A little dissapointed :-(

HI, I just bought a Kasina and was eager with anticipation to get going. However I'm not really getting on with any of the preconfigured sessions. I think the colours are great and I see lots of shapes and images but they all move/go too fast and change when I don't want them too. I find myself frustrated.

What I really want (and expected) was to be able to operate Kasina manually sometimes. Ie be able to change frequencies/patterns/presets on the fly. Rather than entrain my brain I want to go with what my brain dictates. ie to start then manually move to a frequency I want momentarily stay there or thereabouts for as long as I want then move elsewhere as the mood takes me. I find I want stay with set experiences for much longer than the sessions allow. Most seem to act more like disco lights rather than setting up patterns for exploration. I want to see some shapes, get involved with them for maybe minutes at a time then move on.

Is there any (non too time intensive) way that the Kasina can be programmed to have some sort of manual control? I initially thought that maybe tracks could be speeded or slowed manually but I don't see that. Another idea would be to have presets ready to just start by manual selection either directly or sequentially but it seems I need the menu control before I move to another preset.

I haven't attached to a PC yet so don't know if it's possible to get realtime control that way???

Anyways....Does anyone have suggestions/answers. I really like the hardware but it's a lot of money if it just frustrates me and doesn't do what I want.

If Kasina doesn't fit the bill are there any other mindplace products which would suit me better?

Thanks /Lorro

Manual control has some advantages. The Proteus machine has the most real time control (built in) in our current product line. There is control for frequency and pitch. The Proteus is only 2 channels Red and Green. You only have real time control of 1 channel and the other is chained to it. You can choose to alternate the lights in real time mode though for a bit more variety.

Manual control of AudioStrobe and even better Kasina SpectraStrobe can be achieved with a bit of tech knowledge and digital audio workstation software. This is done by using MIDI. Depending on the capabilities of your controller you can do most anything you want in real time. Here is an inexpensive controller: Korg NanoKontrol2 or this wireless one which I have been playing with recently: NuMark Orbit

I have planned to make some templates available for say Reaper and Ableton Live along with some training if people are interested.

You can make this setup completely wireless (besides headphone and light cables) if you use a Bluetooth receiver hooked up to the Kasina's AUX input and stream Bluetooth from your computer. I have also explored various smartphone apps but have not landed on the perfect one yet (or began creating one)

We have also considered making our own controllers but it would have to be through a KickStarter campaign or similar so we have the funding and garner interest. There is already an excellent development platform for what we would want to do, so it is not a heavy lift, just the casing and design really.

In house, I have a MIDI control system for the Procyon that works pretty well and it will see a release.

We have considered ways of adding real time control to the Kasina through the KBS format as it undergoes evolution. I can't commit to any time frame on that however. One thing I do miss and wouldn't probably be too hard to implement is a 'pause' button like the Procyon and Proteus have. This allows you to 'freeze' a certain section of a digital session and stay on it as long as you want. Of course, this can never work with audio based sessions like SpectraStrobe and AudioStrobe. But KBS shouldn't be so hard.

Manual control also has disadvantages. You will never go very deep into meditation when you are continually 'considering' changes and engaging an interface. This analytical act keeps the conscious mind on the surface. Deep meditation sessions require the ability to go along for the ride and let go.

The Kasina has a playlist feature that will play files in a certain order if that helps. It is detailed in the new manual here: http://mindplacesupport.com/kasina-support/

So, all the options are there and the abilities of the Kasina are nearly unlimited. It just takes some planning and knowledge. And we will continue to expand the Kasina software.

Hope this helps,
Scott

Thanks Scott. Midi controls sounds awesome. I already have a controller and a BT DAC hanging around so this is something I can investigate. For me at the moment it's less about meditation and more about entertaining my imagination. Having a personalised light show at my command whilst listening to audiophile music is always something I've wished for. Looked into lasers but it was too expensive. Maybe joystick control could be a way to go but if the lights on the Kasina and program changes can be controlled by midi then I guess there are lots of things possible. The loop function does sound very useful too. Regarding that....is it possible to load an existing session into say audacity, find all the lighting effects that I like and then cut and loop them into separate sessions. That would appear to be a fairly low-tech but easy activity and then to have each session play back from a keypress on a midi controller ..I'd be really happy with that as a fun bit of Kit.
Thanks for your swift response. - I took a look around the forum after I posted and it seems really interesting with lots creative info I look forward to reading and learning more.
/L

Yes you can do that in Audacity. What you want to do is apply a high pass filter (under Effects) with a cutoff at say 16khz or so. That should eliminate all or most all of the audio track and leave just the SpectraStrobe or AudioStrobe tracks. Then you can edit parts that you want.

There might be slight glitches in SpectraStrobe tracks as part of the signal is a reference channel that identifies it as SpectraStrobe. Edits might create slight discontinuities. However, this would only show up as a very quick light flash and shouldn't substantially change the experience.

To play back from a MIDI controller you would want to copy these small edits into a Sampler program... like Simpler or Sampler in Ableton or Reasamplomatic 5000 in Reaper. Then those samples would be available at a keypress. One thing you don't want to do though is key map these samples to span the keyboard. You have to keep the original pitch. There are tons of tutorials on these instruments online but if there is enough interest I'll make some specific ones.

Also, don't forget the ColorOrgan as well.

Iorro, did you get any success in making your sessions with Audacity? Is it difficult to deal with this software? Thanks.

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Originally Posted by Diogo

Iorro, did you get any success in making your sessions with Audacity? Is it difficult to deal with this software? Thanks.

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I haven't tried putting a full session together yet however I did open a session into audacity, apply the filter as neuroasis suggested, cut parts of the session then played back through the kasina whilst in USB mode. It was easy and worked as expected. Audacity is free and easy to use so it's work having a go I think.

I too would love to see midi control. I have all kinds of controllers.. even a nice Nectar Panorama P1
http://www.nektartech.com/PRODUCTS/Panorama-P1
In addition to the korg micro controller. I use that for my portable rig.
Would be interesting to send midi note data to the device with a synth keyboard to alter the settings. Play your own meditation.