We Made a Tool to Help You Hear Both Laurel and Yanny

[mia]

The internet erupted in disagreement on Tuesday over an audio clip in which the name being said depends on the listener. Some hear “Laurel.” Others hear “Yanny.”

We built a tool to gradually accentuate different frequencies in the original audio clip. Which word or name do you hear, and how far do you have to move the slider to hear the other? (The slider’s center point represents the original recording.)

The Times traced the clip back to Roland Szabo, an 18-year-old high school student in Lawrenceville, Ga., who posts as RolandCamry on Reddit. He said Wednesday that he was working on a school project and recorded the voice from a vocabulary website playing through the speakers on his computer. People in the room disagreed about what they were hearing. Some other students created an Instagram poll, which was then shared widely on Reddit, Twitter and other sites.

One detail may frustrate some and vindicate others: He found the original clip on the vocabulary.com page for “laurel,” the word for a wreath worn on the head, “usually a symbol of victory.”

I had to open the link in an incognito window.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/05/16/upshot/audio-clip-yanny-laurel-debate.html?mtrref=www.facebook.com

[LisaM]

1. Yeah, I finally got it to turnover to Yanni!

Even more maddening (to me) was the video of one of the people who was forwarding it early on who wrote it down as "Laurel vs Yanni" and kept pronouncing it as VERSE!! She said "Laurel verse Yanni" like six times.

[mia]

2. That early version of the video must have been confusing.

When moving the slider my Laurel turned into Yerry, but never Yanni.

[sakabatou]

3. I heard it as Yammy, not Yanni (an "m" instead of an "n")