PlainTalk is the collective name for several speech synthesis (MacinTalk) and speech recognition technologies developed by Apple Inc. In 1990, Apple invested a lot of work and money in speech recognition technology, hiring many researchers in the field. The result was 'PlainTalk', released with the AV models in the Macintosh Quadra series from 1993. It was made a standard system component in.
- Here is the true story about the Sosumi beep, Mac startup sound, and other sounds I created at Apple. So many myths and urban legends about these sounds. I kept my secret about Sosumi for a.
- Jim Trenary Auto - We're St. Louis's Preferred Auto Group. Jim Trenary Auto has been locally owned since 1993. With over 25 years of serving St. Charles, Wentzville, Union, Troy and the Greater St. We are your trusted dealer of choice. We are also ideally located in O'Fallon, Troy, Union and Moscow Mills.
Intro Mailing lists Downloads FAQ TODO
Intro
Welcome to the world of Binaural Beats!
The theory behind binaural beats is that if you apply slightlydifferent frequency sine waves to each ear, a beating affect iscreated in the brain itself, due to the brain's internal wiring. If,in the presence of these tones, you relax and let your mind go, yourmind will naturally synchronize with the beat frequency. In this wayit is possible to tune the frequency of your brain waves to particularfrequencies that you have selected, using of the four bands: Delta:deep sleep, Theta: dreaming and intuitive stuff, Alpha: awake,focussed inside, and Beta: awake, focussed outside.
Here is a table from Calleman onhow brain-wave frequencies relate to Earth layer boundary resonantfrequencies:
| Layer | Radius | Frequency | Brain waves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magnetopause / Plasma sheet | 60000 km | 0.8Hz | Delta |
| Outer Van Allen Belt | 25000 km | 2Hz | Delta |
| Inner Van Allen Belt | 12000 km | 4Hz | Delta-Theta boundary |
| Earth's crust | 6370 km | 7.5Hz | Theta-Alpha boundary |
| Outer core | 3500 km | 13.5Hz | Alpha-Beta boundary |
| Inner core | 1200 km | 40Hz | Gamma |
It is also possible to produce mixtures of brain waves ofdifferent frequencies by mixing binaural tones, and in this way, withpractice and experimentation, it is reportedly possible to achieverather unusual states, such as out-of-body stuff, and more. See thebooks by Ken Eagle Feather, and the Monroe Institute site for more details. The Monroe Institute haveapparently put 40 years of research into these techniques. Centerpointe havealso done research into binaural beats, concentrating more onimproving overall well-being, health and holistic functioning ratherthan reaching unusual states.
I should add that I have only read about the more advanced andunusual uses (OOBEs and so on). My own experiences have not reachedquite that far, but still I feel that I benefitted immensely fromusing these techniques over the years that I worked with them in aconcentrated way: from simply getting my head clear in confusingmoments, to the energy boosts that came at times, to more generalemotional clearing, and occasional very intense dreams (although notquite lucid).
So, SBAGEN is my utility, released as free software (under the GNUGeneral Public Licence) for Linux, Windows, DOS and Mac OS X, thatgenerates binaural tones in real-time according to a 24-hourprogrammed sequence read from a file. It can also be used to play asequence on demand, rather than according to the clock, or to write aWAV file for playing later. Pink noise, MP3 and Ogg files (sinceversion 1.2.0) may also be mixed with the binaural beats to providebackground sounds. (Two files of randomly-looping river sounds areprovided from version 1.4.0 onwards). This tool is ideal for anyonewho wishes to experiment with these techniques and do research intothis for themselves, so long as they don't mind editing text files.
My original idea was to use this utility to play a programme ofdifferent tones throughout the night, hoping to improve dreaming anddream-recall, and then to bring myself up into Alpha rhythms to(hopefully) make a good start to the day. I am now using it more forshorter focussed sessions of about an hour, both during daytime and atnight. However, other people have used this software in manydifferent ways. For example, one person suffering constant pain fromhistorical injuries appreciated the way that he could tune thefrequencies very accurately to his needs to help him sleep better atnight. Other more unusual uses have included: mixing the sounds in aspart of musical compositions, and generating ambient sounds duringlive DJ sets.
