New Owner First Impressions

Greetings all, I have been lurking on these forums for a while, and am now the proud owner of my very own Kasina, wahoo!

This is my first AVS machine, though I have done much work with binaural beats and isochronic tones, and have found them to be immensely useful to me in many real ways. I have also had much enjoyment creating my own using Gnaural and other software, and one of my other passions is music production, which the two hobbies have a natural synergy of course.

I have meditated on and off for years, but only in the last year or two have I felt I had much real tangible progress, and I attribute much of it to the addition of audio brainwave entrainment to my practices.

Somehow I kind of glossed over AVS machines for many years, and it wasn't until I recently read and heard some things about the Lucia Light Machine, that I suddenly kind of realized that I was missing out on something, hence the new Kasina.


I have only had the unit for a couple of days now, and have only gone through a few sessions, but I am quite thoroughly blown away by this thing already!

My first session was the Dream session in the Night Voyage category. I ran it at the lowest brightness and it quite effectively knocked me out, and brought me back up a few times as designed, and left me asleep when it ended.

I was pretty impressed by the visual entrainment, particularly that it didn't drive me nuts while trying to sleep.

But it wasn't until the next day on my lunch break, when I ran "A Starlit Night" from the Mind Art category, and slowly started stepping the brightness up as the session went on, that I realized just how powerful the visual stimulus can be. As I stepped up the brightness, each level brought on a new dimension of the visual experience, that wasn't there on the previous. By the time I got the to the top of the brightness, my jaw was pretty much on the ground. Throughout the session I varied the brightness a few times, as the intensity of the effects actually took me by surprise and almost had me anxious as to how far down the rabbit hole it was going to take me! The only things that have elicited that kind of effect for me, are generally illegal in most developed countries :icon_winkle:.

I have since done the other hour long sleep session in the night voyage category, which knocked me right out, the energize session, and the create session.

Personal initial observations, particularly regarding the Starlit Night session;

Many times it almost feels like my eyes are actually open when they are really closed, I think that feeling for me helps produce an almost "psychedelic" like, non-physical head-space for me.

It takes some time getting used to letting the eyes relax while in a session, this seems to be coming easier as I do more sessions.

I am really glad that there are dedicated physical buttons for the brightness of the lightframes, it makes it very easy to adjust without looking, and I have found different enjoyable aspects come out at different brightness levels on the sessions, and being able to dial it down momentarily if it is to intense is nice.

I need to get some kind of eye mask to block light leak from theglasses, so that when I do a session at bed time, I don't disrupt my other half next to me. So far I have just draped a bit of cloth of some sort over the glasses on my face.

Speaking of other half, it is already becoming apparent that she is not enthused about my enthusiasm for the device, as it is already leading to less "cuddle time" :icon_rolleyes:

I am interested in trying the open eye diffuser mod that I have seen talked about on here, and will probably take it one step further, as I recently gutted a 17" LCD panel, and have the light diffusing sheets that are used to make the light even on the screen, I have a feeling they will be quite exceptional for this purpose.

I am REALLY looking forward to playing around with creating my own SpectraStrobe tracks!

Any updates on the new KBS editors release?


Thanks for the awesome product, looking forward to doing many more sessions, and being a part of the community here!

Hi Jameth,
Welcome to the topside of the forum. So happy to hear of your enjoyable experiences with the Kasina! You are right that varying the brightness, especially with very bright sessions like A Starlit Night, does provide different experiences.

Maybe at some point you can acquire another pair of Kasina glasses and a splitter. Then you and your other half can enjoy a session together. Doing a session with another person is a unique experience that can really get people on the same 'wavelength' so to speak.

Let us know how your tests with different diffusers go.

As you like music production, creating SpectraStrobe sessions will be very fun. Be sure and check out the SS and AS VST plugins referenced here: http://www.mindplacesupport.com/foru...-Now-Available

The new KBS editor is ready. I just keep poking around on it trying to eliminate as many bugs as possible. Of course I can't think of everything that people will do, so it is ready for fresh sets of testers. Looking like it is a go this week.

A new feature that you might like is the ability to import GNaural sessions and turn them into KBS.

Welcome again and please let us know how you come along.

Best,
Scott

Thanks Scott!

One of my next questions was going to be concerning the ability to split the output of the lightframes.

