In the recording you will notice just how loud the doors in the building are. Our bedroom door in particular falls just short of deafening. The apartment door is distinct, and all other doors in the building come off as low thuds. I found that while closing my eyes and listening to the audio I could map almost every cause of sound recorded.
The first batch of audio is from November 23rd, between 1:22 and 2:02pm.
Immediately I would like to note a couple of things; At no point did I hear anyone leave my roommates bedroom. The sounds from outside the apartment are muffled as they should be, and the sounds from inside the bedroom are clear. There is a cat in the apartment, but beyond a small thud, I don't recognize any of the sounds as her sounds.
There are a series of "clacks" that occur over ALL of the audio, beginning around the 8 minute mark. To Elizabeth and I they sound like someone hitting keys on a keyboard and of varying intensities. Sometimes one clack. Sometimes multiple.
As I went to sleep on the night of the 23rd, I noticed that my television makes small pops for a couple of minutes, maybe ten or fifteen. I assume this is an electrical discharge within the unit and could be responsible for the clacks. However, the sounds do not sound similar enough to convince me, and in the audio for November the 24th, as if to punctuate that it isn't simply discharge, the clacks last well over an hour.
In addition to the clacks are several anomalies. On the 23rd, the sound of scraping can be heard at various times within the room. My mind sees it as a coffee cup across the computer desk, that, however, is me assigning responsibility to something. I found nothing awry in the bedroom. There is also an odd digital anomaly in the right channel at one point. A small beep. Another anomaly is the incredibly faint sound of a water droplet. On the 24th, much the same continues except that partway through, the sound of the room mic being tapped occurs. This could be the room mic shifting, despite it being on a flat and stable surface for an hour prior to the tap.
The motion detecting camera, though capturing nothing valuable, is also odd. It captured us leaving the room as expected, however only one shot of Elizabeth entering the room and then nothing after. Not even Elizabeth shutting down the program. A useless or improperly installed software is my best guess. All three shots are in the video at the appropriate timestamps.
Below I have included the notes I took while listening to the audio, as well as the embedded audio via youtube.
November 23rd:
notes:
Whole recording has a low rotating hum that seems to change in frequency over time.
00:00 - Setting down mic
00:15 - We are leaving.
00:44 - Elizabeth shutting the door
00:50-01:14 - us walking down the stairs and shutting the front door.
05:35 unknown noise outside of room. something getting set on the bare floor? possibly cat. possibly unknown person in other bedroom.
06:30 unknown noise, possibly outside of apartment. small thump.
08:09 unknown noise outside room
8:18-8:20 unknown noise INSIDE room. Clacks. Similar to keyboard strikes or tacs hitting the wood floor?
09:30 Same unknown clacks INSIDE room.
10:24 Same unknown clacks.
10:39 Same clack. Louder.
10:58 Same clack
11:09 a huff? an exhale? very quiet.
11:20 exhale again
11:50 Clacks
12:58 Clacks
13:25 - 13:56 Car engines outside
14:06 Clack
15:14 two clacks
16:24 Clack
17:22 - 17:42 Car outside
17:38 Clack
18:54 Clack
19:37 Clack
19:43 Something being dragged along with small clacks.
19:56 another small drag
20:07 car in distance
20:10 Clack
21:18 Shuffling maybe outside room or apartment
22:18 Clack
23:36 anomaly in right channel. small blip.
23:51 car drives by.
24:24 - 24:40 cars driving by
25:32 low thud. possibly house front door.
25:48 door. possibly downstairs apartment.
28:08 car noises.
28:52 car noises.
32:18 two thuds. Possibly footsteps elsewhere in building.
33:25 car noises.
33:50 anomaly in right channel. a low rumble.
35:04 - 35:09 Multiple clacks of various intensity.
35:33 something dragged. sounds light. metal?
36:30 a small droplet sound? almost inaudible
37:03 a thud outside of room, possibly outside of apartment
37:23 unknown noise outside of apartment. Vacuum? Noise continues for a while.
37:44 footstep in room? Floor creaks under weight (Elizabeth says it is "the sound of the door downstairs" but I don't hear it)
38:08 Thud
38:29 car
38:35 Noise in apartment. Elizabeth opening door.
38:52 Elizabeth comes into bedroom. (2:02 PM)
I listened to the audio from the first night immediately after returning home from work. The clacking and scraping in the bedroom was intriguing. The best explanation I have is that the person in the other bedroom is making noises in the house, however, knowing my house, the way sound operates here, and the clarity of the recording, I find that explanation inadequate for all of the sounds.