USE AND EXPERIMENT WITH THIS UTILITY AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Downloads
Available to download are:
- Full documentation, plus a ChangeLog, FAQand TODO list.
- EXE installers for Windows users, withpre-built SBAGEN.EXE and full source, documentation and examples.
- DMG and TGZ archives for Mac OS X users,with pre-built 'sbagen' executable and full source, documentation andexamples.
- A TGZ archive for Linux and otherplatforms, containing source, documentation and examples, plusbuild scripts for several targets.
- River sound loopable OGGs, for Linux andolder OSX versions. (Windows and OSX users have them already includedby the installers.)
- ZIP archives providing versions for WinCE(PocketPC) users
- Versions for the Linux ARM (e.g. Zaurus andLinux iPAQ)
- An old ZIP archive for DOS, which supportsWAV-file output only
- Bavsa, my visual tool foranalysing binaural beat recordings
- Source code for a command-line binaural analysistool and rhybag, an experimentalbinaural sound utility for Linux, and SBGLIBa more modern library for binaural sound generation.
NOTE: The extra tone-sets and sequences based on the document thatappeared on USENET claiming to have measured the frequencies of theMonroe Institute Focus Levels are now included in the same archive asthe program - see the files 'focus.txt' and 'wave.txt'.
I have a TODO list of ideas which people havesuggested. However, don't hold your breath -- I have limited timeright now, although I do hope to do a rewrite at some point in thefuture.
Additional information:
A bit more background on binaural beats,from my reading and experiences so far.
Centerpointeappear to have put a lot of work into developing binaural beats into abalanced and well-tested programme. Certainly, from my ownexperiences with binaural beats, I can recognise the value of theirapproach to all this. Their site (including the new slide show)is worth looking at for a nice simple introduction to using binauralbeats for meditation and health.
The MonroeInstitute, who have done a lot of research into Binaural Tones.Their original Hemi-Sync (TM) pages, and the links off them, wereparticularly interesting on the subject of binaural beats. You canfind them archived on the Wayback Engine HERE.Their new Hemi-Sync pages are HERE(until they re-organise their site again!).
Also check out the OpenEEGproject, which aims to design a cheap-to-build EEG machine (<$100) andsoftware to go with it.
Intro Mailing lists Downloads FAQ TODO
Community
| Thanks to SourceForge we have two mailing lists: sbagen-usersfor general discussion, and sbagen-announcefor announcements of new versions. SourceForge also provides download space for theproject files. |
| SBaGen database, acollection of SBG files to download, with option to playlive. |
There are also various online forums that discuss binaural beats,for example HealingBeats.
Intro Mailing lists Downloads FAQ TODO
Downloads
For Windows For Mac OSX Source TGZ River OGG files For WinCE/PocketPC For Linux ARM For Blackfin For DOS Binaural analysis tools SBGLIB rhybag
Documentation
SBAGEN.TXTChangeLog
Also see the FAQ and TODOlist
SBaGen download for Windows
This includes the executable SBAGEN.EXE and full documentation andexample sequences, tone-sets and background sounds. Since version1.4.0 I'm trying out the free InnoSetup installer which shouldmake things very much easier for Windows users. Any problems withthis, let me know.
sbagen-win-1.4.4.exe (2244K)sbagen-win-1.4.3.exe (2219K)
sbagen-win-1.4.1.exe (2233K)
sbagen-win-1.4.0.exe (2232K)
Jabatan Imigresen Malaysia
sbagen-win-1.2.0.zip (284K)
sbagen-win-1.0.14.zip (127K)
sbagen-win-1.0.13.zip (126K)
sbagen-win-1.0.12.zip (125K)
sbagen-win-1.0.11.zip (116K)
sbagen-win-1.0.9.zip (89K)
Note that the Win32 ZIP archive contains mostly the same files asthe Linux TGZ archive below, except that SBAGEN.EXE is pre-built andall text files have been converted to DOS conventions. In version1.0.11, Dirk Cloete's batch files replaced the UNIX script files,allowing Windows users to also run these examples. However, sinceversion 1.2.0, Dirk's files have been replaced with the new .SBG filesto match all the other sequences.
