Cymatic software for AS/SS Creation

I've created and shared an initial version of two VST plug-ins that are geared towards making SpectraStrobe audio content. I've added a VST section to my SpectraStrobe resources page.
I've mostly created these for personal use and for educational purposes, but I figured I would share them here for anyone else interested. I'm trying to stay pretty lean on development effort so these are fairly minimal. No special custom GUI or anything. So far in testing they seem stable, but they're pretty new so YMMV. There are 32 bit and 64 bit versions, but Windows only at this point.

One plug-in generates AudioStrobe and SpectraStrobe control signals and takes care of some frequency filtering for you. From there you can adjust your DAW's audio and panning per track to control the LED signal. Basic audio input modulation is also possible. The other plug-in is a complimentary LFO (low frequency oscillator) plug-in that further allows you to control and modulate the LED colors to more interesting effects, with frequencies ranging from ~0 hz to 100 hz.

These plug-ins do not generate any audible tones like binaural, monaural, isochronic, etc., although I might eventually create a tone generating plug-in if it seems valuable enough, but I figured these would be the most likely to exist elsewhere.

Cheers

Feb 2024 edit...
Note that this original plugins are no longer supported or available. Please visit https://www.cymaticsomatics.com/ if you are interested in what's currently happening with SS/AS creation via DAW or standalone software.

I managed to create Audio Units version of the plug-ins for all of the macOS users out there. Go to the releases section of the repository here and make sure you download the CymaticSpectraStrobeResources.zip file from the latest release (as of this posting v0.1.1).

Tested the Windows VSTs with Reaper and they "just work"! Easy to install and use. I'm sure with Reaper on MacOS it will be just as easy. Never used Reaper on Mac so I'm not sure whether I should be using the VST or AU versions of the plugins, but I'm sure I'll figure that out. (Likely the AU since the VSTs are .dlls)

Can't thank you enough for making these and your generosity for sharing them.

When I get more time, I will try to make a video tutorial on how to install the plugins into Reaper and how to modulate the LFO/Volume/Pan with automation to create SS tracks.

VERY well done!!
:headbang::cheers:

Thanks Andy!

Make sure to grab the latest versions as well: v0.2.0 has dramatic improvements over the prior two releases and is not backwards compatible, so I suggest ensuring you've got the latest from the releases section, always. I also decided to add a basic binaural/monaural tone generator plug-in as a bonus.

In terms of Win/Mac and VST/AU - although you can compile VSTs for macOS, I've not bothered to do this since AU seems like more of the go-to standard for audio plug-ins on macOS. So you are correct in that the VST (dlls) is for Windows and the AU is for macOS, respectively. I'm a little less certain about the stability and compatibility on macOS as I've done vastly less testing of the AU versions, but from what I have tested they do seem to work as expected. The tone generator plug-in may suffer from issues when trying to open the "GUI" (well lack-there-of) in some macOS DAWs. I noticed that something about the plug-in code I'm using has issues with AU instruments when no custom GUI is defined and the host DAW is expected to render a GUI, but the SpectraStrobe and LFO plug-ins seem to work fine since those are effects and not instruments (I'm not sure why yet).

I don't claim to be an expert plug-in developer, but I have dabbled on and off over the years. This was a great opportunity to "get back in the mix" and try my hand at creating something useful. I know there are other plug-ins for SS out there (Audacity, MuLab), etc., but not only do I not really use those programs for audio/music creation, I actually had some problems getting the Audacity stuff to work because they've fallen a bit out of sync with Audacity's latest versions and no longer work "out-of-the-box". I can't comment on MuLab because I've never used it, but I wanted to be able to control and edit the SS portion of a music production in the actual software I use to create the music itself, while I'm working on it, for maximum creative inspiration and flexibility. Audacity seems like more of a "post-production" path to adding SS. Also, VST/AU seemed like more of a wide-reaching standard than something like Audacity or MuLab, in terms of how many people out there would already be using those technologies in their music and audio workflows. I did a search for SpectraStrobe VST plug-ins and only really found LUX, which doesn't seem to be distributed any more, minus maybe people passing around prior private copies they had; so I saw a hole and decided to fill it! I hope others get some use out of it. Getting things to cross compile to Audio Unit on macOS was quite an adventure and took a bit of work, so hopefully somebody out there gets some use out of them!