Does that effectively half the maximum brightness that each pair of glasses can produce, or does the Kasina have enough extra power to light up two pairs of glasses at the same lumen output as just one?


I most certainly have eyeballed those VST plugins! Looks fantastic! I am going to try and pace myself a bit though, and get familiar with the default sessions, as well as some that the community has produced, before I jump heavily into production.

It surprises me how few reply's and feedback the community sessions get in these forums, so I intend to provide some in the near future as I get more sessions under my belt.

Regarding the new KBS editor, really looking forward to it, the ability to import GNaural sessions will be really nice, as I have a folder full of them that I have worked on recently, will be fun to play with the visual side of them.

I work in IT / engineering / software, so I am familiar with the time it takes to squash as many bugs as possible for release.

Do you guys have a community beta tester program for your in house software and firmware?

Sign me up if so!

Also is there a feature request area somewhere around here?

I think it would be really awesome if the Kasina had the ability to give you a short description of the sessions. I could see it as either using a specific ID3 tag field embedded in the MP3, or perhaps a .txt file with the same name as the session, could be called up and displayed before playing the session? Granted it would be pretty tight on space to display, but I think it could be usable.

Thoughts?


Thanks Scott!

The Kasina or our other glasses don't lose much when multiple sets are added... up to a point of course. I have found this splitter works with 3 glasses. CablesOnline 9-inch 3.5mm (1/8") TRRS 4-Pole/3-Rings Male to 3x Female 3.5mm TRRS 4-Pole/3-Rings Stereo Splitter Audio Cable, Gold-Plated, AV-Y01F4 4 conductor TRRS with all the conductors wired straight through are very hard to find. Mostly they were for iOS devices with a mic. I think Android phones are making the ones we need more available.

I have tried the splitter with the upcoming open eye glasses, regular Kasina glasses and white frames. This is the combination I use most. It does drain the battery a bit more quickly though.

I often wonder why we don't get more session feedback in general. I have some plans on the support site to encourage this. As well as set up private test programs for new software. There are several new apps in the works. Unfortunately I'm just one guy, so things move slow... even with my vast Mt. Dew intake :)

Btw, are you a Mac or PC user... IT says to me probably PC.

On session tags, I am considering using the text readable KIS format for that. The new editor no longer makes KIS files by default but maybe I will add header info and put it back in. On the new Kasina production runs all the onboard mp3s are tagged with ID3. I will probably make an update package for existing owners that tags their files. Actually that is high on the list. There is a new Sirius folder structure for early adopters too.

Ideally, there will also be an online 'page' for each session with comments, rating, file info, etc. That is in the works too. As well as better upload of sessions and hosting.

So much to do... but it is a labor of love, so I'm not complaining.

Best,
Scott

Awesome Scott, thanks for the replies!

I am a Windows / Linux guy, I try to avoid the Mac in the office like the plague :)

It looks like my on board Spectrastrobe mp3's are ID3 tagged with "Title" "Contributing Artist" "Album" and "Year", but my Sirius folder is just one flat KBS folder, so maybe I am somewhere in between?

I think it would be nice to see a brief description of say, what frequencies a given session targets, or whatever little notes the author would like to include, right on the device before playing.

Love the ideas about enhancing the community stuff, looking forward to being a part of it!



Are you pretty much the developer for Mindplace?

Just on the software and web side at the moment. There are some very brilliant engineers spread around the globe that do the hardware and firmware. I certainly can take credit for only small parts of the overall products.

So your secret is Mountain Dew, Scott? I was wondering... ;-) Seriously, Scott has a very broad set of skills and expertise, and knows more about brain/mind technologies than most 'experts' in the field. We were fortunate that he appeared in our Forums around the time we started the Kasina project, when based on hearing some of his ambient electronic compositions led me to 'draft' him initially to write sessions for the Kasina (and he's ended up doing a lot more than that, such as designing the splash screen, interface, box graphics, etc.). We're fortunate to have been able to assemble such a crack team to work on this project; past designs were just collaborations between our old engineer Todd Stone and myself.

Anyway, I've been testing the new KBS Editor, and must say that it's most impressive, and adds a lot of new features and refinements. The KBS format itself is in the process of evolving, as we work to converge the capabilities of the Procyon and Proteus with the Kasina. All I can say at present is, we'll have some interesting announcements to make in the coming year!

