NAME
discord - Generate binaural, chronaural, or phase beats to soundcard or file for use in brain wave entrainment. Link to discord project and download page at sourceforge
SYNOPSIS
discord [flags] script_filename [script filename] ...
discord [flags] {-l|--listfile=}filename [flags] [script filename] ...
DESCRIPTION
Discord is a command line program used to generate binaural, phase, and chronaural beats mixed with tones, noise, or sound files of the users choice. The default is to play the files via the computer's sound card, but they can be written to an output file instead. Only file formats available in libsndfile can be used as input or output. Those formats do not include mp3 at this time, and probably won't until the patents expire. Some common formats available are wav, FLAC, ogg, au, aiff, and raw. If an input sound file has a different sample rate than that selected for the output, it will automatically be resampled to the requested rate using the highest quality available in libsamplerate. This can take a long time. If you are going to use the same file again and again, a copy can be retained in the same directory as it was found with the new rate appended to the filename by specifying the -k/--keep option.
While all of the options below can be used on the command line, the sequences to play must be defined in a script file. Options on the command line override options in a script file. Script files are named with a .discord extension by convention. You can, however, use whatever name you want for your script files. All of the options can also be set in a configuration file in your home directory called .discordrc. This file contains options identical to those in a script file or on the command line. The options found here have the lowest priority and will be overridden by either a script file or the command line. There is a sample .discordrc included, so you can move it to your $HOME directory if you want.
While discord is very complex, that is part of its purpose. To allow the exploration of auditory beats in new ways, perhaps leading to greater efficacy or new effects. It also means that there are bugs still lurking in the code because not all combinations have been tested.
There are twelve voice types in discord. These are binaural, chronaural, pulse (a variation of chronaural), phase, fm (a variation of phase or vice versa), bell, noise, stoch (stands for stochastic), sample, repeat, once, and silence.
Voice type description
binaural
Generate a pair of tones separated by a beat frequency at a specific carrier frequency and amplitude. Optionally vary the amplitude of the left and right channels at a specified frequency and by a specified percent. Binaural tones are allowed to slide into the next binaural on carrier, beat, amplitude, amplitude beat, and amplitude beat variation amount.
chronaural
Generate a periodic tone at a specified frequency and amplitude. The period is the beat in this case. In addition, the split or pan of the tone can be specified to vary between set values at a rate specified. Chronaural tones are allowed to slide into the next chronaural on carrier, beat, amplitude, phase,split beat, and sin threshold. You could think of these tones as equivalent to high tech drum beats, a method human beings have used to enter altered states of consciousness for thousands of years.
pulse
Generate a periodic tone at a specified frequency and amplitude. The period is the beat in this case. In addition, the split or pan of the tone can be specified to vary between set values at a rate specified. Pulse tones are allowed to slide into the next pulse on carrier, beat, amplitude, phase, time, and split beat. The difference between this and chronaural is the way the duration is specified. Unlike chronaural, where tone shape may be selected, pulse is fixed as using a square wave. You could think of these tones as equivalent to high tech drum beats, a method human beings have used to enter altered states of consciousness for thousands of years.
phase
Generate a beat by shifting the phase of the carrier tone at a specified beat frequency and to a specified phase offset between 0 and a positive number of degrees. Phase tones are allowed to slide into the next phase on carrier, beat, amplitude, phase, and split beat. This uses the doppler effect to get the attention of the brain. It seems like something is coming towards and going away from us. The way it differs from fm is that there is always the drone of the original unshifted carrier also present in the sound stream. The phase shifted tone is split between the channels as determined by the split requested. The drone tone is split between channels in the conjugate of the shifted tone. So each channel is always at the same amplitude, disregarding any effects of amplitude beat.
fm
Fm stands for frequency modulation. Generate a beat by shifting the frequency at a specified beat frequency and to a specified frequency offset. Fm tones are allowed to slide into the next fm on carrier, beat, amplitude, band, phase, and split beat. This uses the doppler effect to get the attention of the brain. It seems like something is coming towards and going away from us.
