You've all seen the people claiming that certain songs played backwards contain a hidden message. Lets play along with this assumption, how would I hide a backwards message in one of my tracks?

List of Some Songs With "Backmasked Messages"

 

The message played forward would make no sense using this method however. E.g. If I say "Hail Satan" on a recording and reverse it and put that on my track, the reverse will not sound like clear English or English whatsoever. In the songs that use Backmasking what the vocalist is saying is very clear forwards and backwards sort of.

The reason I made this was to understand how to make the audio be comprehendible in both directions (forwards/ backwards).

 

Last edited: May 6, 2021

https://atelier801.com/topic?f=5&t=781342

 

Did you do it on a major track that is published? Or just experimented with Backmasking you mean?

Thanks this is spot on.

I'm kidding about the satanic messages btw everyone.

 

It'd just be cool if there was a big track out there with your secret message but only you know. Just like in fight club how the guy was sneaking a few frames of porn into films, that would just flash in a second.

 

Many years ago the concept of "Backmasking" (satanic message playing the song in reverse) was taken seriously: in the past many rock singers were accused of inserting subliminal messages into their songs. These "exhortations to disobey" were unconsciously perceived -so they said-, at that point the listener was urged to perform "antisocial" acts
It was even said that the subliminal message, when combined with the use of strobe light, was amplified: at that point the barriers of moral judgment collapsed and the listener was ready for any kind of wickedness.
here a video of a young man debunking the myth of reverse speech in rock

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 6, 2021

That's all right but this thread isn't a conspiracy thread. I didn't say any artists are hiding subliminal messages. I just asked how I would backmask intentionally.

Because most of the songs that are allegedly backmasked are actually not, reversed they just sound like whatever people want to hear. Besides a few where some musicians actually admitted that they did hide a message in their song. It's all in the Wikapedia link on the first post of this thread.

I am interested in technique. How would one say something that makes sense in english and have that reversed and also make sense in english.

I know the obvious solution, but I can't make a song with only palindromes!

 

Because the human brain will find patterns where there aren't any. In a similar ilk, and predating the satanic panic, people were finding "hidden messages" all over The Beatles tunes by playing them backwards, including the famous "Turn me on, dead man" in Revolution No. 9.

Here's a selection which proves irrevocably that Paul died in 1966 and was replaced by a double, honest:

 

Last edited: May 6, 2021

a song lyrics made only of palindromes: brilliant!
Do it now

Start like this:
..Madam, I'm Adam..

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 6, 2021

It's actually an old consolidated business:
Reverse Speech
pretty an art of its own.

Uh yes, Paul is dead conspiracy.
So, do we know his real name now?
Honestly, I don't care. Great artist even if double.

 

Here you go (starts 1:03):

 

Light years ahead
my head exploded
this is Art

Update:
I downloaded and reversed this song, to test if the palindromes are also understandable in reverse.
This is the result:

well...

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 7, 2021

use a live reverse effect like in Helix, will give instant results

 

This is how the trick came about:

When pop music was in its infancy (and it still is dominated by infants, frankly) you had this quartet of fine young men from Liverpool who liked to call themselves "Beetles", misspelled however as "Beatles" and pronounced as the German word for "dicks" (= "Piedels"). Anyway these guys had never heard of coffee and tobacco so they slobbered gin and smoked pot. But all the while they recorded and played guitars, as well. So one hapful day one of them loaded a tape onto a multitracker while another one would sit at the ready with a serious guitar on his knee, to add an extra touch to a previously recorded tune by way of a "solo overdub". All said and done when the tape was ready and replayed a few times they all began to wonder what had happened to the guitar solo. It sounded all backwards! An expert engineer was called in who after a few hours determined that they must have fed the tape "tail first" onto the tracking machine! Those Beetles had been stoned out of their wits, experimenting with a new arrangment. So, long story short, they decided to hide their justified embarrassment and tried to cover up their goof by adding spoken word and some singing to unfinished projects, intentionally loading the tapes up the wrong way, tail first, onto the recorders. They had such a huge following no-one dared criticize the finished record which therefore went to #1 a week before it was released. So this is the story of the "Summer of 1967" song-creation style some still aptly refer to as "rather backward".



[EDIT:]
P.S.: In older pictures of the band performing you may even spot the bass player holding his axe quite the wrong way around. Anything for a giggle of course.

 

Last edited: May 8, 2021

Exactly, I think it is really a tedious work, but there is no way out unless someone comes up with a specialized app that has a lookup translation library, but even in that case it would take a lot of time to get a full meaning, proper sentence in both directions.
I must admit that the above "Gratitude" is really an impressive effort, unless it's just luck...

"Fight Club" stinger was a clearly intentional visible "artifact", not what intended originally.
However, subliminals turned out to be uneffective, and same for the claimed psych effect of reverse speech (backmasking), despite the urban legends heard about it (suicides, killings - actually unrelated - after listening to "satanic" records).

Still, a wonderful marketing campaign.