wobniaR eht revO erehwemoS

July 3, 2008 8:01 AM

This is utterly delightful: Tara Busch sings the first line from "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" backwards. Of course, you'll wanna check out how well she did it by watching it, um, forwards. Yep, she nailed it. I think I'm in love.

Of course, you'll want to see the version with the jet passing over her head, as well. Here she is explaining and demonstrating the process.

And gearheads, take note: she's (along with partner Maf Lewis) a gearhead.

posted by flapjax at midnite (107 comments total)

Previously, and slightly more impressive.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 8:04 AM on July 3, 2008

They edited out the part where a grinning dwarf dressed in red burst through the wall and cursed her.
posted by Drexen at 8:05 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

The jet is actually LESS convincing. Because that raises the question of how we can even hear her over the noise. Which raises the solution: She could be lip-syncing.

Also, who is Tara Busch? She doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry. Popular singer of the day or what?
posted by DU at 8:06 AM on July 3, 2008

She doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry.

Good lord. REALLY? Why, DU, imagine my embarrassment, no, my unspeakable shame, at posting something about someone with NO WIKIPEDIA PAGE. You have truly humbled me.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:11 AM on July 3, 2008

Also, who is DU?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:12 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Heh.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:13 AM on July 3, 2008

at posting something about someone with NO WIKIPEDIA PAGE

My point is, the context in the post makes it sound like I should know who this is. Not "a YouTube user by the name of 'Tara Busch'" or "one Tara Busch" or "indie music producer Tara Busch" or whatever. Just "Tara Busch", like her name is a household word.
posted by DU at 8:15 AM on July 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

She can shatter glass also (maybe).
posted by Burhanistan at 8:15 AM on July 3, 2008

Chill, flapjax; I thought the same thing. "So who is Tara Busch? Am I supposed to know her?"
posted by yhbc at 8:21 AM on July 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Agreed w/ DU. I've never heard of her either. Context, please. Also, be nice.
posted by hifiparasol at 8:23 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

DU and yhbc: So sorry to confuse y'all. But now you know who she is. Hopefully that's not a problem.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:23 AM on July 3, 2008

About that gum I like...
posted by cortex at 8:24 AM on July 3, 2008 [8 favorites]

Good lord. REALLY? Why, DU, imagine my embarrassment, no, my unspeakable shame, at posting something about someone with NO WIKIPEDIA PAGE. You have truly humbled me.

Holy overreaction... He's asking for more background. Not everyone is attuned to your psychic wavelengths.
posted by Dark Messiah at 8:24 AM on July 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

But now you know who she is.

I do?
posted by DU at 8:30 AM on July 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

He won't know who she is until full carnal knowledge has been attained. Link, please.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:33 AM on July 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

I only ever punch people who have Wikipedia entries.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:33 AM on July 3, 2008

Um… I don't know who Tara Busch is either. I looked her up outside of Wikipedia and was informed. That aside. This was enchanting. Women handling wine and singing = I'm in love too. Much better than the flip side of a single I bought in my youth !aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT"
posted by tellurian at 8:33 AM on July 3, 2008

Back in the 80s I tried to do some backward masking just to see if I could.

I recorded, played it backwards and worked on imitating what I heard. I recorded that and played it backwards to see if I did a good job.
Not once was I able to produce even a simple recognizable phrase. The most simple message was unintelligible.

From this experiment I concluded that for backward masking to work you really did have to be in league with the Devil.

So, Tara Bush: Satan, or just a lot more talented than me?
posted by cccorlew at 8:33 AM on July 3, 2008 [5 favorites]

So, Tara Bush: Satan, or just a lot more talented than me?

Who says it can't be both? Satan's gotta be pretty musical, what with all those dueling instrument challenges he has codified in his barter-your-soul contracts.
posted by Dark Messiah at 8:36 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

In the video for "Drop," off Labcabincalifornia, The Pharcyde memorized and said their raps in reverse, and then shot the video normally. The footage was then reversed while the audio track played normally, so that their mouths matched the lyrics but everything they did was in reverse.

