Homemade Subliminal CDs

An anonymous reader writes "Hello Slashdotters, I am totally stumped on how to do this. I would like to create custom subliminal CDs for my own use. I don't trust the CDs for sale in the stores, after all, who regulates that industry and ensures there actually is a message on them, and if so, what is the message? I would like to create positive motivational CDs, or even recite text from study guides/trivia, you name it, and lay it underneath tracks from a custom CD of my favorite bands. What is the best software to use to create such a beast on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems? And conversely, has anyone used any of the music software on these platforms to actually analyze the contents of commercial subliminal CDs? Any advice would be of use...thanks!"

Comments

Subliminal Messaging

[dolo666]

Apparently, subliminal messages have little effect. Maybe you're just looking for the placebo effect, in which case it likely doesn't matter *how* you record your subliminal tape, just as long as *you* beleive!

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Anonymous Coward]

Check it out, Michigan-LUG dumpster diving paid off!

a DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION: DESTROY INACTIVE COPIES
a aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
a TOP SECRET : (GROUP SLSH-1)
a EYES ONLY : (HARD COPY ONLY)
a NEED TO KNOW : (DIRECT DEV)
a
a SLASHTEAM FEATURE PLANNING FLOW CHART
a
a START
a V
a +ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo+ "And so, I went soul-searching.
a |Has the feature been implemented before>-o-+ I thought back on the other
a | on Kuro5hin or another weblog site? |yes| night and the bitchslapping
a +ooooooooooooooooooVoooooooooooooooooooo+ | rampage I went on in that
a .,. no .,. V thread. I thought of some of
a .,. V | the very low UIDs whom I'd
a +oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo+ | smacked down, I though about
a |Was the feature implemented or|+-->yes-V the many user moderations
a | suggested by a known Troll? | | that me and the other
x +oooooooooooooo|ooooooooooooooo+ | editors had unjustly
a .,. no .,. .. | overturned..."
x V |
a +aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaao+ | auxauxauaoo
a | Have hundreds of users suggested +>-yes-| / \
x |the feature to CmdrTaco via email?| >-aa->< WON'T SCALE ><+
a +aaaaaaaaaaaaaaao|aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaoo+ ^ \auaauauauoo/ |
a no no ^
a V | |
x +aoaaxaaaoaaaiaaaoxiaaaaaosxiaa+ +^aoaaaxaasaaaiaou+ |
a |Will the feature make Slashdot|--yes-\|Can jamie or krow| |
o | even more like a game? | /| hack it for me? | |
a +aaxiaoaxiaoaxiaxaxioxaixaxiaaa+ +aaiaauiaia+xaasoo+ |
x | | |_______
a no yes |
o V xiiixx---V--xuixiuuiuxxuxo |
a +oxaoaxuaoaxuxxauxxxauxixxiaxxaxox+ / THIS FEATURE IS PERFECT \ |
x |Can CmdrTaco use his limited Perl|-yes\/ FOR SLASHDOT. IM SO GLAD \ |
a | knowledge to kludge it in? | /\ I THOUGHT OF IT!!! TIME / |
o +xuuuxxxusxuxuxuxxisuuxusxuxxsuxxx+ \xu..FOR SAILOR MOON!...ixx/ |
a | ^
o no->-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxo->-xxxxx+ |
x
a IMPORTANT NOTE:
x NEVER DISTURB A MAN WHO'S INVENTING SOMETHING YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Liselle]

But that sort of subliminal advertising is flashing an ad on-screen for a fraction of a second. This would be underlaying one track beneath another. I don't know how effective it is, but it's not a snapshot like the movie "urban legend", it's immersive. Can't actors memorize lines by recording them, and then playing back while they sleep?

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Dun Malg]

Here's something explaining that the notion of subliminal anything is hogwash. April 1st or not, slashdot should remain a place of learning...

OK, I couldn't say that without laughing either

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[jnapalm]

if the author is paranoid of RIAA subliminal advertising, what makes you think he's going to believe something available on the internet? Just because it's posted on the web, doesn't mean it's true.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[godzillion]

You are probably better off ditching the subliminal aspect. If you are interested in memorizing info, record yourself speaking what you want to remember, and listen to it at normal volume (perhaps while focusing on some other task, or at faster-than-normal speed). If you are interested in behavioral change, why not try self-hypnosis?

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[sketerpot]

Don't tell him that! You may ruin the placebo effect!

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[technomancerX]

Interesting. Does anybody have links/citations for any of the "numerous studies" by psychologists done on the topic? The link provided in the parent has no citations to anything aside from one repetition of the Ft. Lee experiment (and that's more an anecdote than a citation to a reputable source).

I should also note that I have no opinion on the topic one way or the other, I'd just be interested in reading the studies.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[wass]

I actually did a research project back in high school (1992) where I made up a bunch of fake vocabulary words and flashed them on the computer screen for varying durations. While at the longest durations the flashing was somewhat noticeable, it was still too quick to read the words.

I told the students they were being tested on the ability of typing in words to help them remember their meanings. Meanwhile other words and definitions were being flashed on the screen. At the end of the session (10-15 mins i think) they were given a test with both sets of words, and only the subliminal words were counted.

I tested 3 varying durations of the messages, and one of the durations actually had noticeable score above the statistical average for guessing. I was getting psyched. Then I realized I needed a control group too, where I didn't flash anything on the screen. It turned out the control group got nearly the same score as that one above-average group.

I did statistical ANOVA analysis, and basically there was no significant correlation between the group scores and the flashing duration.

It was still a fun project to do. And I got to present the project at the Monmouth Junior Science Symposium too, which ironically happens to be running today and tomorrow.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Quothz]

The link provided in the parent has no citations to anything aside from one repetition of the Ft. Lee experiment No, the link provided in the parent has numerous cites, under the heading "Sources". Just because they require a trip to the library or bookstore doesn't mean they aren't valid.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[flyneye]

As my main field of research(cant tell very much)for years now i can say that the articles author could use any of the programs that produce binaural beating at the appropriate frequencies for the task at hand.make sure the slow changes in freq.drop match the time changes in the vocal/music track.vocoding software should be utilized at this point.vocode stereo track with binaural beating(experiment w/mix) then mix this right over the top of the same track untouched.(again experement w/mix after all theres no reason i should just give up years of research for free)
and uh.. dolo666 take two placebo and call someone who cares.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya, thats what the subliminal Massages want you to think!

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[alexo]

> Ya, thats what the subliminal Massages want you to think!

Where can I find a subliminal masseuse?

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[quisph]

"Can't actors memorize lines by recording them, and then playing back while they sleep?"

No, and you can't learn a language while you sleep, either. In any case, this has nothing to do with subliminal messages (which also don't work, no matter what form they come in).

There is no body of empirical evidence to support subliminal messages. Meta-analyses of peer-reviewed studies show that the effects are either nonexistent, or so small as to be inconsequential.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Anonymous Coward]

What do psychologists know? 75% of them only studied the field to figure out why they're homosexual.

Once they graduated, they still didn't have a clue, and needed a source of income, so voila!, they just hung out a shingle and started convincing others "there's nothing wrong with it."

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[bfg9000]

Why would I trust Snopes? I could make a website called BFG9000's Urban Legends site, say that the Rectangle doesn't exist, and people would be linking it on Slashdot as fact.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Jussi K. Kojootti]

I agree with the opinion, but your article is not much better at being scientific:

...since there is no proof that the human mind is capable of even receiving these messages, their effect on human behavior must obviously be zero.

Right.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Trigun]

type man xsublim on your linux box. A useful utility and a hilarious read.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Thorizdin]

You didn't really mean to cite something that uses the Bible as a basis for scientific fact did you?

Moreover, the "Freudian unconscious" is contrary to the Word of God. No Scripture passage supports such an idea. Instead, the Bible is consciously and volitionally oriented.

This sounds pretty flat earthy to me....

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[dasmegabyte]

Yes. What works better is superliminal messaging. On my website I sell a series of superliminal CDs that will help you lose weight fast. Here's a sample from the transcript:

[soothing new age music plays]
[Das speaks] Welcome to the superliminal weight loss tape. I will provide you with the gentle encouragement you need to lose weight and be a better you. Are you ready? Sit someplace comfortable, close your eyes, and turn up your headphones. We're ready to begin.
[Das screams] HEY FATTY! GOD YOU ARE FAT! SMALLER PEOPLE ORBIT YOU! EAT LESS FOOD YOU FAT FUCK!

Etcetera. We also have a tape that will make YOU less wishy washy and indecisive and more attractive to girls.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[cluke]

> Where can I find a subliminal masseuse?

One is giving a subliminal massage right now.. but don't realise it!!

I guess this is a good point as any to insert my probably untrue friend-of-a-friend story. This guy went to Thailand and went to a massage parlour. Anyway, he got this great sensual massage and at the end he's pretty excited, and the woman notices and says to him "you want masturbate?"
So, he eagerly agrees, and she disappears for a while. He thinks she's getting ready, washing her hands or something, so he waits. And waits. And waits.
Eventually she sticks her head back round the door and says "You finish yet?"

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[ConceptJunkie]

I had a great business plan to sell superluminal CD's to help people lose weight, but since the customers would lose weight before buying the CD's, they wouldn't bother to order in the first place.

I'm afraid if I go through with it, the causality paradox might cause the universe to explode.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Jerf]

I actually did a research project back in high school (1992) where I made up a bunch of fake vocabulary words and flashed them on the computer screen for varying durations. While at the longest durations the flashing was somewhat noticeable, it was still too quick to read the words.

You can't flash words any faster then the computer screen updates. Back in the Commodore 64 days, I was able to read up to 10-digit sequences, no matter how "quickly" you flashed the digits, because the television works on a 24-Hz cycle, so you can't flash it for less then 1/24th of a second, and furthermore, if it's light text on a dark background, your eyes will still "see" the flash for longer then that.

You need much more sophisticated equipment then any modern computer monitor, let alone a reasonably-priced 1992 monitor, can provide you to test this reasonably.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[mr_jrt]

Thats is pure genius.

Thank you.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[KDan]

That does not in any way mean that subliminal things don't work. Just that they don't have the direct effect you seem to be expecting.

Hypnosis and Neuro-linguistic programming work, by affecting the subconscious mind. On most people they won't have effects like in the movies, but suggestion to the subconscious is a powerful and effective tool. Subliminal messages may similarly work, but expecting effects 10 minutes afterwards is like planting an apple seed and wanting apples tomorrow.

Finally, without being paranoid, given how the advertisement industry has squashed research on how the cathodic tube affects people's perceptions of what they see on the screen, I'd be surprised if they haven't squashed this type of research too.

Daniel

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Squarepusher]

Had you wanted to help this poor soul and facilitate the placebo effect, then you would simply have described a somewhat plausible way in which he could accomplish this mission. Now how is he supposed to convince himself that he isn't just trying to fool himself?

"Ok, this one's for real, it'll work...but seriously no it's not...but yanno really it should work...except that I'm fakin...no no no, heh just kidding this is the real deal right here yessiree-bob!"

That could go on for agonizing hours. : P

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[DJStealth]

Agreed, I learned years ago in a psych class that 'subliminal' audio and video have no effect.. However, hypnosis does work if you allow yourself to 'go under'.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[pi radians]

"Just because it's posted on the web, doesn't mean it's true."

That's right. More information on that topic can be found here.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[RyanJBlack]

And I got to present the project at the Monmouth Junior Science Symposium too, which ironically happens to be running today and tomorrow.

