SoulSay RSE (Reverse Speech Editor) is a Sound Editing program uniquely designed for the discovery, documentation and presentation of Reverse Speech. While there are plenty of other sound editors available, there is no other tool that will allow you to find and present Reverse Speech samples as easily and enjoyably as SoulSay RSE. This program has been created by the same person who brings you SoulSay.com, where you can find an extensive and exacting demonstration of the Reverse Speech phenomenon like none other in the world. SoulSay RSE combines the unique skills gained through years of publishing 100’s of Reverse Speech samples, along with years of experience as a Software Engineer.
SoulSay RSE has been designed to be as simple as possible in finding and presenting Reverse Speech samples in a webpage format. You can get results using the program right away; there are however some unique features specific to the task of Reverse Speech presentation which will be very useful in understanding first. After reading this brief documentation you will be able to efficiently and effectively use this unique tool which practically eliminates any technical requirements for the discovery and presentation of Reverse Speech.
Describing the overall layout and functionality of the program, see below the screen is divided into a top and bottom window panel, separated by a movable splitter bar (dark gray horizontal bar). The top half of the screen is where sound files are edited, and the bottom half is where the discovered Reverse Speech is transcribed and saved as a webpage.
The top half of the screen is divided again by another movable splitter bar, in this case a vertical splitter bar. To the right of the vertical splitter bar is a convenient listing of sound files on your computer in a selected folder, just double click on a sound file to open it. SoulSay RSE can open and edit both wave files you have recorded and MP3 files you may have downloaded or copied from CD. Edited files can be saved as wave files and also encoded as MP3 files with an external encoder.
Record is opened from the Menu or toolbar and has options such as automatically naming new recordings by date and time. Use 'Open Recording Control' to select the input device (mic or other) and adjust the recording level.
SoulSay RSE contains all of the sound editing features necessary for the production and presentation of Reverse Speech. The Edit menu has the basic commands; Cut, Copy, Paste, Paste to New window, Select All and Undo. The Process menu, shown below, contains additional editing commands needed to find and present Revere Speech: Reverse, Slow Speed, Insert Silence, Change Volume, Format Reversal and Add to Page.
Like the Edit commands, the use of the Process commands is also obvious. The 'Slow Speed' command is used when formatting Reverse Speech samples for presentation and may also be useful when first learning to find RS samples.
The 'Format Reversal' command on the Process Menu will take your newly discovered Reverse Speech sample and automatically format it for presentation. In presentation format the forward part of the sample is followed by its corresponding reverse speech three times (separated by two seconds of silence). The reversed speech in the formatted sample is also slowed down 10%, 20% and 30% each time. The 'Format Reversal' command saves a lot of manual editing in getting Reverse Speech samples in the optimal presentation format. A more detailed use of the 'Format Reversal' command is described later in this document.
Another command on the Process Menu is the 'Add to Page' command. After formatting a Reverse Speech sample for presentation, the 'Add to Page' command copies the sample to the bottom half of the screen where it is ready to be transcribed and included in the currently loaded RS webpage. See below a picture of the bottom half of the SoulSay RSE screen, the Reversal Entry panel.
Above is a screen shot of the Reversal Entry panel after using the 'Add to Page' command to add a new Reverse Speech sample to the current webpage. After typing into the white textboxes the forward and reverse speech, the speaker's name and the date the speech was recorded, the sample is ready for presentation in the webpage.
Within the Reversal Entry panel is the Sound Sample panel which contains the sound sample just added to the page and ready for transcribing. In the picture above, part of the sound sample is currently selected (highlighted in blue) for repeated play (looped). Playing a selection of the sample in a loop helps to accurately type what we hear in the textboxes to the left. In this case the forward speech is selected for looping while we type what we hear in the textbox named 'Forward Speech.' The reversed speech part of the sample can then likewise be selected and looped on while it's speech is typed into the textbox named 'Reverse Speech.'
As demonstrated in the work at SoulSay.com, an essential part of presenting Reverse Speech samples is indicating precisely which part of the included forward speech is being presented as the reverse speech also. It is necessary to indicate the part of forward speech being reversed because often more forward speech is included in the sample then is actually presented in reverse. Usually this is because not all of the adjacent forward speech is clear enough to present in reverse, but is useful to include in the sample because the additional forward speech completes a sentence or thought and helps reveal the fuller mental/emotional association between the forward and reverse speech. The best way to show the forward part of the sample that is being presented in reverse is with an underlining hyperlink.
In SoulSay RSE to indicate the precise part of the forward speech being presented in reverse, just selected the text in the 'Forward Speech' textbox with the mouse or with the shift and arrow keys. When you view your generated web pages, the forward text you have highlighted will become the hyperlink to click and play the associated Reverse Speech sample.
