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type: channel
description: Audio advice and discussions with audiophiles and professionals. Free discussion forums, open to all and frequented by industry experts. Ask questions and get advice on stereos, speakers, hi-end amplifiers, pre-amps, home theater, tube hi-fi, turntables, vinyl, tweaks, music, films, video, DVDs and more.
items: Sound as Text Files?
items: Re: Sound as Text Files?

Sound as Text Files?
type: item
description: Have you ever heard of songs/sound files that, when converted to text, actually say something meaningful? I wonder how you would go about doing that.
creator: audioaudio90
date: 2012-04-13T18:39:55-00:00

Re: Sound as Text Files?
type: item
description: I've never heard of this, but I'm not familiar with converting sound files into text files. At first, I thought you meant something to the effect of texting sound files from phone-to-phone. Is sound-to-text conversion common? What would be the purpose of the conversion?
creator: iLoveiPod
date: 2012-04-15T07:38:23-00:00

Re: Sound as Text Files?
type: item
description: Hi, Me neither.
creator: gofar99
date: 2012-04-16T02:32:25-00:00

Re: Sound as Text Files?
type: item
description: I had to go back and find where I read about it; here is the link. Just scroll down to #1. I read what they did and I still don't get how it was done, but it is interesting.
creator: audioaudio90
date: 2012-04-16T15:00:00-00:00

Re: Sound as Text Files?
type: item
description: That's kinda fun, in an uber-geeky way. What they're saying is they took the sound generated by a 300 baud modem and recorded it. They sent a text file to a modem and recorded the sound that came out. It makes a buzzing sound, easy to decode by pretty much any old modem. You could still probably find a computer that would decode that signal - just dial into a computer that had a modem connected, play the sound into the mouthpiece of a phone and the computer will show that text file. Another similar trick is to record what comes out of the cassette line of an old 1970s microcomputer. Do a "Save" of a text file out to cassette tape. Back in the 1970s, the early microcomputers often had cassette input/ouputs, so the user could store their programs and data. Simple and primitive, but inexpensive. The old Apple II, Atari, Commodore and Radio Shack computers had tape interfaces. All the early micros did. Now another demonstration of uber-geekiness. That cracked.com article, in their #5 "Easter Egg", mistakenly credits Pink Floyd in their 1979 album, "The Wall" as being the first popular band to include a reversed message that was actually intended. That's not true. In 1975, Electric Light Orchestra put a backward message on their "Face the Music" album that says, "The music is reversible but time is not. Turn back, turn back, turn back".
creator: Wayne Parham
date: 2012-04-16T18:33:09-00:00

Re: Sound as Text Files?
type: item
description: Thanks for explaining it further, Wayne. Your explanation was easier to understand. As for their failure to credit ELO, perhaps you should send them a comment to that effect.
creator: audioaudio90
date: 2012-04-17T14:40:52-00:00