Solfeggio harmonics and white noise meditation

[JBC]

I've been messing with healing frequencies lately.

I've found that 285 Hz will immediately change the atmosphere to something more calming but also help me focus intently.

I just stared at the Demon's World/Horror Story attract mode and listened to it at the same time. I feel fairly peaceful.

I don't think there's anything magical about it, it's common knowledge that sound can affect your mood. It's pretty cool that we've figured out which sounds have a positive effect on our state of mind though. I went to sleep with the files playing one night and I swear it made me rest easier. I think I'm going to start leaving it on while I paint or read.

I got interested in this stuff when I passed by a wind chime one day that made a particularly beautiful hum. It INSTANTLY put me in a wonderful mood (it was sort of 'euphoric' I think is the word, sorta dream-like). I wanted to buy it off the people but the owner wasn't around.

[rancor]

I've got a Buddha Machine. It'll space you out after a while.
How do you play a 285hz frequency? Could I just download a tone generator?

[JBC]

I downloaded some albums in FLAC but feel it would be more effective if the noise wasn't an electronic reproduction. I've messed with those crazy reverberating bowls before and that's where I suspect there's a difference. With both those bowls and that wind chime it was like I could feel the sound on my skin or in my inner ear. I think if I had some setup that produced the 'real' sound the effect would be intensified.

[GaijinPunch]

I just got an app in the iPhone that makes ambient tones (tunes) based on bubbles hitting each other. Pretty cool idea.

Circuli -- definitely shittier ways to waste a buck at the App store. Sounds like it will be different than what you are achieving though.

[drboom]

I usually get like this when I take Hydrocodone - I can buy a bowl and get the same effect? Very cool.

Honestly, I've always wondered about the mental effects of different frequencies and tones - certain chords on certain records definitely hit me, but I always chalked that up to some sort of nostalgia or something.

[Icarus]

Talking about the psychology and uses of "colored noise"? I've heard that certain types of noise work quite well in developing focus, relaxation, and other psychological things. Wind chimes, I think, are used to provide a "cooling" noise, which is why they tend to be popular in very hot countries in summer. I love them because they sound nice and calming.

I normally use the website Simply Noise and play something that sounds like waves crashing on a beach when I need long, sustained periods of focus, free from distractions - I usually have a big set of noise-blocking Sennheiser HD205 headphones on, lol. There are quite a lot of apps around for iOS and Android that can generate colored noise for different things. In my case, it's either colored noise, or a trance playlist that has the same desired effect. ^_-

[GaijinPunch]

There's a handful of ambient albums that are really good. Some noise, some not. Some have quite a bit of melody. Unfortunately, tones are amazingly repetitive and shit.

[mesh control]

edit: i'm a fucktard

[Randorama]

I suggest Spanish Castles in Space by The Orb, in their first album. The perfect ambient score for isolated places.

[GaijinPunch]

I suggest Spanish Castles in Space by The Orb, in their first album. The perfect ambient score for isolated places.

Sun Electric: 30.7.94
Best ambient album... evar... Been listening to it for about 15 years now.

Close 2nd's are Music for Airports by Brian Eno & Chill Out by KLF. The Orb is dope too!

EDIT: 30.7.94 is a bitch to find though.

[szycag]

Substrata by Biosphere is still uncontested for my absolute favorite ambient album. But I'm going to try Sun Electric. Do you like Biosphere GP?

[Randorama]

GP: I listened to Sun Electric a lot in my BA days.

I find ambient or minimalist music to be perfect when studying or working on very formal topics (I'm a logician, among others). It is quite helpful when I need to focus on a long intellectual activity, I think.

[kid aphex]

(Waits eagerly for thread to become ambient album recommendations)

[JBC]

(Waits eagerly for thread to become ambient album recommendations)

Sigh...

[kid aphex]

Sorry, I wish everyone had more to offer on Solfeggio tones.
I was originally turned onto them after reading an independent 'new age' magazine article by a professor of mathematics who became obsessed with sound, it's history, and it's relationship to the structure of the universe.
Most interesting were the reproductions of melodies he discovered archived into the construction of sacred places throughout history...
If I still had the magazine, I'd scan it for you... but, it was independent, so it's quality doomed it to a quick disintegration.
The physics of SOUND is a topic that, despite having an insatiable hunger for music, I'm pretty ignorant of, but I've always wondered if the the type of equipment used to listen to the frequencies has an effect on their structure, or quality...and in turn, an effect on the suggested benefits.
Anyone?

[GaijinPunch]

Substrata by Biosphere is still uncontested for my absolute favorite ambient album. But I'm going to try Sun Electric. Do you like Biosphere GP?

Yep, and Substrata / The Man With a Movie Camera is probably the best one.

I find ambient or minimalist music to be perfect when studying or working on very formal topics

Same, while programming. Rarely do I have to stop it to think.

(Waits eagerly for thread to become ambient album recommendations)

Not only ambient, but some in there...