Synchromuse Sessions

Hi All,

I would like to make available my first synchromuse session for the procyon. Hopefully some other users will create some sessions and post them.

I thought I'd start a new thread specifically for synchromuse packages. The attachment contains the procyon files and the .RAW file. The mp3 file that goes along with it is HERE.

You'll have to assemble everything yourself, as I could not save an mp3 with the raw portion in the beginning. You'll also have to load the procyon session into your own unit. Please see this synchromuse tutorial for instructions.
Another tutorial from CraigT is here.

EDIT: I've learned that the embedded header works fine with FLAC compression. Download the FLAC file HERE. If you use this one, you don't have to download the mp3, and you can ignore the .RAW file in the attachment. You will still have to install the .PRW files to your procyon, though.

I call this Solar Neighborhood. I know that's a cheezy title, but making titles for my music has always been a weakness. After I put it together, it reminded me of cruising through solar flares, venusian volcanoes, and clouds of blue gas. But the music makes it sound like you are doing so in a space-age steamship.

The music is essentially a drone-like loop, driven through a load of different processors to make a very harmonically rich soundscape. I then used a "trance-gate" plugin to chop it into pieces - essentially modulating the whole piece to become an isochronic pulse. Therefore, if you would rather not use headphones, you may feel free not to.

The pulses start out at 16 Hz, ramp down to 6Hz and then 5 Hz. So it is a nice theta session. The last minute or so ramps it back up to 8 Hz, maybe not enough to bring you completely out of reverie, but that's because I made this primarily for use before bed.

I took great care to keep the lights perfectly synchronized with the music, as entrainment is my main goal. I had to use quite a bit of math to make this happen. So if you're interested, let me know and I'll describe my process. I'd especially like to hear from anyone who may want to help develop a new editor for procyon.

Please comment, and above all, please share your own creations!

Thanks,

-esteband

Awesome!!!!!

Glad to see my "tutorial" getting some use (glad you were able to use it!)

I've downloaded the accompanying MP3 for a quick listen and will do the whole Procyon thing this evening.

Cheers,
Craig

Craig,

There was a problem with my original attachment. Somehow, the segments got messed up when I was renaming the file in the procyon editor. But I fixed it and re-attached it. All good now, though - the attachment at the top of this post is the corrected one, and should do the trick.

Thanks,

-esteband

Esteband,

Many thanks for creating this. However, I was hoping that Synchromuse sessions would simply be in a wav or mp3 track that you would just play through your Procyon in das mode. Sort of simple like Audiostrobe cd's in as mode.

Craig,

I hope you are able to put the raw data file in front of the mp3 (or maybe wav) file. As it is, this proceedure is beyond me.

Cheers,
TomC

TomC,

I could insert the raw data in front and save it as a WAV file for you, but the problem is that it would be a very large file. I don't know where I could post such a behemoth. If you have any suggestions, please let me know and I'd be happy to do it.

You would still need to upload the procyon session to your unit before playing the music in DAS mode. Unfortunately, that's a limitation of the synchromuse system.

-esteband

Esteband,

I guess once you have added the raw file to the wav file you could then convert this to mp3 (at say, 320 kbps). This should be a lot smaller (~ the same size as the mp3 file you already posted). I could then run this file through my procyon via mp3 palyer, or convert it back to wav and burn a cd.

Pity about have to actually load the session on the Procyon. I guess I thought that the raw data did this. Anyway, I don't think I'd have any problems doing this at least.

So, to run all this (after loading the session into procyon) do you start by turning the procyon on, then go to the session you imported, then select das mode, and finally pipe the mp3/wav file through the ext?

Thanks and I look forward to finally trying this.

Best cheers,
TomC

Unfortunately, something about the mp3 conversion process distorts the header, so it does not work. I attached the header using software called Sony Soundforge. That software would not even let me save it as an mp3 without first disposing of the header. It would, however, let me save a WAV file with the header intact.