bell
Generate a tone at a specified frequency and amplitude. The tone may be fixed periodic or occur at randomly generated times between selected upper and lower limits. Decay or enhance for the tone can also be set. Bells can interrupt each other before they are finished playing. Bell voices are allowed to slide into the next voice on min and max amplitude.
noise
Generate a group of tones within a specified frequency and amplitude range. The tones may be fixed periodic or occur at randomly generated times between selected upper and lower limits. Decay or enhance for the tone can also be set. Noise tones don't interrupt each other before they are finished playing. Noise voices are allowed to slide into the next voice on min and max amplitude.
stoch
Play a user supplied sound file at either fixed intervals or random intervals within specified times. Pan and amplitude can vary for each play, or remain fixed depending on options specified. Stoch voices are allowed to slide into the next voice on min and max amplitude.
sample
Play a randomly selected fixed time slices of a user supplied sound file continuously. Pan and amplitude can vary with each sample or remain fixed, depending on the options specified. Sample voices are allowed to slide into the next voice on min and max amplitude.
repeat
Play a user supplied sound file continuously. Pan and amplitude can vary with each repeat or remain fixed, depending on the options specified. Repeat voices are allowed to slide into the next voice on min and max amplitude.
once
Play a user supplied sound file once at a specified time. Pan and amplitude can be randomly chosen or be fixed, depending on the options specified.
silence
Placeholder for voice and in scripts for synchronization. As the name implies it does nothing. It can't be used to slide to or from.
All internal processing is done in double format so the tones are very precise. The user specified sound files are stored in memory for fast access while generating sound, so you should have lots of memory or use small sound files. They are stored only once, no matter how many times they are used in the script file that specifies the time sequence.
To give you a feel for what this is describing, below is a link to a file generated with discord. It is about 7 minutes long. If you don't have a fast connection, you should download it before listening. In order to get the effect you will have to use headphones as this file is pure binaural. It is not a beginner file. It uses some lower carrier frequencies, it slides quickly, and it doesn't give much time for entrainment. It also starts in middle alpha and goes to low alpha and back to middle alpha. And the amp beat is at only .5 per second. However you will be able to hear the amp beat occurring every two seconds, and you can also hear the binaural beat by lifting first one cup of the headphones, and hearing only a tone in the other ear. Then let that cup down and lift the other cup. You will again hear only a tone in the other ear. When you put both down at once you will 'hear' a sound in the middle of your head, in this case at 10 beats per second to 8 beats per second. That is the binaural beat. You will know you entrained successfully if at the end of the sequence you feel charged, and everything has a slight glow. You might feel a change in your state of consciousness without the effects if you don't fully entrain. If you feel no change, that is all right. You do have the ability to entrain, it will just take practice.
sample wav sound file from discord 70MiB
OPTIONS
Specify the audio device to use for playback in alsa plug format. Discord will automatically create a plughw alsa plugin from the default audio device if this is not specified. Discord uses alsa to do format conversion from internal program representation to what the card requires, but locks the sample rates to be only those supported by the card hardware. This prevents resampling with consequent distortion and slowdown. If you try to use a direct hardware link like "hw:0,0" here it will cause a segmentation fault. To implement direct hardware writing discord would have to incorporate all of the format conversion. This seems counterproductive. The first number is the card number, the second is the device number, both starting at 0. See the alsa documentation at www.alsa-project.org for a fuller explanation. Default is plughw:0,0. There can be issues here with pulseaudio, as it takes over the hardware and doesn't let any other application have it. Because pulseaudio is becoming so integrated into the OS and GUI, I have resorted to having a sound device that I give to it. I then use the pulseaudio volume control to turn off the actual device I want to use with discord, so I can communicate directly with alsa. In future, I might build in the ability to use pulseaudio, but I don't like the fact that it does on the fly rate conversion because it has to merge all the sound streams it uses.