November 24th, part one:
notes:
(note: three times in this audio I heard a sound I could not identify and when I went back to the time stamp there was no sound.)
00:00 - Getting keys and shutting bedroom door.
00:20 - Shutting apartment door.
00:41 - 00:43 Shutting house door.
01:08 - Cat
01:11 - Footsteps. Possibly in Apartment.
01:24 - Footsteps in building.
01:32 - Building door closing.
01:48 - 01:53 People walking up building stairs.
02:13 - Car noises
02:27 - Clack
02:39 - Cat
03:46 - Unknown noise. Possibly airplane? Possibly dragging in upstairs apartment?
04:21 - Clack
05:35 - Clack
06:27 - Clacks
06:36 - Clack
06:42 - notably quiet Clack
06:57 - quiet clack
07:36 - Quiet clack
07:39 - two clacks
07:45 - quiet clack
07:50 - quiet clack
08:35 - Quiet clack
08:36 - Clack
08:51 - Quiet clack
08:55 - Clack followed by quiet clack
09:31 - Clack
09:44 - Quiet clack
09:50 - Quiet clack
10:17 - Quiet Clack
10:23 - Clack
10:35 - Unknown high pitched ringing
10:38 - Quiet clack
11:03 - quiet clack
11:12 - quiet clack
11:15 - clack
11:17 - clack
11:30 - quiet clack
11:45 - tv can be heard quietly in building
11:57 - quiet clack
12:14 - clack
12:25 - quiet clack
12:34 - quiet clack
12:50 - clack
13:02 - quiet clack
13:05 - two clacks
14:06 - clack
14:21 - quiet clack
14:45 - quiet clack
15:08 - two clacks
15:25 - quiet clack
16:30 - multiple clacks (three?)
16:48 - quiet clack
16:53 - clack
17:10 - quiet clack
17:23 - Footsteps outside on porch.
17:30 - building front door opens and closes, a clicking occurs, possibly the mic moving because of vibration from front door, but why didn't it move every other time the front door opened?
17:34 - two clacks
17:44 - Unidentified noise in apartment.
17:51 - Elizabeth uses keys to open front door.
18:04 - Elizabeth enters bedroom.
The second batch of audio seems to have constant clacking, right up to a minute within Elizabeth coming home. There is audio of Elizabeth in the bedroom afterward. No clacking is heard. In fact save for Elizabeth occasionally moving around the bedroom and typing before she shuts off the mic, there are no anomalous sounds. That audio I have not uploaded because it is uneventful, though I have it saved.
Elizabeth, prior to leaving again, set up the mic one last time:
November 24th, part two:
notes:
(note: at this point in the day the television has not been on for over two hours. Any clacking caused by electrical discharge, historically speaking, should have stopped sometime in the middle of the first audio of the 24th.)
00:00 - Elizabeth takes keys and leaves bedroom.
00:13 - bedroom door shuts.
00:22 - soft noise
00:28 - chair/floorboards creaking?
00:35 - Apartment door shuts
00:37 - Creaking again
00:47 - creaking again
01:55 - car noise
02:10 - 02:20 footsteps downstairs. presumably Elizabeth leaving.
02:20 - front door of house shuts.
02:42 - indiscernible voices. possibly television in the building.
02:52 - 03:01 - voices again.
03:24 - voices again. This goes on through the recording.
03:30 - scraping
03:43 - scraping
03:52 - scraping
03:58 - scraping
04:04 - scraping
04:12 - scraping. This now sounds like a power tool somewhere in the building.
04:18 - Clack
04:25 - clack
04:28 - scraping
04:37 - scraping
04:50 - pulsing scrape. Again, I am inclined to think power tool.
05:08 - scraping and loud clack.
05:16 - scraping
05:28 - unidentified noise
05:32 - scraping (tool, almost without doubt now. From here on out I will refer to it as "tool".)
05:55 - Tool/scraping? Here it does not sound like a power tool.
07:49 - quiet inhale
08:25 - unidentified sound
08:36 - small clack
09:14 - 09:20 - car sounds
09:26 - unidentified sound
10:24 - quiet clack
10:55 - unidentified sound. Phone notification??
11:22 - quiet clack
11:48 - creaking in building
13:17 - nearly inaudible inhale
13:32 - car noises
14:24 - 14:27 - slight breathing? again nearly inaudible.