I've also got a prototype SS "decoder" plug-in in the works that you can put on your master stereo audio track and it will "visualize" the LEDs in a GUI window without having to have the Kasina and Ganzframe glasses hooked up, although I'm not sure ultimately how useful it is, as it isn't a proper substitute for actually wearing the glasses, especially at high rates of flicker. I guess maybe as a diagnostic tool it could be useful (haven't released this plug-in yet though, not sure I will, maybe if others have a use for it).

Anyways I've really enjoyed working with the Kasina and SS so far and am super grateful that the format has been opened up and that some tools already existed to create content. It's so much more compelling than an AVS device with fixed sessions, or at the very least, compatible content that can only be acquired from a single gatekeeper/source. Opening it up makes the device a lot more compelling and interesting to someone like me, and I think it fosters a stronger user community and ecosystem, and allows people like me to add value back into the mix, hopefully for others to benefit from. As an audio/visuals person, it's always fun to have another "medium" to work and create with, especially with something as unique as AVS.

Anyone out there who is looking at creating audio plug-in based SpectraStrobe/AudioStrobe content and wouldn't mind sharing: is anyone still using a 32 bit audio/DAW environment and plug-ins? I'm wondering how relevant 32 bit plug-in support is at this point.

Hi :)
I'm new to this (Kasina and VST audio DAW stuff), so I need to carefully understand how it works but what I would say first is thank you for making and sharing it.

Hi. I'm most interested in the tone generator, as I am about to embark on a new audio-only entrainment effort (see my post here #10). When you say "basic binaural/monaural tone generator", how basic and how controllable is it?

Thanks in advance,

John

Oops, that attempt at a link didn't work the way I thought it would, The post refferred to is the 10th post in this thread... http://mindplacesupport.com/forum/sh...n-BWE-Software

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mosspa

Hi. I'm most interested in the tone generator, as I am about to embark on a new audio-only entrainment effort (see my post here #10). When you say "basic binaural/monaural tone generator", how basic and how controllable is it?

Thanks in advance,

John

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Give it a try! It's free and amazing. It all works really well. I only wish I had more time to work with it more, make some templates and YouTubes. Cymatic has done an amazing and generous thing here.

Thank you so much @Cymatic.
This is great!!!

Hi all. Very new to this and was wondering if I could get some simple instructions for use.
I have reaper and was able to get the vst plugins to show up, but not sure where to start.
I was looking to generate an audiostrobe file from an input soundtrack. Is this the function of these plugins or is it a manual endeavor?
Thanks for any help!

Hello and welcome!

If I'm not mistaken, I think the plugins are for SpectraStrobe, not AudioStrobe.
Did you follow all the links to the instructions in the first post?

Hello and Thanks!

According to the documentation "The green SpectraStrobe tone by itself is the same as AudioStrobe". I did read the documentation and still feel lost where to begin. I assume it is because I am such a noob in this area. It appears the Cymatic LFO can break up a signal into oscillations and the CymaticSpectraStrobe generates tones. A simple example workflow would be very helpful if any of you have time. Thanks!

Alright, I was able to use Cymatic LFO to oscillate my input audio with Tempo Sync and I can hear the effect is very cool! Now I want to create an AudioStrobe that matches the same oscillation. I'm stuck at this point.

Been playing around with these plugins a bit more and they are great!

Would love to talk to others that have used these if anyone wants to chat. Send me a PM if you're interested in discussing.

Hi Everyone,

I've got some news regarding some possible new SpectraStrobe tools in this thread. Thanks!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cymatic

I've created and shared an initial version of two VST plug-ins that are geared towards making SpectraStrobe audio content. I've added a VST section to my SpectraStrobe resources github page.

You can find the plug-ins here. Just download the resources .zip file.

You can also read the instructions of the plug-ins here and here.

I've mostly created these for personal use and for educational purposes, but I figured I would share them here for anyone else interested. I'm trying to stay pretty lean on development effort so these are fairly minimal. No special custom GUI or anything. So far in testing they seem stable, but they're pretty new so YMMV. There are 32 bit and 64 bit versions, but Windows only at this point.

