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Hi there everyone.
I been working incredibly hard to create simple sessions using Mind Workstation. Has anyone got any hints, tips or general information about techniques to create visually impressive mind art? Frequencies, colours, ramping etc. Any help would be very much appreciated and I'm sure of benefit to the Kasina & Mind Workstation community.
Regards From the UK
Kirk
Hi Kirk,
I'm glad you asked :) It is an evolving art form with much room for new discoveries. I learn something of value in most every session.
Here are some tips that have immediate impact on your creations.
First, if you don't have the DeepVision glasses, then if you can afford them, buy them. That is not a sales pitch. In my mind, they have established themselves as a necessary tool. It took so much longer and was much less fun to design before we created them. Even if the intent is closed eye visuals, it is useful to work with the DV for the bulk of creation process, then adjust the session afterwards. With these glasses you can see the colors that are being produced, your eyes don't have to make constant adjustments between very low light (dark) and computer screen light, patterns are much more apparent and quick to see compared to having to 'settle' into the illumination with closed eyes... etc. Big, big difference.
Focus on 2 contrasting colors in early work. Red and green, red and blue, blue and green, cyan and magenta are good pairings. Red and green are easy to achieve.
Mostly use the Advanced Spectrastrobe color sets in Mind Workstation. You have more control.
Create 2 entrainment tracks and assign a color to each one. Slight frequency offsets create great visuals. Offsets between 0.1hz and 0.7hz is an example range. So have 10hz on one ent. track and 10.1 on the other. You can use formulas if you want to keep them in sync with changing ramps. This technique is really powerful.
Change the modulation waveform from a sine (default) to a square wave. The harmonics in a square wave are important for complex visuals. Create some custom waveforms that have smaller duty cycles. A square wave has a 50% duty cycle. It is on the same amount of time that it is off. Shorten the on time in the MWS visual wave editor. This creates more intense flicker.
Generally, keep in the alpha to beta range for geometry. 10hz to 24hz, which the most fruitful around 13 to 18.
Use the Node Generator to add randomness. Make the ramps for frequency say at 0.5minutes while you are discovering what settings do, and then shorten them for more extreme variations. Play through parts of a randomized session, discovering the areas that have the best results. Take note of those settings. Then build sessions from that. It is an iterative process.
Randomness is good for brightness in the interplay between colors too. It keeps things interesting.
Alright, enough for now. That is plenty to experiment. I could go a lot further.
Let me know how this works out for you.
Best,
Scott
Hi there.
Thank you so much for all that information, it was superb.
First off, the DV glasses. I can't find anywhere in the UK that sells them, even the official UK distributor page doesn't mention them. If you know of any suppliers let me know or I'll order them through the States and no doubt get whacked with a 20% tax charge on top :o(.
After watching your tutorials the other day about the advanced spectrastrobe controls, I found that very useful for making global adjustments to each track. What are your thoughts on color balancing when using the device primary for mind art (thinking about it, I guess the same applies.
I found that the use of color between the two eyes makes a massive difference. I cheated a bit by having one track predominantly lighter than the other. At higher frequencies I found that a big change in luminosity made a big change in the effect.
As you suggested, I offset the two tracks by using the formula function. Just a very simple expression to start with; value +0.1 but it did make a big difference. The formula tools seem incredibly powerful and having worked with excel for years, I think I will be able to get my head around it. After looking through the use of variables and IF statements I am beginning to think that so many effects could be animated or initiated by the volume of the accompanying sound track.
I have used the ramdomise function an awful lot for generating ramps and steps and then tweaking them until a desired effect is achieved. Ive been on the software for about ten hours today, only used it a few times before so don't think I'm doing too bad :hello2:
When I'm a bit happier with the finished result, I'll post on here as well as the KASINA sessions forum with all the files, workstation master and a technical explanation.
One thing I did wonder; If I see a particular pattern sequence at any given time, I'm assuming someone else will probably see something different. Bit worrying that. I may think it's superb while someone else may not see a darn thing.
Right, I had better carry on working with the file.
Thanks again for your help. When I'm feeling a little more confident, I'll happily post some narrated screen cast files or .PDF guides that may be of benefit to other 'Sound & Light Engineers'.