Coincidentally.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[sumdumass]

I have read once , but can't find the article any more, were subliminal messages work about the same as someone asking a person to do something they already were easily persuaded to do.

I mean someone that goes out and drinks a beer, it would have the same effect as a friend calling him up and asking them to go have a beer. Repeatedly exposing them to the subliminal message would be about the same as the friend asking over and over.

I don't think this is the whole brain washing effect commonly associated with subliminal messages but it is somewhat in the area. In the case of self help messages, it might work to the extent of if the person wanted it to work in the first place. Positive reinforcmnet is a key in helping someone achive a goal but again i guess they would need to be in the mindset of already wanting to do it.

I guess your rite, it doesn't work but rather has an ilusion of working.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[ewhac]

...television works on a 24-Hz cycle, so you can't flash it for less then 1/24th of a second,

Ah, you must be in France with that SECAM stuff. (SECAM is French for, "PAL.")

Seriously, no television standard in the world does 24 frames per second. The US and Japan are 60 fields per second, or 30 frames/sec. (Actually, US NTSC is 59.94 fields/sec, but 60 is close enough for conversational purposes). Europe does 50 fields/sec, or 25 frames/sec.

Your computer monitor refreshes at whatever the graphics card tells it, so it's essentially arbitrary. Most CRT monitors today can refresh anywhere between 45 - 150 frames/second, with 60, 72, 75, and 85 Hz being the most popular frequencies.

24 frames/second is film. ...Unless it's Douglas Trumbull's Showscan format, in which case it's 60 frames/second...

Schwab

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[aminorex]

Superluminal CDs would also have trans-finite energy, and hence trans-finite gravitational attraction. Thus they can make you heavier, but they can't make you lighter. Don't get fooled by the snake oil!

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[ewhac]

...the advertisement industry has squashed research on how the cathodic tube affects people's perceptions of what they see on the screen...

Got a cite for this one?

Schwab

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[DuckDuckBOOM!]

HEY FATTY, etc.

[mentally transforming with a Sam Kinison VoiceXML stylesheet] LOL.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[kundor]

You can read 10 digits in 1/24th of a second?

You realize there's no way I can believe that.

I'm sure that my graphic calculator can update as quickly as any computer could 10 years ago, and my graphing calculator can move far too quickly to be read.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[quisph]

"I have read once , but can't find the article any more, were subliminal messages work about the same as someone asking a person to do something they already were easily persuaded to do. "

That sounds awfully similar to claims that I've heard about hypnosis. Are you sure the article you read was about subliminal messages?

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Jerf]

Try it on a CRT, not an LCD. An LCD can't change that fast, so it'll only "blink" something much less then full strength, plus if you're talking a standard LCD, it will be a dark blink against a light background which is much harder; your eyes see light, not "darkness". A graphic-calculator LCD scrolling at full speed really is a meaningless blur, a CRT is not. (Snap passive (no-flash) photos of both with a quick shutter if you don't believe me.)

A CRT can do it because it can instantly go to full power on one cycle's worth of time, and between the phosphor decay time, and the somewhat-equivalent processes in your eye that turn a quick blink into something you perceive as lasting much longer for various reasons, 10 can be done, though just barely. (Basically, at the distance I was from the screen, in hindsight, ten digits was about the size of my fovea (look it up). Had I backed up a bit I might have gotten more, or not. Words are even easier, too.)

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[wass]

thanks! i knew ironically wasn't quite the right word, but i couldn't think of a better one in a reasonable time.

seriously, even if you're trolling me, thanks!

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[wass]

That does not in any way mean that subliminal things don't work. Just that they don't have the direct effect you seem to be expecting.

I know, I didn't say subliminal messages don't work in general. I just didn't see any effects of them in this specific representation.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[wass]

You can't flash words any faster then the computer screen updates.

Absolutely. I was within the refresh limits of a CGA monitor, the values of which I don't remember.

'By eye' there was a slight difference noticeable w/ the flashing of the words on the screen. they were too short to be read, but i could discern a slight difference w/ duration.

You need much more sophisticated equipment then any modern computer monitor, let alone a reasonably-priced 1992 monitor, can provide you to test this reasonably.

Absolutely. But remember this was a high school research project, done entirely on my own, without a mentor or advisor. Even in college and grad school you have a research adviser to guide you through technological limitations as these.

It was limited, but still interested (at least to me).

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[ConceptJunkie]

Well, we planned on making the jewel case out of strange matter to counter the increased gravity. The only problem was that the CD would have cost a hundred and fifteen quintillion dollars, but the artwork is nice.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[b-baggins]

Bunk. Most people don't even see the 1/24th second flash unless they've practiced at it. How many people here see the white dot that flashes on old movies indicating a reel change? It lasts for precisely one frame. I can see it because I had to watch for it while running projectors for a theater back in my high school days.

For most people the persistence of vision from the previous frame will overwrite a single one-frame flash, unless you really turn the contrast up.

In fact, I was watching that great series Babylon 5 when just such a thing happened. In the episode where the INS is doing a documentary on Babylon 5, they break away to commercial. It's still part of the show and is a commercial for Psi-Corps. In the middle of the commercial, a single frame flashes and then is gone.

I about jumped out of my seat, all excited. Later, after the episode was done, we pulled out the tape (we recorded the episodes) and played it to that point. Sure enough, there was a single frame that came up in the middle of the "commercial." It was a poster of some psi-corps guy with a message that the corps is your friend, or something to that effect.

The interesting point is: No one else in my family even saw the flash, and I would wager most of the people here who know what episode I'm talking about never saw it, either.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[dasmegabyte]

It is extra funny that, after I posted this, I found the following in my logs:

2004.04.01 16:52:43 205.x.x.253 Search: query for 'weight loss'
2004.04.01 16:52:51 205.x.x.253 Search: query for 'subliminal'
2004.04.01 17:13:19 204.x.x.133 Search: query for 'superliminal'
2004.04.01 18:50:35 198.x.x.2 Search: query for 'lose weight'
2004.04.01 19:35:33 12.x.x.50 Search: query for 'subliminal'
2004.04.01 19:35:38 12.x.x.50 Search: query for 'subliminal'
2004.04.01 19:35:46 12.x.x.50 Search: query for 'weight loss'

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[aled]

Or follow the link (white rabbit)

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[sumdumass]

Well kinda, the article did cover hypnosis too. do you think i took it out of context or they could be simular?

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you forgot to add GO BUY OUR CDS YOU MORONIC SHEEP! GIVE ME MONEY OR YOU ARE NOTHING!

Apparently caps is like YELLING. Wow, I had no idea.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[RyanJBlack]

Totally wasn't trolling you. I make that mistake all the time, and I get called on it all the time. Cheers!

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[akadruid]

the CD would have cost a hundred and fifteen quintillion dollars

Dear Sir/Madam,

The RIAA would like to invite you to join our cartel. Your CD pricing strategy is an example to us all.

Additionally, you too will be able to benifit from the new law we are sponsering to allow us to take money directly from our suckers paychecks.

Yours Sincerely.

The RIAA (on behalf of the US Government)

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[mykdavies]

Probably too late to be noticed, but anyhoo.

If you want to promote "learning", you should choose your sources more carefully - the link you included has the following interesting passage:

The notion of the unconscious receiving messages directly through finer perceptive mechanisms than available to the conscious mind is based upon a theory of the unconscious proposed by Sigmund Freud. Freud taught that the driving force behind human behavior is the unconscious mind. He described the mind as being like an iceberg with most of the mass (the unconscious) below the surface. According to Freud, it is out of this internal (subterranean) unconscious abyss, of which we are unaware, that our external behavior arises. Therefore, the promoters of subliminals are basically Freudian, most without even knowing it. Also, most are unaware that Freud's ideas about the unconscious and other matters have been discredited because they have not been supported either neurologically or scientifically. Moreover, the "Freudian unconscious" is contrary to the Word of God. No Scripture passage supports such an idea. Instead, the Bible is consciously and volitionally oriented.

Drawing religious teachings into a discussion of scientific hypotheses in this manner muddies the issues rather than clarifying them.

Or have I been trolled?

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[ConceptJunkie]

Dear RIAA:

We are greatly interested in joining your fine association. Enclosed please find six congressmen and two senators as per your membership requirements. We wish to share our copy protection technology, which involves quantum entanglement. Any attempt to copy the CD will destroy the universe. As you can tell, this will completely eliminate piracy and will ensure our reliance on 19th-century distribution methods will continue to bring us profits for years to come.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[Chacham]

This sounds pretty flat earthy to me....

Then you don't what what the flat-earth is. No religon ever professed it. It was an idea created to discredit religions.

Columbus didn't try to prove a round earth, he said the diameter was smaller than the accepted measurement. Columbus was wrong, and would have died at sea, had he not "found" America.

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[dustman]

Bunk. Most people don't even see the 1/24th second flash unless they've practiced at it.

I don't know about that... In the movie "Fight Club" I found out what those "cigarette burns" (to use fight club's words) mean... I had noticed them long before.

And, although it would be flattering to think of myself as "quick", my reflexes are pretty normal... I remember mentioning them to several of my friends and they saw them too.

Although I will admit that I play a lot of FPS's, so maybe I have "trained" myself to see fast images like these.

A side note: I saw Fight Club twice in the theater, and the flashes of Tyler seemed to be much faster than when watching the DVD on a TV.

I wouldn't expect this, since I thought movies are 24FPS and TVs are like just under 30 FPS?

Maybe the phosphor glows, causing the image to appear longer? Or they doctored the DVD transfer a bit to make sure they were noticeable?

Or, I just thought of this one:

I've heard that movies are 24 FPS, but that each frame gets shown twice, so there are 48 flashes per second of the light onto the screen. Perhaps the original movie only showed the image for 1/48th instead of 1/24th of a second.

I've never handled a movie reel, so I don't know if it advances a frame, flashes twice, and advances another frame, or whether it advances a frame, flashes once, then advances again, and movies are just doubled up.

(Actually, it seems silly to imagine that the movies are doubled up, in that case you would just run at 48FPS for a better overall quality)

Re:Subliminal Messaging

[KDan]

Damn, I replied to that but must have forgotten to post it. Look for a documentary called "The Tube" about the effects of the CRT. Also google for research by Herbert Krugman. He was hired by the TV/Advertisement industry to prove that the zombification of TV viewers was caused by the material they chose to watch, rather than the method through which they viewed it (ie content vs medium). The results of his research turned out to be that actually the medium is the cause. In effect, the CRT is an instant hypnosis device that turns you right into alpha brain wave mode (where you're more vulnerable to suggestion), and generally switches off your rational thinking and personality.

Have fun googling.

Daniel

I know it's April 1 but...

[grub]

I don't trust the CDs for sale in the stores, after all, who regulates that industry and ensures there actually is a message on them, and if so, what is the message

April 1, 2004: Aluminium foil sells record amounts worldwide. History will refer to it as "The Slashdot-Bauxite Phenomena" which seems to predominately strike teen->30ish single male geeks.

Re:I know it's April 1 but...

[Anonymous Coward]

It must be tin! Aluminum is powerless!

Re:I know it's April 1 but...

[Psmylie]

"It must be tin! Aluminum is powerless!"

This is not true. Many of the government's newer brain-scanning and subliminal suggestion waves are designed to have an impact through traditional tin foil. Aluminum foil, while not as effective overall, is quite effective against these newer control beams.
The proper foil hat to prevent mind control and reading is comprised of two layers, one of aluminum and one of tin foil. Just be sure to press the two sheets together very tightly, as there is some evidence that a control beam getting through the first layer might be reflected back by the second, causing a resonance that can build up in the gap between the layers. This resonance can cause massive headaches and occasional head-explody.

