..... knowing the story of Stairway To Heaven..... One day, the movie THe Song Remains The Same came on the TV. SO knowing that they would perform STH, I set up a mic to my Tascam 1. I recorded their LIVE performance. Knowing where in the song it was supposed to be located.... If there's a bustle in your hedgerow don't be alarmed now,it's just a spring clean for the may queen..... I flipped the tape. On the live performance at Madison Square Garden, you can still hear the words Satan my sweet satan.... including to a lesser degree the remaining part of that sentence of 26 or 27 words.... kinda interesting that it happens on a live recording from a concert.
Zep and the Beatles are just the tip of the satanic iceberg with backwards masking....
Is there anything satanic to this? I'll let you decide.
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I'm not a fan of this loose, clicky use of the term "backmasking" to label all reversed audio. It implies some kind of "hidden" (possibly Satanic!) content, which is usually not the case.
Zappa reversing an entire passage in "Mother People" because the lyrics had been censored, fine, let's call that backmasking.
But any of that Beatles stuff? Call it reversed audio. There's no hidden message being "masked", it's just a production technique.
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It worth bearing strongly in mind that the human brain tries very hard to make sense of what is sees and hears. That's why we see faces in fairly random shapes and blotches in toast, fruit, tree trunks and what have you, and why we start to hear, or think we hear voices in almost anything that's at a vocal-region pitch and even faintly in white noise.
It always puzzled me why anyone would play music backwards looking for hidden messages.
If one really wants to make a reverse message, a vocoder-type device would be an easy way to do it. Reverse the sound, code it, play it forwards.
Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful. AVL:MXE Linux; Windows 11 BIAB2026 Audiophile, a bunch of other software. Kawai MP6, Ui24R, Focusrite Saffire Pro40 and Scarletts .
It always puzzled me why anyone would play music backwards looking for hidden messages.
Or TV theme songs. The theme from “Mr. Ed” supposedly contained the lines “the source is the Devil” and “someone sung this song for Satan”, both of which you can indeed hear if that’s what you want to hear.
The reverse song got some airplay at the time and I remember reading that royalties still had to be paid.
My view is that songs that use 'backmasking' where the subliminal message is barely legible and takes a massive amount of very 'adventurous interpretation' (whether played forward or in reverse) is most probably purely coincidental.
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I'm not a fan of this loose, clicky use of the term "backmasking" to label all reversed audio. It implies some kind of "hidden" (possibly Satanic!) content, which is usually not the case.
Zappa reversing an entire passage in "Mother People" because the lyrics had been censored, fine, let's call that backmasking.
But any of that Beatles stuff? Call it reversed audio. There's no hidden message being "masked", it's just a production technique.
I strongly agree, it's just a production technique. I've played around with it a couple of times, but usually it makes very little sense, to try to hide any messages as 2022 gives you so many platforms, where you can share you real message, rather than trying to cover it up into something intended for the subconscious.
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The theme from “Mr. Ed” supposedly contained the lines “the source is the Devil” and “someone sung this song for Satan”, both of which you can indeed hear if that’s what you want to hear.
The words can be more-or-less identified, but they are just phonemes, and purely coincidental. That I'm sure of
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I'm not hearing it.... but it does kinda sound like someone is using German.
AND.... I'm more concerned about the demonic aspects of a horse that talks.
Yes, I agree. As I mentioned, the words (syllables?) can be more-or-less identified, but they are just phonemes, and purely coincidental.
Re said horse: I read somewhere that they placed string or cotton between the horses teeth which it attempted to dislodge with mouth/lip movements. Must've been very annoying for the horse. These days, improper animal welfare might rightfully be used to describe the technique. However, keeping this thread musically orientated, the song "Mr Ed" was composed by Jay Livingstone and Ray Edwards
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I did this once. Some time back I did an experiment with looping and layers and the like and Rog did some guitar for me. (I asked him for ANGRY guitar and he knew just what I wanted.) Because the chord pattern was palindromic his guitar work fit both forward and backward. I have played that song for many people and when they finished listening I asked them if they could tell that one of the guitar parts was backward masked. Not too many could tell which one. It's an interesting concept.
I use bits of backward music often...it's very easy in Reaper...record a chunk of audio. click on the item, select item properties or similar and select reverse...BAM...the image is reversed as well as the audio. With spoken language it becomes more complex as a phoneme needs to convey/change meaning and a reversed phoneme may not, necessarily, do that. These days there's a lot of "backmasking" done for fun & because the technology is so simple to acquire and use that experimentation occurs and many folk get a thrill from the "subversive" possibilities. Revolution #9 has some but it's nothing particularly exciting. In fact it sounds much better forward than reversed...no shock in that. Bowie used an Iggy Pop backing track in reverse for himself...he wrote the piece so that's fine. I wouldn't call it "backmasking" if it's not actually masking something though.
Cheers rayc "What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
OK, I'm gonna slip this non-BIAB cover in here 'cos it's way on topic (and pretty good, too, I think.) It uses reversal extensively, there's a whole layer of backwards audio that fades in and out:
OK, I'm gonna slip this non-BIAB cover in here 'cos it's way on topic (and pretty good, too, I think.) It uses reversal extensively, there's a whole layer of backwards audio that fades in and out:
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In this PAK you can find: dulcet folk ballads, funky gospel country, Brazilian jazz fusion, upbeat 1980s pop, classic Americana, a plethora of breezy bossa novas, indie singer-songwriter, scintillating synthwave, exuberant electronica, and many, many more!
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