Searching For Sex in Long Recordings

[emmpet8]

I'm not in a position to go out listening most times, so the best I can do is leave a USB near a source that might yield something. For me, that is the female neighbour who rents a room next door and leaves her window open most nights during the summer. The very first night I saw her window open this year and left a USB I captured sex. Sadly, in spite of capturing dozens of nights after that, I only got one extra small bit. Considering the recording may start in the early evening and go on until morning that is a lot of hours to listen to. Particularly when the results are negatives, night after night.

It's physically impossible for me to sit and listen to a 12 hour recording, so I use Audition Spectral Display. I set it so about i minute of the recording shows on the screen and then fast forward. That way I can see sounds that might be interesting. If I do see anything that has potential, I reduce to normal speed and listen. It still takes quite a bit of time, but nowhere near the time of the full recording.

I just wondered if anyone else had any suggestions for the best way of searching long recordings for those magical moments?

[joeyboby5]

izotope RX has an amazing spectral display. Its really good for visually looking thru sound files. Also has some good noise reduction and eq and other tools. I usually use the de-hum and do some EQ to most recordings and it works great.

[emmpet8]

izotope RX has an amazing spectral display. Its really good for visually looking thru sound files. Also has some good noise reduction and eq and other tools. I usually use the de-hum and do some EQ to most recordings and it works great.

Thanks for the suggestion, it is very much appreciated. Izotope RX looks very professional, but I can't justify the extra expense, on top of subscribing to Adobe cc. I do that for quite a few other apps that I use, like Premiere Pro and Photoshop.

This may sound silly, but on top of that, I have a certain affection for Audition. That's because it started out life as "Cool Edit Pro" before Adobe purchased it. As CEP it had quirky and amusing features, like sounds to help you mediate. Not much use to a serious sound engineer, but it did make me smile

[reggind]

I recall liking CEP back in the day. Regardless of what you are using, you are still looking for the needle in the haystack. Sad but true. If you have hid the USB under their bed so the sex will be loud, you may be able to look for loud things and sniff around those areas, but most recordings are made from afar, and sadly, they are quiet. Look at a lot of the recordings on here. Many of them the peaks you see in them are actually cars going by or the AC coming on or something totally non sexual. The sex noises are buried down lower in the noise. I think the best way to find them is to listen through the big mass of what you have. I am pretty sire if you can post the raw files on a fileshare someplace that people here would be willing to help you with them. You can also use your audio program to speed them up. No doubt there will be some walking and talking and banging stuff around before they get down to it. As soon as you catch two people making noise, slow it back down and see what unfolds. If you have a sense of clock time on the USB, that may help too. Look for bedtime and wake up time.

[emmpet8]

I recall liking CEP back in the day. Regardless of what you are using, you are still looking for the needle in the haystack. Sad but true. If you have hid the USB under their bed so the sex will be loud, you may be able to look for loud things and sniff around those areas, but most recordings are made from afar, and sadly, they are quiet. Look at a lot of the recordings on here. Many of them the peaks you see in them are actually cars going by or the AC coming on or something totally non sexual. The sex noises are buried down lower in the noise. I think the best way to find them is to listen through the big mass of what you have. I am pretty sire if you can post the raw files on a fileshare someplace that people here would be willing to help you with them. You can also use your audio program to speed them up. No doubt there will be some walking and talking and banging stuff around before they get down to it. As soon as you catch two people making noise, slow it back down and see what unfolds. If you have a sense of clock time on the USB, that may help too. Look for bedtime and wake up time.

Thanks for the response and I do agree with what you say, particularly when it comes to recording from afar. In this case though, it is just the time factor, as the 'normal volume' sounds you do hear are very clear. I think that is because the USB is only about 1.5 metres from the large open window and the angle of the window would reflect any sound in the direction of the USB.

I am also grateful for the suggestions, as that was what I was asking for. On the subject of fileshare, that would be a big no for me. I would not want to risk any conversations with inappropriate content being shared. As an example, I have heard her chatting on the phone, giving other phone numbers and names to the person she is chatting to. I may be willing to share any moments of sex I catch, but I respect the need for protecting her identity and sensitive information.

