Windowlicker (Aphex Twin) Easter Egg - Hidden Images in Sound Waves of Certain Tracks

Aphex Twin is notorious for sneaking in an image of himself in various music videos, CD covers, promotional art, etc. It's a face scary enough to give you nightmares. But if you want something really freaky, check this out:

Step 1: Get Aphex Twin's cd Windowlicker.
Step 2: Get a spectrograph program - try Spectrogram... or if you know anything about Winamp vis plugins, you might try using the Nullsoft Tiny Fullscreen plugin (comes standard with Winamp full) with the voiceprint turned on.
Step 3: Start up Track 2 through the spectrograph. Watch around 5:27 to see his face appear in the sound images. You may also need to extract the track from the CD to a WAV file and run that through Spectrogram, then you can just look around in the spectrograph. There's some other stuff in this track and others on the CD, like a spiral pattern and such, but the face is by far the cooooooolest.

If you can't figure it out, there may be one of two problems:
a. You have downloaded an MP3. For shame! Actually, the compression scheme for the MP3 will remove the unneccesary extremely soft tones and destroy the image, so you won't be able to see it.
b. You know little about using programs to do work, and use your computer for word processing and unsafe Internet browsing, not for learning leet computer skills from websites like http://arstechnica.com/, http://digg.com/ and http://www.o2.co.uk/. In this case, get a friend to help you.

For more information, see http://www.tp.spt.fi/~cleth/projects/aphexface/index.htm
Note that I did not find this egg - I'm just posting it.

User Rating:
7.3
  7.3/10 with 174 votes
Contributed By: Hornpipe2 on 05-21-2002
Reviewed By: Webmaster
Special Requirements: Aphex Twin's CD "Windowlicker" (note - an MP3 of the song will NOT work... the compression will destroy the images!)
Please correct this Egg if you see errors.

Pictures and Videos

The face viewed in linear scale The face viewed in log scale The settings used to view the face
The face viewed in linear scale The face viewed in log scale The settings used to view the face
Spiral at the end of track #1
Spiral at the end of track #1

Do you have another one? Send us a picture or video of this Egg!

Comments

expectdelay writes:
This egg is by far the coolest of the bunch in here. Once you try it out, it will freak you out. And the mp3 file that i had DID work, just not as clear a picture as the original cd.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
Luxo writes:
I have the mp3 only, but I noticed a disruption in the voice print at 5:27. Shame on me, I should get the CD just to check it out.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
cheekypixies writes:
This is gonna give me nightmares. I was able to use the Winamp plugin as you suggested. Thanks for this - its my fave hidden egg ever! MP3 seemed to work with me - and I expect the CD version would be totally clear.
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No
annuh writes:
change your frequency setting to Logorithmic , not Linear......results won't be as scarry, but a little more interesting....and recognizable
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David Wolf writes:
A useful page on this Egg with more detail is at http://www.bastwood.com/aphex.php
21 of 39 people found this comment helpful. Did you? Yes No


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