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AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

brain.fm

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Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#141

Post by jkalmadi »

Scramblejams wrote: post #61
j45 wrote: post #29

For the productivity obsessed on HN making negative comments, I'm surprised more haven't tried this kind of stuff out. I have used white noise or waves for a long time to drown out outdoor noise around me. My initial start with this kind of stuff was listening to various stations on somafm. I like finding music that fits well in the background, isn't too engaging or something I'm familiar with, and hopefully devoid o…

Also would be interested in an iOS app version of this.

iOS + Android coming very soon! Internally beta testing mobile apps now.

For now! You can visit https://brain.fm on your phone's browser (chrome, firefox) and it will work fine :)

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#142

Post by ilovefood »

sneak wrote: post #99
unwound wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gas is one of my favorite artists of all time. While I think Pop is a fantastic album, his best is Zauberberg. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKsLvEkefTc This album breathes warmth into my soul. So hauntingly beautiful that I think about these soundscapes on a daily basis.

> Gas is one of my favorite artists of all time. While I think Pop is a fantastic album, his best is Zauberberg. Perhaps under that alias. His minimal acid techno is also unparalleled. Mike Ink - Playtex (Dadajack): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O30AGIUofRw Mike Ink & Andreas Dorau - Das Telefon Sagt Acid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPFZ-JxQdtc (He (Wolfgang Voigt) goes by Mike Ink, Gas, M:I:5, Studio 1, Wasse…

I am totally digging your style

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#143

Post by ahewett »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #58
jasbrainfm wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi there, we don't use binaural beats. Or isochronic tones. Our CTO (Adam Hewett) is the founder of Transparent Corp. His older software is used to create the vast majority of isochronic tones, and all those videos you see on youtube, etc. Any rhythmic audio stimulus will entrain the brain. Actually, the very first research on audio brainwave stimulation used simple clicks. As another example if you had a drummer tha…

The sounds are unusually good for algo music, which typically has very poor production values. I doubt you've perfected HRTF, because everyone has a different HRTF, so you'll always get an approximation at best. >Imagine a rain sound for a second. Hundreds of thousands of drops! Imagine now that each and every drop is synchronized to the purpose of the stimulation. Now imagine a symphony... That is Brain.fm. This is…

Hey, Adam from Brain.fm here :)

Thanks much for saying that you like the audio! You seem to be into this stuff so that's high praise.

Some clarifications:

> Imagine a rain sound... synchronized to the purpose.. marketing, benefits, etc

Sorry, you're right, that was just a miscommunication. We're all a bit stressed here - didn't expect this much attention.

So part of what we're doing in Brain.fm is using synchronized modulations (pulses of sound) to affect the brain. You're right, the literature on BWE could be better, mainly because binaural beats are so well-known, and so they keep getting studied, which is unfortunate because they're not all that effective. We don't use them at all. Northwestern actually studied a bunch of major bbeat brands and couldn't detect any effect at all (at least for delta). So when I approached my friend Giovanni with a sleep protocol he was understandably skeptical, but the results as you can see on our site, are pretty damn impressive. He's now our lead neuroscientist, but still works for Northwestern too. There's a lot more to that story but I don't want to type more of a novel than I already am :)

Actually... to be honest I'm not sure I even like the name "entrainment" - Giovanni has a better theory having to do with neuron "recruitment" that is simpler and has more explanatory power. Here's the thing: any repetitive audio stimuli produces a corresponding response in the brain, provided it is consistent enough, rapid enough, and lasts long enough. Bbeats supposedly work because of the "beat" part. But these days, we can easily create beats using all kinds of methods, like modulation, where we can adjust the waveform, adjust the phase on the fly, target frequency ranges, and so on, all of which are super important it turns out. Plus - as she mentioned - we can synchronize all the other elements in the song to the same "beat." All while monitoring the effects using an EEG.

Hope that helps clarify some things. Hey, I know it seems far out, so I'm happy to answer any questions. Giovanni will hopefully be on here tomorrow. I think a podcast, video, or something with the two of us explaining this stuff is long overdue.

Anyway, thanks again! Hope you come back and and we can talk some more about it.

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#144

Post by trophycase »

picklesman wrote: post #92
alva wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we are at it, the following is a selection of musicians whose work for me is both sedative and promotes focus (an oxymoron?). Ambient music usually garners a few sniggers, "this is what they play in spas" "whale music" etc, however in my experience can be an incredibly rewarding and effective method of relaxation and enjoyment. Gas (Wolfgang Voigt) - Pop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s--IkNqI9og Brian Eno - D…

Great list. Stars of the Lid makes some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. It's ambient, made with strings and heavily processed guitar. The songs develop into these breathing like rhythms that just push some sort of button in me. I can listen to it while working, or just on its own really loud to make the details come out. Stars Of The Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Gas and SOTL are my two favorite ambient artists.

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#145

Post by ahewett »

davnn wrote: post #132

I'm sure there are huge personal differences. I have tried a lot of different sounds until now, but I cannot imagine listening to one type of sound over a period more than two weeks. Variety works for me and keeps me happy at work which is as important as being productive alone. Productivity will not last long without happiness. Variety works for me.

Completely agree! Did you register for an account? If you do, it'll notice which ones you've listened to before and give you more variety. Also you can go to "Explore" and pick something you want. There's techno, classical, irish, spacey-ambient, electronic-symphonic combos, bunch of different nature sounds, indian music, mongolian chants, etc... I'll be adding a lot more music soon too. :)

We definitely need to work on the barrier-to-entry that the survey creates. Sorry about that. Working on it.