Examples
--audio_device=plughw:0,0
-a plughw:0,2
bit accuracy of sound generated, 16i, 24i, 32i, 32f, 64f, i=int and f=float. Only applies if you are sending to a file. Default is 16i. For ogg, it is not necessary to specify this because it doesn't really have meaning there. If you want to you can specify it as vorbus. Note that older audio players might not be able to play anything but 16i.
Examples
--bit_accuracy=16i
-b 24i
compensate for human hearing, low and high freqs need to be louder, max 32 adjustment points are allowed. The compensation points can all be on the same line or on multiple lines, but each line must start with the option name. If this is correct, a sound at the compensated frequency sounds the same loudness as any other sound at its compensated frequency. i.e. It linearizes the range. This is individual, depends on your hearing, so the above is only a starting point for you to play with and tweak. For most people, sounds from about 800 Hz to 4000 Hz are the loudest and about equivalent. Hearing falls off at either end so that the amplitude has to be higher in order for the sound to have the same loudness to the ear. There is dispute about whether sounds outside the range of hearing have any effect. If you use compensation, set all amplitudes to a constant value for binaural, chronaural, bell, and noise. Or whatever ratio between the loudness you want them to have, as if linear. The stoch, sample, repeat, and once voices are not compensated so should be set at the amplitude you want. Default is no compensation.
Examples (see also the test script files)
--compensate=5=9'''3000=1'''',13000=3,,,,20000=11.0
-c 5=10'''2530=1''',13128=3.5,,,,20000=10.0
display only, don't actually play any sequences. Default is play.
display status every x seconds, decimal value > 0. If you use values that are too small here, you will get a lot of underruns. Small values are probably best by redirecting output to a file for future analysis. e.g. discord test.discord > save.output 2>&1 Make sure you also write the sound to a file using -b, -o, -w. Default is 5 seconds.
Examples
--every=10
-e 5.391
fast, move through at multiple of time, 60 ==> 1min becomes 1 sec so a 1 hour play sequence will play in 1 minute. Good for testing a new sequence for correctness, though obviously the effect won't be the same. Bell has been tweaked so that the pitch doesn't change while using this. Default is 1.
Examples
--fast=60
-f 10
display short help list for options
keep any files generated by resampling. Default is to delete the files when they are no longer needed.
read this file as a list of discord script files. It will then play each of these files in parallel. The file can have relative paths or absolute paths for the included scripts. Comments using hash marks, #, are allowed, as are blank lines. A sample listfile is included in the scripts directory of the package, called sample.chorus. You can mix these files with command line script files as well. Options from script files in listfiles are not parsed however. You should use either a .discordrc in your home directory or command line options, though you can just accept the defaults in the program. By convention, these are named with a .chorus extension though that isn't necessary.
Examples
--listfile=/home/xkdi/discord_scripts/composition.chorus
-l /home/xkdi/discord_scripts/composition.chorus
specify that every carrier and beat for binaural, chronaural, pulse, phase, and fm voices will be modified from the value in the input script. The value is the percent band within which the random modification will occur, half above the input value, and half below. For a carrier of 200 with a modification of 2 per cent, the modified value will be a random value between 198 and 202. For a beat of 4 with a modification of 1 per cent, the modified value will be a random value between 3.98 and 4.02. The maximum modification is less than 200, which means a possible value somewhere between almost zero and twice the input. This is a fast way to modify a script without editing. Default is no modification.
Examples
--modify=2
-m 0.5
output file format, w:wav, f:flac, r:raw. Default is wav.