P.S. they did this in 1995, so they win.
posted by ChasFile at 8:38 AM on July 3, 2008 [4 favorites]

Is there a different definition of "gearhead" that doesn't involve working on cars/motorcycles?

She looks like a less-hot version of Valerie Bertinelli. (this comment comes pre-flagged as sexist)

Chas, thanks for the Pharcyde video. I'd never seen that.
posted by Eideteker at 8:49 AM on July 3, 2008

Yep, she nailed it.

Did she? Listening to it backwards, it sounds heavily modified, like she overdubbed it or mixed it with a forward recording. Of course, it may just be that she added some distortion to make it sound cooler, but when I saw it I thought it sounded fake.

On the other hand, when you watch the 'making of' video, you hear the 'backwards' version played backwards, and it sounds pretty normal, with a few minor oddities that are not present in the 'main' version.

I saw this all the other day, since it was actually featured on the youtube frontpage.
posted by delmoi at 8:51 AM on July 3, 2008

Who says it can't be both? Satan's gotta be pretty musical, what with all those dueling instrument challenges he has codified in his barter-your-soul contracts.

This is a reasonable point. I can't believe a guy as savvy as Satan wouldn't take a careful look at the resumes of potential hires. Heck, he might not even endow powers so much as be a really solid motivator and life-coach.
posted by cortex at 8:54 AM on July 3, 2008 [7 favorites]

Listening to it backwards, it sounds heavily modified...

Hmm, I didn't think that at all. I dunno, I'm quite accustomed to hearing sounds in reverse (scrubbing audio, using reversed samples, etc) and to me the "whooshy" artifacts are quite consistent with audio that's been reversed.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:55 AM on July 3, 2008

This is Youtube at its absolute best. Thanks for posting this.
posted by alexwoods at 8:56 AM on July 3, 2008

But now you know who she is.

   I do?

She's the person singing the song.
posted by dirigibleman at 8:56 AM on July 3, 2008 [4 favorites]

PeopleWithTooMuchTimeOnTheirHandsFilter
posted by nax at 8:56 AM on July 3, 2008

I must second delmoi. The first clip clearly has one voice singing, but the second sounds like 2 (or more) recordings being played back at once.
posted by internal at 8:58 AM on July 3, 2008

Thank you, dirigibleman.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:58 AM on July 3, 2008

Mandatory: The Scientist.

Also.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:59 AM on July 3, 2008

I'm writing this comment backwards, upside down, then re-reversed and flipped for your reading enjoyment.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:00 AM on July 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

‮‮On the other hand, I promise I'm not lip syncing this comment.‮‮‭
posted by delmoi at 9:00 AM on July 3, 2008 [23 favorites]

I dunno, blue_beetle, looks like you've doubled the text somehow, some kind of overlay. Anyway, I know there's some kind of trickery at work...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:01 AM on July 3, 2008

And I definitely don't believe delmoi!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:02 AM on July 3, 2008

and to me the "whooshy" artifacts are quite consistent with audio that's been reversed.

Really? Then how come they don't exist in the 'making of' clip? There are no "whooshy" sounds when she first plays it back. It just sounds like a normal person's voice, speaking with a strange accent on some words (as you would expect)

Reversing audio doesn't create whole new sounds that didn't exist before, the distortion -- or whatever it is was definitely added.
posted by delmoi at 9:04 AM on July 3, 2008

A haiku by someone awesome from sarcasm society:

I just saw Coldplay
It was so emotional
I'm changed forever

That said, I love that Coldplay video and song. I wish I didn't feel kind of ashamed to say that.
posted by nosila at 9:08 AM on July 3, 2008

Oh, and that woman is super cool. Effects or not.
posted by nosila at 9:09 AM on July 3, 2008

For all you musically inclined folk, how is it that the melodies of these songs are still recongnisable in both directions? I picked the song from the prior amd being an Australian it's hardly the sort of song I'm exposed to on a daily basis. Any ideas?
posted by Jilder at 9:15 AM on July 3, 2008

Reversing audio doesn't create whole new sounds that didn't exist before, the distortion -- or whatever it is was definitely added.