Scott of DreamCycle has kindly contributed a step-by-step guide torebuilding the SBaGen source using Visual Studio. This should beuseful to any VS-based developers who wish to make adjustments to thecode:
BuildingSBaGen with Visual Studio 2005SBaGen download for Mac OS X
The latest version (1.4.5) is an Intel build, as required forLion. A disk-image file (DMG) is now used to make it much easier forMac OSX users. The DMG includes a DEMO command-script you can run toget a quick taster, and a START command-script that sets up Terminalready to play sequences. You'll still need to read the docs to understand more, but I hope thissimplifies things a little. However, to use the earlier versions,you'll definitely need to read the docs.
sbagen-mac-1.4.5.dmg (2122K)sbagen-mac-1.4.2.dmg (2124K)
sbagen-mac-1.4.1.tgz (295K)
sbagen-mac-1.4.0.tgz (2005K)
sbagen-mac-1.2.0.tgz (317K)
sbagen-mac-1.0.14.tgz (95K)
sbagen-mac-1.0.13.tgz (94K)
sbagen-mac-1.0.12.tgz (87K)
sbagen-mac-1.0.11.tgz (79K)
Those attempting to make source-code modifications on OSX willlikely find the following precompiled Ogg and MP3 libraries useful, tosave the hassle of building them from source:
macosx-libs.tgz (416K)SBaGen source download for Linux + other platforms
The TGZ file includes source, plus fulldocumentation and some example sequences and tone-sets. Alsoincluded are pre-build libraries for Ogg and MP3 decoding on 32-bitx86 (Tremor and libMAD) to make things easier for some Linux users.The provided 'mk' script should build on 32-bit Linux (youmay need to change the order of args to cc sbagen.c $LIBS -osbagen $OPT on some versions of GCC, and you might needgcc-multilib if you want to build 32-bit on 64-bit), but it will needadapting for 64-bit. Other platforms are mostly untested, but fileoutput should be possible anywhere (including DOS), with real-timeaudio output on anything with Linux-style /dev/dsp, Win32 audio calls,or Mac OS CoreAudio. You will also need to download the river sounds TGZ if you don't already have theseOGG files from a previous version:
sbagen-1.4.5.tgz (697K)sbagen-1.4.4.tgz (694K)
sbagen-1.4.3.tgz (671K)
sbagen-1.4.2.tgz (669K)
sbagen-1.4.1.tgz (473K)
sbagen-1.4.0.tgz (2036K)
sbagen-1.2.0.tgz (287K)
sbagen-1.0.14.tgz (71K)
sbagen-1.0.13.tgz (71K)
sbagen-1.0.12.tgz (70K)
sbagen-1.0.11.tgz (62K)
sbagen-1.0.10.tgz (62K)
sbagen-1.0.9.tgz (57K)
sbagen-1.0.8.tgz (35K)
sbagen-1.0.7.tgz (30K)
sbagen-1.0.6.tgz (29K)
sbagen-1.0.5.tgz (28K)
sbagen-1.0.4.tgz (25K)
sbagen-1.0.3.tgz (23K)
sbagen-1.0.2.tgz (18K)
sbagen-1.0.1.tgz (17K)
sbagen-1.0.0.tgz (16K)
Version 1.4.0 adds randomised looping background sounds, andbuilt-in -p drop and -p slide sequences. Version 1.2.0 provides MP3and Ogg mixing as well as many other improvements. Version 1.0.12includes support for mixing in background audio from a raw or WAVfile. Version 1.0.11 introduced support for Mac OS X 10.0 and 10.1,and included many example batch files for Windows thanks to DirkCloete. Version 1.0.9 added some new example sequences, Win32support, and an experimental user-defined waveform feature. Version1.0.8 added a CoolEdit-style pink noise helicopter-like effect.Version 1.0.6 added the features of accepting input from a pipe,outputting to a file or pipe, and writing WAV files directly.