Re:I know it's April 1 but...

[rjelks]

I don't trust the tin foil/aluminum foil had ideas anyway. Don't you know that this is just misinformation fed to you by "Them?" If you really want to block the mind control device, turn off the TV.

-

Re:I know it's April 1 but...

[mengel]

Geez, I thought everyone knew that since the Government is using Alien technology, you need to use the same multi-layer Velostat hat that you use to stop alien abductions

;-)

Re:I know it's April 1 but...

[Linker3000]

I prefer to use the spray can conductive coating paint used for amateur radio and electronics: if you spray a thin enough coating on your head the whole mask remains flexible, plus you can chalk reminders or to-do lists on the grey, matt finish.

As an added bonus, you can ignite non-safety matches anywhere on your head.

Re:I know it's April 1 but...

[IceAgeComing]

I'd suggest going one step further and wearing the following T-shirt once in a while:

this

Please

[Anonymous Coward]

A haiku for bad April 1st submissions:

april's cruel humor
a wasted effort, and us
shouting, YOU FAIL IT!

Re:Please

[Omega996]

hmmm, your haiku is teh suck. You got the syllabic count right, but:
the first two lines should be linked thematically. they may 'run together'.
the last line should be separate and provide a counterpoint to the first two.
ideally, you should use some word or idea that communicates a season for your haiku.

with a little word juggling:

a wasted effort,
we are shouting "You've Failed It!"
april's cruel humor

ok, so perhaps your haiku isn't teh suck. it just needed a little work. no thanks are necessary.

Submliminal advertising is hokum

[WayneConrad]

I don't trust the CDs for sale in the stores, after all, who regulates that industry and ensures there actually is a message on them, and if so, what is the message?

You have nothing to worry about, because subliminal advertising is not effective.

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[pinkboi]

Someone already said that, and the linked to article is about subliminal advertising, not those tapes you listen to in your sleep. Mayhaps they should do a study on that, too?

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[Tassach]

Subliminal anything is ineffective. Advertising, learning, whatever.

Subliminal == bullshit in any context.

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[WayneConrad]

Someone already said that

Their article hadn't shown up yet when I posted. I thought I had FP for sure. Oh well. Sometimes you're the fly, sometimes you're the windshield. Go ahead and mark me redundant.

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[caluml]

Subliminal == bullshit in any context.

Anyone in the UK see the program where someone (Derren Brown?) asked a load of advertising people to design a logo and a catchphrase? They made pretty much the exact one that he had put in an envelope before they started. And how? He got the taxi that they came to the office in to drive a certain route, and he planted certain things, logos, words, and images along the way. It all goes in. Everything that you experience is in your subconscious somewhere - that's why you can get it back out under hypnosis. Anyway, back to my circular-breathing Zen chanting back-slapping.

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[gerddie]

You sound very sure about that. I would guess that having some conversation in a foreign language run in the background would help to pick up patterns and melody of that language and hence it would help to learn the language. Then again, since you can hear the conversation (although you are not actively listen) it might be, that this is no longer called subliminal.

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[Mantorp]

So glad I'm an alpha, the betas and below all believe subliminal messages aren't working.

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[quisph]

"Anyone in the UK see the program where someone (Derren Brown?) asked a load of advertising people to design a logo and a catchphrase? They made pretty much the exact one that he had put in an envelope before they started.

Derren Brown is a magician. This is a magician's trick. I've seen it done at least a dozen times, by a dozen different people. It has nothing to do with subliminal messages!

"Everything that you experience is in your subconscious somewhere - that's why you can get it back out under hypnosis."

Actually, you can't. It's a popular myth, but it's just not true. Studies have shown that recollection under hypnosis is actually less reliable. Hypnotized subjects, when they can't remember something, have a tendency to make up an answer!

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[Bazzargh]

Anyone in the UK see the program where someone (Derren Brown?) asked a load of advertising people to design a logo and a catchphrase? They made pretty much the exact one that he had put in an envelope before they started. And how? He got the taxi that they came to the office in to drive a certain route, and he planted certain things, logos, words, and images along the way.

Next time you see this (and since it was in one of those talking head "Best N" shows it will be along again soon) look _carefully_ at the things he planted along the route.

The advertisers were in a car. Several of the items were shown to you in shop windows along their route, and were quite small. In fact the only person involved in the trick who could have seen these is YOU (via the camera).

Derren's explanation might have been true, but there's good reason to doubt it.

Re:Submliminal advertising is hokum

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Yes, but conditioned responses and visual association aren't hokum.

When you are driving down the road and you see the big golden M, do you suddenly get hungry?

When asked for a beverage do you ask for a "Coke" or a "Pepsi" or a "Sprite"? (For giggles I ask for a cola, around my parts people look at me funny.)

When you are buying something at the store, and are presented with 3 options, do you automatically assume the most expensive is the best?

When you need to blow your nose, do you ask for a "Kleenex?"

You may not, but your average Joe on the street does. These are bits of information we picked up from our environment, largely from billboards, commercials, and having certain brands drilled into our heads from birth.

DUPE

[mattyohe]

Here is a duplicate of this article: http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/01/13 24254&mode=thread&tid=141&tid=188

Re:DUPE

[PrvtBurrito]

Man I am embarrassed to admit, but it made me laugh... -Sean

Re:DUPE

[Anonymous Coward]

i don't get it? where's the dupe? you just linked the very same article

Re:DUPE

[Anonymous Coward]

gotta love fools...

More apr 1 jokes?

[SpudGunMan]

Next Head Line - I would like to package my own Breakfast cerial. I am worried that the US Goverment is trying to draft me to war with my sugar smacks!

Re:More apr 1 jokes?

[Flashbck]

"On no account will a Commie ever drink water, and not without good reason...Water is the source of all life. Seven tenths of this earth's surface is water. Why, you realize that seventy percent of you is water...And as human beings, you and I need fresh, pure water to replenish our precious bodily fluids... (Mandrake chuckles nervously) Mandrake, have you never wondered why I drink only distilled water, or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol?...Have you ever heard of a thing called fluoridation? Fluoridation of water?... fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face."
- Tim Dirks, transcription, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove

Sounds strangely familiar

Re:Probably First Post!

[ilikejam]

Nope.

Are you too?

[Doesn't_Comment_Code]

I would like to create custom subliminal CDs for my own use.

Anybody else creeped out?

Re:Are you too?

[Jugalator]

Yes, those RIAA employees are creepy!

I wonder if this one is really going to use them for personal reasons though... Sounds to me like it's just the next logical step in their War against Piracy.

Re:Are you too?

[Felinoid]

A number of prono storys done with the basis of using a costume made subliminal tape.

Re:Are you too?

[plnrtrvlr]

I think that if there was a ghost of a chance that this would work, I'd be making some CD's for my wife, convincing her of the joys of bisexual encounters with a tall thin red-head and her husband. Since I'd just be wasting my time though.... I'll be reading Slashdot for the next great idea on how this can be accomplished!!!!

Re:Are you too?

[tigersha]

No, he is probably planning on putting "Screw me now" subliminals on the CD and then invite that hottie from class over to listen to his music. Or better, give her a copy of the CD. Sounds like Ross Jeffries to me.

Re:Are you too?

[kryptobiotic]

What would you be doing while the redhead and her husband had fun with your wife?

Re:Are you too?

[jellybear]

Contributing to open source and free (as in love) software

Subliminal messages?

[lavalyn]

... You will get naked and horny ... ... You want sex now ... ... vi is superior to emacs ...

Okay, seriously. You want Audacity. It's multi-track sound-editing software, so you can prepare your subliminal messages and just add them into another waveform. Then you save the results.

Re:Subliminal messages?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've done this with Audacity. Its quite simple. I read a textbook out loud, recorded it, then combined the track with instrumental music that I listen to while at work. Audacity allowed me to merge the two with the text volume quite low and the music higher. The only issue was that I could hear the text during pauses in the music. Anyhow, I got an B in the class, so I have no idea if this helped or not. I haven't tried it again.

Re:Subliminal messages?

[mobiGeek]

Okay, seriously.

...no seriously...it's April Fools. Nothing to read here today folks, get back to other ways to avoid increasing productivity :-)

I gotta hand it to them, this year is moderately better than last year...

... so far ...

Re:Subliminal messages?

[pegr]

Okay, seriously. You want Audacity. It's multi-track sound-editing software, so you can prepare your subliminal messages and just add them into another waveform. Then you save the results.

Even easier:
dd if=/dev/random of=/home/pegr/mycd.iso bs=512 count=50000000

Then burn with cdrecord. For different mixes, just run it again! ;)

Re:Subliminal messages?

[Anonymous Coward]

OMG! It worked! I want sex now!

Re:Subliminal messages?

[chmod000]

Did the rest of it work?

:set directory=/dev/null beautify warn noflash noshowmode

:q!

Re:Subliminal messages?

[paranode]

vi is superior to emacs

Come on now, you have to make it at least mildly believable to work.

Re:Subliminal messages?

[tigersha]

You probably got a B from reading the textbook in the first place. You should really get a speech synthesizer to read it. Now THAT would be cool.

Re:Subliminal messages?

[germanbird]

You want Audacity.

I second the motion. I've used Audacity and find it pretty impressive. Plus, it's open source.

Another multi-track, sound-editing option is n-track studio. It's closed source shareware, but powerful and may be worth your 30 some odd dollars. (Play with the trial version before committing any personal funds. It may not be what you are wanting.) I used it to do some recording back in the pre-3.0 days and was fairly pleased with the results.

Enough with the April 1st jokes

[Viol8]

So far none of them have been remotely amusing and neither is this one. Surely someone can come up with something better than this, you have a
whole year to prepare after all!

Re:Enough with the April 1st jokes

[Anonymous Coward]

None of you knuckleheads griping about this get it do you?

It's not about the fucking story, the fun is listening to you guys get all bent out of shape.

Sheesh.

Lighten up. No one's forcing you to post here. In fact, if you don't like it, go the fuck away for the day.

Re:Enough with the April 1st jokes

[ArsonSmith]

I'm just waiting for the "SCO provides proff that 88% of Linux source code stolen directly from Original UNIX. SCO also provides complete contract signed by every exec from Novell saying they have 100% code owner ship and Novell has squat" story.

Re:Enough with the April 1st jokes

[Anonymous Coward]

I think youre falling into the "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" trap. It may have been meant to just be amusing, not "fool" people. Maybe the editors just wanted to see a debate spring up about subliminal messaging? Lighten up, and don't just presume that everything is meant to fool you.

Re:Enough with the April 1st jokes

[unFKNreal]

I'm pretty sure these aren't jokes, at least not in the sense you're thinking of. Judging by the "department" name, I think slashdot is using april fools day as an opportunity to show us some of the more stupid story submissions that they get.

I say keep it up!

Re:Enough with the April 1st jokes

[Anonymous Coward]

Get a sense of humor

Re:Enough with the April 1st jokes

[SnowWolf2003]

The point of April Fools is not to tell an amusing story, but rather to tell a story that makes a joke out of you, the fool, for believing it.

Re:Enough with the April 1st jokes

[Desmeso]

I tried this complaining thing last year and all it landed me was negative karma.

That's right Billy! I remember that well!

Right here, in case you forgot.

DING!

So, how come you're not complaining about getting a refund for views used up today Billy?

My original post still stands on how I feel about April Fool whiners. But Billy, you're still my hero, and that ain't no joke.

