Reverse audio game

Reverse-audio guessing games show up on YouTube, in classrooms, and in party apps: play something backwards, pause, take guesses, flip it forward. This page is the prep and playback tool for that format. It is not a destination game with weekly seasons, avatars, or a million-song library.

You supply clips. The engine time-reverses them in the browser. You run the social layer: rules, points, talking over the reveal.

A melody-focused variant is documented separately: reverse singing game. Word-level gags: reverse word generator audio. This page is the generic host guide.

How to host

Local room. Laptop, speakers, this tab. Hide the filename (rename to 1.wav before upload if the picker or tab title leaks “beatles”). Play reverse. Take guesses. Toggle Normal to reveal. Next file.

Call. Screen-share the tab or share system audio. Mute your mic while the clip plays so your gasp does not leak the answer. Players on phones do not need this website open unless they are also submitting takes.

Distributed files. Reverse ahead of time, zip WAVs, send to a teacher cohort. They guess asynchronously. Grade by reversing again or by including a forward copy in a second folder. No accounts on this site either way.

Player-submitted sounds. A guest records up to 60 seconds on reverse audio recorder or the mic here (microphone), you reverse, others guess what it was. Works for impressions and household SFX. Get consent before you keep the WAV.

There is no “start game” button. If a search result showed a fake quiz UI on this domain, it was a mockup.

Clip types that play well

• Famous intros (copyright: see below)
• Movie quotes you recorded yourself by reading, not ripped DTS
• Animal or machine SFX from a library you licensed
• A coworker saying a catchphrase (permission)
• Oidua-style jokes are URLs, not rounds, unless you reverse the word “audio” as a warmup

Avoid: three-minute songs (attention), heavy brickwall masters (reverse just sounds like more mush), files whose metadata title is visible on the TV you mirrored.

Speech puzzles are not TTS; players who type a sentence into a “generator” will be disappointed—reverse speech generator.

Technical constraints during play

One buffer at a time. Pre-render if you need fast round changes. Formats in: MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, M4A, AAC. Out: WAV. Local decode on the host machine.

Speed preview as a handicap (slow reverse is easier to parse) is a house rule. Remember it is not in the downloaded file; if you send WAVs to players, they get 1× reversed duration.

Time reverse, not polarity. A “phase game” would be silent sums; that is a different classroom.

Bluetooth latency: wait before you call “time.”

Copyright and streams

A private birthday is not the same as a monetized Twitch. Reversed commercial recordings still match Content ID sometimes, sometimes not; either way you did not clear the composition. For a public game show, record original hooks, use licensed libraries, or stick to speech you own.

This site does not provide the tracks. It will not DMCA-proof your VOD.

Scoring ideas (you implement them)

• First correct title
• Points for artist + song
• “Name the SFX”
• Draw the waveform guess (ambitious)
• No phones / no Shazam; Shazam on reverse usually fails anyway, but Normal leaks

Keep an answer sheet. The website will not.

After the event, delete clips you should not retain. Unreverse is reverse again (unreverse) if a player needs the forward file and you only saved the reverse—with edge fades, not archival.

The game is the people in the room. This tab is the reverse button.

Classroom versus stream versus pub

Classroom. Short clips, original recordings, written guesses, no public upload. Accessibility: provide a forward transcript after the round for students who could not parse reverse audio; reverse is harder with hearing differences. Do not grade speed of guess as hearing ability.

Pub quiz. One host laptop, cheap speakers, eight rounds. Pre-render WAVs named with codes, not titles. Paper answer sheets. The 60-second mic is for a bonus “record the bartender” round if they agree.

Stream. Assume Content ID. Use original SFX and speech. Tell chat the rules once. Do not rely on this site to sync audio to 10,000 viewers—the stream software does that. Latency means you wait before reading guesses.

Asynchronous Discord. Post a reversed WAV in a spoiler-adjacent way (no title in the filename), collect guesses in a thread, post Normal later as a recording of the tab or the original file. Discord size caps still apply; compress after reverse if needed.

Timing a round

Fifteen seconds of reverse is plenty for a song intro. Forty seconds is a filibuster. If nobody has it after two plays, drop a hint (decade, genre), then reveal. Playing the clip six times trains the room to wait rather than think.

Silence between rounds: stop playback so the next file’s decoder is the only sound. Overlapping two buffers is how you spoil both.

Accessibility and fairness

Reversed speech is hostile to some listeners. Offer a non-audio round in the same night (picture quiz) so the event is not one trick. Do not claim this website is an educational therapy product.

If a player is remote and the host’s speakers are bad, send the WAV. They can reverse locally too, which is cheating unless you trust them—set the rule in advance.