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BRAIN WAVE LAB
Brain Wave software
By Marc Marc Amsterdam
Yes...you heard correctly: Brain Wave Software! This amazing system was developed by Marc Marc and in my opinion, was ahead of it's time. This software is meant to work with a set of customized goggles with colored LEDS that are controlled by the software. What does this have to do with MIDI? The program actually generates MIDI music from parameters specified by the program which is of course user definable. You can also use the program as real-time algorithmic generator, and generate it does some unusual output which would be hard pressed to be played by real performers.
What is the Brain Wave Lab? In the words of Marc Marc himself:
Stimuli
The Brain Wave Lab is a so called computerized Mind-machine for both the PC and the ATARI-ST computer series. It is an audio-visual device that can produce Frequency patterns that are translated to sound via loudspeakers and light via Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).
The effect of a Brain-machine
The effect of a Mind or Brain-machine is based upon the vibration resonance establishing itself between the exactly timed signals (light & sound) and the attention. The new focus of attention thus created, allows for access to many states of consciousness and realities beyond our everyday experience. Our perception in this context is the mechanism of our reaction to the visual and auditory stimuli. The stimuli are forcing a reaction via our perception. This is not a demanding mechanism but more a 'pushing' mechanism. The stimuli are being a dominant factor to attract the attention towards a certain state of mind.
Purpose
A Brain-machine is used to train our perception. As a result of this training, one becomes more aware about ones state of mind and how to control it. Also, a Brain-machine can be used to help curing diseases in which the psychosomatic element is due to the disease (like stress causing psychical disorders). One also can be attracted because of the visual effects that the light-stimulus can generate. The Experience of these visual effects, generated as a reaction to the light-stimulus can be of a fascinating joy that will let some questions raise about what it is that causes these projections and what the meaning is of them in context to your own being as an individual
Menu's
In contrast to a lot of other programs, The Brain Wave Lab has all of its menu's on screen at the same time. This makes the program seem, at first glance, to be rather complicated. Once you have familiarized yourself with the meaning of the different blocks, you will see that this method ables you to work very fast with the program: it is not necessary to first choose what you are going to do before the corresponding menu appears on the screen and you also have a more complete overview on the parameters.
Desk: (most top menu bar)
My Desktop that will not generate a crash (GEM is requested to buzz off).
Text bar: program Title & Version number.
Disk operation menu: Load/Save with file format selection menu.
Synchronization bar: Left/Right/Hemi: Execute mode.
Lpreset banks: ABCD: 80 Lpresets for controlling the LEDs
Fpreset bar: Selection of the current Fpreset in the editor.
Lpreset parameter editor: For each Lpreset a set of Led-parameters.
Sequencer : To run the Fpresets (up to a 100) in a sequence.
Int & MIDI Sound menu: For each Fpreset 4 sounds can be edited (Spresets)
Art button: To switch to the Auto-Composer.
@S button: Switch the 'Screen saver' On/Off
Time button: To view the clock. When clicking on it with the left mouse key, you can edit the time.
When the keyboard is used to input values, a cursor will appear at the display to edit a new value.
'Empty' button: A squared block will appear when the execution is in progress. A rectangular one will appear when a sequence is running.
Kill button: Request to kill files from disk.
Quit button: To Quit the program and return to the GEM desktop.
Illustration menu: To display helping information
FOR MORE INFORMATION, please refer to the on-Line manual on the Links section below.
After booting up the program, first try loading one of the demo files. You do this by going to the menu, under [sequencer] and select [load]. Try the Drums_1.all. Once loaded, hit [return] and start selecting any of the Function keys ( f1-10)or any of the numeric qwerty keys (not the 10 pad keys)You will hear the drum patterns change as to what is programmed in the system. To stop it, hit both mouse buttons at once. Now try loading up one of the other demo files. From there you can also try setting up your own parameters by editing anything in the INT and MIDI Sound menu. You can select program changes (under preset) MIDI Channels, velocity (under Vol) and key notes.Hit [return] to start it playing. You can compose a composition by selecting certain function keys and play them in the correct order. Interesting music can be obtained which only Brain Wave Lab can produce.