Rules for this puzzle: No intentional red herrings, no oddball (fishiness) methods of presenting coordinates (UTM, for example, or also having coordinates read backwards), and no leaving off the N32 and W97 just to make it more difficult. There may be more than one layer on this puzzle. Collaboration is allowed and you may ask me for hints after there has been a FTF.
Audio related puzzles can be a nice change of pace from your typical puzzles. Most of the time, when I see audio related puzzles, they simply involve identifying what music is playing, and from there, obtaining coordinates from the tracks identified. When working with that type of puzzle, Shazam, SoundHound, or Google Music Identifier, will be a life saver for those songs you don't recognize. Most mobile phones have access to these applications, so I suggest downloading your favorite. Sometimes, especially for classical music, you may have to sample several different segments of the song in order to achieve recognition.
There are also other types of audio puzzles. These include some of the following:
- An audio playback of morse code can be done by enlisting someone who can translate by ear, or you can also use this Morse code listener.
- MIDI is a method of encoding music through the use of actual sheet music (which, notes can spell out coordinates with this method). I recommend this MIDI sheet music generator for simple MIDI file to sheet music conversions.
- For frequency analysis, that can be a little more difficult. I find using a downloadable software application to be best (for visual spectral analysis I like Audacity - it is free); however, there are a variety of websites that will generate tones at a specific frequency for you to match up with a trained ear.
- Another type of frequency analysis is DTMF tones (touch tones on a telephone). You can decode those at this phone utility website as long as the file is less than 30 seconds.
- Sometimes you may need to convert from WAV to MP3, or vice versus. I like to use this site for quick conversions.
- One more thing to keep in mind with audio files is that you can tag audio files with metadata just like pictures. Don't forget to view the ID3 tag info on this website.
For this puzzle I need you to enter the code to the combination lock below. If you correctly enter the code, the coordinates will be found inside.
Puzzle Solving Tools - If I don't discuss a particular tool below in the paragraphs above, you may assume I did not use it for this puzzle; however, it may be useful for puzzles of similar style.
You can validate your puzzle solution with certitude.
A NOTE TO PUZZLE COs: Pretty much anything music related (either audio or a list of songs) can quickly fall into WIMP territory. Is it song title, length, year, month, date, artists, album name, track number, singer, songwriter, or even something more obscure? This is a situation where I find keeping it simple is the best course of action. Also, be sure to check at least two sources when it comes to music information - sometimes one site will show US release information and another will have the UK information.