Brown noise..is it for real??

i have heard a few myths/facts about this phenomonen..it started with south park but i thought it was obviously a joke..lol..but then i watched a programme called brainiacs on UK tv,they actually attempted to transmit it over public tv..lol(can u imagine the consequences)..i had a few friends around and they all started to panic(only 1 toilet in my house..lol)..some were going to go home so i told them i would mute it...BUT i still needed a guinea pig..so i waited until the adverts and phoned my brother and a friend(we were warned that the sound would not be played until after the adverts)..and did not tell them what was going to happen(i thought it would be a bit of fun)..anyway..the sound comes..i mute..and wait for the results...nothing of my brother(but he has 2 young kids and they still in nappies..so he might have had his hands full..lol)..but my friend..his stomach rumbled and he felt like he had to go to the toilet...it was subconcious(spelling?)..because he was playing a game when i phoned and his mate answered and turned up the tv without him knowing and retreated to the toilet to await the results..lol..anyway..it was a semi success...it appears..but not quite the complete loss of bowel control i was hoping for..i have found a few links on brown noise..but dont really know if it is true...what are your learned opinions on this BROWN NOISE thoery

en.wikipedia.org...

www.urbandictionary.com...

this is supposed to be brown noise i think..it doesnt work on me but it only last`s for a second..maybe thats why??

www.ee.columbia.edu...

have fun..and remember to stay near the toilet...JUST IN CASE..lol

Mythbusters tried really hard about this one, but they weren't able to make it work. You should have seen the system they set up to try too.

thanks zaphod m8..just googled it and came up with this

quote
"The story of the Brown Note, also known as the “Disco Dump,” asserts the existence of a low frequency vibration which, when reproduced at sufficient volume, resonates with the depths of the human digestive tract to cause what medical personnel call “involuntary gastrointestinal motility.” Put in less technical terms, the Brown Note reputedly precipitates a loss of sphincter control, giving rise to immediate defecation. Different versions of the myth place the frequency between 5 and 20 Hz, and recent variations claim that the effect has been produced at loud rock concerts."


edited to remove link that does not work


[edit on 11-1-2006 by Heratix]

[edit on 11-1-2006 by Heratix]

Mythbusters just dident have the right set up.
take one part alian invasion ,one part the humming sound the ship makes as it rays everone out of excistance .
mix thourly .and anytime you even hear that humming sound .

Maybe it only works at certain decibel levels as well? The legend goes hand in hand with Rock concerts, which usually imply huge speakers and high noise levels?

PS I will NOT be available for any experiments!

They tried all that. They did low frequency, high frequency, all different decible levels, including "Oh my god I'm going deaf", down to "I can't hear a thing, but can feel my chest vibrating."

nope............not a thing happened to Me.......... It's be playing for over a hour now. I have a 500wat system to. Just had to pick up some things that fell off the shelves other than that................ No crap here

Originally posted by Mr101Hazardous
nope............not a thing happened to Me.......... It's be playing for over a hour now. I have a 500wat system to. Just had to pick up some things that fell off the shelves

other than that................ No crap here

thanks harzard m8....the results are starting to come in..no crap yet..

I've posted on this in other threads...but mythbusters got it wrong. I'm a sound engineer and this does work under the right conditions.

The main problem is that sound waves of such low frequency bounce off things and cause standing waves really easily. These standing waves cancel out the power of the original sound that is being transmitted.

The more bassy your sound, the more your environment will effect it.

Try it. Play any bass sound through an amp or PA system in your house and certain notes will sound louder than others. In fact, they are the output at the same level, but bass nodes in your room cause certain frequencies to sound louder.

What we need to do is resonate the colon at the right frequency for long enough to make it start to 'move things along'. This won't work with everyone...depends on the strength of your innards i think too...

In a completely open space away from buildings with a clear path for the sound to fire accross (like a field where you would have a rock concert), you have a much better chance of getting brown trousers.

You also need some serious dB levels, a really good sub-bass driver with minimal baffling and you also need some poo in the old colon... if there's nothing there big enough to move, it won't happen..

Someone should do a survey of how many people in the front rows at rock concerts need to go for a poo in comparison to those at the back..

So, Mythbusters - you're busted back dooods.

THe brown note exists. ANd I concure that the Myth Busters just didn't use the right set up. I've been to plenty of Bass Clinics where a hot session player or what have you puts on a demonstration. Sometimes if he's hitting his low B string the notes while being played through high end bass cabinets will cause feelings of suddenly having just barely controllable diarreha. You need high end cabs with the right baffleing to keep the fundamental note strong, focused and clear to not be overtaken by harmonics etc... These guys are only going as low as 30hz but even at that frequency it's close enough to compel you to go running to the bathroom after about 5 minuts of constant vibration.

I've found the effect really only occures well when you are sitting either on the floor or on a stool or chair. Something must transmit the vibration to your body without it traveling too much through your legs. which absorb the vibration alot and also reshape the frequency as the vibration moves up the limbs to the torso. Vibrations from air displacement isn't really what works although it can, so feeling the bass vibrate your chest won't work as well. You need to come into contact with something physically vibrating with more substance than air.

