It’s Laurel folks!
From the NYT:
“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…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 hear Laurel plain as day.
How weird!
I was wearing earbuds when I listened. I wonder if that makes a difference.
When I play it backwards I hear “Paul is dead.” Strange!
I heard Yanni the first time. Then I played it again and could only hear Laurel.
Same here, first only Yanni, in half an hour only Laurel. Settings haven’t changed.
I listened to the NBC shows this am, and on the Today show it was yanni, no question. But then on the Megan Kelly nbc show an ~hour later, it was clearly laurel.
Since it can be dependent on what is coming through the speakers and not just your ears, it’s not surprising that if you hear it in different settings the sound can change. I can’t figure out how hearing the same piece on the same laptop can suddenly sound different, but I’ve also had the experience of not being able to reverse the spin on the dancing ballerina, even if I could at first. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_Dancer Today I finally got her to reverse!
Female who sings here – only heard Laurel without a doubt. Can’t imagine hearing Yanni.
Yammy
Sat in my family room with my son and saw this on the news. We both heard the same thing at the same time and I heard Yanni and he heard laurel. WTH?
Laurel is what both of us hear.
It depends on you speakers and hearing. On my iPhone 6s speakers, can only hear Laurel. I think my hearing for high frequencies is pretty good.
The dancer is going counter clockwise.
Even with the pitch adjustment, I hear Yanny. I can’t hear Laurel at all.
I’m very sorry to announce that I had to listen to this thing. Also very sorry to announce that I am commenting on it here. Sadly, I heard neither, nor did my son. We both heard Lelly. Or Lanny. Something garbled, but definitely ended with a long e sound. Now I am going to go do something productive. :))
Here’s my unscientific experiment. I asked 10 individuals (5 women, 5 men) who had NOT heard about the Yanni/Laurel meme and they ALL heard Laurel. One other individual had read about it but did not listen to the recording before I presented it to him and he said he heard Yanni! I myself hear Laurel.
Yammy
Laurel. Only Laurel. Isn’t this strange?
I can see the spinning dancer going in both directions. First it looks clockwise to me, but I can “make” her go the other way too.
I heard Laurel the first few words, then Yanni a few times, and then back to Laurel for the remainder. So I totally get the confusion.