Any seasoned ghost hunter will have plenty of stories about odd equipment malfunctions, but EVP Recordings fall into an unusual category.

EVP (Electronic voice phenomena) are electronically captured sounds that seem to resemble human speech, but occur in parts of a recording where no human speech should exist. Usually, EVP sounds are short, only a word or two, but longer EVPs have been recorded in recent years.

Earlier generations of ghost hunters simply ignored the “static and background noise” and usually assumed that the more obvious EVP were caused by equipment malfunctions.  However, better microphones and digital recording equipment and digital editing programs, such as Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro, have made it possible for ghost hunters to more closely examine these sounds and have opened up the world of EVP recording to serious ghost hunters.

Most paranormal investigators assume that EVPs are a form of communication from ghosts or other entities existing beyond the physical realm of existence, usually as a form of post death communication.  However, sometimes, particularly in the case of shadow men and demons these EVP recordings are not so friendly.

Some people claim there are natural explanations for EVP recordings such as apophenia (finding significance in insignificant phenomena), auditory pareidolia (interpreting random sounds as voices in their own language), equipment artifacts, and simple hoaxes.

Recordings of electronic voice phenomena are often created from background sound by increasing the gain (i.e. sensitvity) of the recording equipment.  Seeking out EVP recordings is probably the most technically challenging area of ghost hunting, because many, perhaps most, EVPs are recorded when the investigators heard and saw nothing out of the ordinary.  Your equipment needs to be good quality and you need to really understand you equipments strengths and weaknesses to get good results.  Also, it really takes patience.