Re:Enough with the April 1st jokes

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude I remembered too. I searched for his post until you gave the link!

Just spped it up

[MajorDick]

Tests have shown subliminal messages in audio are for the most part useless, HOWEVER if you increase the speed you retention goes up significantly. Years ago there was a tape recorder (does anyone remeber who sold these they sold the Bone Phone also, Demco or something like that) My dad gfot one and swore like hell it worked, several studies I have read since seem to confirm this.

Re:Just spped it up

[droid_rage]

That's what I do. I use goldwave (windows cheapware) to compress the audio to whatever works best for me, usually 600 wpm or so. I think the reason it works so well is that I go into an active listening state, instead of letting my mind wander.

Re:Just spped it up

[bmorris]

I took a psychology of consumer behavior class years ago, where they said that people are more likely to believe something if it's said quickly. I believe that's why people in commercials seem to be speaking faster than a person would in reality. (or maybe it's just because they're paying $100k for a 30-second spot and want to maximize the utility... who knows)

Re:Just spped it up

[216pi]

now, this is what I call a subliminal message.

Re:Just spped it up

[eples]

The Japanese "Bone Phone" company is : NTT DoCoMo

Re:Just spped it up

[MajorDick]

No, back in the 1970's there was an FM radio that hung around your neck in a lycra holder, it was called the Bone Phone, they were sold in magazines the same company I think was the one who made the special tape recorders marketed for retention that ran at a higher speed. I cant for the life of me remeber who sold them, I used to get their catalogs all the time they specialized in audio tapes, Demco, Dalco, something like that

Re:Just spped it up

[Compunexus]

I have and old tape of subliminal suggestions (commercially created). One day, messing around with it in a modded tape recorder, I managed to expose the subliminal message for 1.5 seconds. It was a regular message that was speeded up but pitch changed down to higher audio tones. A bit like something buzzing in your ear but almost understandable. This actually confirmed what the author said in the narration at the beginning of the tape. Oh, the author said that putting a completely audible, normal speed and pitch message at the beginning will increase your conscious mind's acceptance of the subliminal message. The best sounds for the foreground they said are stereo sounds of the sea or other white noise. I guess if you are a city person not used to hearing the ocean, the noise of a downtown street would work. The message was 2 sessions of phrases, if spoken normaly would be about 5 minutes each. After taking out space, speeding up and pitch bending down, it played in about 20-30 seconds for each session. Does it work? Well I used it off and on for a year and beleived I was making changes. Then I tried to use it as sleep learning. 3 hours into it I sat bolt upright and had to go do some work around the house. It was a stop procrastinating tape! Never doubted it worked since. Still get it out sometimes. (not today, maybe later ;-) )

Re:Just spped it up

[Anonymous Coward]

My dad gfot one and swore like hell

Yeah, my dad does that too.

BS

[FortKnox]

You don't want to make subliminal positive motivation CDs... you want to make subliminal CDs convincing hot chicks to sleep with you!

Umm... hey hottie... nice iPod... here, listen to THIS mp3 I have...

Re:BS

[(trb001)]

Saved by the Bell showed us this is a bad idea...inevitably, the tape/CD will end up in the hands of some large guy who then wants to do things to you in uncomfortable places.

--trb

Re:BS

[GreyyGuy]

What, like the back of a Volkswagen?

Re:BS

[prescot6]

Are they not one and the same?

Re:BS

[mike_mgo]

like the back of a volkswagen?

Re:BS

[DrunkBastard]

and the problem with this is?

Re:BS

[aaribaud]

you want to make subliminal CDs convincing hot chicks to sleep with you!

to sleep ?

Re:BS

[ArsonSmith]

What? Like in the back of a Volkswagon?

Re:BS

[emilng]

who then wants to do things to you in uncomfortable places

You mean like in the back of a Beetle?

Re:BS

[Anonymous Coward]

where? the back seat of a Volkswagen?

Re:BS

[Anonymous Coward]

For those wondering, here's the source

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113749/quotes

Second quote, and eleventh from end, and fourth from end

Re:BS

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean, like, the back seat of a Volkswagen?

Re:BS

[Anonymous Coward]

who then wants to do things to you in uncomfortable places.

What? Like the back of a Volkswagen?

Re:BS

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like a big FAG who wants to rape you.

Re:BS

[bfg9000]

Now you understand why BSD is dying -- we can't seem to figure out the tricky art of reproduction. After programming for so long, we take everything literally.

custom subliminal CDs

[BigFlirt]

I think the best (send me money) way to make some custom (send me money) subliminal CDs would be to (send me money) go to your local record shop and (send me money) ask around for help. I know that I've bought some CDs (with your money) that really motivated me to learn (how to send subliminal messages) material for school and I got those by (send me money) just asking around

Re:custom subliminal CDs

[Anonymous Coward]

After reading your post, I think you really deserve some money for your hard work. Where can I send (nasty pictures of myself) it to?

Re:custom subliminal CDs

[Chuffpole]

To what (send me back my money plus interest) address shall I (send me back my money plus interest) send you this (send me back my money plus interest) money?

Re:custom subliminal CDs

[Anonymous Coward]

A funny thing happened while I was reading your post. I did not even notice your "subliminal" messages until after I had finished reading the whole post. I think advertising on the web is responsible for this. I've gotten so used to ignoring ads that my brain seems to have created a pre-perceptive filter that removes any content I'm not interested in. In other words, subliminal messages never worked, and now even superliminal messages are getting lost. Or rather, messages that should be superliminal become subliminal.

Intriguing. Any psychologists ever study something like this? Other than just labeling it dementia?

Aren't subliminal messages bad for your health?

[Diaspar]

I've read somewhere that there was a test when subliminal messages were put in every 25th frame in some movie saying "buy coka-cola" or something of that sort. supposedly after the movie people rushed to buy coke, but later on majority reported severe headaches and mental problems.

Since this area is not really explored as much, i think there is a good potential for harm.

Re:Aren't subliminal messages bad for your health?

[Anonymous Coward]

movies are screened at 24 frames a second by add a 25th fram the editing and aver all time of afilm would end up askew I rather thik the idea of the 25 frame is similer to the second gunmen they both are a lie

Re:Aren't subliminal messages bad for your health?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've read somewhere that there was a test when subliminal messages were put in every 25th frame in some movie saying "buy coka-cola" or something of that sort. supposedly after the movie people rushed to buy coke, but later on majority reported severe headaches and mental problems.

Since this area is not really explored as much, i think there is a good potential for harm.

Wow, you are one stupid moron

Dear God

[Burgundy Advocate]

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck. April 1st again. I'm going to go and cower under the covers until tomorrow...

Re:Dear God

[emilng]

Then it will be back to same old Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

Re:Dear God

[Anonymous Coward]

+3 insightful? Wow. $&@#(& 24yu2 &*%%!

My stop smoking tape doesn't work

[Anonymous Coward]

Turns out a mistake in shipping sent me a 'compulsively refresh Slashdot' tape instead. My Slashdot refreshing knows no satiety.

Why would you do this? It doesn't work

[FurryFeet]

Yo do know, of course, that subliminal advertising doesn't work. What makes you think subliminal CDs will?
Really, if you want to learn something, read. If you want to change a habit, grow a character. Remember, TANSTAAFL.

Aphex Twin has subliminal pictures

[k3v0]

Wired has this article describing the hidden pictures on the Windowlicker EP.

Re:Aphex Twin has subliminal pictures

[Anonymous Coward]

That is really creepy. Thanks for the link

At first I thought you had some mocking pseudoname for Windows xp lovers. I think I've been on this site for too many hours straight. I need to go outside or something...

Re:Aphex Twin has subliminal pictures

[Ralph Wiggam]

That is really cool. I'm not a big techno fan, but I like Aphex Twin's stuff.

It's not a subliminal picture or message because it's just a metallic screech to your ears and brain. When you run the CD wave through specific visualization software, the picture appears. It's like a musical easter egg.

In general, subliminal anything doesn't work.

-Barry

Re:Aphex Twin has subliminal pictures

[mekkab]

damn! You beat me to it!
This is actually Audio Spectrum Steganography, and not really subliminal.

Still, its DAMN cool.

Re:Suggestion

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot the non-subliminal part of this message.

Why worry?

[Bull999999]

Why worry about subliminal message on store bought CDs? I'm pretty sure a caring and well respected RIAA would never do anything other can put the artists' and customers' best interests. In fact, I welcome our new RIAA overlords... That reminds me, I need to go to the store and buy high quility CD's full of equally high quility songs (without any fillers) endorsed by high quility RIAA directors.

Re:Why worry?

[Anonymous Coward]

Good luck finding any quality CDs endorsed by the RIAA.

Not Quite The Same

[somethinghollow]

It's not quite the same, but once I recorded a study guide on a tape and played it on repeat while I slept. All I got out of it was a really bad nights sleep, since I think the voice kept me from getting into deep sleep (but it never woke me up either). It didn't help me memorize the material, either.

If submliminal isn't really submliminal (e.g. it still sends vocal audio at, say, a really low volume or mixed in to the point it isn't really noticable), it might have a similar effect.

However, if you wanted to study the effects of sounds on a human, you might be more able to subliminally influence them. If you had a resturaunt, and you knew a certain audio vibration would make a person hungry, you could play it on the streets mixed in with regular music.

As far as convincing someone to give you (specifically you) money / sex / etc., you're probably S.O.L.

Re:Not Quite The Same

[Daneurysm]

Wile I dont believe tat subliminal messaes are effective in audio, I ave experimented wit brainwave syncronization. Very very interestin stuff, and partially explains wy some people like te music tat tey do....or at least provides (possible) correlation between personality and preferred mindset. o ya, btw, my keyboard is obviously broken.

Re:Not Quite The Same

[sameyeam]

I've done this sort of thing too and I found that I got more out of it making the tape than I did playing it back. :-)

beware...

[Anonymous Coward]

Most aluminium foil in stores is actually tin...

Re:beware...

[ODD97]

Backwards. Most tin foil is actually aluminum. Aluminum is much easier to make into sheets than tin.

If you are aware of what's going on...

[Anonymous Coward]

...it could hardly be called subliminal. This technique exists within the realm of the liminal or perhaps super-liminal.

Subliminal advertising and the Navy

[shiafu]

As we all know from the Simpsons, the Navy is quite skilled in this art:

Lisa: But you have recruiting ads on TV. Why do you need subliminal messages?

Smash: It's a three-pronged attack. Subliminal, liminal, and superliminal.

Lisa: Superliminal?

Smash: I'll show you. [opens the window, and shouts at Lenny and Carl, who are standing on the corner] Hey, you! Join the Navy!

Carl: Uh, yeah, all right.

Lenny: I'm in.

Re:Subliminal advertising and the Navy

[Feathers McGraw]

Lisa: "A subliminal idea can be planted in your mind without you even knowing it."
Homer: "Lisa, that's a load of rich, creamery butter."

Re:Subliminal advertising and the Navy

[Steve B]

A subliminal idea can be planted in your mind without you even knowing it.

Psi Corps is my friend -- they'll protect me from that.

Re:Subliminal advertising and the Navy

[EvilTwinSkippy]

But we haven't discovered the Cochrane warp field yet...

Oh superliminual. I thought you said superluminal.

The number you have reached...

[Ryosen]

I think you might be asking this in the wrong place. You want these folks.

Or am I the only one who thinks this sounds like a Photoshop contest?

Ah, well. It's April First and I'm the biggest fool of them all...