When indicating the part of the forward speech being presenting in reverse, you may want to temporarily 'un-reverse' the reverse speech part of the sample in order to hear it in forward again. This can also be done simply in the Sound Sample window by selecting a reversed segment of the sample and using the 'Reverse' command from the Process Menu (now it will play in forward). 'Reverse' is the only editing command available for samples in the Sound Sample panel, its only use is to temporarily forward-play the reverse speech for listening and indicating the forward speech for hyperlinking. Any 'Reverse' command done in the Sound Sample panel won't be saved but will be undone as soon as the sound is un-selected by the mouse or arrow keys. If you need to actually re-edit the sample currently in the Sound Sample panel, just click the edit checkbox in that panel and the sample will re-open again in the upper Sound Editing half of the program.
Note: After selecting text in the 'Forward Speech' textbox and then typing in the textbox again, the previously highlighted selection mark will disappear. This is normal and expected; when you leave the textbox again, the previous selection highlighting will reappear; the only way to actually change the selection in the 'Forward Speech' textbox is by using the mouse or shift-arrow keys on the text again.
Above we see the Reversal Entry panel again but this time with textboxes filled in. Also in the 'Forward Speech' textbox the forward speech being presented in reverse is now indicated by text selection. By pressing the 'Update' button the textbox contents have been copied into the Web Page Row List which is the white box with rows in it located in the lower right of the Reversal Entry panel. The Web Page Row List shows all of the rows in the current webpage and allows the rows to be selected for editing or playing.
The button labeled ‘Ins New’ to the right of the 'Update' button will insert a blank row either above or below the current row. This can be used when you want to type in, or transcribe, a new Reverse Speech sample before you have copied the sample down from the upper editing window into the Sound Sample panel with the ‘Add to Page’ command. When using the ‘Add to Page’ command to place a new sample in a webpage, you will also have the option to insert the new row either above or below the current row. The benefit of adding new rows above the current row is described later.
The first four buttons above the Web Page Row List provide navigation among the rows in the Web Page Row List. As each row is selected it's contents will be displayed in the textboxes and in the Sound Sample panel. To the right of the navigation buttons is the name of the current webpage, (in this case the file name is the date the page was made.)
To the right of the webpage name are buttons for Saving, Closing, and displaying the current webpage into a web Browser or webpage Editor. You don’t need a webpage editor to produce a webpage with SoulSay RSE, but opening the webpage in an editor with a spell checking feature can be very useful.
By right clicking on a row within the Web Page Row List you get a menu (above) where you may delete the row, move it up or down, or export it or import another. Exporting the row will save it to it's own webpage on your drive so you can remove it from the current page without completely deleting the sample. You can then use the 'import' option to bring any previously 'exported' rows into the current webpage.
Above the Web Page Row List are two textboxes which show the name and optional Sub Directory of the sound sample, (the sample is named when using the 'Add to Page' command). Placing your wave (sound) files in a subdirectory is useful if you are collecting a lot of Reverse Speech samples and want to keep them organized.
To the right of the wave file name is the 'Encode' button which can be used to encode the current sample as either an MP3 or a Windows Media (wma) file. This feature requires either of the freely available external encoders to be installed on your computer. Encoding your Reverse Speech samples is not necessary but useful for online presentation where the encoded files will download much quicker. The Options window (described below) provides more details for Encode button use.
To the right of the Sound Sample panel is the Reversal Web Page List. The web pages created with SoulSay RSE are listed together so that when the web pages are written they will include navigation links to previous and next web pages in your list. This list is also stored as a text file named 'RSEWebPageList.txt' in your working directory (as specified in the Options window.) The 'Add' button below the list creates a new web page and adds it to the list; the 'Open' button loads the currently selected web page into the program for editing or review; and the 'Write All' re-writes all the pages in the list with any changes specified in the 'Options' window. Right clicking on a page in the list allows removal of that page from the list.
The Options window is opened from the File menu. The Web Page Directory option must be set, and when you first run SoulSay RSE you will be prompted to either select an existing folder or create a new folder/directory. This folder is where all your created web pages will be saved, and subfolders from here will contain all associated sample sound files. A subfolder named 'wave' will be created automatically. As noted earlier, you may specify one additional level of sub-folder from the root 'wave' directory when saving your samples. The links created in your web pages will point to the proper subfolder where the sound files have been saved when using the 'Add to Page' command described above. Likewise when you use the 'Encode' button, the encoded wave file (MP3 or wma) will also be stored in a corresponding subfolder off of the main working directory, i.e. either 'mp3' or 'wma.'