I guess I'm just not hearing the "whole new sounds" you're referring to, delmoi. You got some super hot-shit headphones or speakers or something? All I hear is a bit of the weird sucking sound that a singer's breathing makes when it's reversed, and a wee bit of the characteristic "whoosh" (hate to say that again but I can't think of another word) of reverse audio. Perhaps there was some reverb on the main clip that wasn't applied in the demonstration clip: reverb will also do strange things when reversed... but, it sounds pretty dry to me, so I don't even know if it's that.

Do you have a lot of experience, delmoi, with reversed sound, and reversed human voice in particular? It's an honest question, really. Cause I do, and those "whole new sounds" that you're hearing, well, I'll be damned if I know what they are.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:17 AM on July 3, 2008

Eideteker writes 'Is there a different definition of "gearhead" that doesn't involve working on cars/motorcycles?'

I'd never assume that 'gearhead' referred to cars/motorcycles, always gear of the music-making kind. Well, that and drugs.

Whatever, the 'gearhead' link is the best bit of the post, I reckon - anyone who digs Delia Derbyshire and hangs out with Thighpaulsandra is okay by me! Her torch song-ish electronic music isn't half bad, either (not really my bag, but nicely done).
posted by jack_mo at 9:18 AM on July 3, 2008

On the other hand, when you watch the 'making of' video, you hear the 'backwards' version played backwards, and it sounds pretty normal, with a few minor oddities that are not present in the 'main' version.

If we're going to be super-skeptical, notice there's a cut before she plays the forwardized backwards version in the "making of".

And how did you make that backwards comment? It's backwards in the html source, too.
posted by DU at 9:19 AM on July 3, 2008

As for the 'whooosh' effect, it sounds to me like there's a 'pre-echo' (ie, a bit of echo applied on the original, but coming first because the recording reversed), but otherwise it sounds characteristic of reversed audio to me, no added sounds or other mucking about: the strange harmonics or overtones - probably not the right terms, I'm not a musician - especially are something you often hear on reversed recordings.
posted by jack_mo at 9:24 AM on July 3, 2008

If I were at home, I could just record the audio in Cool Edit as the video plays, reverse it, and see how it sounds. Surely somebody must have done this somewhere in the big wide Internet already.
posted by Shepherd at 9:27 AM on July 3, 2008

A game I worked on at an internship used the "record in reverse and imitate" trick to get just that weird sound for some of the vocals (they might have actually been my vocals now that I think about it). It's not hard if you've got decent attention to detail. Singing it is, I'd imagine, substantially harder.
posted by Skorgu at 9:29 AM on July 3, 2008

Would you all be explaining a way the magic at a child's birthday party magic show? What am I asking of corse you would. I can see it now you're sitting cross legged in the backyard "The rabbit is in the box under the hat." "Those rings have slots in them, that's how he joined them" "He palmed the 6 of hearts"
posted by nola at 9:31 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Big whoop. We've all seen this before.. Anyone with a few hours to kill can record themselves singing something.. listen to it backwards, and painstakingly rehearse singing it backwards. There's a reason we have thousands upon thousands of languages in this world. In fact, some of them SOUND like backwards English when spoken normally.. so to sum, this is cute but big freakin' deal. Anyone could do it. You just posted about her because you think she's cute.
posted by ChickenringNYC at 9:34 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Heck, he might not even endow powers so much as be a really solid motivator and life-coach.