-Robert

Huzzah!

Thanks Robert and Scott, the fact that you guys are in the forums and actively discussing stuff with your customers says a lot about your team!

Thanks guys!

Still shooting for a release of the new KBS editor this week? My birthday is on Saturday... (hint hint :) )


Really been enjoying the sessions I have done, wish I had more time to myself to spend with it, but I am finding time here and there.

I have certainly found that as I do more sessions, I am getting more comfortable with the light stimulation, and can relax into it more.

I did the "Journey of the Drums" audiostrobe session recently, and was quite impressed by that, the synchronization to the music was quite good, and the visuals produced were very entrancing.

I have a similar background in support.. Both mac and PC. I am much more a Mac guy now. Having supported PC's for so long i want my computer do act like a toaster now.. ;) Still if you need testing sign me up. Im good at finding things that don't work.

I want to give an update and I appreciate the offer for testing... it will be very helpful. It is good that we have Mac and PC people too. It is quite a challenge to fulfill the needs of both with functions that on the surface appear to operate the same but underlying use different APIs. I have Linux builds too but they are very much untested. Someone pipe in, if they want to work with me on sifting through that.

The editor has been expanded to include most basic functions that a user would need. Creating 'smart' KBS sessions, previewing segments, uploading completed sessions, aligning session lengths to music files (externally played still), SD card management: add files and folders, renaming files and folders, creating playlists, calculating playlist lengths (mixed audio and KBS too)... anyway, dozens of new features and improvements.

What stalled me for a while was getting decent copy progress reports on Windows. Since most people use the SD card mounted in the Kasina, copying mp3 files is pretty slow. So copy progress updates was crucial. On the Mac this was cake, on the PC not so much... an acceptable solution is in place now.

The final piece is firmware updating with 'rollback' protection and checksums of the copied files to insure there are no copy errors. This piece requires testing a lot of different scenarios and 'defensive' programming in case something goes amiss. It is really crucial to get this right. I'd much rather brick one of my Kasina's than yours, as unlikely as this is.

I would say the Mac version is good to go with some final checks and code signing for Gatekeeper and all that madness. The PC version is 99.9%. That means in the ready to test state.

I try not to unleash bug ridden crap on the world as much as I can, which means I test it over and over, throwing everything I can think of at it. Still, I would not think of everything and people's computers have different settings than mine. I know it won't be perfect on the first run and I fight the fear of it not being :) There has to be a level of cross platform uniformity and functionality that I am comfortable with though.

We have ambitious plans for expanding the Kasina and it is important that each release is fairly firm so we can build on it rather than putting out fires and going back to the drawing board... that is as much as possible and within reason.

Thanks for your interest and patience,
Scott

Right on Scott, sounds awesome, thanks for the update!

Can't wait to see what you have in store for us.
Ready when you are.

Scott, seeing as how you come from Ableton Live as your main DAW, do you have any MAX for Live devices you would want to share, that you have crafted for brainwave entrainment purposes?

I don't have Max for Live devices that I've made, although I use many. However, I do have a pretty extensive set of racks and a workflow system. I can look at pulling them together into a Live Pack or some form that other people could utilize. I have intended to do this. The main hindrance is how much training materials I would have to create.

Are you pretty savvy with Live?

I would like to think I am pretty adept with Live yea, have a handful of different midi controllers, including the Push even, but having said that, I think a person could spend a lifetime with tools like Live and still be learning new tricks :)

I managed to get a fairly basic couple of racks going that I can mostly replicate what I am able to do in something like Gnaural, but like most things in Live, there are a million ways to do any given task, so I am still exploring options and workflows that make sense for entrainment audio.

I totally get the feeling of having to make extensive "training material" for your racks/workflow, but if you want to share some of it, sans any documentation, I would love to poke around and see what you have come up with :)

Alright, cool, give me a little bit of time. The main thing is I will rename parts of the racks so they are somewhat self-explanatory for people who know what they are in the first place.

CJAdams, what DAW do you use?

i'm a cubase/Nuendo user. I wonder if its nice Logical editor could do some interesting stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNpeTKB1K64

It's been years since I looked at Cubase. Is there enough information on the forum or in the GNaural templates for you to begin to try to implement SpectraStrobe using it? I would be most interested to see what you can do.