Examples
--out_format=w
-o w
quiet, don't display status or any other output while running. Default is to display status every 5 seconds.
frame rate per second, whatever your card can do, 44100 is CD quality. Higher rates might be beneficial on binaurals at high frequencies, say 15000 Hz and above, or very low beats, < 0.1. For normal frequencies, 44100 will be just fine. Note that higher rates won't do any harm, they will just make the cpu and sound card work harder. From Nyquist theory, the sample rate has to be greater than equal to twice the highest frequency in the sound being played in order to reproduce it exactly. Since human hearing theoretically maxes out for most people at 20 kHz and cd quality at 44100 frames/second allows up to 22 kHz perfect reproduction, this isn't really a problem if your sound card has a decent digital analog converter. While discord is only pretending to sample and doesn't exactly meet the criteria, it should be within small tolerances of perfect. I think the place where any change might be noticeable is dynamics. If your sound card does internal processing in 16 bit integers, that allows a variation of 32,767 gradations of amplitude. You will lose a slight amount of exactness from the doubles that discord uses internally. If your card uses 24 bit or 32 bit internally, any change from conversion will be unnoticeable. Whatever the rate you select here, discord will use the closest hardware supported rate to prevent any resampling, a major source of distortion, far greater than effects from sample rate or bit representation of amplitude unless you are using a sample rate of 22 kHz or less or an 8 bit sound card. Default is 44100.
Examples
--rate=44100
-r 96000
specify that every carrier and beat for binaural, chronaural, pulse, phase, and fm voices will be shifted from the value in the input script. The value is the percent of modification which will occur. For a carrier of 200 with a shift of 2 per cent, the modified value will be 204. For a beat of 4 with a modification of -1 per cent, the modified value will be 3.96. The minimum shift is greater than -100, which means a possible value somewhere between almost zero and whatever positive value the computer will handle. This is a fast way to shift a script in synchrony without editing. Default is no shift.
Examples
--shift=2
-s -.5
use nonblocking thread to play sound instead of a blocking function call. This allows more throughput, but because the thread runs with user priority, during heavy cpu usage it can result in breaks in the sound while other tasks block it. The blocking function call is more robust in this situation. Under light usage, either is fine. This only affects threading for playing sound or writing sound to a file. Default is no threading.
when writing a status line while playing, use the detailed format instead of the summary format that is the default.
write to this file instead of the default, playing via sound card 0. You can use this without setting the -b/--bit_rate and -o/--out_format variables, but you will then get the default of 16 bit and wav format.
Examples
--write=/home/xkdi/mindbending.flac
-w /home/xkdi/mindblowing.wav
specify the quality for an ogg vorbis output stream that is being written to file. The allowable values are 0 to 1, floating point. A value of zero is approximately 64 Kbits/second and a value of 1 is approximately 500 Kbits/second. If this isn't specified, a default value of .5 is used, corresponding to approximately 160 Kbits/second. Using -y because I am running out of letters. Soon I'll have to go to long options only. As stated, default is .5.
Examples
--vbr_quality=.95
-y .3
CONFIGURATION FILE
You may optionally place a configuration file called .discordrc in your $HOME directory. It may contain only options, in the same format as in a script file or on the command line. These options will be overridden by a script file or the command line. A sample is provided.
SCRIPT FILE
Any text after a # is disregarded, whether at the start of a line or after meaningful text.
Options may be set in a script file, in fact it is easier to do so, but they must be before any time sequences in that file.
A time sequence may span multiple lines, but a voice (binaural, bell, noise, etc.) cannot be split across lines.
Time Sequences
A time sequence always starts with a duration in the format hh:mm:ss. This may be followed with a fade indicator of less than sign "<" for fade in or greater than sign ">" for fade out. e.g. 00:02:03''''< means to fade in for 2 minutes and 3 seconds. The duration is followed by the voices that will play during that time period, each voice on its own line.
Separators allowed are | , ; ' = and ascii space 0x20, multiples are allowed mixed with singles, any combination of separators even within a voice. However, every voice must be joined by separators. No tabs are allowed.