Furthering my belief that Tonny Robbins is, in fact, Satan. You sir are a hero!
posted by Dark Messiah at 9:35 AM on July 3, 2008

Dick: Hey, there's a post on Metafilter on, um, Tara Busch.
Barry: Tarawhatnow?
Dick: Tara Busch.
Barry: [waves hands about] Scanning brain database... nope, no dice. Doesn't she have a Wikipedia page?
Dick: No... um, she's the one that sung that song backwards.
Barry: Are you making stuff up? Never heard of it buddy.
Dick: [pause] Of what?
Barry "Backwards".
Dick: No, the song is "Over the Rainbow".
Barry: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow"? Judy fucking Garland?
Dick: Um, it's just "Over the Rainbow", there's actually no "somewhere" in the title. In spite of what is commonly, um, believed.
Barry: Oh drag. [takes bite from giant submarine sandwich]

[pause, Barry shakes head violently]

Barry: Judy fucking *Garland*?
Dick: It's just a video. And it's "Tara Busch".
Barry: Listen buddy, if a person A does not have a Wikipedia page and B *I don't know* them I don't see why I should give a stinky rat's ass.
Dick: Well, you know her *now*.
Barry: *Know* her? So now if I see her in the street I'll just go up and say "hey Tara Busch, remember me? My socially challenged coworker showed me the video of you singing backwards"? Hey Rob, "Tara Busch"! You "know" [air quotes] her?

[Rob looks up from catalogue]

Rob: [apathetic] Oh, I heard of her. Once. In a lullaby.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 9:39 AM on July 3, 2008 [5 favorites]

a grinning dwarf

The person you are referring to is neither a dwarf nor a midget, but has osteoporosis. When every bone in your body is broken multiple times at birth, you don't grow very tall.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:40 AM on July 3, 2008

Tara looks uncannily like the only girl I actually regret ever having dated. Close enough to be twins.

My reaction to this video is completely tainted by this. I watched and just wanted to scream, "AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!! GO AWAY!"
posted by vertigo25 at 9:44 AM on July 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Ordinary music played in reverse tends to sound weird. This right here does not sound like banjo to me, and I'm the last person it should sound weird to. Don't underestimate the role of temporality on psychoacoustic processing—it's a very interesting, complicated, and often counter-intuitive field.
posted by cortex at 9:51 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

DU: And how did you make that backwards comment? It's backwards in the html source, too.

‮‮The thing that will really fuck with you is that if you cut-and-paste any word from this comment, it will make everything you type after it backwards as well.‭
posted by quin at 9:52 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

In the original video, there's a certain amount of echo in the room that you hear as a pre-echo in the reversed version. This is normal for reversed audio, but the effect seems to be greater than typical here, presumably due to the accoustics of the room.

In the "making of" video, there are two mics involved: the one we're hearing her through, and a second one she sings into to make the recording that she then reverses. The first mic is picking up a lot of echo in the room, but apparently the second one isn't -- presumably it's not as sensitive, which makes sense, because she's a lot closer to it . So when she plays the recorded audio in reverse, it plays without a lot of pre-echo. And, of course, the reversed sound gets all the normal echo of the room when it's picked up by the first mic. (There is of course no forward echo on the reversed sound in the original video because we're listening to it directly, not to the reversed sound being played back and re-recorded in a room that adds its echo again.)
posted by baf at 9:53 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Do you have a lot of experience, delmoi, with reversed sound, and reversed human voice in particular?

