A Warm Place: The mystery continues..

[Ryan]

"The worst part about life is knowing @Krazy only just heard about this now."

[Prettybrokenspiral]

Remember how people went nuts trying to figure out what the 'sample' in The Wretched was, and it turned out to just be radio interference that got left in the mix?

I'm betting it's something like that. Maybe the ambient noise in the sample was the main reason for including it, and the quiet dialogue was just too difficult (in 1993/1994) to filter out.

lol naaaah, not buying that. They could have just replicated the ambiance melody if it was an obscure sample and nobody would have been any the wiser.

That's the beauty of it being a mystery, I guess: we can each believe what we wish..

[BenAkenobi]

Haha what else is new

We don't want to get there, do we? Haven't you posted once how japanese The Fragile CD (digitally the same as any other press) sounded very different to you?

I'd be interested to hear why you think it's irrelevant to the track/album in general and why you've relegated it to a myth, if you're willing to explain.

It's obvious something is being said six times at the beginning of the track, and that every interpretation we've heard has been deep af, which could be said about the album in general.

Not saying you're wrong to believe it's nothing, just curious as to why..

Something is indeed being said six times, that is true, but i wanted to stress that the words are too few (3 or 4 words) to contain the 8-word phrase that people were throwing around in discussions.
You linked the repeated sample on soundcloud page, similar graphic presentation works in various audio editing software and i struggled to pinpoint where the syllables - consonants, vowels, the stuff we say and hear - falls on the graph, second by second.
After hundreds of repeats it just didn't match for me. The "phrase" i keep hearing is "austin powers, he's here" and it's sort of funny because that refers to a comedy character from the future - those obviously aren't exact words but i write them here for concreteness - not for a textbook answer, mind you!
just saying that trying to hear "best thing about life" got me nowhere.
you might argue that English is not my native language but i think it actually helps in this case. my audio setup is okay, too (if beyerdynamic makes okay headphones, that is)
all i want from this discussion is maybe a discovery of the origin of that old explanation that made in into just about any fan FAQ. maybe we've been hoaxed for 23 years, you know?
i just wanted a little less bullshit both in nin and life in general, sorry if sometimes it looks harsh - i don't mean it to people that never did me any harm. peace everyone

[Helpmeiaminhell (is now in hell)]

Its clearly something regarding Satan. after all, TDS is the devil's music

[Prettybrokenspiral]

We don't want to get there, do we? Haven't you posted once how japanese The Fragile CD (digitally the same as any other press) sounded very different to you?

Not trying to derail the thread here with a petty argument, but I don't believe the entire album was "very different" to me. I know the CD in question (https://www.discogs.com/Nine-Inch-Na...elease/4711019) is a Super High Media CD and indeed sounds much fuller and livelier to my ears than the standard versions of The Fragile do. I stand by that statement, but it certainly doesn't speak for everyone. I have Nirvana albums that are Super High Media CDs that also sound much more vibrant to my ears than the versions I've been listening to my entire life, so..

Truth be told, I have the SHM CD version of TDS, too. Maybe I need to go listen to AWP on that version to see if the clarity is any better..

Something is indeed being said six times, that is true, but i wanted to stress that the words are too few (3 or 4 words) to contain the 8-word phrase that people were throwing around in discussions.
You linked the repeated sample on soundcloud page, similar graphic presentation works in various audio editing software and i struggled to pinpoint where the syllables - consonants, vowels, the stuff we say and hear - falls on the graph, second by second.
After hundreds of repeats it just didn't match for me. The "phrase" i keep hearing is "austin powers, he's here" and it's sort of funny because that refers to a comedy character from the future - those obviously aren't exact words but i write them here for concreteness - not for a textbook answer, mind you!
just saying that trying to hear "best thing about life" got me nowhere.
you might argue that English is not my native language but i think it actually helps in this case. my audio setup is okay, too (if beyerdynamic makes okay headphones, that is)
all i want from this discussion is maybe a discovery of the origin of that old explanation that made in into just about any fan FAQ. maybe we've been hoaxed for 23 years, you know?
i just wanted a little less bullshit both in nin and life in general, sorry if sometimes it looks harsh - i don't mean it to people that never did me any harm. peace everyone

While I don't necessarily agree with everything you said here, I certainly don't discredit it on principle either. It's what you hear, and it's valid. Just like everyone else's opinion of this whole thing. That's what makes the discussion so interesting, if you ask me. It has nothing to do with english not being your first language or whether your audio set up is as good as someone else's. I apparently missed your first dissemination of this back in time and was merely curious as to what your theory was on the whole thing..