I then tried to convert that WAV file to an mp3 using a separate encoder software, but when I did so, the resulting file could not control the procyon.

So it seems clear to me that the header info in the beginning of the file does not do well with compression. I might take a stab at some different compression types tonight, such as OGG and FLAC. But for now, the only way around this limitation is to just attach the header yourself.

Your summary of the steps is correct, except that you don't have to go to the session you just imported. After successfully transfering the new session, just put the procyon in DAS mode, and then play the audio file (with header) from your computer, CD or whatever device you have connected to the procyon's auxilliary jack.

One other word of advice: I find that if I start the file at a low volume, the procyon seems not to "hear" the header. So I turn up the volume quite loud, hit 'play', and wait for the ganzframes to start flashing. Once they've started, I can turn the volume down to a comfortable level.

-esteband

esteband,

Thanks for creating the first Synchromuse session. If the uncompressed wave with the header could be uploaded that would make it a lot easier for everyone. It may sound a bit better too.

Uploading the session to the procyon is very easy... Adding the header info with the audio program is a lot more difficult. Too bad it didn't work with the mp3.

For the wav file with the proper header included, I would suggest this service to upload the file:
mediafire.com

I mediafire once before and it was very easy to create an account and then upload a file. (You may not actually need to create an account.) I believe it will accept up to a 200mb file. Its also quite fast. The only downside is that it will probably disappear if nobody downloads it for 2 months but maybe that won't happen...

Anyways, thanks again - looking forward to trying it out!

Good news. The header works just fine with FLAC compression. Another benefit is theoretically better audio quality than mp3. For those who do not have an audio editor to paste in the header yourselves, please download the header-embedded audio from the 1st post.

This may be an unusual audio codec for some of you, but many current media players (such as winamp) will have no problem with it, and likewise, burning CDs will not be an issue if you have a relatively current copy of Nero or whatever. However, from my 10 minutes of research prior to posting this, I fear that iTunes and iPod are incompatible with FLAC, as apple uses their own proprietary lossless compression scheme.

MindMachineFun mentioned that mediafire may delete the file after a few months if there are not enough downloads. If future readers of this post want to download the file, but find the link doesn't work, please PM me and I will repost it. Or admins, is there room on the forum's servers to hold large audio files?

Enjoy!

-esteband

If the file seems to work well for everyone that tries it, I have no problem putting it up on the support site with a link here.

Let me know if it seems to be valid and working for everyone.

OGG may be another possibility of a lossless format as is MP4 lossless and WMV lossless. I think that anyone looking to do this should be able to figure out how to play a flac. We can put some links to codecs and players if need be.

I tried the. Flac with the application foobar 2000 and everything works perfectly for me. Esteband thank you for your work.

Esteband,

Got it to work fine as well. Many thanks for my first synchromuse session. Hope it's the first of many!

Just an aside; The Wave file I burnt to CD also seems to play in AS analogue mode (on all my mindplace machines). Only 2 light channels though, but still pretty good. Wonder why?

Cheers,
TomC

Great, I'm glad it's working for you guys.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TomC

The Wave file I burnt to CD also seems to play in AS analogue mode (on all my mindplace machines). Only 2 light channels though, but still pretty good. Wonder why?

---

From what I understand about audiostrobe, the LEDs respond to audio frequencies in the 19kHz range, which is almost out of the range of human hearing. Although I did not deliberately encode my track with audiostrobe signals, I did use some harmonic processing, which (like an EQ) probably boosted the higher harmonics which happen to fall around 19kHz. Hope that makes sense. I'll have to try it out myself.

-esteband

I finally got around to uploading the file to our servers.

I updated the link in the first post.

Andy/Craig,

Would it be posisble to post a download of the synchromuse session that the tutorial is supposed to produce (but I will probably never be able to do!)?