By default the web page hyperlinks will point to and play the sound files from the 'wave' directories, but if you want the links to point to encoded versions of your saved wave files, simply change the 'Default Web Page Link' setting.
Just below the 'Default Web Page Link' you may specify which of two optional external encoders will be used when you press the 'Encode' button.
The remaining options are optional and self explanatory. You can choose to specify the external browser and webpage editor, the default settings should suffice for most users. If use chose to encode in Windows Media then you need to search for online and install the 'Windows Media Encoder' from Microsoft’s website. If you chose to encode in MP3 than the 'Lame' encoder is a very popular and also freely available download found online. Associated with each encoder are arguments, or 'profile' settings which specify exactly how you want the wave file encoded, such as the bit-rate. The default setting provided should suffice and you may consult the specific external encoder’s documentation for changing these settings.
The final options allow you to change the colors and title of you SoulSay RSE generated web pages. If you prefer a more customized webpage for your Reverse Speech presentation then you may simply cut and paste the data (HTML tables) from the generated web pages into your own web pages.
A recommended way of finding Reverse Speech is to open a wave or MP3 file and reverse the whole file in the editor. It is recommended that you work on file segments of a few minutes length or less at a time so you don't loose your place in the file too easily. You may want to slow the sound down when you begin listening until you gain confidence in you abilities to identify and document clear and meaningful Reverse Speech samples.
If you do slow the sound down, when you find a segment of speech that you want to save as a Reverse Speech sample, you should always use the original non-slowed down speech for your saved reversal. Therefore, when slowing speech down for listening, always copy the original sound into a second window first, and then slow it down. Now when you find a Reverse Speech sample to save, locate and copy that same speech segment from the original/non-slowed down window, and paste that version of the segment of interest into another window for final editing and auto formatting with the 'Format Reversal' command.
As mentioned earlier, it is essential to the evaluation of your samples to know precisely which of the corresponding forward speech is being presented in reverse (a feature most notably lacking in many other online RS presentations.) Often there is slightly more forward speech included in the sample which is either not clear enough, or does not warrant a corresponding reverse interpretation for whatever reason.
This is how to use the 'Format Reversal' command: Start with the new sample's entire forward speech, including any adjoining forward speech not being presented in reverse, in its own window and in the Reverse position. Now, if you are providing a reverse interpretation for all the forward speech, simply select the entire window. If you are including adjoining forward speech that you are not providing a reverse interpretation for, then only select that part of the speech that you are presenting in reverse.
When you have selected the part of the reversed speech in the window for presenting in reverse, use the 'Format Reversal' command for automatic presentation formatting. The 'Format Reversal' command will first copy the selected speech, and then un-reverse the entire window to provide the forward speech part of the sample. Next the first two seconds of silence are inserted at the end of the forward segment; then the reverse speech segment is inserted and slowed down by 10% followed by another two seconds of silence and the reverse speech segment again slowed 20%, and again at 30%.
Remember to always start with the highest quality sound samples you can get, and always use the non-slowed down sound for formatting your Reverse Speech samples.
Summarizing the use of the 'Format Reversal' command:
1.
Start with the entire forward speech being presented in its own new window.
2.
Reverse the entire speech segment in the new window.
3. Select only the
reverse speech in that window which you are providing the reverse interpretation
for.
4. Execute the 'Format Reversal' command.
The sample is now ready to be
copied to the Reversal Entry Panel with the 'Add to Page' command.
Note: Depending on you computer speed and the amount of speech selected for the 'Format Reversal' command, you may have to wait a few seconds for this operation to complete; slowing speech down while preserving its acoustic integrity can be a computationally intensive operation.
Another note on the process of finding and presenting Reverse Speech samples concerns listening from the beginning of a 'reversed' sound file. In the reversed file, reversals found near the beginning of the file are actually from speech occurring near the end in the original file. When presenting a series of reversals from either a conversation, song or any speech, you usually want to present them in their naturally occurring 'forward' order. To make this simpler to do, when adding a new reversal to a web page with the 'Add to Page' command there is an option of adding the new row either above or below the current row. When working from the end of the original file (the beginning of the reversed file) you will want to add your new rows above the existing rows in your webpage. The existing rows will be automatically re-numbered in the Web Page Row List when adding new rows above.
Alt-F6 to toggle between the three panels; Sound Editing Window,
Audio Source List, and Reversal Entry Panel.
Alt-2 focus to Sound Edit Window
Alt-3 focus to Audio Source List
Alt-4 focus to Reversal Entry Panel
Alt-5 focus to Sound Sample Panel
Alt-6 focus to Webpage Row List
©2006 SoulSay.com. All Rights Reserved.