I've watched Red Dwarf, and it sounds just right to me :)
posted by Chuckles at 9:58 AM on July 3, 2008

Thanks, baf. Your explication was fab.
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:03 AM on July 3, 2008

Red Dwarf?
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:11 AM on July 3, 2008

How about a little wine from another place?
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:20 AM on July 3, 2008

DU, I hope I'm not spoiling the fun. Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm and Directional Formatting Codes. Wouldn't work if either your browser or MetaFilter didn't support Unicode. Only changes the display order, not the logical order. So copy/paste works normally, and seemingly-reversed HTML tags render properly.
posted by sdodd at 10:24 AM on July 3, 2008

If you record the backwards version and the forward version, reverse the backwards version, and then overlay the two, the sound matches up perfectly. In case anyone was curious.
posted by Oxydude at 10:40 AM on July 3, 2008

I'd tih it.
posted by found missing at 10:42 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

The whooshing sounds could be a number of things, although my cynicism suggests what you're hearing is indeed her reversed reverse lyrics but you're also hearing a straight delivery of her singing it forwards dubbed in, thus creating that phase cancel effect.
posted by ageispolis at 10:43 AM on July 3, 2008

The backwards singing video I can take or leave, but I just checked out her album on iTunes. It's frickin' brilliant - like a 21st century Kate Bush. Thanks for the tip, flapjax.
posted by spamhead at 10:46 AM on July 3, 2008

That's kind of scary. I think she just collected all of our garmonbozia.
posted by painquale at 10:52 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

I guess I'm just not hearing the "whole new sounds" you're referring to, delmoi. You got some super hot-shit headphones or speakers or something? All I hear is a bit of the weird sucking sound that a singer's breathing makes when it's reversed

Well, a simple test would be pull out the sound from the first video and play it backwards, and see if it matches up. Although now listening to the first video again, there is a lot more echo in the room that's not there when she does the other video.

Oh well.
posted by delmoi at 10:56 AM on July 3, 2008

Personally, I prefer the guy who pops balloons and drinks orange soda over this girl's posturing and hair flipping. After seeing her do it under the plane I just wanted to slap her upside the head and say, "Okay, you learned a phrase of one song backwards. What do you want, a medal? Time to learn another trick now. Or finish the whole song, why don't you?"

Yeah, I'm cranky today.
posted by miss lynnster at 11:04 AM on July 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

If I were at home, I could just record the audio in Cool Edit as the video plays, reverse it, and see how it sounds. Surely somebody must have done this somewhere in the big wide Internet already.

This is the audio from the first video, and this is it reversed. It sounds exactly like it does on that second video
posted by dng at 11:14 AM on July 3, 2008 [3 favorites]

Previously, and slightly more impressive.

If only we had the phrase "so gallantly sleeming" in our national anthem.
posted by yeti at 11:24 AM on July 3, 2008

... and I mean that. I wish we did.
posted by yeti at 11:24 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Thanks, dng! So: genuine! Mystery solved! And now I am heartily impressed.
posted by Shepherd at 11:39 AM on July 3, 2008

ChickenringNYC wrote: Big whoop. We've all seen this before.. Anyone with a few hours to kill can record themselves singing something.. listen to it backwards, and painstakingly rehearse singing it backwards. There's a reason we have thousands upon thousands of languages in this world. In fact, some of them SOUND like backwards English when spoken normally.. so to sum, this is cute but big freakin' deal. Anyone could do it. You just posted about her because you think she's cute.

I trust that you never, ever take action on any idea you might have if that action might conceivably be done by anyone else, in accordance with your policy of sneering disdain for everything that anyone can do. Twit.

I think I hate that attitude as much as I hate folk who say 'My kid could do that' about abstract art.
posted by jack_mo at 11:57 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

The music is reversible, but time is not. Turn back! Turn back! Turn back!
posted by OneOliveShort at 11:57 AM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Hush, Cher.
posted by cortex at 12:20 PM on July 3, 2008

This page right here is something like the definition of jaded. I'm trying to picture how some of you people must respond when people in your real lives do something kind of cool for you expecting nothing in return.

"Huh, this sandwich that you just made for me is nowhere near as good as the sandwich my previous girlfriend made for me that one time in San Francisco. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the so-called "caviar" you're using isn't genuine Beluga at all! There's simply no point in doing anything at all unless you're going to do it better than anyone has ever done anything like it before!"

What's wrong with "hey, thanks for the nice sandwich?"