You're too late

[Feathers McGraw]

Kevin Nealon has already patented this technology. Fortunately, the licensing fees are really quite reasonable .

Begone!

[CharAznable]

Subliminal messages are the work of Satanists and Commie Pinko bastards trying to corrupt America's Christian youth!
Once I learned the TRUTH I BURNED all my Pat Boone and Mandy Moore CD's! MUSIC IS EVIL!
Stop what thou are doing now unless you want to Burn in a Lake of Fire!!!!

Re:Begone!

[drxenos]

Wait, Pat Boone and Mandy Moore made CDs together? *shudder*

Sure!

[The Desert Palooka]

All you have to do is buy my Subliminal CD instruction course. It's 4 Message packed Subliminal CDs that will teach you all the secrets of the subliminal industry and how you too can program your own dron... errrr... mind to do what you want!

You can learn all of this while you sleep!

Yeah right...

[Foofoobar]

Someone's tryin' to get laid, the subliminal way. :)

Lucid Dreaming

[BigBadBus]

A friend made his own CD (or tape? I can't recall right now) on a very old Amiga to aid in his Lucid Dreaming experiments. All the CD/tape said was "This is a dream" continuously to remind his mind that he was sleeping whilst having 40 winks. HTH Paul

Yea....

[Doches]

" would like to create positive motivational CDs, or even recite text from study guides/trivia"...sure ya do...

Simple.

[American AC in Paris]

1. Record thirty minutes' worth of an industrial-strength air conditioning unit from five feet away. Use a unidirectional microphone.
2. Purchase/download a copy of "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes". Chop it up into ten-second segments, chain them together starting with the last and ending with the first, and reverse the entire file.
3. Overlay the two audio loops and decrease their speed by a factor of eight. This should leave you with a low-pitched rumble.
4. Loop this clip so that it will fill an entire CD to the last bit.
5. IMPORTANT:Toggle every bit that corresponds with a number in the Fibonacci sequence (i.e. if the fifth bit on the track is a '1', make it a '0'.)
6. Burn this track to a CD.
7. Get ready for bed.
8. Put on a pair of headphones (use a noise-cancelling pair with gold-plated cables for best effect) and start playing the CD.
9. EXACTLY TEN SECONDS into the track, think very hard about the subliminal message you want to convey to yourself.
10. Fall asleep.

Behold, the power of suggestion.

Re:Simple.

[wed128]

11. ?? 12. Profit

Re:Simple.

[Anonymous Coward]

you forgot a Major part that is required..

if the wires on your headphones are not stereo-certified and audio calibrated then it will not work.

Good Message

[artlu]

I will use only open source software....
I will use only open source software....
Linux is good...
I will use only open source software...

Re:Good Message

[Wun Hung Lo]

Geez...what do you think the little moving blue bar at the bottom of the Windows boot screen is? "Windows is secure...Forced upgrades are good...that blue screen is your imagination..."

Re:Good Message

[Rallion]

Heeeeyyy....I replaced that whole screen with porn!

Difficult

[Doesn't_Comment_Code]

And conversely, has anyone used any of the music software on these platforms to actually analyze the contents of commercial subliminal CDs?

If I were making a CD like that, I wouldn't put the message on a separate track that could be easily isolated. I'd mix it in with a dominant track so that it would be virtually impossible to extract. And IF anyone does this, I don't think you'll have much luck picking out the subliminal sounds.

Re:Difficult

[Anonymous Coward]

If I were making a CD like that, I wouldn't put the message on a separate track that could be easily isolated.

Riiiight.... because everybody knows that the CD audio format doesn't simply store left/right data, it divides up the audio into separate tracks, right? Sheesh... what a maroon. An audio application allows you to create separate tracks, but when you create a CD from it, it simply flattens the audio image down to L/R info, much like Photoshop layers when exported to JPEG.

So your whole effort to combine it into the main track is a complete waste of time.

Obligitory Simpsons Quote

[youngerpants]

(8) yvan eht nioj (8)

Music Choice?

[j0hnfr0g]

create positive motivational CDs

How about positive, motivational music?

You may actually want to check out some Christian rock (or pop, or whatever you're in to), even if you are not a Christian. Much of it is "watered down" enough that it doesn't sound like a sermon in any way.

Try Switchfoot or Pillar. Both have "crossed over" into the mainstream market.

Re:Music Choice?

[Rooktoven]

Couldn't I listen to Celine Dion, Kenny G, or one of those "Sunny Soft Rock" stations if I wan't watered down?

Next you'll be advocating light beer...

Re:Music Choice?

[An Onerous Coward]

What I like doing is listening to Christian rock, and pretending it's dirty. You run into some real classics, like "Oh Lord, I want you inside me," or, "Sweet Jesus, your love is amazing!"

I don't suggest it for anyone who has a life, but hey... this is Slashdot!

Re:Music Choice?

[Anonymous Coward]

Christian Rock is commonly abbreviated as crock. Similarly, Christian Rap is known as crap.

not for music but

[Drago451]

heres a program to display subliminals in text on your monitor. -http://www.infinn.com/subliminal.html i use it its not bad

The best subliminal CD's

[BlackLeader]

Personally, I suggest coating your subliminal CD's with material from your tin-foil hat... always worked for me! Otherwise, who knows what subliminal messages CD and burner manufacturers can slip in to your subliminal messages. Trust no one!

Subliminal Messages Almost Worked For Me!!

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried using subliminal messages to get women to have sex with me. I recorded "your really really want to have sex" over and over again under a Depeche Mode tape. Unfortunetly I didn't specify that they should want to have sex with me in the subliminal message. I hate my dad.

You geeks need to get past your own intelligence..

[csritchie]

Who said it has to work in order to make money off it?

Jesus, if that were the case infomercials, QVC, and the majority of all women's skin products would only be found in the local trash bin.

I propose...

[Viceice]

The following be made into a subliminal CD and played back to the editors...

"I will cese to post April fool stories" "I will cese to post April fool stories" "I will cese to post April fool stories"

This is turning into a pretty horrible news day for me.. It seems everybody whose in the business of publishing news is publishing bogus stuff to go with it... Heck, even Reuters is in no teh act with the google gmail one.

Re:I propose...

[Phoenix]

*sigh* Why do people get so annoyed when April 1st gets here? Do people completly forget that today is "April Fools Day"? /. pulls off its annual (say it again *ann-u-al*) April Fools joke every year without fail and people get pissed off like it's the first time it's EVER happened.

So what if the news sites out there are posting bogus news articles. Don't you think that after telling the horrific stories of yet another terrorist attack in some country, more Americans getting snuffed in Iraq, some Butt Buggering Bishiop is bothering the altar boys, or the general dreary news you get day in and day out, that perhaps they might want to cut loose a little?

This is just one day a year where we all can get a little silly and do stupid stuff and jolly well get away with with the only consequence being the possibility of retaliation when the tables get turned and you get pranked.

It's all a game people and it's all in fun. Relax, enjoy the silliness and think back to the times when you used to prank the shit out of your friends and perhaps conjure up a way to get that cubicle-dweller down the hall...he probably deserves it for stealing your paperclips.

Phoenix

(Christ, they'll start bitching at people for wearing Green on St. Patty's Day next)

Re:I propose...

[JamesO]

Here's one for your CD...

"Cease has an 'a' in it"

If subliminal messages don't work?

[wardomon]

Explain why people use Windows...

Re:If subliminal messages don't work?

[mattr_ie]

Explain why people use Windows...

Dude!! It's because it came pre-installed on their Dell!

Multitrack editor

[SavoWood]

Basically all you need is a simple multitrack editor. If you want the information to be subliminal, you'd mix it to the point where you just can't hear it. That would mean, push up the (virtual) fader until you can just barely hear it at all, then come back a "notch" to where you don't hear it.

DO NOT make it an mp3/aac/ogg or any other compressed format as that will drop the "unheard" information from the file. That would defeat the purpose. You need to save the file as aiff or any other PCM format.

Studies on whether or not this actually works are inconclusive. It may depend on your receptiveness to the method. Good luck.

Re:Multitrack editor

[EvilTwinSkippy]

That is the rub with psycho-accoustic models. It even screws up other obfuscation techniques.

Black Sabbath albums don't make sense when you play the Mp3s backward! The humanity!

and who again is being motivated?

[zogger]

uh huh, I believe this. Geek site, hmm.. I think the REAL subliminal mesage will be like Mr. Subliminal's *hotpants* talking *high heels* to a group *hotsex* of women he meets.

well, let me know when you got the RPM built anyway..

can't hurt....

*NOTICE* It has gone too far

[Anonymous Coward]

TANSTAAFL?

IANAL, IAAMS, IANAFAC, ...

--
damn lameness filters.
This is just a bunch of garbage to try and get around the lameness filters. Do not bother to read. I think that the lameness filters are pretty lame themselves. In a tech community with many forms of code, jargon, and shorthand we should be able to use caps if they are really nessessary.

BLIPVERTS

[eternal]

let have blipverts

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Use Garage Band

[goombah99]

Here's how I creeped myself out: I was using garage band to record my own voice. I laid down an MP3 music track then just added my own voice by talking to my iMac. added a choral effect and turne the volume down on my own voice. Eerie. like I was talking to my self but could not quite hear myself. For added effect try the flanger. Its like you are talking from the grave.

Re:Use Garage Band

[goombah99]

Oh one other thing I forgot to mention. The imacs have a microphone in the LCD display. Because its located so far from the computer case and its directional it does not pick up any fan or disk drive noises. Its a sweet bit of engineering. I was not exepecting it to be so good. It was actually better than the (low cost) hand held microphone I tried.

Burning subliminal CDs?

[marcello_dl]

And you call them "your own" subliminal CDs?
I wonder what will the rightful owners have to say about that.

Not MP3

[tepples]

make subliminal CDs convincing hot chicks to sleep with you! "Umm... hey hottie... nice iPod... here, listen to THIS mp3"

One problem: it may work only with FLAC or some other lossless format. The psychoacoustic masking models in MP3 and AAC encoders are tuned for passing normally audible signals, not for passing "subliminal" signals.

Here's a surefire way

[flinxmeister]

Great things can be achieved
if you use subliminal tools that are proven to be
very effective by people with the
experience in the areas of consciousness,
memory and mental capacity. If you just believe
every quack out there there's no telling the
mess you can get into. So don't trust every
offer by every amateur with a web page.
Nobody will tell you the bad results. In fact,
everyone will say they have good results.
You need to do your research well.

Re:Here's a surefire way

[dubbreak]

I have the sudden urge to ask you if you "take paypal?". Too weird.

When did april fools posts jump the shark?

[Flentil]

Because judging by this crop, it was obviously sometime before this year. Is this supposed to be an 'april fools' post? How lame. It doesn't seem remotely funny, so I'm suprised at all the people saying ha ha april fools post.

Despair.com

[Devil's BSD]

This isn't really software, but it's good content for any subliminal CD...
www.despair.com

Re:Dumpster Diving Pays Off!

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, cool then.

Just chant

[Felinoid]

The idea of subliminal messages is to get a message slipped into your subconous with out filtering.
There is in fact no proof they work.
If you chant the message over and over you are effectivly reproducing the same effect that is clamed to have given you what ever problems that require the tape to begin with (or at least clamed to be the cause of your problems by the people who sell the tapes to start with).

The idea is people bombard you with negitive ideas all the time. "Your a failure" said like 1,000 times. The clame is a subliminal tape can undo the damage. However if it is possable to bombard you with a negitive message it is equally possable to bombard you with a positive one.