Thanks and cheers,
TomC

Review:

After 3 years, someone finally made a real synchromuse track! Its called "Solar Neighborhood" created by esteband and its a whole lotta fun.

Actually, its more than just "fun". You see, most of the audiostrobe CDs I've tried seem to be made with the music in mind first and then someone puts a light show on top of the soundtrack. In essense they are made for entertainment not entrainment and don't really entrain the brain to any particular frequency. But Solar Neighborhood is more like the included programs in the Procyon in that it seems to have a purpose. The slow ramp down from 16hz to 5hz really works to entrain the brain to an extremely relaxing state. The lights were very well synchonized with the music unlike many of the audiostrobe CDs. The music itself was very relaxing. Its actually somewhere between music and the standard clicks of a normal mind machine program - a refreshing change of pace. The three colors were much richer than just two colors with audiostrobe. It seems the color selection ampified the entrainment as opposed to just being entertaining.

During the session, as it progressively brought me deeper into a theta state, I would easily go more and more into a dreamlike state. This is similar to the "Night Voyage" programs but I like the music a lot more than just the clicks. When it was all finished, I knew it was good because I could even feel the tips of my fingers were relaxed. And then I just chilled there for the next half hour in a daydream state. This was the exact reason I bought the procyon in the first place - relaxation from the stresses of modern life. I have a feeling I might be using Solar Neighborhood more often before bed than the built in programs...

Thanks esteband. Solar Neighborhood was a fantastic "first synchromuse track."

MindMachineFun


:hello2: :eusa_clap: :) :D :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TomC

Andy/Craig,

Would it be posisble to post a download of the synchromuse session that the tutorial is supposed to produce (but I will probably never be able to do!)?

Thanks and cheers,
TomC

---

Someone will have to run the tutorial to do that. I don't have the finished file.
Craig?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MindMachineFun

Solar Neighborhood was a fantastic "first synchromuse track."

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Thanks, MindMachineFun!!! I'm glad it worked for you!

Yep good work esteband, I just got one of these things and I just tried your flac with the session file uploaded to program number 57 on my Procyon, put it in das mode then played the file through winamp and wow, that was awsome dude!

20 minutes seemed like it melted into a couple or less, sweet!

I also bought healing rhythms and am looking forward to charting how deep I can go using Solar Neighborhood.

I just wish I had some acid :).

Nite!

Wonderful wonderful wonderful. It is everything I always wanted my procyon to be. Thank you so much for creating it. Is there any new ones on the horizon?

I converted the file to apple lossless because I use an ipod with my procyon. I tried to attach the file but I can't seem to get it to work.

Once again thank you for creating this. The visuals were very well done and the transitions were seemless. The music was very well done as well. Bravo! Encore! Encore! :icon_pray:

Mightymike,

Thanks so much for your kind words. They made my day. Unfortunately, I probably will not be making any more synchromuse sessions. They are just too time-consuming to produce. Instead, I've been focusing my energies on making a tool for realtime creation of audiostrobe lightshows. It's in the works, but on the back burner. I'm very deep into school right now, and don't expect to release it until June or July of next year. I will, however, make an announcement when that happens, so stay tuned.

-Steve

help me with syncomuse session to get it to work solar neighborhood do i still have to upload to my procyon?

Yes, upload the session file to the Procyon with the editor. Then, to get the Solar Neighborhood track to work, put your Procyon into dL2 or dAS mode by pushing the middle button 3 or 4 times. Run an audio cable in the AUX connector and play the audio file. The blip at the beginning of the track triggers the proper session to begin to play so you don't have to manually select it. You may have to turn the volume up quite a bit in the beginning to trigger the session. You will know it is working when the lights begin to flash. After that, lay back and enjoy!

Either dL2 mode or dAS mode works. In dL2 mode you can stop the track if you want. In dAS you can't stop but you can pause. For this reason, dL2 is my preference.

