Spliced together? Nice try, Mr. Starr...

***Correction***
I misunderstood JR's description of his editing of the tape. The only thing he did was enhance the volume so that we could hear as much of it as possible.

I have now corrected it below.

I apologize, J.R. and Aaron for putting out incorrect information.
******


From tomorrow's ADN:

The recording sounds like a cell phone conversation between Coffey and Starr.

No...it doesn't.

Coffey said he can’t remember where or when the conversation took place. Starr said it sounds like the audio came from different conversations or was spliced together. "Or there’s been elements of it left out," he said.

No...it doesn't and there weren't.

Do I sound pretty sure of myself? Yup...here's why:

When I was five I didn't just sing along with the radio, I could already sing four-part harmonies. It turns out I had fully-developed "relative pitch" from an early age with a touch of "perfect pitch" (I can pull middle-C out of the air and find every other note from there - without benefit of a musical instrument.)

I entered Music School in college and majored in piano where I discovered that my sight-reading sucked because my ear was too good. I aced every Ear Traning class without ever cracking a book.

In the early 90's, I discovered that I could not only arrange songs for bands and choirs but I could figure out difficult dialects phonetically (Zulu) without benefit of written lyrics. It was in the 90's that I also found that I had an ear for mixing sound - I did so for several years at Blues Central which included numerous national Blues acts.

Yeah...OK...I'm tooting my own horn. However, it's so you understand that I can hear and interpret better than about 99% of the population.

This is my analysis based on my experience:

o This tape was recorded exactly the way Aaron said it was.

Coffey accidentally hit his redial button. That's exactly what it sounds like when a cell phone is on and in a pocket. It sounds the same as when friends have accidentally called my answering machine.

o This tape was not a call between Coffey and Starr, they were both somewhere together (probably riding in a car).

I'm pretty sure of this for a number of reasons:
- You hear the traffic noise and it's the same for both of them
- There is no echo for either of them - they are in a small place designed to absorb sound.
- We hear the "ding" sound several times for lights/keys/seatbelt. Either someone wasn't wearing their seatbelt and it kept going off and/or they were getting in and out of the car. It was also quite loud which makes me believe that Coffey was driving.
- It is much easier to hear Coffey than it is to hear Starr, which again makes me believe that Coffey was driving and had his cell phone in his left pocket...away from the passenger seat. When I've accidentally hit redial, it's happened when I had my phone in my left pocket and I closed the door.
- Coffey moving his arms while driving, as well as getting in and out of a car would explain the level fluctuations. This is also why I believe the phone was in a coat pocket...maybe a suit coat breast pocket. It wouldn't move as much in a pants pocket.

o This was one continuous conversation

Starr's claim of "splicing" is bogus.
- Yes, the tape was edited because, per Aaron Selbig's producer JR Zufeldt, there were long portions that were inaudible so the volume had to be enhanced.
- The conversations could not be "spliced together" - those "car dings" are a good reference point because you can hear them over top when BOTH of them are talking, not just one or the other.
- The "dings" are rhythmically perfect - which would be hard to do if there was splicing involved.
- Once again, the background noises are the same when each of them is talking together throughout the entire conversation.
- Also, the February 12th date is accurate, as this was taken from ACS voice mail, not an answering machine.

Granted, I could be wrong. But I don't think so.

I'd love to be a CSI for a day so I could use those high-powered listening devices and do more analysis!