Once there was the dress; now there's Yanny or Laurel. This audio illusion, which went viral after first appearing on Reddit, has the internet torn. You may be wondering if this is gonna be one of those "is the dress blue or gold" things and the answer is, YOU BET IT IS. Yanny or bust, Yanny forever, Yanny or get the hell out. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and “Yanny or Laurel” is now he new “The Dress” debate.
Like a dress that’s either gold and white or blue and black, the two seemingly unrelated words “Yanny” and “Laurel” are threatening to split the internet in half.
On Tuesday, Cloe Feldman, a social media influencer and vlogger, posted a seemingly obvious question on her Instagram story, which she then cross-posted to Twitter: “What do you hear? Yanny or Laurel,” accompanied by a recording of a computerized voice that is clearly saying “Laurel.”
What do you hear?! Yanny or Laurel
Some maniacs, some of whom I work with, swear they hear “Yanny” even though the recording, in the plainest English, says the word “Laurel.” Some even claim to be able to hear both words at once.
Because the internet is a place where opinions are given equal weight, some generous people have tried to understand what would cause an ostensibly logical person to think they’re hearing “Yanny” — and the answer seems to boil down to frequency. According to a theory posited by one redditor, what you hear depends on the amount of bass that’s being produced from the device you’re listening on.
By manipulating audio and changing the pitch of the voice, we upstanding citizens who hear “Laurel” can, for brief seconds, hear what the world sounds like through the ears of a maniac.
But even though the generosity of these strangers is proof that the internet is an open and weird and great place where we can connect with people who don’t see or hear the world the way we might, the voice is clearly saying “Laurel.”
27 Comments
PlayhousePalsI hear YaMMy .... but it's close to my mealtime so ... it COULD be all about that bass
eric3579LAUREL
Vote for comment if you hear Laurel
eric3579YANNY
Vote for comment if you hear Yanny
Sagemind“Laurel”
I tried to hear Yanny - it's just not there. lol
eric3579It all must have to do with your speaker set up, and the frequencies range your speakers use. I have computer speakers (also headphones) which generally cut off much/some of the mid and all of the low end frequencies. I'm guessing if i had good full range speakers and an eq i could hear both. I'd guess if we all listened from the same source, we would all hear the same thing. Although (in general) as you get older the frequency range you are able to hear diminishes quite a bit.
BuckI listened 3 times, heard yanni.
I waited awhile (5 min) read some stuff, listened again - laurel!!!!
I cannot hear yanni anymore, but I DID!? same speakers for both.
Buck*promote
siftbotPromoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Wednesday, May 16th, 2018 1:05am PDT - promote requested by Buck.
eric3579Dissociative Identity Disorder. Go to the doctor immediately. You're BROKEN!
I listened 3 times, heard yanni.
I waited awhile (5 min) read some stuff, listened again - laurel!!!!
I cannot hear yanni anymore, but I DID!? same speakers for both.
eric3579
FlowersInHisHairI hear Laurel. Probably because yanny isn't really a word.
surfingytI can now hear both on demand. Once you know what each sounds like, just say the word (sounding the same) and press Play.
eric3579Holy shit earlier today all i could hear was Laurel and now all i can hear is yanny. WTF
(edit) i'm hearing Laurel again. Fuck this!
PlayhousePalsI had YET to hear Laurel until I watched the 'explained' vid @eric3579 posted here in the comment section when they changed the pitch up 30% @1:51. I'd tried with and without headphones, different times of day/night, stoned/not stoned, saying the word Laurel out loud before playing the video. Evidently I'm primed in the minority because I sure as hell don't have younger ears!
I listened 3 times, heard yanni.
I waited awhile (5 min) read some stuff, listened again - laurel!!!!
I cannot hear yanni anymore, but I DID!? same speakers for both.
entr0pyHere's the simplest and seemingly most correct explanation I've seen.
https://twitter.com/MBoffin/status/996562598815416321
Basically, the two sounds are overlaid with each other. If you have good hearing in high ranges, your mind will filter out one or the other, with a pretty strong bias to hear the higher pitched "Yanny". If your hearing is not so good, you're left only with the "Laurel" bit.
AsapScience is just totally wrong in their conclusion that the "Original" recording says "Laurel". Every bit of Laurel can be removed without altering the Yanny part and visa versa. They don't intersect.
MilkmanDansays...First play, I heard Yanny. On the last repeat, I "tried" to hear Laurel and was able to, but felt like Yanny was stronger.
Second play, I turned up my volume. I had had it set quite low, I turned it up to rather high. With that, it was flipped -- Laurel stronger, Yanny just audible if I listened specifically for it.
I have my computer hooked up to a receiver with large speakers and a subwoofer.
PlayhousePalsBraggadocious much?
I have my computer hooked up to a receiver with large speakers and a subwoofer.
newtboyThe NY Times tracked down the first poster, an 18 year old kid in Georgia, who says it's the pronunciation of Laurel, recorded through his speakers, directly from vocabulary.com with no layering or tricks.
Thanks for playing.
StukaFoxsays...Yanny, and that fucking dress was BLUE!
PHJFI hear yanny much more prominently than I hear laurel, but they are both there.
https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/laurel has a MUCH clearer audio than this garbled mess of a youtube video. This is probably an artifact of the audio being multiply compressed by youtube, recording software, etc.
b4rringt0nI only hear laurel. I tried playing with the settings and slowing it down or speeding it up but i can't hear yanny at all. The auto subtitles available to me are only spanish for some reason and it says yani
shinyblurrysays...at first I heard Yanni..came back to it an hour later and now I hear Laurel
littledragon_79Are we sure it actually repeats the same every time? When I first played it, I heard yanny, but my wife heard laurel. I tried my headphones and heard laurel. I put it back to my speakers, but kept my headphones on and kind of heard both. Now I'm hearing laurel over the speakers. Must be end times.
StormsingerThat "explained vid" pretty much lost my support when they tried to say those two diagrams were similar. Those two acoustic displays were about as dissimilar as they could get, and still represent single words.
wtfcaniuseNope. It switches for me on the same hardware. Also good headphones will go a lot lower than most speakers especially computer speakers. When you have a 5-6" midrange driver in a "subwoofer" attempting to produce sub 40hz tones it doesn't tend to work very well
.
It all must have to do with your speaker set up, and the frequencies range your speakers use. I have computer speakers (also headphones) which generally cut off much/some of the mid and all of the low end frequencies. I'm guessing if i had good full range speakers and an eq i could hear both. I'd guess if we all listened from the same source, we would all hear the same thing. Although (in general) as you get older the frequency range you are able to hear diminishes quite a bit.
wtfcaniuseCould be a $200 receiver/amp and $200 floorstanders with $2 Chinese drivers. Only bragging if it's decent hardware.
Braggadocious much?
eric3579Interesting possible explanation
Discuss...
Enable JavaScript to submit a comment.