Well, I've just spent the last hour and a half trying to decode the infamous vocal sounds that are in Virginti Tres. The bottom line: it is just 'Francisco' over and over again!

Many have already pointed out that you noticably hear the 'Franciso' sample at approximately 3:23 into the track, but other people began to notice that by speeding the track up significantly, more vocal sounds could be heard. I've heard a number of different theories, but as far as I can tell, it's actually just more uses of this same sample.

Listen and tell me what you think: these tracks were created by sampling certain portions of the track, (sometimes) reversing them, raising the pitch a bit, and speeding up the sample quite a bit, using Adobe Audition.

2:14 - 2:50 (reversed)
2:50 - 3:18
3:22 - 3:30
3:32 - 4:10 (reversed)
4:10- 4:36

In some cases, the sample is incomplete or fades away, but I do think it's pretty obvious that the same sample was used in each case. I'm still completely unsure what to do with the first 2 minutes of the track though.

It sounds like they just took the sample, lowered the pitch a bit, added some chorus panning and reverb, then slowed the sample WAY WAY down. And the samples weren't slowed down at a constant rate either, making it even harder to decipher.

As for WHY they chose to loop this sample over and over again and disguise it, I have no clue. But I know some of you will,,,,

Hmm, those mp3's didn't encode very well; they sounded much better as WAV's! I'll try to repost some sound files tonight that are hopefully clearer...

Yep, sounds like the same sample in all of them. (Except maybe the last one.) Cool of you to do, but I'm still confused as to what this is supposed to mean.

They sound slightly different, but I wouldn't doubt they all say the same thing. However, it just doesn't sound like Fransisco to me... sounds like The System.

And yeah, the encoding wasn't that great.

Interesting. Thanks for posting the samples. The question remains: who is Francisco? St. Frances?

hes saying "france is good" we all know mjk is well into his wines and hes simply remarking on that fact that france produces some excellent bottles of wine.

that's fucking great. y'all should get some commendations for tearing this track apart and deciphering it's cloak & dagger appeal. france is good almost had me laughing heartily, but i chuckled instead and said "ha-heh-heh".

no way is 'the system" being said, as everyone knows tool hates daron malakian. =)

i hear "assist us"

I was previously torn between "assist us" and "the system" but this makes me think that both of those theories are wrong. while I definitely don't hear "francisco" I am certain that was I thought was a "t" sound before is definitely a hard "c" sound. the only thing I can piece together is "the cisco" which makes absolutely no sense.

hmm.

Are you sure you are not just editing the song until you get something that sounds like what you wanna hear? I'm pretty sure you could mold the song into anything with the right programs, like a remix.

No I don't think I'm just molding it to suit what I wanted to hear. In fact, I wasn't looking for the same sample over and over when I started dissecting this, and I was actually surprised when I found it.

I'm not doing any fancy processing other than speeding the song up and raising the pitch.

Note that I'm not saying WHY the sample is there, and I'm not even sure what the sample is saying. But I'm pretty positive that it is indeed the same vocal sample being used several times in different ways.

Having played about with the obvious sample myself and then the time spans mentioned above, I have a somewhat different interpretation of what the voice is saying. Interpreting these sounds is terribly subjective, so I'm not going to pretend that this is the answer.

What I hear is "magister", latin for "master". I'm not sure why, but it definitely makes the track seem deeply creepy to me.

The third one (3:22 - 3:30) definately sounds like the system... 2:14 - 2:50, however, sounded to me like "magister"... Now, I'm just listening to your samples and hearing what has been mentioned, but I don't think it's one clip... I don't hear anything special in 4:10 - 4:36, though... Nothing except some hissing that reminds me of the movie Independence Day...

But I've got a new one... 2:14 - 2:50... Heresy?

Edit: This is a really interesting thread... I hope people keep up on this one...

The same samples, re-encoded to AAC using iTunes. A little bit clearer....

2:14 - 2:50 (reversed)
2:50 - 3:18
3:22 - 3:30
3:32 - 4:10 (reversed)
4:10- 4:36

I've found the only real message http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.ph...CE5C10098B9921

I now hear "Ascisco", which is Latin for "to receive, admit / adopt / take up, approve."

Obvious correlations with JMK's ascension and meeting with God.

It's probably not right but it makes the most sense to me so far.

You know, you might be on to something... This does make sense... And we do know Maynard to use different languages in his songs (Die Heir von Satan, etc.)... I don't know if it's just because I've been swayed by this post, but now I hear Ascisco, too...

EDIT: Did you mean MJK?

It'd make sense for it to be a Latin word as well, seeing as the song title is in Latin.