Also chanting is more likely to produce a pacebo effect IF it is in fact fake.

Well....

[Jim Starx]

Supposidly your record someone talking, reverse it, and mix it really low into the music. But really it's all just a crock of shit. Just something bands did in the 80's to freak out their fan's parents.

Uhmmm

[Wooji]

I will not laugh, I will not laugh, I will not laugh. Oh screw it! LOFL Ha Ha Ha LOFL Ha Ha Ha LOFL Hehe at this post.

Swapping music files allowed, federal judge rules

[nutznboltz]

Swapping music files allowed, federal judge rules

Jim, is that you?

[M. Baranczak]

This is your boss. Quit fooling around with that subliminal shit and get back to work.

Subliminal Message #1

[lorcha]

What is the best software to use to create such a beast on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems?

Translation: I'm going to do this on Windows, but if I don't mention OSX and/or Linux, I'll never get this story posted.

Re:Subliminal Message #1

[Anonymous Coward]

OT, but its "David Brent", not "David Brents"

Little Nicky quote

[Miffe]

John: Hey, Nicky, can you tell us what Ozzy's tryin' to say here?
Nicky: Well, Ozzy, was always very straight forward with his message, but wrap your minds around this.
[Pulls out a Chicago album]
Todd: I love Chicago.
[Nicky plays the album backwards -"I command you, in the name of Lucifer, the spill the blood of the innocent..."]
Peter: Wow! Chicago kicks ass!

old subliminal message tapes

[ch-chuck]

We had some of those on cassette tape and one time I played it 'fast fwd' on a cheap player, basically you hold the play button down part way where it doesn't fully latch, and the hub would pull the tape past the head real fast w/o the capstan regulating the tape speed. Anyway, we could definitely hear a voice in there then, like a faint chipmonk type speech.

Subliminal messaging definitely does work, but maybe not in this format of sub-audible talk under a soundtrack. It's used all the time in visual print advertising.

To answer the question: just record a message track, mix it in with your music track and adjust the volumn so it can't be consciously heard. Use cooledit. A five yo child could do it.

for best results

[qcubed]

make sure that when listening to your subliminal tapes that you wear a foil-covered hat. the foil will reflect dangerous mind-altering radio waves that could potentially destroy any positive gain received from the subliminable messages.

the tin foil brigade.

How 'bout

[Himring]

-You do not spend all day reading slashdot. -You are cool. ...stop touching yourself, now!

Re: EPUD

[flaez]

I concur with you, sir!
The trolling of April's Fools threads should actually be rewarded. In fact, they should just invert the whole karma system for the day and be done with it.

Re:Probably First Post!

[kmweber]

Yeah...sucky.

Better than last year

[bluGill]

Remember last year when every story (almost twice the normal amount it seemed like) was obviously completely false? I have to say that the stories this year a much better. Likely false, but there is enough behind them that they could be true. Slashdot is doing a much better job this year, I'm enjoying the stories.

Re:Better than last year

[bfg9000]

Remember last year when every story was obviously completely false?... I have to say that the stories this year a much better. Likely false, but there is enough behind them that they could be true.

Yeah, I hear they trained for this by watching Fox News.

Repeat after me...

[alphabet26]

I would like to create custom subliminal CDs for my own use.


I can imagine... "Oh, you like Billy Joel? I just happen to have his CD here! Let's have a listen!"

In the middle of the night (have sex with me)
I go walking in my dreams (you dream of me)
Through the mountains of faith (let me touch your mountains)
To a river so deep (I go really deep)

why subliminal?

[WebMasterJoe]

I use a three-pronged approach: subliminal, liminal, and superliminal.


HEY! JOIN THE NAVY!

cheese sandwich

[marlingrando]

Joey's your best friend. You want to make him a cheese sandwich everyday. And you also want to buy him hundreds of dollars worth of pants.

YVAN EHT NIOJ!!!!

[k3v0]

i can hear the sound now....

Knuckleheads?

[Anonymous Coward]

Look, I was on the internet before Slashdot was, so I think SLASHDOT needs to get the fuck off the internet. NOW. RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

Oh, April Fool's, Bitch!

Exactly

[NetNinja]

You do not learn by someone wispering. You learn by either being immersed in the subject or repetitive regurgitations

Obligatory Family Guy Refrence

[3DKnight]

Baby-Smokes-A-Lot: hehehe, tastes like happy!

Chris: Cool! That's imitateable!

I Realize This is a Joke, BUT!

[neildiamond]

Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition actually has a feature for this type of thing. You can make biofeedback type of things with it.

HAW HAW!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hah, you just inadvertently outed yourself as a Mac user!

Blipverts!

[Stonent1]

Try n-n-n-not to have a s-s-s-s-s-seizure!

KROWTNODYEHT

[BlightThePower]

!yawyna hsac eht em dnes tuB

Re:You geeks need to get past your own intelligenc

[drinkypoo]

They are. It's called the "dollar store" or "99 cent store" and it's only a matter of time before those beautiful brass-plated cubic zirconia and faux pearl earrings end up there.

Paranoia not just for the single geek....

[Jtheletter]

April 1, 2004: Aluminium foil sells record amounts worldwide. History will refer to it as "The Slashdot-Bauxite Phenomena" which seems to predominately strike teen->30ish single male geeks.

Hey, just because I actually have a girlfriend doesn't mean I'm tossing out my foil hat!
I'm just not allowed to wear it in public anymore. :(

Re:Paranoia not just for the single geek....

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not the tinfoil hat that she minds so much, just the tinfoil condoms...

Re:Paranoia not just for the single geek....

[longhairedgnome]

he doesn't like anything touching his head

Now that would...

[bicho]

... give a whole new meaning to mail worms/viruses if it was possible to put it on mails...

Just a random thought

Effortless Improvement...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a shareware application for OS X that generates subliminal images that are displayed on your computer screen as a very faint overlay.

I don't think it can do sound, but it lets you make you own visual subliminal messages.

Its homepage is http://ei.pansophists.net/

Subliminal Language CDs

[Punk Walrus]

A friend of mine and I talked about this once, because he wanted to quit smoking. I referred him to Snopes and Straight Dope, and that make him go towards the Nicotine patch, and that worked really well, and he's been smoke-free now for 4 years.

But while researching this, I found other links that described various methods to learning foreign languages, and some of them, not surprisingly, suggested that you should use subliminal methods to "boost" your active learning. Many of these CDs were bogus, IMHO. But one of them didn't claim to be subliminal per se, and simply played music over a repeated series of conversations that were not subliminal (you could definitely hear them), but contained various base vocabulary words. Each conversation was about 4-5 minutes long, and they would be repeated by people at various speeds and regional accents, and used phrases one might need to hold a conversation at a shop, restaurant, business meeting, and so on. Another site had a guy who said he did a "fake immersion" scenario, by listening to the foreign language (usually news) on shortwave radio as he slept. Even though he didn't know most of the words spoken, he picked up a correct accent and got "the tone and pentameter" of the language which make his transition to a new language much easier.

I have never tried any of these methods myself, so I don't know if they work.

Re:Subliminal Language CDs

[Anonymous Coward]

It's "tone and meter", not "tone and pentameter", unless the spoken language is somehow broken up into groups of five. A lot of Shakespeare is written in iambic pentameter, for example.

HELLO MODERATORS

[Burgundy Advocate]

mod down parent pls thx? trool alert! 'anynomose cowerd' is a known trool!!

Maybe not such a good idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

*whispers* RIDE THE SNAKE...

Great question.

[spectasaurus]

I (This) think (is) this (a) is (stupid) a (question) great question.

That was your April Fools joke right?

[hetairoi]

because otherwise you're just lame. Anyway, I did a variation of this joke on my users. Here is the email I sent out yesterday 15 minutes before leaving:

Tomorrow night our network and phone system will be "cleaned". This will be done by forcing air through the wiring to blow out any debris that may be blocking the system from functioning correctly. Please help us out by brining in a small plastic sandwich bag in the morning. These bags will be placed over your headsets to prevent the dust and debris from covering your work area. Leaving the mess for the cleaning crew, as you know, may not do much good.

Thank you for your cooperation.

---

Hetairoi
IT Systems Admin

As they arrived to work with their bags I asked them to come into my office. Once there I had them hold up their baggie and stand in front of a sign that read "Happy April Fools" and took a pic :)

Over half brought bags and only about 6 actually knew it was a joke. One person thought something was up and asked me about it yesterday before I left, I spat out a bunch of nonsense and protocols and his eye's just glazed over. He brought a bag. My fav was the manager, who didn't even read my email, but was told to bring a bag and did so. She has vowed revenge :)

Re:That was your April Fools joke right?

[Anonymous Coward]

Over half brought bags and only about 6 actually knew it was a joke. One person thought something was up and asked me about it yesterday before I left, I spat out a bunch of nonsense and protocols and his eye's just glazed over.

I guess thinking people might actually buy that is your april fools joke?

Re:That was your April Fools joke right?

[hetairoi]

I guess thinking people might actually buy that is your april fools joke?

That /. folk would buy that I did pull the joke or that the people bringing in bags were actually fooled? Either way, it's a very old joke and yes, many of the people in my office did buy it and tried to make excuses for why they did so. Whether or not you believe me is of very little concern. It's funny to me anyway.

Disagree

[pjt33]

The chicken one was magnificent.

Shameless plug

[Anonymous Coward]

Just use spec

Josie and the Pussycats...

[Anonymous Coward]

... is the best movie ever.
(Join the Army)

related - sleep CD

[fliptout]

You know those CDs with soothing sounds like ocean waves crashing or a thunderstorm that some people use as sleeping aides? Well, a buddy of mine I play soccer with had a fantastic idea along the same vein. Hell, I should patent it instead of sharing on Slashdot, but here goes. Our cd would have 74 minutes of silence. What better way to fall asleep than to listen to silence?? Sure $19.95 may seem like a hefty price, but our subliminal silence CD will give you hours of quality sleep!

a way to do this

[Anonymous Coward]

the way to do this is create a wav file with the message, take your target mp3 reconvert it to a wave. Then mix the two signals together. The key is the message needs to be at a lower pressure level than the audio recording.

A ppm set of utils for sound is needed,

Anyone got a pointer to that..

Donaldson

Subliminal advertising used everywhere

[Crystalus]

I don't know if subliminal messages actually work, but I do know for a fact that it's used pervasively by the advertising industry and artists. See
W. Bryan Keyes "Subliminal Seduction". While doing a project on subliminal advertising, I found this easy to spot example. Look at the red glass on a diet coke can. What do you see? Given that diet coke is predominently marketed at women who are weight conscious, it's easy to see that the message is - "Drink me and you'll look like the little red glass."

Program your brain

[kornerson]

I specially like the Brainwave Generator. Its not a joke. It works. Its the best way to get relaxed if you are very stressed. Or to get a great sleep experience. The website explains how the brainwave software works. It works anybody else has tried it?

Re:Program your brain

[smokin_juan]

You can also find a brainwave generator in CoolEdit... At least in the 96 version. I've fiddled with it a bit, mixing alpha (superlearning waveform) or delta (lucid dreaming waveform) waves on top of pink noise. i've listened to the alpha waves while studying but not under any controlled environment where i could tell a differnce between with/without. I've also tried subliminal messages woven into the brainwaves.
The subliminal messages did not work. once again, no controlled environment and i didn't spend a lot of time tweaking messages, frequencies or noise color.
The jury is still out on brainwave theory though. I can't tell alot of difference on myself, and I don't think that i could get my wife to sit still long enough to be a good test subject. I've been tempted to build the EEG project on Sourceforge so a complete feedback loop could be constructed.