One plug-in generates AudioStrobe and SpectraStrobe control signals and takes care of some frequency filtering for you. From there you can adjust your DAW's audio and panning per track to control the LED signal. Basic audio input modulation is also possible. The other plug-in is a complimentary LFO (low frequency oscillator) plug-in that further allows you to control and modulate the LED colors to more interesting effects, with frequencies ranging from ~0 hz to 100 hz.

These plug-ins do not generate any audible tones like binaural, monaural, isochronic, etc., although I might eventually create a tone generating plug-in if it seems valuable enough, but I figured these would be the most likely to exist elsewhere.

Cheers

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Hi,
I came here to get some infos about MWS, like many, and found interesting posts like yours. And I came to the conclusion that MWS is dead for ever... so I did some searching on Internet and found a brilliant guy who recently created Faded Instruments and who is proposing a VST/AU BB generator for a very affordable price with great features Harmonal Binaurics. As Im comfortable in Logic Ill go with this solution and wanted to share this in the forum !

Hello. I am grateful I stumbled upon the Mindplaces forum and Cymatic SpectraStrobe VST Plugins. I was a Transcorp Mind WorkStation user and have felt lost with finding a solution to create BWE the way I want to. Cymatic SpectraStrobe VST Plugins seem like they may help me with that. The problem I am having is I am a Presonus Studio One Pro (5.2.1) user and I can only get the Cymatic LFO to load. I have tried reloading and resetting my plugins many times with no success. I know Studio One very well so I am not interested in switching to another DAW. I want to add entrainment to some auditory journeys/stories I've created and Cymatic might be the perfect solution. Any suggestions on getting Binaural Tone Generator VST to load? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jairbair

Hello. I am grateful I stumbled upon the Mindplaces forum and Cymatic SpectraStrobe VST Plugins. I was a Transcorp Mind WorkStation user and have felt lost with finding a solution to create BWE the way I want to. Cymatic SpectraStrobe VST Plugins seem like they may help me with that. The problem I am having is I am a Presonus Studio One Pro (5.2.1) user and I can only get the Cymatic LFO to load. I have tried reloading and resetting my plugins many times with no success. I know Studio One very well so I am not interested in switching to another DAW. I want to add entrainment to some auditory journeys/stories I've created and Cymatic might be the perfect solution. Any suggestions on getting Binaural Tone Generator VST to load? Any help is greatly appreciated.

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Weird how you can load the LFO and not the tone generator. Unfortunately, there is a licensing issue with the plugin, and the folks at Cymatic are not putting any effort into updating it in favor of creating a new and improved plugin.

You dont need a plugin to make binaural beats. Make a track and put a tone generator on it. Crank the pan to the left. This is your carrier tone.

Create another tone track and pan it all the way to the right. This is your offset tone.

The difference in pitch between the two tracks determines the beat. A carrier at 180 Hz pitch and an offset at 190 will produce a 10 Hz beat.

If you can't get the SS generator plugin working, then you'll have trouble. You need the reference signal to identify the encoding as "SpectraStrobe"
(See here)

Joe, do you want to generate a reference tone and post it here as a "wav" file (maybe a minute or less, it could be looped for a session)?
Then you can drop that track into your DAW software and use it without having to have the SS plugin.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JoeV

Weird how you can load the LFO and not the tone generator. Unfortunately, there is a licensing issue with the plugin, and the folks at Cymatic are not putting any effort into updating it in favor of creating a new and improved plugin.

You don’t need a plugin to make binaural beats. Make a track and put a tone generator on it. Crank the pan to the left. This is your carrier tone.

Create another tone track and pan it all the way to the right. This is your offset tone.

The difference in pitch between the two tracks determines the beat. A carrier at 180 Hz pitch and an offset at 190 will produce a 10 Hz beat.

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Thanks Joe

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jairbair

Thanks Joe

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No problem. Check out the post I started in the General Forum. I am using Reaper, but the techniques can be applied to any decent DAW.

Hello,
i tried to load the CymaticLFO_x86.dll into Reaper 6.29 (32 bit) without success. Even older versions of the LFO plug-ins and of Reaper did not work.
With 64 bit it worked fine. (with CymaticLFO_x64.dll and Reaper 6.29 (64 bit))
Is there anybody there with Reaper 32 bit and has success loading the LFO plug-in (CymaticLFO_x86.dll)?