- Adam from Brain.fm

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#146

Post by piyush_soni »

WmyEE0UsWAwC2i wrote: post #78
sergiotapia wrote: post #64

I still can't find anything better to program to than Nujabes. I'm going to give this a genuine shot, but Jun Seba really left his mark on me for life. I find myself listening to his albums and songs at least twice a day. I think it's because of his repetitive beats, smooth strings and soft instrumentation. There's a reason there are 10 hour 'homework' edits on youtube for almost all of his songs. Counting Stars: htt…

What's wrong with silence?

At most workplaces, you don't have silence. And even if we had, don't know about you, but absolute silence makes my wind wander more than with a background music.

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#147

Post by davnn »

ahewett wrote: post #145
davnn wrote: post #132

I'm sure there are huge personal differences. I have tried a lot of different sounds until now, but I cannot imagine listening to one type of sound over a period more than two weeks. Variety works for me and keeps me happy at work which is as important as being productive alone. Productivity will not last long without happiness. Variety works for me.

Completely agree! Did you register for an account? If you do, it'll notice which ones you've listened to before and give you more variety. Also you can go to "Explore" and pick something you want. There's techno, classical, irish, spacey-ambient, electronic-symphonic combos, bunch of different nature sounds, indian music, mongolian chants, etc... I'll be adding a lot more music soon too. :) We definitely need to work…

I didn't, just read about it. I will definitely give it a try when I'm back home!

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#148

Post by thirdsun »

alva wrote: post #77
sergiotapia wrote: post #64

I still can't find anything better to program to than Nujabes. I'm going to give this a genuine shot, but Jun Seba really left his mark on me for life. I find myself listening to his albums and songs at least twice a day. I think it's because of his repetitive beats, smooth strings and soft instrumentation. There's a reason there are 10 hour 'homework' edits on youtube for almost all of his songs. Counting Stars: htt…

While we are at it, the following is a selection of musicians whose work for me is both sedative and promotes focus (an oxymoron?). Ambient music usually garners a few sniggers, "this is what they play in spas" "whale music" etc, however in my experience can be an incredibly rewarding and effective method of relaxation and enjoyment. Gas (Wolfgang Voigt) - Pop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s--IkNqI9og Brian Eno - D…

Let me add a few more for anyone interested:

- Harold Budd - Jane 1-11 / Jane 12-21 / Avalon Sutra (I really think Jane 1-11 is the gold standard for ambient music.)

- Porya Hatami - The Garden: https://dronarivm.bandcamp.com/album/the-garden

- Hotel Neon - Hotel Neon: https://hotelneon.bandcamp.com/

- Pausal - Sky Margin: https://ownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/sky-margin

- Jared Smith - Fjall: https://ownrecords.bandcamp.com/album/fjall

- Gigi Masin - Talk To The Sea: https://music-from-memory.bandcamp.com/album/talk-to-the-sea

- Gigi Masin - Wind: https://music-from-memory.bandcamp.com/album/wind-3

- Gaussian Curve - Clouds: https://music-from-memory.bandcamp.com/album/clouds

- Takeshi Nishimoto - Lavandula: http://www.sonicpieces.com/sonicpieces018.html

- Bing & Ruth - Tomorrow Was The Golden Age: https://bingruth.bandcamp.com/album/tomorrow-was-the-golden-...

- Nuojuva - Valot Kaukaa: http://www.preservation.com.au/product/nuojuva-valot-kaukaa

- Imprints - Data Trails: https://sereinlabel.bandcamp.com/album/data-trails

---

In case anyone is interested in this kind of music, there's a very related Spotify Playlist I maintain and very carefully curate: https://open.spotify.com/user/michaelfeihstel/playlist/10IcC...

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#149

Post by Hydraulix989 »

siddboots wrote: post #47
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #43

Brainwave entrainment is pseudoscience. The placebo effect is powerful.

Ambient sound has a tremendous capacity to alter one's mood. Causal explanations in terms of brainwaves, etc, are invariably psuedoscience, but that does not mean that the placebo effect is the only thing going on here.

That's great, music having effects on the brain is pretty widely accepted as true ("This is your brain on music"), but claiming that playing slightly offset frequencies into different ears causes "brainwaves" to synchronize with the difference in frequencies is where a lot of people are skeptical. I've done a fair bit of dabbling in the DIY EEG realm while hacking my own sleep, so I've seen (the absence of) these effects first hand.

Now that I read their website, the authors of this new-fangled music generator are also denouncing binaural beat brainwave entrainment, which would ordinarily be the stance I'd recommend anyone take who builds such a product.

I remember BWG (Brainwave Generator), a shareware binaural beat audio synthesizer software from the 90s-00s, having "presets" for inducing such phenomena as out-of-body experiences and lucid dreams. They even extolled the weight loss and smoking cessation benefits of brainwave entrainment. That software came up every so often on the LD4ALL lucid dreaming forum.

Art Bell would be proud.

Re: AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

#150

Post by Hydraulix989 »

OJFord wrote: post #55
Hydraulix989 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you've worked on sounds much more scientific than OP.

I'm not sure if that's fair. They (claim to) have [0] a bunch of PhDs, and have a page with the same kind of words on [1] as parent. [0] https://www.brain.fm/about [1] https://www.brain.fm/#science

#credentials
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