~Proceedings ICMCISMCI2014 14-20 September 2014, Athens, Greece
Easter Eggs: Hidden Tracks and Messages in Musical
Mediums
Jonathan Weinel, Darryl Griffiths and Stuart Cunningham
Creative & Applied Research for the Digital Society (CARDS)
Glyndwr University
Plas Coch Campus, Mold Road, Wrexham, LL11 2AW, Wales
+44 1978 293070
{.weinel Griffiths.d s.cunningham}@glvndwr.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
'Easter eggs' are hidden components that can be found in
computer software and various other media including
music. In this paper the concept is explained, and various
examples are discussed from a variety of mediums including analogue and digital audio formats. Through this
discussion, the purpose of including easter eggs in musical mediums is considered. We propose that easter eggs
can serve to provide comic amusement within a work, but
can also serve to support the artistic message of the artwork. Concealing easter eggs in music is partly dependent on the properties of the chosen medium; vinyl records
may use techniques such as double grooves, while digital
formats such as CD may feature hidden tracks that follow
long periods of empty space. Approaches such as these
and others are discussed. Lastly, we discuss some software components we have developed ourselves in
Max/MSP, which facilitate the production of easter eggs
by performing certain sequences of notes, or as a result of
time-based events. We therefore argue that computer
music performances present unique opportunities for the
incorporation of easter eggs. These may occur to the
surprise of audiences, performers and composers, and
may support the artistic purpose of compositions as a
whole.
1. INTRODUCTION
The term 'easter egg' in computer software, refers to a
hidden message or component of the programme. The
term is derived from the Christian tradition of hunting for
decorative eggs during the Easter holiday. Easter eggs in
software do not usually have any religious significance,
but like the traditional egg-hunt they may be found in
concealed places. Usually some kind of special or unusual activity within the software will be required to reveal
them. Well known examples include the hidden flight
simulator or 'hall of tortured souls' which have been featured in versions of Microsoft's Excel (Figure 1) [1]. The
'hall of tortured souls' is a small 3D game that imitates
Copyright: ~ 2014 Jonathan Weinel, Darryl Griffiths and Stuart Cunningham. This is an open-access article dis- tributed under the terms o0f
the programmers' office, in the style of the video game
Doom [2]. The hidden game features credits and digital
images of the programmers. It is accessed by carrying
out a particular series of actions on the 95th row of a
blank spreadsheet upon opening Excel.
Figure 1. Screenshots from the 'hall of tortured souls', in Microsoft Excel 95.
This paper will consider the purpose and realisation of
easter eggs, through consideration of their presence in
computer software and other mediums such as TV programmes. This will provide a context through which to
also consider the hidden messages in musical mediums as
'easter eggs'. We shall argue that easter eggs can amicably fall somewhere on a continuum between messages for
the creators' personal enjoyment, and hidden content
which supports and strengthens the message of an artwork. Particular attention will be paid to the methods
through which messages can be hidden in musical mediums, and how these necessarily vary according to the
potential of the medium in question. For example, we
shall see how hidden messages have been placed on vinyl, through unusual groove pressings. We shall also
comment upon how hidden messages can be placed within digital formats, such as through the use of image to
spectrogram software, backmasking, hidden tracks and
timestretching. Finally, we conclude with a brief discussion of our own Egg Raid software components, that have
been created to facilitate the occurrence of easter eggs in
performances with live instruments and electronics.
Through the course of this paper, we shall therefore explain what easter eggs are, why composers might like to
use them, and demonstrate some possible approaches for
doing so.
2. EASTER EGGS IN SOFTWARE
There are countless examples of easter eggs in computer
software, which the authors of The Easter Egg Archive
website are attempting to catalogue [3]. In the 'software'
category, these include video games, applications, operating systems and hardware as sub-categories. The con
the;. which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original author and source are credited.
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