Times

As if these times hadn’t been interesting enough already! Now The Rona has turbocharged the present. Do you think George RR Martin is writing our script? It has that quality of GoT were anything can, and will happen. You know, maximum mayhem at all times.

Binaural Beats

For millennia musicians have used interference beats to check the tuning of their stringed instruments at the unison, perfect fifth, or other simple harmonic intervals. Piano tuners also use this method. But these are short tones that die off quickly. Only since building tone generators which can produce sine waves can we experiment with the effect of long tones. Binaural beats do interesting things to our brains. If the left ear hears a frequency that is different from the frequency perceived by the right ear the brain will produce the perception of a third frequency. This can be used to induce certain states in the mind, like concentration, relaxation and so on.

Binaural-beat perception originates in the inferior colliculus of the midbrain and the superior olivary complex of the brainstem, where auditory signals from each ear are integrated and precipitate electrical impulses along neural pathways through the reticular formation up the midbrain to the thalamus, auditory cortex, and other cortical regions.

Some potential benefits of binaural beats therapy may include: reduced stress, reduced anxiety, increased focus, increased concentration, increased motivation, increased confidence, and deeper meditation.

Wikipedia

Binaural Beat Machine is a free Binaural Beat generator that’s part of a website called myNoise. The website mainly delivers pleasant noises for all sorts of purposes, but I find the Beat Generator most interesting. The Binaural Beat Machine is also on the iOS app of myNoise – also free. As I am writing this I am listening to Beta/Active. Happy Binaural Beating!

Saturday

My left index finger is doing much better. I searched my house and found seven ten thirteen sets of guitar strings, so far. D’Addario had to suspend manufacture and I don’t know when I will get more strings…

Concert for One

For the experience of being in the middle of my studio, while we make music sitting around you, check out our album Up Close. You can stream it on Apple Music and it should also be available from Spotify and others. The album is a binaural dummy head recording, sometimes also called holophonics. The listener has to use headphones to experience the 3D surround-sound quality of the music, because what your left ear hears has to be completely isolated from what the right ear hears. That means that earbuds which don’t seal the ear completely will not work. On regular loudspeakers the effect is completely lost and the album sounds meh. Recorded live-to-stereo in August of 2007. No edits were made and the volume was not compressed. This album is not as loud as most music and you might have to turn up the volume on your computer or mp3 player. Also check out this article on culturecourt.com

Branding

Somebody on Behance.net is playing with corporate logos to reflect what’s going on. Very funny. I’m sure you could use a laugh, yes?

Link