Oh, and if you're a programmer who's extremely bored you might try writing a plugin for Winamp for brainwave generation.

Re:Program your brain

[Feanturi]

I do brainwave entrainment in Cool Edit Pro, but not using the brainwave synchronizer. I do it using sine waves. I usually use the left side as the base frequency or carrier, while the right side starts a certain frequency above that (say 25 Hz above the carrier, approximating a lead-in from the normal waking beta state), gradually falling lower and lower until it is close to the base on the left, to a minimum of .5 Hz of difference. You don't really need to be lower than that.. The Hz difference between the waves forms a beat 'pulse' that draws the brain to attempt to synch with it.

There's an interesting thing here: If you play these combined sounds through speakers, to the air, you can hear the beat pulse as you would expect, if you know the physics of sound. The sound waves from each speaker collide somewhere between, and the troughs and peaks that match up will be amplified to a greater or lesser extent, and similarly others that oppose each other will be cancelled. This forms an audible pulse that can be measured as the frequency difference between the two waves. If you listen with headphones, you can also hear this pulse. This means that the brain is taking the two separate inputs and actually combining them properly, according to how it would physically happen with sound waves that collided with each other in the air, but the headphones prevent this, so the pulse sound is being made in 'neurospace'.

I make the sine waves at a quiet volume (-37 dB), making many clips, sloping each one down by 1Hz difference over a certain number of seconds before proceeding to the next clip. You can make a curve with these times: The lower you are the faster you can start dropping. I start around 90 seconds per clip and by the time we're at the destination they might be 15-30 seconds per. What I get from this is an mp3 that goes from 25Hz-0.5Hz in about 21 minutes, with another 9 minutes of staying at 0.5, and a second mp3 does just a straight 30 minutes of continuing at 0.5, so I can set up a playlist that suits what I feel like doing. I've also got a file that goes to about 7 Hz (theta, creativity, state you tend to be in as you wake from a cat-nap) for occasional use when I'm writing. The entrainment signal gets mix-pasted into a CD-rip of pleasing water sounds, with a nice fade-in/out, and the volume such that the entrainment signal is just barely perceptible when the water sound is at a comfortable level. You may find that you 'feel' the pulse more than hear it. This could all be done 'live' with specialized software of course, but I'm more of a crafter than a programmer so this method is easier and more fun for me.

The frequencies you use are important as well. Through experimentation I found that using 140Hz as a carrier for a beginner using this, is appropriate. Maybe 150-160Hz for some people, but I can't confirm that. After a few years I am using 110Hz. This is because as you use it, research done by the Centerpointe Institute indicates that the brain hemispheres will learn to work together on a given carrier over time and thus the endorphin-release effects and whatnot, from the stress, will be reduced, so after several months of daily use it is appropriate to lower the carrier frequency. The stress of resolving the beat in these signals makes the brain release pleasing chemicals as well as raising one's stress threshold in general. According to Centerpointe, the deeper one goes, the longer one should get accustomed before going any further, to where one might stick with one carrier for a couple of years. Centerpointe sells expensive tapes (well, I think they probably do CDs now) that do this but it's not hard to make your own. Don't use too low of a carrier too soon, the lower frequency increases stress on the brain, and can be rather unpleasant if one is unaccustomed. In my experience, a low-enough carrier without being 'ready' for it results in headaches and fatigue. I have heard anecdotes (untested by me, I'm comfortable with what I've found) that anything over 1000Hz for a c

Nuts

[Anonymous Coward]

You are completely nuts. But if you insist on doing that, make sure to put a fat warning sticker on your CD so people won't get brainwashed by accident.

That and a bottle of pheremone cologne

[karlandtanya]

Still won't get you laid.

Be careful what codecs you use

[Julian Morrison]

MP3 or Vorbis or any other acoustic-model lossy compression would probably trash the subliminals, since the're deliberately designed to throw out stuff you can't hear.

iGrill

[74nova]

i thought the george foreman igrill from last year on thinkgeek.com was great. even had it look real up until you try to add it to your cart

navy

[MichaelGCD]

Whenever I read slashdot I get the strangest urge to join the navy.

Ozzman Cometh

[Denix]

Just dispense with your CD making biz and buy an old Ozzy Osbourne. Oh, wait, that might make you kill yourself; or at the very least stammer too much from all the drugs and alcohol you'll consume.

I supect buying a CD from The Carpenters would do the same thing (and you could find it on the bargain bin.)

Possible Alternatives

[FerretOnMountDew]

Slightly different method:
Instead of trying to alter the sounds and subliminate the audio you want to incorporate, why not just repeat a dozen or so clips that you need to know (encouraging messages, factoids, trivia, vocab, etc.) throughout the day. A couple places you might want to consider attempting this might be your computer error sound effects, or interspersed with your regular mp3 playlist.

For some reason I think creating and listening to short audio clips reciting small ammounts of data you need to know might be a little more effective.

Anyone ever have any success trying any simmilar technique?

Dude...

[patrick.whitlock]

You're gonna have to find a better way to learn how to meet women.... may i reccommend crown and coke?

How To Make a Subliminal Messages

[VoidEngineer]

What is the best software to use to create such a beast on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems?

For audio CDs, SoundForge formerly of Sonic Foundry, and now owned by Sony Pictures seems to be the industry favorite, and is generally considered the best multi-track audio sequencer around. Here is a review. You will also need Roxio or some other CD burning software to create the CD.

And conversely, has anyone used any of the music software on these platforms to actually analyze the contents of commercial subliminal CDs?

For that, you need some sampling software and some oscilloscope software. Talk to the DJ at your local club (the kind who has two decks and a microphone and a laptop). Your local DJ should be able to sample and analyze the CD for you, although it's not all that usefull... Audio signals layers get flattened to a single layer when burned to a CD, and it's difficult to separate the layers afterwords. That being said, we often times just used WinAmp to analyze audio signals. When analyzing audio spectrum, we would often run it through a video oscilloscope... Personally, I like to use G-Force as it's easy on the eyes and can analyze amplitude, frequency, and phase, at the same time. There are some software packages which people have written to try to seperate a flattened audio feed into seperate channels, although they usually don't work well (i.e. most of them are crap).

One common method of creating a "hidden message" is to write a short track and layer it inside the base by decreasing it's frequency and putting it below normal speaking range, down in the base range, with the drum beat. You can also take a message and put a white-noise mask over it, although signal loss is obviously a problem with that method. Obviously, you can also distort a message's temporal length, and make it veeerrrryyy sssllllloooowwww or vry fst. And you can also phase shift it, although that gets kinda weird.

A really good method for creating a good subliminal message, however, is to use symbolic messaging rather than embedded messaging. Basically, you separate your message into "chunks", and divide the chunks between different layers. As a somewhat silly example, which illustrates how this works, imagine that my subliminal message was "Impeach Bush". I would then chunk the message into "Impeach" and "Bush" obviously... Then I would sample two music clips, such as some dude saying the words "bush & beaver" and some chick singing the words "I'm just a wild peach". I'd loop the guy's sample to create one of those kinda annoying euro dance beats, and use the chick's sample as part of the refrain. If the refrain was sung three times throughout the song, and the last line to the refrain was "I'm just a wild peach", there would be three subliminal messages in the song, as the words transitioned from the girl saying "wild peach" to the guy saying "bush and beaver"... With the end effect of three subliminal messages in the CD approximating the impression "Impeach Bush".

By the way, there are a lot of twits on the slashdot forum today who are posting stuff like "subliminal messages are bullshit" and "subliminal messages don't work". I used to work at the National Opinion Research Center which is a demographics research center, and monitored things like commercials and subliminal messages. That was part of my job. Granted, we tended to concentrate on visual feeds, rather than auditory feeds. However, I can guarantee you that subliminal messages are extinsively used in communications. Often times, people create a subliminal message without even realizing it. Other times, they are sneakier and craft

Subliminal messages

[Anonymous Coward]

I have found it very beneficial to record things and play them back as I sleep. This technique has helped me to learn very vast subjects over time. As a dj I have experemented with the concept of frequencys and dopamine release in the brain. For instance find a track called Halcyon by Orbital. Listen to it at a decent volume in headphones. If your head does not swim then you are not alive at all. Take that and a four track..... Record what you want to program yourself with and then blend the two tracks together to where the voice is not audible but you know it is there. "RECORD IT" This can be done with many things such as waves or what have you. I would not suggest trying to sleep to Halcyon...... It is just a prime example of how frequencies can manipulate emotions..... Best of luck to you....

Use Cool Edit!

[Anonymous Coward]

your looking for "binural beats". google it..

This is a real way of influencing your state of mind, not necessarily exact content, but being able to train your brain's rhythms (alpha, beta, theta) at a certain frequency where the effect your meditation or excitement is most useable.

Not bullshit: Take two tones, one at 700 hz, the other 705 hz, and play them in stereo headphones, left/right configuration. What you perceive is the classic 'beat note' you might hear while say, tuning a guitar. This beat note is a FIVE hz tone (the difference), which under normal circumstances is waaay to low to hear. What ends up happening (this has been studied) is that your brain unconsciously begins to train itself at the frequency of that note you 'hear'. so if you want meditational frequencies (theta: 1-3 hz?) you set it to that and then put those tones behind some listening material. You can also do something like change the tone from a 3 hz seperation up to a 17 hz one over the course of 15 miunutes --- listening to this can 'move'' your state of awareness from a deep mediation to a state of extreme awareness. or vice versa, if you just got off of work and want to relax. anyway, all this talk of subliminal messages; this is the real thing.

njoy.

Re:Use Cool Edit!

[Anonymous Coward]

Or buy the damn thing...

http://www.centerpointe.com

Just a simple procedure.

[sls1j]

Hello Slashdotters, I am totally stumped on how to do this. I would like to create custom subliminal CDs for my own use.

Very simple use Audacity and some other ripper. Record your message, turn the volume down, change the pitch whatever. Rip your cd to a wave file then mix your message with any your track. Finally reburn the track onto a CD and walla!

OK a Real Answer here

[Algmor]

Just use any DAW application, (Sonar, VST, Protools etc) and record your "new" sublime tracks on top of the usual songs stereo track you import. Mix them down underneath and export in your fav audio format and you too can quit smoking or hail satan or whatever.... Cheers

Mini-mini-HOWTO

[code_monkey_steve]

O.k., I know it's April 1, but I could use the karma. ;)

A few years back I ran across patent #5,159,703, which claims a method for subliminal audio. The jist of the method is to frequency- or amplitude-modulate the "message" with a carrier wave sufficiently higher than the range of hearing (for me, about 16KHz, YMMV). You then mix this with the music track.

CDDA supports up to 22KHz, and most speakers/headphones claim a frequency response up to 20KHz, so this gives about 4KHz of bandwidth for the message, which is roughly the same bandwidth as voice telephony.

I never got around to actually seeing if it actually worked (just because it's patented, doesn't mean it's valid), but you're welcome to try ...

xsublim

[SanityInAnarchy]

Seriously, you're on slashdot, right? You run Linux? Use your Linux box a lot? man xsublim. It might not be in your path, and it might not be mentioned in your xscreensaver list, but you can run it manually, without a screensaver, and have subliminal messages pop up over everything you're doing.

You can even use your own messages, rather than the pre-packaged ones, but (submit) I'd really suggest (conform) you just use the existing (obey) "motivational" messages.