14:31 - droplet sound and more slight breath
14:33 - car noise
15:01 - unknown noise
15:14 - creaking and more slight breath. Not to be gross, but if my roommate has someone hidden in their room, they may be crying and/or masturbating, hence the sudden breathing being picked up.
15:56 - clack
17:42 - House front door closes.
18:22 - Thump in building
18:44 - unidentified noise. Exhale? TV?
19:08 - unidentified noise
22:42 - inhale
22:50 - creak
22:56 - scrape
23:04 - TV?
24:19 - TV? Phone call in another apartment? This continues for a while.
30:16 - car noise
30:40 - two quiet anomalies in right channel. small pops.
32:21 - car noise
32:29 - tv noise continues.
32:39 - small thump
32:47 - another apartment door closing
34:18 - car
35:04 - very quiet unidentified sound. similar to droplet.
35:49 - high pitched tone
37:09 - inhale/creaking? Hard to determine.
37:25 - car noise and slight creaking
38:53 - Clacks. Three again.
39:12 - 39:22 - slight breathing
40:14 - TV?
40:27 - car
41:15 - low thud
41:29 - car horn
41:36 - house front door opens and closes
42:08 - two small droplet sounds
42:25 - tv (continues)
44:22 - unknown sounds
44:47 - tv?
45:03 - thump
46:27 - loud clack
46:30 - footsteps in building
46:35 - front door of house shuts
46:57 - Click in apartment. Footsteps.
47:31 - door in building shuts, followed by footsteps.
48:15 - footsteps in another apartment
48:33 - tv
51:12 - tv
51:55 - Tap on mic. sounds like a tape ending, but this is a digital mic. Sounds plastic, which the mic is, but has no moving parts. I have no explanation.
54:54 - creaking in apartment.
55:17 - creaking in apartment, walking down hall. No door has opened in the apartment.
56:08 - Elizabeth opens apartment door. Walks to bedroom and opens door.
Again, I find most of this easily explainable as a person squirreled away in my roommates bedroom. Most of it. The clacking I don't really have an explanation for that I believe. I feel like the discharge is most plausible, but falls apart due to the fact that it is only a similar sound (not an exact match), and that when I notice it at night it lasts under 20 minutes, and here it lasts for a couple hours, and even takes a break while Elizabeth is home. Also of note, the tap on the mic in the third audio and the scraping in the first audio. Again, no suitable explanation that I have found yet.
Of course, the curious enthusiast in me wants to jump to entities and whatnot, but the investigative, over-analytical skeptic in me refuses to accept anything without evidence.
UPDATE 12.16.19:
Last night, somewhere between 3 and 5 am, though presumably closer to 3, I was awoken by the clacking noise. There had been no notable oddities in the apartment or room, or in my life save for a number of synchronities. I had vaguely thought of the audio recordings over the last two weeks, but in no meaningful or thorough way. I had taken note however of exactly what the electric discharge pops sounded like, and had nearly resigned myself to saying that the microphone I had set up had somehow made the discharge pops sound different in the recording, even though that has never been an issue with this microphone (Zoom H1). I had also been half-heartedly attempting to explain to myself the other noises on the audio, to no satisfying conclusion.
Elizabeth and I were asleep. Our roommate was out. I woke suddenly to the clacking. Immediately I knew it was not the discharge pops I had been listening to over the last few weeks. It was loud and quick, as if someone hastily typing some stroke of genius on a mechanical keyboard. It was brief, but enough for me to be awake fully before it stopped. Afterward, the odd water droplet sound. Next to my bed there was a half empty seltzer can. It is possible that maybe a bubble popped in the can, though a popping carbonation bubble and the water droplet sound are not the same. I laid in the dark listening for another minute or two, and then I heard our roommate and his guest come up the sidewalk, into the house, up the stairs and into the apartment.
A short while goes by silently, ten or fifteen minutes and then the clack. Not as heavy or loud, but it happens. Three clacks. Then two water droplet sounds. Only a minute or so later the roommates door opens and the guest leaves, and leaves the house. Then silence for a while. I fell asleep.
Speaking this morning to Elizabeth about it, I noted how it was odd that it happened in the first place, but also that it only happened when there was about to be a change in environment.
Elizabeth leans closer to the idea of it being a warning system for me, based on past experiences I have had.The reasoning being, this is a situation that gives me anxiety, so it is saying "hey, wake up, be aware that there is a change happening." I find the idea romantic, and on the surface plausible, but at this point, I have no evidence for that. The timing is most likely coincidental. The origin of the sounds however I am currently unable determine.
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