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Thread: Help needed creating sessions

  1. #11
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    Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    The Procyon can do 2 kinds of sound entrainment. Isochronic beats which are pulsing tones or binaural beats.

    To do isochronic beats, you need to select one of the color channels in the Sound Modulation dropdown menus. The default setting for these is None. Change each one to Red for instance and the Frequency settings of the Red channel will be the 'speed' at which the tones pulse. Change to Green and Green controls the speed. You can make a different setting for Left and Right but it is recommended to keep them the same most of the time.

    Binaural beats are created when the tone in the Left and Right channel have different Pitch settings separated by a small amount. Usually you will want this separation to be same as the Frequency setting in one of your color channels.

    You will also want the Sound Modulation menus set to None, so that the tones do not pulse. The 'pulsing' from binaural beats is a perceptual illusion created by the difference between tones as heard in each ear in headphones.

    It is simple arithmetic to figure out what the settings in each channel should be.

    Say that the Red channel Start Frequency is 10 and the base Pitch in the Start Left audio channel is 175. That would mean that to produce a binaural beat the Right audio channel would be set to 175+10 = 185.

    You add the Frequency to the base Pitch to get the pitch setting for the binaural beat offset.

    If the Red channel End Frequency is 3 and the base pitch in the Finish Left channel is 175 then the Finish Right Pitch will be 175+3= 178 .

    Tell me if this makes sense now.

    Scott
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  2. Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    Nevermind my last. I hand to fiddle with the port settings.

  3. #13
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    Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    Quote Originally Posted by OldeSchoolWolf View Post
    How do I move my created sessions onto the Procyon. I've read the manual but this is not working.
    Make sure the Procyon is connected to your computer by a USB cable, the COM port is set correctly under Serial Communication and the Procyon is recognized. You will see a green dot (not red) in the upper left corner of the software, a port number (unique to each computer) and the port speed (19200)

    If the Procyon is connected correctly then you can push the Run Segments button and the working session will be sent to the Procyon for preview. The lights will flash.

    If all this is ok, then you can transfer your completed session to the Procyon.

    Use Upload Session to Procyon under the Session Tools menu, then Append if Possible. This transfers one session (the one you are working on) to the Procyon, adding it to the end of factory session list. Normally this will be session number 51. (it will be the next number listed after Current Number of Sessions box in the Store Session in Procyon window)

    You do not want to use 'Overwrite Session Table' as this will erase all sessions and then you will be left with only your working session.

    If you are having problems it is usually that the COM port is not set correctly for the software to see the Procyon or the session transferred successfully but you don't know where to find it. Again for first session uploads it goes to slot 51, if using the 'Append if Possible' command in the window that pops up when you choose Upload Session to Procyon.
    If you know something I don't, speak up! If maybe I know something you don't, ask away!

  4. Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    That helped a lot. Thank you.

  5. #15
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    Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    Glad to help. You are getting there. Once you get over hooking up the Procyon and learning to pick out the important parts of the settings: Frequency, Amplitude and Sound, making some ramps with segments, and transferring to the Procyon, you have most of the tools you need to make basic sessions.

    The other settings are advanced ones and are mostly fine with the default settings.

    This biggest barrier to most people with the Procyon editor is the unfamiliar terms used for the names of the settings. They are accurate technical terms and it is best in the long run to know what they mean.

    However, while learning you can substitute:

    Frequency - Speed
    Amplitude - Brightness
    DC Offset - Contrast
    Duty Cycle - Flicker Intensity
    Phase - Light Channel Alignment

    Note on DC Offset: Contrast is not really accurate it is more so how much the wave is shifted up or down from the baseline. DC Offset is the hardest to visualize. Once you are ready I can explain it.

    Also realize that for everything except Frequency,Phase and Amplitude the zero point is 127. The range of 0-255 has to do with the fact that each of these values is 1 byte in size (0xFF). If you changed it to something like 0-100 you would lose precision.

    Amplitude is lights off at 0 and full brightness at 255.

    Phase is really in degrees so 0 = 0 degrees, 127 = 180 degrees, 255 is almost 360 degrees. The conversion factor is around 0.708 ... so 360 x 0.708 = 255, 180 x 0.708 = 127 (round the numbers)
    Last edited by neuroasis; 10-08-2014 at 01:48 PM.
    If you know something I don't, speak up! If maybe I know something you don't, ask away!

  6. Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    Ok, so when making binaural beats the sound absolutely can not follow the light frequencies? The sounds would be the same through all segments. Do you understand the problem I am running into?

  7. #17
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    Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    By setting the Start and Finish Pitch settings to line up with values in a color channel (as in the above calculations) then the binaural beats do follow the frequency. When you set a different start and finish the values ramp over the length of the segment.

    If you set Start Left - 175 and Start Right - 185 then Finish Left 175 and Finish Right - 178 then binaural beats will ramp from 10hz to 3hz.

