Expert: Zimmerman whispered 'punks' before shooting Trayvon Martin

wgal.com/cnn ^ | April 5, 2012

[Free ThinkerNY]

SANFORD, Florida (CNN) - A forensic audio expert who analyzed 911 recordings disagrees with speculation that George Zimmerman uttered a racial slur moments before shooting Trayvon Martin to death.

What the neighborhood watch volunteer whispered as he followed the teen leading up to the deadly confrontation could weigh into the decision about charges against Zimmerman.

The garbled word that raised controversy was "punks," not "coons," said Tom Owen, chairman emeritus of the American Board of Recorded Evidence.

When Owen used a computer application to remove cell phone interference, the word became clearer, he said. After discussions with linguists, he became convinced that Zimmerman said "punks," he said.

He provided CNN with a copy of the processed audio.

[Doc Savage]

He was not a punk. He was a No Limit Nigga thug. There. That should settle it.

[PhiloBedo]

Cool........kinda like Dirty Harry.

[jimmyo57]

what is a Black Hispanic?

Bobby Bonilla!

[avacado]

I’d imagine that cell phone interference is at much higher frequency range than the human voice. It was prpbably quite easy for them to remove it.

[Tex-Con-Man]

But the band pass filter is like using a chainsaw to do trim carpentry.

Let's assume the phone had a full range 20-20K. Using my previous example of a truck door slamming at the same time he says the word “cold”.

The vocal range for a male can go as low as below 100HZ and has some content above 4KHZ.

The truck door slam is likely to have content below 60KHZ and some content above 1KHZ.

The question is, using a band pass filter, is it possible to eliminate the truck door slam without effecting the voice content? The answer is no. Reducing the frequency range content of a vowel or consonant has the potential to completely change it.

A consistent “noise floor” can be reduced by adding in a reverse phase of the same content. For example...sampling the noise, when Zimmerman isn't speaking, and flipping phase of the noise and overlaying it onto the "f'n cold" phrase might clean it up some, but unless it's a perfect mirror match, it won't be conclusive.

This all assumes a single audio file.

[canuck_conservative]

Isn’t most conversation below ~3 kHz, while the noise is high-frequency, like tape hiss?

If so, there’s no separation problem.

[Tex-Con-Man]

Tape hiss...yikes...that's soooo T-rex.

The answer is no. Wind noise is almost always all over the vocal range. Ever see those shag carpet lookin’ mic condoms reporters use in hurricanes? Band pass filters won't eliminate wind noise without cutting out a lot of vocal content...so they just cut out the wind.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Soon he will be quoted as saying “Go ahead, make my day.”

[rolling_stone]

Well most of my experience/training was T rex reel to reel..I was able to filter out passing car sounds that muffled (lol) a speaking voice...I suspect these days one can just push a couple of buttons and make the audio say what you want it to (Ive done that too with RR cut and splice editing-kinda complicated to get beginning and ending breath sounds of words right)I also had to stretch a project a few seconds and did it by actually pulling on the tape (1/2mil)to make it slightly longer.....

[silverleaf]

BINGO

the cops and the prosecutor KNOW from forensics if Martin was shot while on top of Zimmerman, what angle etc - they KNOW if he had bought candy and ice tea as has been stated as his business for being in the neighborhood - they KNOW if there was forensic evidence of a struggle over the gun - they KNOW if either man had drugs or alcohol in their system or on their person

OR NOT

so why the silence??????

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Punks. Coons. I always mix up those 2 words. They sound nearly identical.