Some tips on EVP and how to classify them

Electronic Voice Phenomena or “EVP” are obtainable through voice recordings, and I’ve found them on devices ranging from my camcorder, to my digital cameras video feature, to both digital and analog audio.

When recording EVP its best to do it in a quiet environment, to prevent confusion later, and any sounds that you may hear you should mark on the recorder, i.e. “That was a car” or “_________ whispered”. What you’re looking for when trying to record EVP are voices that you can’t normally hear.

There are basically two types of recorded voices in my opinion. Ones that seem intelligent, and ones that seem residual or independent. If you pick up a voice on your recorder that seems its having a conversation out of the blue with no one in particular, it may just be that, and a good indicator that its simply a residual haunting. On the other hand if you’re getting definite responses to asked questions, it might be time to dig a little bit deeper.

Sample questions that have proven successful in the past:

• What’s your name?
• What year is it?
• How many people, including yourself and I, do you see in the room right now?
• Are you aware that you’re dead?
• How did you die?
• Is there anybody here with you?
• Why do you stay?
• Can you please move _______ object?
• Are you a human spirit?
• Provocation (not recommended)

As far as equipment goes, it really doesn’t matter - but it does help to be receptive to these types of energies. Some people may not get any EVPs at all, while some may get them every time (I being the latter) My personal equipment has been the VNXXXXPC series of digital recorders by Olympus. The battery life is spectacular, the recording time quite long, the quality great, and the files can instantly be transferred to PC with no noticeable quality loss.

For cleaning up up files, I’ve found that two great freeware applications do the job beautifully: Audacity, and Wavepad. In each of these, the main things you’ll want to be focused on are Noise Reduction, and Amplification. There’s no real set way to go about it, but just experiment between these two settings to pull out the best whispers and voices you can with minimal quality loss. Its takes time and patience, but it pays off in the end.

Another thing to note for a good recording experience is that I’ve noticed stormy weather has always been in favor of good results. Keep this in mind on your hunts.

And finally in closing - its good to judge EVP quality on this scale:
Class A - Very clear, and no doubt as to what has been said.
Class B - Loud and clear voices, but alot could be left to interpretation.
Class C - Very soft spoken EVPs, often indiscernible. Almost unlistenable without headphones.

Thank you for your time and please, take pride in your work, experiment, and never stop searching for whats out there and beyond what we can see….

Click here to listen to some EVP we have have captured…

Jeffrey Gerry - EVP sensitive, Paranormal Investigator