    It is just that it doesn't do this automatically. You have to do a little math and enter the values.
    If you know something I don't, speak up! If maybe I know something you don't, ask away!

  8. #18
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    Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    You could also set the pitch to change over the segment if you wanted. As long as you keep the 'distance' between pitches on the Left and Right channel separated for binaural beats.

    You could set the Start Left to 175 and Finish Left to 100, then Start Right to 185 and Finish Left to 103.

    This would ramp the pitch down from 175hz to 100hz over the segment with binaural beats starting at 10hz and ending at 3hz.
    If you know something I don't, speak up! If maybe I know something you don't, ask away!

  9. Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    I've got the binaural beats down. What is confusing me is exactly what effects the brain waves. It sounds like the light signals is what does it and the sound is just there. Does the sound actually help that much? I understand of the binaural effect works but does this also mean that ramping the sound is arbitrary?

    Also, it possible to delete individual sessions without wiping them all off?

  10. #20
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    Default Re: Help needed creating sessions

    I'll split these up for easier reading:

    Light and sound enter the brain through different sensory channels. The information going into these channels can either reinforce or conflict. Generally as you can imagine a measure of reinforcement has advantages. Binaural beats by themselves produce low cortical arousal. More about that in quoted article below.

    The brain is a master at pattern tracking. Everything affects brainwaves. Patterned input has an effect but not in any overriding way as many would tend to imagine. It is more like the 'wake' behind a canoe when you are paddling down a stream. This is an apt metaphor because we can flow along with the stream and gain momentum from the ongoing current, or we can struggle against the current and expend much unneeded effort. Learning to flow is a great key to deep, transportive sessions.

    I'll include this quote from a Monroe Institute research paper (can't currently find it on their site). I think it presents the issues of alteration of ongoing consciousness and the underlying mechanisms quite well.

    --------
    Two decades ago it was assumed that the mechanism behind the consciousness-altering effects of binaural beats was somehow related to entrainment of the auditory frequency-following response - a theorized process of nonlinear stochastic resonance of brain waves with the frequency of the auditory stimulus. Since an auditory frequency-following response could be measured at the cortex it seemed logical to assume that the underlying consciousness-altering mechanism must be some form of Newtonian entrainment process at work. Continuing research revealed, however, that there is no effect-mechanism to support the notion that entrainment of the auditory frequency-following response could occur or is responsible for alterations in consciousness. Comparisons to photic entrainment models are not supported because the EEG signal strength of the measured auditory frequency-following response of binaural beats is too low. At this point it is hard to even speculate that the neural activity of the frequency-following response could, in some electromagnetically inductive way, alter ongoing brain-wave activity.
    A review of the appropriate literature reveals that brain waves and related states of consciousness are said to be regulated by the brain's reticular formation stimulating the thalamus and cortex. The extended reticular-thalamic activation system (ERTAS) is implicated in a variety of functions associated with consciousness (Newman, 1997). The word reticular means "net-like" and the neural reticular formation itself is a large, net-like diffuse area of the brainstem (Anch et al., 1988). The reticular activating system (RAS) interprets and reacts to information from internal stimuli, feelings, attitudes, and beliefs as well as external sensory stimuli by regulating arousal states, attentional focus, and the level of awareness - the elements of consciousness itself (Empson, 1986; Tice & Steinberg, 1989). How we interpret, respond, and react to information then, is managed by the brain's reticular formation stimulating the thalamus and cortex, and controlling attentiveness and level of arousal (Empson, 1986). "It would seem that the basic mechanisms underlying consciousness are closely bound up with the brainstem reticular system ..." (Henry, 1992).
    In order to alter consciousness it is necessary to provide some sort of information input to the RAS. Binaural beats appear to influence consciousness by providing this information. The information referred to here includes the character, quality, and traits of the state of consciousness of the complex, brain- wave-like pattern of the binaural beat (see Figure 2). These unique binaural- beat wave forms (neurologically evidenced by the EEG frequency-following response) are recognized by the RAS as brain-wave pattern information. If internal stimuli, feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and external sensory stimuli are not in conflict with this information (e.g., an internal, even unconscious, fear may be a source of conflict), the RAS will alter the state of consciousness as a natural function of maintaining homeostasis by regulating brain activity to synthesize the integrated binaural-beat stimulus (sensing it as a component of ongoing neural activity).
    Without conflict, the RAS initiates replication of the character, quality, and traits of the neurologically evident and persistent binaural beating. As time passes, the RAS monitors both the internal and external environment and the state of consciousness itself (in terms of neural activity) to determine, from moment to moment, its suitability for dealing with existing conditions. As long as no conflicts develop, the RAS naturally continues aligning the listener's state of consciousness with the information in the brain-wave-like pattern of the binaural sound field.

    Accessing Anomalous States of Consciousness with a Binaural Beat Technology
    ATWATER, F. HOLMES
    ---------

    You can Google for the full paper.
    If you know something I don't, speak up! If maybe I know something you don't, ask away!

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