Before listening to EVP recordings it seems there are some things you should know.

First, it takes some practice to train yourself to hear the voices. It seems the ghost voices are created from the static noise picked up by the recorder. White noise, running water and radios tuned off station are commonly used as "sound energy" sources during EVP experimentation. You have to learn to listen through this noise to be able to hear the recorded voices.

EVP experimentation involves a lot of listening.  After an audio recording is made, the experimenter must then listen to the sound track very carefully for any hint of intelligent sound.  Since the recording is often made with a background sound source, the experimenter must learn to listen "around" that noise, or "into" it to distinguish noise from the message. This is very similar to learning a new language, in that you may need to "train" your mind to recognize words that are spoken with a different cadence, and often, at different frequencies, than normally spoken words.

Sara Estep, founder of the AA-EVP has developed a system for grading EVP's. Samples seem to vary drastically in quality and there are three basic levels.

    *A Class A EVP is a message that can be heard without headphones and that people can generally agree on its content.

    *A Class B EVP requires a headphone to distinguish message content and not everyone will agree on the message.

    *A Class C EVP requires headphones, often needs amplification and filtering and will seldom even be heard by others.
Another thing one must know when listening to an EVP recording is that the voices may sound distant, strange or seem to be singing. Sometimes they will have an unusual cadence or consonants and vowels will be compressed or elongated in an unusual way.

The last and final thing one must know before listening to your first EVP recordings is that volume is always an issue. These ghost voices never come through at the same level as a person speaking and often times can barely be heard. It's not uncommon for parts of a message to be recorded under live speech on the tape, making it even harder to make out.

So, get out your headphones and let's listen carefully, realize the voices might sound a little strange or be hard to hear and finally listen to some real EVP recordings!