River sounds for Linux and MacOSX
The TGZ file contains the loopable river sound OGGs, required byeveryone except Windows users (who have them already included in theirinstaller). These are separate so you don't have to download themevery time there is a new version. Put these in place of the dummyOGG files in the main archive:
sbagen-river-1.4.1.tgz (1732K)Version 1.4.1 added ReplayGain settings.
SBaGen downloads for WinCE (PocketPC)
There are three versions of SBaGen adapted to workwith WinCE. The most recent has been done by Ivan Karamazov, and theprevious two by Sam Lin (lincomatic). I don't have any WinCE machinesmyself, nor do I have the dev tools to create new executables, so youare mostly on your own with these.
Ivan doesn't wish to publish his E-mail address (so contact himthrough me if necessary), but Sam Lin has a SBaGen-PocketPCpage which may have newer updates on his ports.
Version 1.4.4R from Ivan Karamazov. This includes OGG andMP3 support, plus extensions to support looping WAV files in additionto normal SBaGen OGG-looping. This is distributed as a number of ZIPfiles. To run it, you will only need to download the first two: theREADME ZIP, and the binaries. Please read the README files to understand how thisport is intended to be used. You may also want to copy across theriver OGG files and the standard example SBG files from a normalWindows installation of SBaGen.
wince/sbagen-ppc-1.4.4R-readme.zip (19K)wince/sbagen-ppc-1.4.4R-bin.zip (1284K)
The other ZIP files contain sources and build-environments and areonly required for development:
wince/sbagen-ppc-1.4.4R-src.zip (285K)wince/sbagen-ppc-1.4.4R-libs.zip (982K)
wince/sbagen-ppc-1.4.4R-libmad.zip (932K)
wince/sbagen-ppc-1.4.4R-libogg.zip (746K)
Versions of SBaGen 1.4.3 and 1.0.9 from Sam Lin. Version1.4.3: To install, see the SBaGen-CEpage, or in brief: download the non-src ZIP, copy'sbagence.exe' to the PocketPC, copy the SBG sequences to 'MyDocuments', then tap 'Open SBG' and select a sequence. OGG and MP3playback are not supported, just binaural beats and noise.
sbagence-ppc2003-1.4.3.zip (108K)sbagence-src-1.4.3.zip (49K)
Version 1.0.9: The binary is in 'ARMRel/sbagence.exe' inthe first ZIP file. The additional 'sbagen-ce-data' ZIP file containssome experimental sequences that should be unpacked in 'MyDocuments'.
sbagen-ce.zip
(94K)sbagen-ce-data.zip (17K)
SBaGen downloads for Linux ARM (Zaurus and Linux iPAQ)
Here is version 1.4.5 compiled for Linux ARM, e.g. Debian. (Thiswas provided by Cosmin.) I no longer have any ARM hardware to checkthat this works, so you're on your own with this:
sbagen-arm-1.4.5.tgz (680K)This contains a 1.4.1 sbagen executable built for ARM Linux withOGG and MP3 support. It also contains the minimum source andlibraries necessary to recompile it for ARM (with a cross-compiler).For all the sequences, documentation and river OGGs, please downloadthe main Linux archive and river sounds archive separately. Buildinglater executables would be possible, but I'm only going to do that ifpeople ask.
sbagen-arm.tgz (392K)SBaGen download for Blackfin
Please see this site for a contributed build of SBaGen forBlackfin processors:
http://www.tearsoffire.org/twiki/bin/view/Projects/BfSbagenJim Bob Duggar
SBaGen download for DOS
This is an old version (1.0.6) built for DOS thanks to the help ofNotker Christoffel. Only WAV-file output is possible, but this maystill be useful for die-hard DOS fans, as the Win32 version won't runon a bare DOS machine.
SBAGEN00.ZIP (122K)Binaural analysis tools download for Linux
(See also my Bavsa tool for a visualanalysis of binaural beats, which is probably easier to use than thetools below.)