[Prettybrokenspiral]

I studied this last evening with a pair of Grado headphones, across four different versions of the album

I'm 99.9% sure "The best thing about life, is knowing you put it together" is what's being said. You can hear it best the fourth time it's recited when the opening ambiance dips to a lower volume.

Case closed, at least in my case. I'm an adult and can figure these important things out for myself, though it's always interesting to hear what other people interpret as to what's being said at the beginning of the track..

[sick among the pure]

Its clearly something regarding Satan. after all, TDS is the devil's music

I've got it!

Now, stay with me...
Has anyone tried playing the sample backwards?

[Frolick Shiawase]

First of all, I took the first sample we got in the OP in this thread.
Ran it through EQ manually in my DAW to try and isolate the vocal part, paying special attention to try and mitigate the background noise.
And the second one was done by splitting each repetition and layering it on top of the other. Six repetitions in one go.
(Third edit: also, I did play it backwards just to see what happened)

Be aware: This is a hard video to listen to
Loud noise, and uneven EQ makes it hard to listen to even for me (and I worked with this clip close to three hours...)

I personally think it's saying "The best thing about life is not important" but I'm not really sure about it.
The only thing I know for certain it says it's what's on the title. Here is the video:

[hobochic]

It's obviously just a random sentence in cockney that sounds more like "When I sing/snort bad lines I just end up hating myself"...

[Prettybrokenspiral]

The best thing about life, is knowing you put it all together..

[/thread]

[sick among the pure]

You're all wrong. The sample is saying "What do your nipples look like?"

[fillow]

You're all wrong. The sample is saying "What do your nipples look like?"

No. It's "Eat your heart out, Stevie"

[Kulerage]

No. It's "Eat your heart out, Stevie"

Come on, guys. Obviously it's "OW! Fucker..."

[muad'nin]

Listening to the Definitive Edition of Broken, to my ears the "field recordings" at the intro to "Gave Up" sound so much easier to make out, now.

Any theories on those? Or just more random noises which happen to form part of the bed of the track?

[Frolick Shiawase]

Any theories on those?

I'll give them a listen!

Also, what I heard was actually: "The best thing about life is not important"
So.... Maybe Trent hid it to have a laugh at the select group of overthinkers who tried too hard to isolate it and hear it? Dunno.

[eversonpoe]

Listening to the Definitive Edition of Broken, to my ears the "field recordings" at the intro to "Gave Up" sound so much easier to make out, now.

Any theories on those? Or just more random noises which happen to form part of the bed of the track?

i didn't know they were field recordings, i always assumed it was a really noisy synth patch that was being lightly triggered or something.

[muad'nin]

i didn't know they were field recordings, i always assumed it was a really noisy synth patch that was being lightly triggered or something.

You're probably correct, to be honest. To my ears they sound like someone talking, but you're an audio pro, so I will defer to your better judgment, every time.

I never used to be able to hear them buried in the mix, but it feels like they've been brought forward a little in this Definitive Edition.

Ah well, probably nothing to see/hear here.

[seasonsinthesky]

You're probably correct, to be honest. To my ears they sound like someone talking, but you're an audio pro, so I will defer to your better judgment, every time.

I never used to be able to hear them buried in the mix, but it feels like they've been brought forward a little in this Definitive Edition.

Ah well, probably nothing to see/hear here.

I think it's just the volume difference. The new master is way beyond loud, and since we're programmed to think 'louder is better' (it's not!), it sounds different that what you're used to. It's also dependent, as with all music, on what you're listening with.

[wizfan]

'louder is better' (it's not!)

Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! The loudness war won't go down without a fight, so let's give it one!

Anyway... we have three versions of this album (original, 2004 remaster, 2017 remaster), plus a 5.1 mix, plus the unmastered version from remix.nin.com... and we still have no idea what it is. If it was something that got picked up by the microphones à la The Wretched, then it would have been very hard to loop like that. And if it is, indeed, a hidden message, then Trent wanted it buried, so nobody but him could understand it. There was even speculation on the old ETS that the ending of The Day The World Went Away is actually Trent saying "I miss you, I miss you".

Dammit. If remix.nin.com was more successful, we'd have full multitracks for TDS now.

[Wolfkiller]

"Please don't sue me, David Bowie"

[Prettybrokenspiral]

The 2017 Definitive Edition of TDS is going to feature a brand new message from Trent buried under the Warm Place mix..

"Boy, that pre-sale period sure spiraled out of control.."

[BenAkenobi]

In all seriousness, someone give an honest reply: how does the vocal loop that is 2 seconds long contain the phrase that's at least twice as long?
I mean, "The best thing about life..." doesn't fit in. I tried reading it with stopwatch, it's longer.