Cymatic Somatics is beta testing new software for creating SS and AS tracks. I've seen it and it's AMAZING!
Please visit their site and see if you can sign up for the beta to try it out.
https://www.cymaticsomatics.com

Thanks Andy :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy

Tested the Windows VSTs with Reaper and they "just work"! Easy to install and use. I'm sure with Reaper on MacOS it will be just as easy. Never used Reaper on Mac so I'm not sure whether I should be using the VST or AU versions of the plugins, but I'm sure I'll figure that out. (Likely the AU since the VSTs are .dlls)

Can't thank you enough for making these and your generosity for sharing them.

When I get more time, I will try to make a video tutorial on how to install the plugins into Reaper and how to modulate the LFO/Volume/Pan with automation to create SS tracks.

VERY well done!!
:headbang::cheers:

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Andy

Did you ever find the time to make the video on how to use the plug ins with reaper??

I am trying to learn reaper and the video would help a lot

thanks
trent

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr.T

Andy

Did you ever find the time to make the video on how to use the plug ins with reaper??

I am trying to learn reaper and the video would help a lot

thanks
trent

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No point. The new plugins (now called "Prism") are lightyears ahead of those old plugins. Contact Cymatics Somatics to see about becoming a beta tester.
Documentation for these new plugins is here: https://docs.cymaticsomatics.com/docs/

Andy....I did just that. I will be a tester. Looking forward to some fancy creations!

Looks great! Way overdue, so glad to finally see some new tools.

Hey everyone, we just wanted to send out a quick update on the state of Prism and Cymatic Somatics. We've had a busy year, and will be releasing a new beta version of Prism in Q1. The updated version will be called Prism Studio, as we've added a couple of additional plugins that will help ensure the best outcome when mixing other sound design and music tracks with Prism-created audio.

We've shifted our focus for now to enterprise use cases, where we've received the most traction. We'll continue to keep the Prism beta out in the world for everyone to experiment with, and will ultimately create two license pathways..."indie" for small practitioners, and "enterprise" for larger companies. We can't share a timeline on this just yet, but will give everyone an update when we're getting ready to roll that out. In the meantime, the Prism beta will remain free for all to use.

We'll have some exciting updates coming this year, and will let you know when the new version is available.

If you want to participate in the beta, you can send us a message on our website: https://www.cymaticsomatics.com.

Cheers.

Sounds great! We touched upon this our last conversation. Looking forward to Prism Studio!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Cymatic

I've also got a prototype SS "decoder" plug-in in the works that you can put on your master stereo audio track and it will "visualize" the LEDs in a GUI window without having to have the Kasina and Ganzframe glasses hooked up, although I'm not sure ultimately how useful it is, as it isn't a proper substitute for actually wearing the glasses, especially at high rates of flicker. I guess maybe as a diagnostic tool it could be useful (haven't released this plug-in yet though, not sure I will, maybe if others have a use for it).

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Are you kidding, it would be very useful. You could use your decoder to turn an Occulas quest 2 into a mind machine, imagine the visuals in vr

Looking forward to it! Good luck. Hope it's a success with all the people that need to relax and do some inner work.

Hi,
I just ordered a Kasina unit and would love to use the plugins as I am producing electronic music since 25 years and it would be great to make my own sessions. I downloaded of the website but need a serial to use the plugins when opening in Ableton. Are those still being developed / supported?
I can't seem to find any other software to do that and staying in my daw would be pretty awesome.
cheers,
jens

Hello;

I just checked, and I don't see the VST plugins available any longer, so I'm not sure what you downloaded. Please make sure you didn't accidentally go to a different URL and download something else.
You should contact the fine folks at Cymatic regarding the current status of their plugins and Prism.
https://www.cymaticsomatics.com

Hi, I downloaded the prism plugin from the website that was linked from the old github repository (https://docs.cymaticsomatics.com/docs/prism-kasina). I just received the license for the beta test from cymatics and the plugin seems to work fine inside Ableton Live 11 on my laptop. I didn't bounce anything yet as I am getting the Kasina next Monday. The audio section is self explanatory and I just have to read myself a bit into how to use the light part / what makes sense etc. Does anyone have some links regarding what frequencies, colours, asynchron light etc? Can't wait really but I suppose I will check out the cymatics forum and see what info I can get there regarding the plugin.