I totally agree about clock times and do use them, noting the time I start recording on any night. It is interesting though, as my expectations regarding likely times are not always correct. On the very first recording that I caught her. I could hear them both from 22.00, but it was around 03.30 in the morning that sex started. I would also add regarding the clock factor, that were a few times I did not record the start time, but I have discovered that the 'dawn chorus' of bird song is usually very punctual

[edtraveller]

Sometimes the sexual part is invisible on the spectral graphic. I know that neat, tight patterns are usually some kind of motor - elevator, loud truck engine, train, etc. The talk/sex graphic is far more random and jagged in appearance.
Best way is just to spend time. Not saying you have to sit there for 12 hours. Impossible. In Audacity, the FF button will skip 5 seconds; holding Shift and FF will move forward 10 seconds. Doesn't sound like a lot, but it makes a huge difference. First, if they have people over and chatting, that's very visible and you can burn through that without listening and pickup where you see the pattern shrink and drop off. Hear the couple saying goodbye to their friends. Or.. if you hear the couple is going out, you can burn through the silent portion until you hit a increase marking the door opening and shutting indicating their return. AT that point you have to now take great care. I will listen for 5 seconds, then hit Shift FF twice to advance 20 seconds. I can now go through 15 hours of recording in about 60-90 minutes tops without missing anything. The key is to net out her screams. Once you hit that part, then go backward about 10 minutes. Once you find the opening gasp, you can go back a few more minutes to detect light (non revealing) conversation, kissing, flirting, and foreplay. Then going the other direction to where you think it's ended, go slowly for through about the next 30 minutes - carefully mark where you think the end happened though so you don't lose it. The reason I do this is sometimes, the girl will keep her man inside and kiss and use her vagina to massage him back for another session - those are great recordings when you have two or three of these connected events. Hope this helps! You will find one of these in March Rains in my Hotel Archive - 1-1/2 hours with 3 back to back events. In Members, look for the French Coworker files - he has similar 60-90 minutes with about 2 connected sessions..

[Quadrophenia1]

Wow..... Gekko just gave everyone the ultimate, quick guide to finding sounds. If you're a fan of Gekko's captures, you know he manages to grab full seductions, full foreplay and full sex from start to finish like few others on the site can do. Way to go!

[edtraveller]

One caveat on the part where I tell you to burn through the silent part after a couple leaves their room to go out - then returns a few hours later. Would suggest either still going through it or marking that period to come back to after hunting through your recording for sounds from the target couple you are interested in - because sometimes (not always) you can either get a fainter but still nice session from elsewhere in the corridor, or a very clear sound if you're very lucky from a couple in a neighboring room - this has happened to me at least twice and it's worth the extra time to scour that part as well.

[emmpet8]

One caveat on the part where I tell you to burn through the silent part after a couple leaves their room to go out - then returns a few hours later. Would suggest either still going through it or marking that period to come back to after hunting through your recording for sounds from the target couple you are interested in - because sometimes (not always) you can either get a fainter but still nice session from elsewhere in the corridor, or a very clear sound if you're very lucky from a couple in a neighboring room - this has happened to me at least twice and it's worth the extra time to scour that part as well.

Thanks for both contributions and there are some very useful tips for anyone searching through a sound file.

With Audition I tend to set the display to a minute of the recording. If there is absolutely nothing showing at all, I click on the right of the time bar and the cursor hops to that point, with the next minute's worth of display appearing a few seconds later. That way, I do hear a bit of sound for each minute, which gives a general indication of sounds from the room. If I see anything on the display, I do always listen to it and have learnt to recognise certain vocal sounds. If it's my neighbour, I know her laugh, her cough and her talking.

Again, if it's my neighbour, when it comes to sex, I find that her sounds are most visible at certain frequencies. A lot of her vocals and moans tend to show up most in the 400Hz to 1k frequency range. Any sex related breath sounds are obviously at a higher frequency. If I am listening to a recording I am not familiar with, I tend to listen to everything I see, until I become familiar with display aspects that are not sex related.