Short Review of Kasina - we opened it up last night.

[aethyria]

A few thoughts on the Kasina from MindPlace.

First, let me say that I do not work for MindPlace nor am I writing this quick little review with any ulterior motive. I just would like others to know what I thought of it and I would like the company to know my reaction to it. I should also mention that I own a Proteus and a Procyon so my thoughts are based on my comparison to those previous releases. With that said, the Kasina is by far the best AVS ever made and I love it!

The new session format dubbed Spectra-strobe is phenomenal! The first thing you notice is the awesome soundtrack with each session, no longer do I have to run my mp3 player into the aux port to add atmospheric music in the background (this is something I did with both the Proteus and the Procyon). The music that is added to the sessions really sounds professional. I must admit I was scared it was going to sound real cheesy; that is to say like bad Casio keyboard new age music. I was really impressed and my expectations were blown away. I have not listened to every single one yet but I have listened to several and they all sound out-standing. Like previous models the sessions have different categories from meditation to mind art. I am not sure the total number but it seemed around 50. Some of the sessions that I really enjoyed so far are Meditate, Forest and River, A Starlit Night, Patternity, Trainspot and Center. I swear the Mind Art flicker is highly Hallucinogenic, patterns just roll in and out of one another.

The addition of the Sirius sessions is like getting a huge bonus thrown in. I had never used those sessions and found them to be very entrancing and I loved being able to change the color theme while using them. I think there are around 22 of those in the KBS folder. Could I trade my Proteus and Procyon in to get those session loaded into the Kasina? Just thinking out loud.

Another great gift are the free audio-strobes thrown in. I have not tried them yet but I am sure they are awesome. I have actually used tons of audio strobes on my Proteus and Procyon. Some are really good like the Tibetan one and some are well a little chessy. I hope to see more of these available in the future.

Last I would like to mention the color organ function. This was a feature I really wanted to see on the next device that you guys put out and I am very glad to see it here. I experimented with it for about 20 minutes. My first impression is that it works good to great for electronic and industrial music like Nine Inch Nails but was horrible for extreme heavy metal music. When I used it I ran my mp3 player into the Kasina Aux port and found that the volume of my mp3 player effected the performance. I wonder if that will be different when I load tracks onto the actual SD card. Further investigation of this feature is needed.

Overall impression. I love it!

Questions?

Biomarkers session. Should you breath in when it is blue and then wait to breath out on the next blue or breathe both in and out on each blue? If the goal is to breath in and out on a single blue I thought perhaps I might hyperventilate.

Is there a way for musicians to submit music for possible encoding?

What I would like to see in the future.
I would love to see Kelly Howell of Brain Sync create a guided meditation in spectra-strobe.
I would also love to see professional bands write and record music designed for spectra-strobe encoding and release albums as such.

I am sure I will have more questions and thoughts in the future but this is my first response to the Kasina.
Thanks you for all your handwork!

[neuroasis]

Hi Aethyria,
Thank you for the excellent review. It is so nice when people take the time to comment especially when they have experience with other machines to compare what an advanced system the Kasina actually is. Of course those new to mind machines are welcome to speak up as well as we would love your thoughts and impressions to.

I swear the Mind Art flicker is highly Hallucinogenic, patterns just roll in and out of one another.

Ha, I see you quickly cued in on the 'special nature' of the Mind Art category.

Could I trade my Proteus and Procyon in to get those session loaded into the Kasina?

Proteus and Procyon still have their unique abilities and when we release mind machines each one has a few special features that none of the others have. The Proteus sessions besides the Biofeedback ones may transfer over to Kasina in some fashion. The Procyon ones are unique in what they do with certain parameters like Duty Cycle of the waveforms that are not easy to reproduce. Actually, the Procyon and the Kasina have a different feel to the output with the Procyon being really 'crisp' and the Kasina really 'fluid and flowing'.

We do plan to continue with AudioStrobe releases as the ColorSets in the Kasina make them adaptable and provide variety.

The ColorOrgan is great but we would like everyone's feedback on it with the music you like. We have provided different choices for settings (the frequencies that drive the lights) that should at least provide some nice tracking with most music. But more settings are likely to be released in future updates. So, let us know what works for you and what doesn't. If possible provide an Amazon link to the song you used so we can analyze it. Songs also might be able to be EQ'd before saving them on the Kasina to optimize them for the ColorOrgan.

On the Biomarkers session, the breathing rate is 5 breaths per minute (cycle of 12 seconds) which may be a stretch depending on your normal breathing patterns. This is a deep breathing pattern for sure. Find the point at which it is comfortable for you at first by shorting the intake to a comfortable pace. I can adjust the session for you if you want. I think I will also upload this one so people with Mind Workstation can adjust it themselves. I think this is a very important 'warm up' session and has long term benefits in your practice. It is based on studies from HeartMath and Coherent Breathing http://www.valsalvawave.com/ .

Is there a way for musicians to submit music for possible encoding?

Yes, PM me. We are willing to consider any music and would like to expand our artist roster.

Agree, on Kelly Howell. We like her stuff. Maybe arrangements can be made or something similar. We are certainly open to it.

Agree on more bands. With the music industry as competitive as it is any artist should be looking for a way to stand out. We think that adding 'light shows' to your music would be a big added bonus. This will happen over time as we are just now getting the first machines out there so it is harder to approach artists.

Once again, thanks so much for your kind comments and suggestions. Keep us informed on your impressions and ideas.

Best wishes,
Scott

[Robert Austin]

Thanks for your thoughtful review and kind words! Adding MP3 playback definitely added a new dimension to the range of possibilities, and also opened up the potential issue of musical taste. Several of us are longtime fans of ambient electronic music, and we thought that this sort of content, together with environmental sounds and other ambient tracks would be of broader interest than, say, opera or country-western. :-)

We will be in touch with a number of other content providers (including Kelly H) as the dust settles from this initial release to see if they are interested in partnering with us.

The AudioStrobe tracks we included on the Kasina SD card are drawn from our venerable AudioStrobe Sampler CD, re-encoded for SpectraStrobe by Craig Tice. Most of our current CD offerings have also been encoded for SS and will become available on a download store we have in process, as MP3's.

Happy Holidays from the MindPlace staff!