I just finished listening to Solar Neighborhood and the experience was incredible! Never have I experienced such synchrony between light and sound leading to brain balancing that has me almost feeling giddy.:hello2:

The first attempt I neglected to append my upload and the consequence was AS session of remarkable intensity, very red and energizing. After appending, the perfect three light softened harmony of sound ,tone and light.

This thread was a little hard to follow so here is my attempt to clarify a few essential steps in getting to your own enjoyment of this Solar Neighbor hood trip.

1. download the zip file from page 1 and unzip. It is what you select to upload the session to the Procyon.

2. download the large .FLAK file and save it in a findable place. That is what you click to have your player play the music.

3. Make sure the com port is open before uploading and

4. If you have the room choose Append to start upload of the prw file you unzipped.

5. Plug cord into speaker outlet on computer and other end jack into aux on Procyon.

6. click the Solar Neighborhood Flak file with Procyon on DAS or dl2
mode and away you go.

Thank you for the info I missed the part
About dl prw file to to procyon. Now it should work .

Solar Neighborhood sounds absolutely fantastic - I love all the spiralling panning effects. Great work esteband :-)

Also, after a lot of tweaking, it seems that I've got Synchromuse to work with MP3s! :banana:

Click here to download the mp3

If you've got a spare moment, please do test this file and confirm whether it works for you.

(You'll still need to upload the session file to the Procyon before it'll work, and then make sure the Procyon is in dAS mode before playing the mp3).

Then, if everyone finds it works, perhaps it could be hosted on the support site? (I only have limited bandwidth with the above hosting service).

As to how to get mp3s to work with Synchromuse... well, I'm off on holiday for ten days now, but I'm happy to reveal all when I'm back :icon_wink:, and once we've verified that the file actually works for everyone.

Joe

I just used Solar Neighborhood again this evening via mp3 on my Sony Walkman, and two quick observations:

1) If the Synchromuse track doesn't trigger, just turn the volume up a bit before you play it (you can always turn it back down again after the first two seconds).

I actually increased the volume of the header section on the mp3 file using audacity to help it register with the Procyon better, but I still had to restart the session just now at a higher volume to get it to trigger.

2) Solar Neighborhood is, aesthetically speaking, the best L&S session I've ever experienced, and it easily beats any audiostrobe session I've tried.

I only fully entrained to it in the final 7-8 minutes, when I suddenly felt fully locked onto the theta frequencies, but even before the entrainment effects took hold, the sweeping washes of colours were absolutely entrancing. The mood kept reminding me of Blade Runner or Solaris :-) A truly great piece of work!

Thanks again got it to work its a fantastic journey.

As suspected the mp3 doesn't work with my Sansa Clip Zip or my iPhone but does with my computer. This is same results I have been having. I have boosted the SM trigger level all the way to 0db and it makes no difference. Seems that hardware codec implementations vary widely and expect that high frequencies will be cut out so they don't put a lot of effort into reproducing them. FLAC or AAC works flawlessly on these devices.

Thanks Will for detailing out instructions. I'm glad to see people are getting interested in experimenting with SynchroMuse. Solar Neighborhood is great no doubt. Look for more from me coming soon.

Oh dear Scott - that's a shame. I searched long and hard to find an mp3 encoder that accurately preserves high frequencies (The common ones like Lame etc. seem to distort them even at 320kbps).

And I really thought I'd struck gold with this one :BangHead:

I could never get mp3s to trigger synchromuse sessions at all before I found this particular encoder. For all other mp3 encoders the synchromuse header file was visibly distorted when you viewed the waveform close up.

I think mp3 compatibility would really help boost the popularity of synchromuse sessions, and the viability of releasing commercial tracks. Flac is a great format theoretically, but it's still not fully mainstream, and my walkman won't play them (I know - there's always wav!).

Oh well, at least this mp3 works pretty consistently for synchromuse on the Sony Walkman. Maybe that's a testament to Sony's playback codecs?! I may try my girlfriend's ipod nano when we're back from holiday, just out of curiosity!