Technitians at a few high end bass cabinet companies sometimes report the phenomina while testing out stuff before it leaves the factory. Usually they are sitting on something like a stool that transmit the vibrations more effectivly. The denser the material the better the fundamental note gets preserved in the vibration. Soft materials absorb the fundamental frequency and only let sub harmonics and what have you through over distance.

Also the previous poster is sooooo right about the environment shaping the bass sound, room dimensions usually match up with certain sound waveleangths, usually in the bass range, and resonate with the room making that one note seem louder, and vibrate the heck out of everything. The bane of a bass players life, that and crappy sound techs at music venues that don't know about this stuff even after doing the job for 20 years.

Well, write Mythbusters and tell them to do a remake on it.

What I saw of the setups matched the descriptions of the environments where it occurs (it's supposed to be a 'weapon', doesn't happen indoors, could be used against a lot of folks, is more than just a "weird feeling" and affects everyone.)

As I recall, they were working with sound engineers who did a lot of concerts and had heard about this.

I thought the thread said brown nose is it for real?....Yeah I know it is, I have worked with a few.

I beg to disagree with the acustic expertese of concert sound engieneers. THere are some really good ones out there but unfortunantly there are ALOT of mediocre to downright crappy ones out there too. Having played as a musician on a few tours and played in a wide variety of venues from fields to large concert halls to tiny rooms I can accuratly say that more often then not the engieneer doesn't even know his own room and how to mix the sound. Most of these guys don't even know about the basic physics and theory behind sound nearly as well as recording engieneers and actual Sound Engieneers with degrees in the science of it. THose guys are a totally different breed. It's like comparing a chiropractor with a brain surgen. The show had the equivalent to chiropractors setting up the sound, even with all the experience they had.

Trust me people who work deeply in the more advanced fields of sound amplification and engieneering will tell you that the brown note exists under the right conditions, using the right mediums etc...

i have been more concerts that was good for me - and have never seen heard or read about anyone crapping themselves @ a concert for any reason other than blindingly obvious over indulgence of alcahol , illegal narcotics or unsanitary " junk food " undercooked or incorrectly stored

and i have been to some very loud concerts both indoor and outdoor , and seen some quite amazing " loss of control " eppisodes - most not repeatable

but as for an otherwise healthy individual loosing control of thier bowels , directly as a result of exposure to noise , NO ! HELL NO !

considering the idiotic attempts to " blame some one else " and make financial gains from " deep pocketed " entites that i read every week on overlawyered.com

i would expect to see a lawsuit claimning "i went to your concert and you made me crap my pants " and now i want 5 million dollars "

there are none , why is that - the whining little idiots sue for almost every other incident

it is all very well harping on that mythbusters " did not do it right " if you chicken littles know the " right way " , please demonstrate it

the demostrable science behind such a phenomemon would have weapons applications - and DARPA and other bodies would most likley pay to licence the technology .

ball is in your court guys . shop blowing smoke and make people crap them selves

They did it here on TV and nothing happened, the noise wasn't audible and I didn't crap my pants.

I think its an urban myth.

just go to a Korn concert, while Fieldy (the bassist) is doing an intro solo, or a bass bridge. When that really low bass moves through my body, I often have felt the need to crap LOL

I saw that episode of Brainiac. Bogus, totally bogus. the magic brown note machine was in fact an AKAI S900 sampler and the knob he was turning was the control nob (used to change data values when editing sounds) not the volume control. Brainiac are, to use a technical term, WANKERS.

I had a whole bunch of stuff to say about the Mythbusters attempt, but my 'puter crashed before i could post it.

p.s. if you think it is an urban myth, just do some reading on active denial systems. more like a sound laser than a speaker. ouch.

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
i have been more concerts that was good for me - and have never seen heard or read about anyone crapping themselves @ a concert for any reason other than blindingly obvious over indulgence of alcahol , illegal narcotics or unsanitary " junk food " undercooked or incorrectly stored

and i have been to some very loud concerts both indoor and outdoor , and seen some quite amazing " loss of control " eppisodes - most not repeatable

but as for an otherwise healthy individual loosing control of thier bowels , directly as a result of exposure to noise , NO ! HELL NO !

And this is actually the strongest evidence for "urban legend" status. As you say, there's no grand rush of toilets clogging at every concert and not mass rush to buy pants, etc, etc. It's one of those things that you couldn't miss.

While I had never heard of this before, when the sound cranked on after I turned my speakers all the way up, it definitely startled me almost to the point of surprise defecation, but other than that not so much. Although when thinking about it, I am really into electronic music (read techno for you laymen) and there have been a few shows where the Bass is at such a deep level that I definitely have felt like my physiology, much less my gastro-intestinal, is a bit out of whack. Never to the point of bolting to the WC but I have considered it. (P.S. because I always ask the question, no I am not a drug user so it would not be related to that.)

i think brown noise starts with bad mexican food

i did listen to the .wav and i did pop a little fart but nothing solid.

[edit on 21-11-2006 by cuda]