Regards
Kirk
A Draft of Drafts.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/us76rat8oe...0Fade.mp3?dl=0
For the mp3 version
or
https://www.dropbox.com/s/fjfmqhbd5t...0Fade.wav?dl=0
For the .wav version
This really is a very rough work in places so please people, don't expect it to be a finished masterpiece! :o)
Regards
Kirk
Well, I looked back at how I had constructed that session and realised I had done everything completely wrong!
Think I'm back on track now though.
Regards
Kirk
I just watched it and it is a nice outline. You start to get some solid patterns toward the end. Usually I work in phases which is what I imagine that you are doing. I add the base layers with entrainment and patterns. Establish a color palette like you are doing. Then I come back and add 'punctuation' elements that define strong song transitions and sections.
How I really work in many cases with music (as contrasted with drones or nature tracks) is I use an envelope generator to sync the light pulses with the audio track. This is basically a controllable color organ. The MuLab files on the Kasina card or here under Kasina Additional Software. http://mindplacesupport.com/kasina-support/ is a free way. If you have audio DAW experience there are other ways and tools.
MuLab is a bit to learn up front, but for the Kasina Effect files you don't have to use much of it, in fact in the free MuLab version you are limited. But the time you invest learning how to do this will save you immense amounts of time in creating sessions. With a few parameter tweaks you can get like 60% of a great session in just a few minutes.
After doing the color organ thing I establish the 'entrainment' layers which is what you are currently doing. Then for my punctuation I have a pretty large library of short saved SS patterns which I browse through and mix in.
It is a good idea in time to build up your own library of patterns. I do need to make a video on how to do this but it will be a little bit on that as I have other pressing concerns.
BTW, what 'level' of Mind Workstation do you have?
Keep up the good work!
Best,
Scott
Hi Kirk,
I hope I didn't discourage you somehow. I often wonder about this as people get all enthused and then suddenly disappear. Maybe it is just human nature of playing with new toys. But anyway if I did then that was not my intention.
Best,
Scott
Hi there. Sorry for the very late reply. I have had to survive without the internet for quite a while. Not sure if you are up on UK news but a lot of us are underwater with massive flooding. It's been hell. Anyway, nope, you didn't discourage me at all! :o) I'm an absolute perfectionist when it comes to making these sessions and though without the internet for a long while, I've been working, learning working and more learning.
One thing that I have found out and I know people have asked but I can't remember where so I can post a reply and that is people saying that when just playing an audio track they get random flashes through their glasses. I also found this and simple solution is to process the audio track first. I looked at an audiostrobe encoded file and when viewed in the spectrogram could clearly see the AS signals. After a bit more playing 19200hz seemed to be the trigger frequency.
I've got a lot of experience of DAWS, Logic Pro and Adobe Audition (pro tools never really did it for me!). I think Audition is a nice halfway house between raw power and useability. Oh, going off track here. I just wish the MuLab plugin was a VST. Dowloaded the LUX VST's but because they are 32bit they refuse to work in audition. Tried audacity and nope, they don't show up there either. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!
I'm using MindWorkstation Pro, Love it. Though I can't help but wonder that it isn't the best workspace to create mind art that is synced to music? Thank you very much for the reply you sent before, taken onboard and I guess that will be todays work :o)
Kind Regards
Kirk
Processed an audio track and used a notch EQ filter and whacked out a narrow band at 19200hz. Job done. No random flashing.
Well that reply got garbled!
Hi Kirk,
Glad to have you back and so sorry to hear of the challenges you are facing. Here's hoping the water will recede quickly and life returns to normal.
Yes, the AudioStrobe signal is 19200hz. Any frequencies near that range will produce light flashes. Percussion especially hi hats in music is the most common source of signals this high.
There is a VST version of the MuLab plugin called MUX. It is really awesome but not free. It is here: http://www.mutools.com/mux-product.html A demo is available.
The reason that the LUX plugins don't show up in the hosts that you mentioned is that they are VST instruments. These hosts only load VST effects (and possibly simple instruments).
LUX is made with the development environment SynthEdit. Only the newest beta version can produce 64 bit plugins as detailed here: http://www.synthedit.com/qa/506/can-...64-bit-plugins Technically they could be recompiled for this but you would have to contact Steve at the LUX site.
Mind Workstation is overall the easiest way to get started with a ready made solution. It sounds like you are getting up to speed with it quickly.
Happy new year and let your light shine!
Best,
Scott