For those who are interested in checking what binaural beatfrequencies are present in a recording (e.g. for checking the outputof SBaGen or other binaural-beat tools), and who are also willing toget their hands a little dirty, here are some improvised command-linetools for Linux (with source) that may help. These effectively do avery fine analysis on a small range of carrier frequencies that youspecify, assuming that binaural tones are present in that range,picking out the binaural beat frequency and other parameters. Notethat the code isn't perfect -- it may need tweaking to work well withsome recordings.
binaural-analysis-20040521.tgz (112K)SBGLIB download for Windows andLinux
sbglib-20110904.zip (279K)Due to other commitments, work has stalled on this. If someonewishes to fund further work to extend this (at a reasonable hourlyrate), I would consider it.
Jim Caviezel
rhybag download for Linux
Also available is an experimental utility called rhybag,which can be used to generate smooth fast-changing binaural sequences,perhaps for inclusion with music. This is for Linux only, and it issomewhat alpha, although stable, with some documentation and examples.
Briefly, the difference between the two utilities is that SBaGenis designed for operation according to clock-time (although it can runin other modes), making smooth slow changes, whereas rhybag isdesigned to play sequences that contain very fast changes, withoutclicks or distortion, possibly mixing in samples. It uses a differentnotation more suited to this type of application.
Any comments on this experimental utility are welcome.
rhybag-0.1.1.tgz (29K)Intro Mailing lists Downloads FAQ TODO
TODO list
These are ideas that people have suggested on way or another, notnecessarily things I will ever actually get around to putting in.Many of these are fundamental changes, so this will all probably leadtowards a new version of SBaGen (SBaGen 2), which will have to be arewrite.
- Add 'mixspin:' and 'mixbeat:' options. The first would apply thespin effect to the mix stream. The second would use a Hilberttransform and a 'twist' of the resulting complex waveform to shift theL+R channels up and down in frequency to create a binaural beat out ofany recording. The idea seems sound, it just needs implementing andtesting.
- Give Mac users desktop access to the application, usingdouble-click to run an SBG file, for example.
- Possibly add JACK support (jackit.sf.net); this is yet anothergood reason to rewrite the core code to fit a callback model. Thiswould lead onto easier CoreAudio and Windows audio support too.
- Allow several channels that act independently, i.e. withindependent slides going on through other activity on otherchannels.
- Create a sbagenlib to do all the play-time sequencing and audiogeneration, permitting several different front ends to becreated.
- Make an 'easy' SDL-basd clickable GUI interface for Windows users,separate from the more powerful command-line interface.
- Add support for triggering WAV/MP3 samples at certain points inthe sequence: for example, 'You have now entered Theta at 7Hz', orwhatever.
- Support clicking the mouse or pressing a key to make a record ofinteresting combinations of frequencies/tone-sets/etc, so thatinteresting points in the experience can be recorded without having tocome out of trance.
- Add random variation of frequencies within a range: '110+7.83 withsoftly RANDOMLY changing in 109-111, 7.75-7.85, but not like drop orslide.' How to vary it exactly? Big question.
- Command-line global volume control option, to adjust volumewithout having to edit the sequence.
- Conversion to/from Gnaural XML files. (Not looked at them, sodon't know whether this can be made reversible.)
More:
- Maybe allow keyboard control to fade between different sequencesin real-time. Actually this was suggested connected with rhybag.This might be achieved by a rewrite using SDL for the front-end andaudio output code, effectively creating a completely new app.
- Maybe add a screen that flashes in sync with the beats, as a cheaplight-glasses replacement.
- Maybe add a feature to record timing of user events during asession indicated by user clicks or keypresses.
- Maybe add a feature to add modulation of the volume level inaddition to the beating.
- Add light glasses control with in the MagicJim / AudioStrobemethod, i.e. adding high-frequency tones to trigger the flashes.
- Suggestion: Add LPT1 light glasses control. The coding would besignificantly different between Linux and Windows. Until I have somelight glasses to play with, I can't see me doing this.
- Suggestion: 'sinusoidal, gaussian or user defined sweep in afrequency range' (!?)
- Suggestion: Add coloured noise to SBaGen as mentioned on themailing list.
- Suggestion: Allow logarithmic fades (as in rhybag?). Allow noisemodulation, both in amplitude and in pitch.
- Suggestion: Implement isochronic tones. (Requested several times,but as I understand it, these aren't a true binaural effect, just aform of monophonic beating or pulsing.)