Also for the guy above, JMK would be Judith Marie Keenan right?

ok first off the guy who said this is the only real message...thats just plain fucked...that audio file sounded like an EVP or sumthing..oyu know like white noise...well anyways

i think i here ascisco also...and that word would definantly make sense your right...i just can't beleive tool did sumthing like this it's outta control it's amazing...I GOTTA TELL PEOPLE!!

oh and you guy's know how viginti tres is 23 of course?...well the saying...23 skidoo means to leave quickly...this is ironic because the song is actually a short sound clip lengthened longer and instead of maynards mom dying quickly it took her 10,000 days....

I think this is her death. Her asscention into the beyond (heaven or what have you).

23 skidoo works with that because she left earth.

hm...i think i found the lyric....but i'm not sure...let me analyse a little further and i'll have it...

on that 2:14 reversed I hear "that's the end"

it sounds like just "thats the"...i couldn't hear the "end" though

That would just be retarded if it was Francisco...that doesn't even make sense

If you can stretch it out even longer you can totally hear it say "you fucking fools"

I don't think it's anything discernable being said. I've said that I believe that it's meant to be the voice of judgement.. something so massive, perplexing, and awesome that one cannot even fathom what is said. It's a little mystery we'll probably never find out, and for good reason.

Also, with the whole Viginti/Wings/10kD sync shit, maybe it's this...

23
2+3= 5
5/2= 2.5

Song 2.5 on the album.. it was meant to before WFM and after Jambi, but they thought the finality theme of it worked better as the ending of the album.

During the 2:14-2:50 reversed I hear "Let us in"

It sound's like Hashish in the regular version.

The Message is clear.

"Ascisco"

It is Latin, as the title suggests it would be. It is the soudn of God calling to the people below him, "I accept my people!"

Imagine that, finally, after 10,000 years in the fire, God finally gives his final edict, the swirling winds, the torrents of earth, and the final rapture.

"Ascisco! I accept my people! You're going home!"

That is the message.

I like your idea much better :).

Yes, this does make sense... But have you listened to the clips yet? I'm pretty sure there is more than just "ascisco"... They all don't sound the same... I don't know if it's just how they played with the clip differently, but I was sure I heard more than one thing in the different clips...

Which reminds me that Fiaap De Oaid actually means the voice of god. So this makes the most sense from what ive heard yet. Thank you Yondo.

Why am I the only one who thinks that you are inventing stuff?

The only VT theory that makes sense to me is that Tool wanted to make a creepy noisetrack to be a suiting ending for 10kD. So they came up with this idea. Why not have Maynard say the first words that spring to his mind, then sample it up or just distort or filter it through fucked up mics and stuff? They don't need to conceal messages. (They got the lyrics for this job). They just wanna make noisetrracks that sound cool. That's all. Remember when "Mantra" was proved to be nothing but Maynard squeezing one of his siameze cats and then playing it real slow? It's the exact same case. Amen.

It's nothing but Pareidolia.

You guys want to hear something -- and you do, because that how the basics of the brain are hardwired. We are hardwired to see faces of loved ones in the clouds and voices when we play an album in reverse. Humans tend to make something out of nothing.

This post is the only post that makes me question my previous assumptions. As of now, I'll stick with my Pareidolia Theory, but I plan on keeping this in the back of my mind when I converse about the subject.

if the message was 'francisco' it might have had something to do with a 18-19th century artist named Francisco de Goya y Lucientes
he had an extensive collection of works mostly portraits but the most interesting i think are the following:

Desastre de la Guerra (Disasters of War) there is a series of these
Saturn Devouring One of His Chidren; it was fortold that one of Saturns' children would dethrone him,
St. Peter Repentant; depicted along side a set of keys he was given as to why he's repentant might have something to do with the way he used them symbolicaly speaking.
Fight with Clubs;
Allegory: War or Evil; he painted a lot of these images on the walls of his house

there are many more
check out these url's

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/goya/

http://www.abcgallery.com/G/goya/goya-3.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Goya

That one sounds like Darth Vader saying "a sister" .

I'm with KlepTIK. Also, "Ascisco" would be pronounced "askisko" in Latin, not with the "s" sounds we have in English. They don't have the "s" sound for the letter C. Also, someone else mentioned "Magister," which is latin for "Master" or "Teacher"...That'd be pronounced like "mag-is-stair," and not "Maj-is-stair" which is closer to what I heard.

But I'm not sure how "correct" they'd have their latin pronunciation for a hidden word. And in case anyone is wondering...it's "Wiginty Tres." All "v"'s in latin are a "w" sound. But I doubt anyone gives a shit, including those in the band.

But really, once KlepTIK mentioned it, it definitely brings me back to that Luke/Vader showdown where Luke's hiding and Vader says, most self satisfied "...a siiisssstaaah."

Anywho, my two cents. Hope my two years of Latin in high school helped?

If the voice in the middle of the song says anything, I agree with the notion that it would be in Latin, and have since I first heard it. I haven't spent much time researching it yet, but it wouldn't make much sense to have a song titled in Latin, whose contents are in English, or any other language for that matter.