Re:Troll Bait; MOD DOWN

[Anonymous Coward]

contrary to what your small mind contrived, i was not the parent poster. i just noticed how you got all grumpy with your skirts in a ruffle on the Day of Jokes. the only pain you must feel is located in that gaping hole which used to contain a sense of humor.

let me guess

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess thinking people might actually buy that is your april fools joke?

You brought a bag right?

subliminal messages and hypnosis.

[Anonymous Coward]

Even though the subliminal messages do not work what you might want to take a look into is hypnosis. Wait, let me clarify, Medical hypnosis has a growing body of experimintation to support it's claims. This however does not include cheesy stage hypnosis(even though given the power of suggestion, can work). There is ongoing research into the way the mind processes language and as of now there as some working models of behavior(coginitive models) that suggest(read does not prove) that our subconscious mind picks patterns out of language that we do not percieve consciously. I am really butchering the explaination, but look up milton erickson for more information.

Wake UP CDS

[Anonymous Coward]

I've made something like this in the past. Being an architecture student I don't get very much sleep and have an impossible time getting out of bed. I have 'many' alarm clocks. I once bought a cd alarm clock and burned a cd from my computer with "wake up" music (2001 space odyssey, james brown and the like)and in between the tracks I put (text to speech to .wav) messages to myself reminding me how important it is to get my lazy ass up and how much (to my surprise in the early morning) I actually enjoy getting out of bed. The computer voice is quite creepy at 5am. Not so subliminal, but at least a creative way to get out of bed when you're in that "must sleep" state of mind.
other ideas...
80*f heat
bright windows
gallons of water, I mean gallons

Re:Wake UP CDS

[Anonymous Coward]

could rig up a super alarm clock that dumps the water onto your bed thereby electrocuting you from the space heater and then slamming your head through the window. umm.. yea

It does not work

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone [You will] knows that [buy me] subliminal messages [a brand new] don't work [computer]; however, it [and quack] is worth [like a duck] a try.

Damn! I wish that blinking text HTML tag is still around.

Placebo subliminal message adding

[dom1234]

This technique is well known and should work especially if you're new to computers, Linux and Maths. To add a nice relaxing effect to a sound file, try : cp Source.wav Destination.wav # sin(param)/^2cos(printf) (the sin and cos after the # are VERY important, don't forget them) You can also try this one to add an effect that will help your concentration : cp Source.wav Destination.wav # arctan(offset,fourierTr^5)

Subliminal...

[malachid69]

Ok, let's ignore the question of whether they work or not and actually answer the question that was asked.

Subliminal messages are in the range above conscious hearing. This is generally agreed to be 20KHz. Therefore, you would take the spoken portion, and boost it by 20KHz, then add in the music at the normal frequencies.

Now, the real trick here isn't how you record it, but how you play it back. If your audio goes up to say, 25KHz -- you better make sure your speakers/headphones go that high, or it will be a completely useless excersize.

Now, depending on what you are trying to achieve, you might try something else instead. Look into doing binaural audio beats. They are very simple to produce (20 lines of Java, for example). To work correctly, they would require headphones and for best results you do NOT mix it with any other sounds.

The goal behind the binaural audio beats is to cause your brain to resonate at the same frequency as the sounds, thus putting you in a different mental state (alpha, beta, theta, etc) which could result in a hypnogogic state (between sleep and awake) which might help achieve whatever results you are looking for.

Re:Subliminal...

[merlin_jim]

Subliminal messages are in the range above conscious hearing. This is generally agreed to be 20KHz. Therefore, you would take the spoken portion, and boost it by 20KHz, then add in the music at the normal frequencies.

Don't forget the sample rate; according to nyquist, the sample rate must be at least twice the highest frequency represented. CD sample rate is 44 KHz... therefore this method CANNOT be used to record to CD; there isn't enough representational accuracy in the 20 - 22 KHz range

Re:Subliminal...

[malachid69]

Hmmm. well you are still talking about a single stereo source to go through the headphones. Why would you need to change the sample rate?

Re:Subliminal...

[merlin_jim]

Quoth the parent and grandparent:

Subliminal messages are in the range above conscious hearing. This is generally agreed to be 20KHz. Therefore, you would take the spoken portion, and boost it by 20KHz, then add in the music at the normal frequencies.

Don't forget the sample rate; according to nyquist, the sample rate must be at least twice the highest frequency represented. CD sample rate is 44 KHz... therefore this method CANNOT be used to record to CD; there isn't enough representational accuracy in the 20 - 22 KHz range

Quoth malachid69:

Hmmm. well you are still talking about a single stereo source to go through the headphones. Why would you need to change the sample rate?

It all comes down to the Nyquist Theorem, which basically states that in order to accurately represent any sound, it's frequency must be less than half the sample rate. Even for sounds less than half the sample rate, to get true high fidelity, they must be far less than half the sample rate, or the consequences are poor representation. I would imagine that any subliminal messaging occuring in the ultrasound spectrum would have to be relatively high fidelity, considering that the ear is not physically well-suited to pick up ultrasound...

Well, CDs are sampled at 44,100 Hz. As mentioned in the above "consequences" link, a 20 KHz tone would only be represented by 2.205 samples per period; not an incredibly high quality recording. The nuances, the voice itself, would be lost to the sampling process. The engineers that designed the CD spec chose it specifically for that feature; this is the lowest sample rate that can reproduce all the sounds audible to a human (up to about 16 KHz) without any appreciable loss in quality. Sounds just barely above the threshold are recorded, but the loss in quality becomes quite rapid as you approach 22 KHz. Above 22 KHz, any sound comes out as a bunch of mid-range noise, and nothing else.

Re:Subliminal...

[malachid69]

Hmmmm... but I thought things such as books-on-CD could actually use a lower sample rate (and usually did) because speech didn't need the same quality? For example, if my voice sounds a little off-key, it is no big deal if I am just trying to hear words -- ie: high fidelity is not required for voice.

Would you disagree?

Re:Subliminal...

[merlin_jim]

The sample rate for CDs is absolutely fixed at 44.1 KHz as part of the spec. Now the rate that the CD producer uses for everything up to his digital master is completely up to him; for instance, in my all-digital recording studio, I sample at 96 KHz and then downsample when it comes time to burn a disc.

While it is true that the human mind is very well tuned to pick out speech in a low signal-to-noise ratio source, this may or may not be true of the ultrasonic range. Keep in mind that the ear is tuned by evolution to pick up and focus sounds that are audible; inaudible sounds are much more difficult for the physical mechanisms to pick up; in this case, high fidelity might help.

Self-suggestion, not subliminal

[Crayon Kid]

And on that note, let me point out that what this guy wants isn't exactly best described by "subliminal messages". I think he meant "self-suggestion messages". The difference is that you don't have to be tricked by it. You know it's there, you want it to work, you just let it slip out of your immediate attention, and that's where it makes its effect.

As for the technical means, you just have to record a message and simply mix it with audio tracks. For best results: the message should be spoken by the person intented for; it should be uttered in a low, monotonous voice; the exact same message should be repeated over and over, with the exact same length and contents; it helps if it's something fairly short; the music shouldn't drown it completely ie. it should be barely but still audible.

It also works if you just relax and listen to the message by itself, without music, but it's harder to slip out of focus and let the message make its effect. A good alternative case is simply to play it while you sleep, or when you do something that involves a lot of focus, such as working on something important.

Now this probably sounds like gibberish and I don't have anything to show for proof, except my word: I've read it in a book quite a while ago, can't recall the author or the title, and I've tried it myself for a while when I was having a real hard time and I think it helped. (It was personal and illness related so you'll excuse me if I don't tell you what it was about). Maybe it was just a placebo effect, maybe not. Anyway, you'll know for sure if you try, I guess.

Re:Self-suggestion, not subliminal

[shawb]

Hey, if nothing else the act of repeating what you want to do over and over in the microphone might help you learn what you're trying to learn, or convince yourself of... whatever it was that you were trying to convince yourself of...

..."I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me."

Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Advice

[bratmobile]

Yeah, I have some advice. Get a freakin clue. Subliminal messaging doesn't do jack shit.

Re:Advice

[Jack Schitt]

Why you gotta bring me into this?

Ironic? No, merely coincidental.

[GrahamCox]

Look it up, Alanis.

Insufficent dynamic range anyway.

[IBitOBear]

Even better, the dynamic range of a CD is really quite limted. It sounds fine enough but for all practical purposes any signal soft or degenerated enough to be subliminal would probably be muted entirely pressed into the "noise floor" either during encoding or playback. The "oversampling" and similar smoothing would degrade the subliminal track to nothing, and then the amps, speakers crossovers, and shuch would finish the job.

The math says that "subliminal CD" is like "land shark", (Classic Cassette Tapes wouldn't be much better anyway, but they would be a little better mathamagically.)

Just get a nice soundscape CD and convince yourself that it has the subliminal message of your choice.

These store-bought products have mucho magic, it is all, however, printed on the packaging.

NLP

[Neo-Rio-101]

No such thing as subliminal messages, but you might want to look into NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Programming. It's used for therapy and marketing a lot, and there's even one guy who uses it for seduction....

Actually I was talking to my friend about her relationship one day, and she said that it's absolutely amazing when YOU'VE MET SOMEONE YOU REALLY LIKE. For example, she met THIS GUY who made her have.... certain *thoughts*.... about what it must be like to really FEEL ATTRACTED TO SOMEONE.... ME... in my experience, I've felt something like this before in other women, but when you REALLY FEEL SOMETHING POWERFUL FOR THIS PERSON... it's like everything just FADES AWAY, and your EYES CLOSE.... and you being to RELAX and just THINK WONDERFUL THOUGHTS about THIS PERSON. After a while YOU WILL COME... OVER AND OVER.... to the conclusion that you really have to MEET THIS PERSON RIGHT NOW!

Go away, I'm not gay.

Contrary to the word of god

[Anonymous Coward]

it is april fools day

it's seems a little paradoxical

[1iar_parad0x]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned...

So while s u b l i m i n a l m e s s a g e s don't work, SUGGESTIVE statements about subliminal messages do work.

Not that I'm suggesting anything

modmeup

AutoZen

[Anonymous Coward]

AutoZen on.
AutoZen on.

brainwave generator bwgen

[Anonymous Coward]

Bwgen is what you need.
Just google for it.
It runs under wine too.
An alternative is sbagen.
It's better than subliminals which don't work...
It works.

Consider the source...

[Genda]

Of course there's all those CDs from Anthony Robbins which include a healthy dose of everything from NPL to subliminal messages.

However, if you want to try something really cool check out CDs produced by the Monroe Institute. They created a technology some time back that forces the brain to function in a set wave frequency. The method was very tricky. If you've ever heard two strings pluck on a guitar, and one was slightly out of tune with the other, you noticed an wavering oscillation. That sound is the difference of the two waves and it's frequency is called the beat frequency.

Robert Monroe discovered that if he feed signal A into the left ear, and signal B into the right ear, he could get the brain to resonate at the beat frequency. This made it possible to do things like keep people in Alpha aware states for extended periods (an incredible benefit for student trying to study), and even force different sleep states (one of the disks available has different sleep states on each track) by programming which tracks play, and how many each is repeated, you can program your sleep for short power naps, restful long sleeps, or even lucid dreaming.

There are also a variety of CDs available that combine hemisync technology, with hypnosis, subliminal training, and NLP techniques. This is a fantastic area to experiment with and I've gotten quite a bit of value out of this work myself. It's all about being the best you can be.

For further information'

The Monroe Institute"

Hemisync CDs available here.

Genda