Thanks for the cool and entertaining little video, flapjax.
posted by yoink at 12:35 PM on July 3, 2008 [5 favorites]

For all you musically inclined folk, how is it that the melodies of these songs are still recongnisable in both directions?

Well, you've just proven true the main premise of musical set theory, which is that the human ear/mind can pick up on the similarities between a group of musical notes and the same notes when they are reversed, inverted, transposed, etc.

In more general terms, lots of composers like to play a theme reversed ("retrograde"), inverted, or even retrograde-inverted, with the general idea being that it gives you a new theme with new musical possibilities that is closely related to the original.

One reason listeners (including you) pick that up is because of distinctive intervals in the melody, like for instance the distinctive octave leap in Over the Rainbow, are still present in the retrograde (and inverted and retrograde-inverted) version.

It's a bit like the resaon ouy cna siltl raed tihs senetcne. All the main signifiers we depend on to extract meaning are still there, just a bit scrambled.
posted by flug at 12:40 PM on July 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Who the Hell put caviar in my fucking sandwich? What, are you trying to kill me!???
posted by miss lynnster at 1:00 PM on July 3, 2008

That was nicely done and a good choice of material for the project.

I happen to think the backwards results here are quite lovely, and the resulting melody is attractive. It reminds me somewhat of parts of the aria from La Wally (as heard in the film Diva.)

A small well-turned project. S'fun.

For the scoffers out there, I say try it, try it and see if the results are aesthetically pleasing. Yes, anyone can get the technical results of reversed notes and vocal sounds, but will anyone want to hear it twice?

That takes work: listening, editing, selecting. . .

If you've every worked with backwards voices, far more interesting than reversed echo and whooshing artifacts and such is the discovery that the phonemes aren't reversible. That is, you can't just write down the words, reverse the order of letters and speak it. Doesn't work, even if you spell it phonetically. An /r/ might become an /s/ when played backwards, and you might not even get the same number of syllables.

For example, did you ever actually look at how "Number Nine" works on "The White Album"?

Number nine => num ber nyyn => nyyn reb mun

nyyn reb mun != Turn me on deadmun

What I don't know is how consistent are the results. Can you predict how each phoneme will come out when run backwards? How much does it depend on the surrounding phonemes?
posted by Herodios at 1:32 PM on July 3, 2008

A red dwarf?

Ftoomsh!!
posted by Herodios at 1:57 PM on July 3, 2008

Ftoomsh!!

I preferred Orgo.
posted by quin at 2:14 PM on July 3, 2008

Like Herodios, I think what's really impressive about Tara Busch's effort is how much it sounds like "the real thing." The Star Spangled Banner guy does a more impressive job of keeping the entropic systems running while he sings (and he sings for longer, which is also impressive), but played backwards he sounds like a fairly primitive voice-emulation software program in an early test phase. Hence "sleeming" etc. Busch must have worked for hours to figure out exactly what tricks of breathing, unnatural phrasing etc one has to do to make something that sounds almost plausibly like a reversed "straight" performance.

This raises another question: has anyone ever trained themselves to be able to decode reversed human speech in real time? I wonder if it would even be possible?

The other points
posted by yoink at 2:43 PM on July 3, 2008

Er "the other points"? I'll be they were really impressive!
posted by yoink at 2:44 PM on July 3, 2008

This is just to say

I have eaten
the points
that were in
the comment

and which
you were probably
saving
for elaboration

Forgive me
they were delicious
so pointy
and other
posted by cortex at 2:58 PM on July 3, 2008 [2 favorites]

Big whoop, cortex. We've all seen that before.. Anyone with a few minutes to kill can copy the text of a poem.. paste it to a thread, and painstakingly change and re-arrange the words to make it funny and/or germane. There's a reason we have thousands upon thousands of posts on this site. In fact, some of them LOOK like scrambled poems when posted normally.. so to sum, this is cute but big freakin' deal. Anyone could do it. You just posted that poem because you think you're cute.
posted by Atom Eyes at 3:11 PM on July 3, 2008

Wevs. I just read your comment backward and there were a bunch of weird noises, so, like, go other a point and stuff.
posted by cortex at 3:14 PM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Cortex: I'm in awe.
posted by yoink at 3:37 PM on July 3, 2008

I am going to do this. With Cocteau Twins songs.
posted by everichon at 3:39 PM on July 3, 2008

That gum you like is going to come back in style.