If anyone else fancies testing the mp3, please do :-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Joseph Kao

perhaps it could be hosted on the support site? (I only have limited bandwidth with the above hosting service).

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Done. Edited your post to the new location on the support site.

Thanks Andy.

I've just tested the MP3 on my girlfriend's Ipod Nano 2nd Gen. In a nutshell, it works! :banana:

It triggers the synchromuse session fine, so long as the volume is over 80% for the first couple of seconds.

So, that's two machines confirmed! Synchromuse MP3s will definitely work with:

• Ipod Nano 2nd Gen
• Sony Walkman NWZ-E354

But you need to create the mp3s using a very specific mp3 encoder that preserves the high frequencies. Normal encoders like Lame (the Audacity default) don't produce a working mp3.

In due course I'll see if I can tweak the mp3 file so that you don't need to boost the volume at the start.

Perhaps there is still hope for synchromuse mp3s :-)

Whoa... stop the presses! This mp3 actually does work on the Sansa Clip Zip to trigger Synchromuse. I had been moving a lot of sessions in and out of my memory storage and when I tested earlier I didn't have Solar Neighborhood loaded. I corrected that and tested the trigger again and it worked! I will test the iPhone tomorrow. So there is progress on this important issue. Great job!

Scott

I have been performing more tests with mp3. The Fraunhofer encoder seems to preserve highs better up to 22khz. I have gotten it to work. The Helix encoder trashes the highs.. and the newest LAME (3.99) is just below the Fraunhofer with 320kb VBR but just enough to render the Synchromuse trigger unreliable across devices. Which one did you use?

Hi Scott,

Great to hear it works on the Sansa Clip Zip! The only device I've found it won't work on so far is my Nokia E5 phone. I've yet to try an IPhone.

As I recall, the original source I went to in choosing the encoder was this site:

http://raze.host.sk/mp3.htm

http://raze.host.sk/mp3freqa.htm

Based on these tests, I then tracked down an old shareware program called Sound Limit 2.51. (It pops up a few times in google search results, but if you've any difficulty in finding it, just PM me).

Sound Limit 2.51, dated though it may be as a program, seems to do a very nice job of preserving the high frequencies at 320kbps.

Joe

I can't get the sleep cycle session to start and it appears to have loaded to the procyon because now there's 50 instead of 49. I used the media player flac file but it seems it's not loud enough to activate the synchromuse session. Could this be why? Maybe I need a louder sound card in my computer so the procyon can detect the track.

Thank you Esteband that was really enjoyable. I hope we can see more of these to come! I'm a complete novice to AVS but I understand entrainment well from an aural perspective. That was one of the best uses of the procyon that I have tried so far.

Here's a synchromuse I made a few months ago for my art installation The Electric Lazy Lounge. I call it Star Trippin. It's just for entertainment not entrainment or any other specific purpose.

The first track can be downloaded free here by liking the page https://www.facebook.com/NoizeTankMu...20150904689418. The second track here http://www26.zippyshare.com/v/10551659/file.html.

You will want to add a little bit of space between the header and where the music actually starts. So, that the music will start at about 1.5 seconds in, to sync up better with the music.

When I created this I had difficultly getting the segments to sync up with the music perfectly. I ended up making several different versions that were actually shorter than the music but appeared to sync. After about a week they started running shorter than the music. I put the original session back on the procyon and it ran perfect. Never quite figured out why so if you experience this problem you can try to edit segments individually to fit better or maybe just put fresh batteries in your procyon and reload the segment. I'm not sure. Hopefully it runs perfect for you.

Sorry you will have to do the leg work of downloading the music and putting the header and tracks together, but since it's not my music I don't think I can upload it anywhere legally. If you have trouble with that part just check out the syncromuse tutorials on the forum.

May the force be with you.

Nice, Mike! Thanks for sharing it!