music

Yes, ok, fine…. I’ve been suckered into writing about the latest “big sensation”. But it’s on topic, dang nab it! The phenomena of this British singer is apparently a bit of a mind tweak for millions of Americans.

For those of you who live under a rock, Susan Boyle is a contestant in a British reality TV/talent show. She’s become an overnight sensation - not just in Britain, where the program airs, but in America, where the YouTube clip of her performance has made waves.

She’s a singer. And yes, she’s a good singer.

But what makes her (and the YouTube clip of her performance) so notable is that she doesn’t *look* like a great singer - or rather, she doesn’t look the way we’ve been conditioned to expect “great singers” to look.

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Mind Stereo: A Software Review
Download the Demo

I’ve checked out a lot of mind-tweaking software over the years, and… well… to be honest, they’re usually over hyped, awkward to use, and don’t really do much, *if* they even run at all. Some seem to work, but turn out to be so technical that I lose interest before figuring out how to use them.

Mind Stereo from Transparentcorp is a pleasant exception. It does what it promises, and it does it simply and smoothly. MS takes your music, adds brainwave entrainment features to it, then and spits the tune back out at you through your monitor, headphones or speakers.

Brainwave entrainment may be a mind-numbing phrase, but it’s a pretty simple concept. The brain produces and processes a lot of electricity, in wave-like patterns — thus, “brainwaves” . The frequency of the waves varies according to the person’s activity and state of mind; calm, active, meditative, etc.

The nifty part is that it works in reverse… when exposed to wave-like rhythms, the brain will sync up and fall into step. It matches the new wave frequency, and creates the state associated with it.. ie, relaxed, energetic, and so on. That’s why certain types of dance music and dance-floor lights can put you in a sort of trance. Entrainment is a well proven and researched subject, so and I’ve used entrainment for relaxation, meditation, and treating those gawd awful headaches I’m prone to.

But getting back to the software… [click to continue...]