(The "Making Of" in the season 1 DVD set explains they did these scenes exactly this way, talking backwards then reversing)
posted by wildcrdj at 3:47 PM on July 3, 2008

Yeah--that Twin Peaks clip really highlights what a great job Ms. Busch did making sounds closely approximate normal enunciation; there's a reason that the reversed-reverse dialogue needs subtitles in TP.
posted by yoink at 3:55 PM on July 3, 2008

How about a little fanfare?
posted by bink at 4:28 PM on July 3, 2008

Hasn't anybody tried reversing the audio on the initial video and comparing it to the audio in the second?

I will try it...

...

...

Suck it haters, the reversed audio stream from the first video is exactly the same as the audio in the second video. So she's really doing it.

Cool.
posted by Justinian at 4:52 PM on July 3, 2008

ARRGH DAMN YOU DNG.

Dng already varified it, and provided links.

I am awful.
posted by Justinian at 4:54 PM on July 3, 2008

You know, I was pretty skeptical because of the strange artifacts on the reversed video, but now that I've listened to DNG's mp3s (through studio speakers, no less), I'm pretty sure what we're all hearing is the natural reverb in the room.

She's pretty far from the mic, and it's a pretty live-sounding room, and I think hearing the room reflections first messes with whatever our brain uses to determine how many people are singing (or speaking, or whatever). If she were closer, and there were fewer reflections, I think it'd all sound more natural and convincing.
posted by god hates math at 5:25 PM on July 3, 2008

I'm real happy that those of you who were skeptical could find proof for yourself, to your independent satisfaction, that this woman is, in fact, not up to some sort of trickery. And for those who didn't really know much about how reversed audio behaves and were therefore skeptical based on that ignorance, I'm happy that this thread could teach you a little something about audio. To me this is all part of what's best about MetaFilter: learning something you didn't know before. I find that I learn new things here all the time.

And here's an open letter to those of you who had a problem with my using this woman's name in the post even though she's not especially famous or Wikipedia'd or whatever:

It's quite likely that I will make posts in the future about people you've never heard of. People that are doing interesting or noteworthy things, particularly in the field of music. Sometimes those posts' descriptions on the front page might actually contain that person's name. Should you see such a post, do not be mystified or confused because the person is not famous: his or her name may not be a household word. Over the past couple of years of posting at MetaFilter, I've introduced many people to musicians they've never heard of. Unsurprisingly, many folks are actually happy about that. The fact that it bothered you is probably an indication that you should simply ignore my posts in the future.

It's not my obligation to spell everything out for you to your complete satisfaction in the post headline or description. I don't need to put up flashing lights saying "NOT FAMOUS PERSON!" But you might want to keep in mind that many, many posters at MetaFilter do far less in the way of description than I normally do. My posts are by no means the most oblique or difficult to decipher here at MeFi.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:02 PM on July 3, 2008

And here's an open letter to those of you who had a problem with my using this woman's name in the post even though she's not especially famous or Wikipedia'd or whatever:

Dude, while I agree with much of the sentiment you're expressing here, you were kinda super-touchy and overreactive at the beginning of the thread as well. It's a neat post, some people were dorks about, but maybe less with the Vigorous Defense in your posts?
posted by cortex at 7:11 PM on July 3, 2008

maybe less with the Vigorous Defense in your posts?