I suspect some wise guy in the 90s when internet was in its childhood thought it was cool thing to put in a FAQ, but he or she lied - and got away with it.
And people still program themselves to believe something they read but not heard.

Why further spread the lies instead of trying to find truth? Let's conduct a blind test for this. Show (rather, play) the loop to people unaware of its "history".

If somebody is sure the loop says what it's rumored to say, then point out on its graph where each word falls.

[seasonsinthesky]

In all seriousness, someone give an honest reply: how does the vocal loop that is 2 seconds long contain the phrase that's at least twice as long?
I mean, "The best thing about life..." doesn't fit in. I tried reading it with stopwatch, it's longer.

I suspect some wise guy in the 90s when internet was in its childhood thought it was cool thing to put in a FAQ, but he or she lied - and got away with it.
And people still program themselves to believe something they read but not heard.

Why further spread the lies instead of trying to find truth? Let's conduct a blind test for this. Show (rather, play) the loop to people unaware of its "history".

If somebody is sure the loop says what it's rumored to say, then point out on its graph where each word falls.

Agreed. Confirmation bias is a bitch. If you can't 'unhear' the phrase, that isn't the same thing as it being the answer.

[Prettybrokenspiral]

In all seriousness, someone give an honest reply: how does the vocal loop that is 2 seconds long contain the phrase that's at least twice as long?
I mean, "The best thing about life..." doesn't fit in. I tried reading it with stopwatch, it's longer.

I suspect some wise guy in the 90s when internet was in its childhood thought it was cool thing to put in a FAQ, but he or she lied - and got away with it.
And people still program themselves to believe something they read but not heard.

Why further spread the lies instead of trying to find truth? Let's conduct a blind test for this. Show (rather, play) the loop to people unaware of its "history".

If somebody is sure the loop says what it's rumored to say, then point out on its graph where each word falls.

Because the line is broken into two parts.

The first part (the loop you're hearing) which is the more audible of the two, is "The best thing about life.."

After which, the narrator pauses for a beat before the second half of the line (the one you're not hearing) "..is knowing you put it together" is uttered, much softer and less discernible, but still there.

Read the comments on Youtube under all the various Warm Place clips and there's some pretty vivid discussion of the matter. Until the individual multi-tracks of the album are made available one day, or until Alan Moulder himself can be cornered and made to answer, we'll never truly know 100%.

But I still believe it's "The best thing about life, is knowing you put it together." You can brush that off based on a remark I made last year about an SHM-CD of the Fragile and Seasonsofthesky can facepalm my posts until he's blue in the face, but neither of you is supporting your theory on the matter better than anyone else is, so..

It's obvious to anyone who listens more than casually to the track that something is being said at the beginning, and it's repeated at least six times. It's not just some accident that we're fooling ourselves into believing.

For anyone who's keen to the matter, there's some pretty neat discussion about the hidden line that transpired at Burning Souls the day the TDS SACD remaster was released in November 2004: http://96.0.6.181/sreviews/display.php?TrackID=28

[seasonsinthesky]

For anyone who's keen to the matter, there's some pretty neat discussion about the hidden line that transpired at Burning Souls the day the TDS SACD remaster was released in November 2004: http://96.0.6.181/sreviews/display.php?TrackID=28

The best (or, rather, worst) of all the bullshit slung around in that thread is the interpretation of Eraser as an abortion. Jesus fucking christ.

[Prettybrokenspiral]

The best (or, rather, worst) of all the bullshit slung around in that thread is the interpretation of Eraser as an abortion. Jesus fucking christ.

I'm inclined to agree. That was a different time back then, as far as the internet goes. We were still six months away from the Great NIN Drought ending, too. I remember on the old ETS and Burning Souls forums, we were scraping the barrel for conversation by that point. The TDS 10th anniversary reissue and the cancellation of the Closure DVD were as good as it got, outside of the usual speculation hoopla.

Now we get at least a double album's worth of instrumental work every 6-12 months, (alleged) definitive vinyl reissues and the claim that two major NIN projects will materialize by year's end.

For what it's worth, I was watching Live: BYIT over the weekend and the version of Eraser on that disc is punishingly good..

[Strohbie]

"The rest of my life, or worse."

[blassster]

I hear the last word as "communicator"

[GentlemanLoser]

Well my 2cent is that I can pretty clearly hear "The best thing about life" a brief pause, and then two unintelligible syllables.

[ziltoid]

I keep hearing " The best thing in life is a bj and a sandwich ".
I might be subconsciously projecting my current desires though and apologies for those who can't take a very bad joke.