I note you've pluralized post, there, cortex, as if the dreaded VD is something that I've done a lot of, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find too many more that I've Vigorously Defended. Still, I'd certainly maintain the right to answer critiques of my posting style on occasion, and my open letter above was simply an effort to forestall the need to do so in the future, at least in regard to posts featuring not-famous people. But, yeah, DU got under my skin with that comment of his: "Also, who's Tara Busch?", as if to say she wasn't "important" enough to make an FPP on. Not even in the Wiki! Quite frankly, I thought it was shitting in the thread. If you don't find what she's doing to your interest or liking, fine, but questioning whether she's good FPP fodder because you've never heard of her, because she's not "famous" struck me, and rightly so, I still believe, as a personal attack on my choice of something to post about. Like, hey, real sorry you've never heard of her, DUde. Next time I'll make a Celine Dion FPP, just for you.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:46 PM on July 3, 2008

Still, I'd certainly maintain the right to answer critiques of my posting style on occasion

Dude, you jumped on his ass like he'd called your mother the village whore. I know you're not new, and you might have thought you were being mildly sarcastic; in my own internal monologue, but you sounded like a jerk who was putting down someone for "not getting it", despite the fact that clearly Tara Busch is not a household name; we wanted to know more to actually, you know, further appreciate your otherwise interesting post. I thought policing your own thread was something we'd MeTa'd to death years ago. But whatever. My net worth is now debited 2 cents.
posted by Dark Messiah at 8:03 PM on July 3, 2008

interesting post.

Glad you enjoyed it.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:47 PM on July 3, 2008

I thought it was an neat post, but you are taking this "who is Tara Busch" thing a bit too personal. It would've been a simple thing to link her name to her blog, thereby avoiding these questions. As people have said before, the post makes it seem like she's someone we should know, and while I have a better grasp of who she is now, you could've given us a link in the post. Or, y'know, not be a huge dick to people asking questions in your thread.

Again, neat post. Thanks, flapjax.
posted by graventy at 10:56 PM on July 3, 2008

This post was really, really, really excellent. I knew who she was right away. And how hot she was. And why she was. And I knew her hair.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 11:11 PM on July 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Whether or not she has a Wikipedia page is immaterial. We all know the important sign is this: seventy years from now when she dies of old age, will our children's children post dots to MeFi in her honor?
posted by ZachsMind at 12:53 AM on July 4, 2008

We all know the important sign is this: seventy years from now when she dies of old age, will our children's children post dots to MeFi in her honor?

Well, some of us a little older than you have children, not children's children, who might post a dot to MeFi in her honor.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:55 AM on July 4, 2008

I really hate that song. A lot.

Backwards- kind of nice, actually. Interesting.
posted by IndigoJones at 6:20 AM on July 4, 2008

I just checked out her album on iTunes..

Having an album on iTunes makes you much cooler than having a wikipedia page.

Also, the un-reversed one is not tampered with. I flipped it in SoundEdit and it's exactly as in the video.
posted by rokusan at 7:12 PM on July 4, 2008

I still am no wiser who she is
posted by A189Nut at 2:19 AM on July 5, 2008

I still am no wiser who she is

Well, she's this gal who sang a bit of this song backwards, you see, and...

...ahh, nevermind. You're just another username I've never, ever seen before who's suddenly come out of the woodwork for this particular thread (along with several others, strangely) to chime in with something uninformed, ignorant, or otherwise worthless. So, listen, whoever you are, pay attention to what's going on in the links from now on, and maybe you'll learn something. And if you're not gonna do that, don't waste our time with your nitwit comments? Dig?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:21 AM on July 5, 2008

And...

no wiser

is the operative term here, but it ain't my fault.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:22 AM on July 5, 2008

I just wanted to say a belated thank you for posting this.
I knew Maf (who I think made this film) years ago and this was a nice reminder of him and Tara.
They are both lovely folk.
posted by debord at 12:53 PM on July 15, 2008

You're so welcome, debord.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:18 PM on July 15, 2008