The greater than sign ">" after a binaural, chronaural, pulse, phase, or fm voice is a slide, and will continuously adjust fields that are allowed to slide for that voice so that they match the corresponding field's value at the start of the next binaural, chronaural, pulse, phase, or fm voice that they slide to. For slides to work, the binaural, chronaural, pulse, phase, or fm voices must be in the same relative position in the time sequences. There is no other way to know that there is a link between the voices. So the first voice in the sequence will always look to the first voice in the next sequence to slide to, etc. Only beat voices have the option to slide.
One alternative slide format is the step slide. Instead of using a greater than sign ">" to indicate a slide, use an ampersand "&". Instead of sliding smoothly to the next time sequence, the slide will occur in a series of steps with slides between them. The ampersand is followed by three fields separated by any combination of the allowed separators: number of steps, time for slide joins in seconds, and fuzz in per cent. Number of steps is the number of step-slide sequences that you want in the time period. The time for slide join is how long to make the slides that bridge the steps in seconds. And the fuzz is the percent of the interval that the constant tone can occur in, if it is 10 per cent, then it will be the fixed frequency +/- 5 per cent. The time for slide join determines the length of the constant step as the total time for the period minus all of the slides has to equal the number of steps. The first step or constant tone is always the starting frequency. Time to entrain varies and you should make sure that the step time is above this for you. For some, this will work better than a continuous slide because it allows time for the brain to entrain between each slide.
Another alternative slide format is the vary slide. Instead of using a greater than sign ">" to indicate a slide, use a tilde "~". Instead of sliding smoothly to the next time sequence, the slide will occur in a series of steps with slides between them. The tilde is followed by two fields separated by separators: number of steps and time for slide joins in seconds. Number of steps is the number of step-slide sequences that you want in the time period. The time for slide join is how long to make the slides that bridge the steps in seconds. The time for slide join determines the length of the constant step as the total time for the period minus all of the slides has to equal the number of steps. The first step or constant tone is always the starting frequency. Time to entrain varies and you should make sure that the step time is above this for you. This varies from the step slide in that the steps are random in their ordering; they can be anywhere between the starting voice and the voice being slid to. The last slide will always be to the corresponding voice of the next time sequence. This is a great way to experience a lot of frequencies in a range.
All amplitudes are in percentages, 0 is none, 100 is max. And the amplitude is for each channel. So if you have an amplitude of 10%, each channel will have an amplitude of 10% (except where split can distribute it differently, say 13% and 7%).
All splits are expressed as fraction for left channel. e.g. .3 means .3 left channel, .7 right channel
All durations in voices are expressed as seconds. e.g. .3 = .3 second, 20 = 20 seconds, 1200 = 20 minutes
For any fields with a minimum and maximum range, setting them the same makes it a constant value. Any time they are different, a random selection in the range will be made.
Fields for binaural are name, carrier frequency, beat frequency, and amplitude. Optional fields are a left and right amplitude frequency variation and a left and right percentage to vary. Optional fields must be at the end, before the slide indicator if they are present. The + or - on the beat frequency indicates whether the left ear is higher + or lower -. The beat is centered on the carrier frequency, so 200 +4 results in L 202 and R 198.
Examples
binaural''''400.0''''+10.01''''2.9
| | | |
name carrier beat amplitude right left percent vary
| | | | | |
binaural''''60.0''''+10.01''''1.0''''0.5''''0.5''''10.0''''10.0'>
| | | |
field separators left amplitude beat right |
| | slide
&''''8''''30'''',,,,10 (slide with & instead of >)
| | | |
| steps slide time fuzz percent
step slide
~,,,,5''''20 (slide with ~ instead of >)
| | |
| steps slide time
vary slide
Fields for chronaural are name, carrier, beat, amplitude, phase, sin threshold, beat amplitude behavior, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, split beat, and slide. Beat is the frequency through time of the occurrence of the carrier tone. Phase is the phase difference in degrees between the left and right channel, from 0 to 360. If the beat is positive, the right channel leads and will be phase shifted. If the beat is negative, the left channel leads and will be phase shifted. Sin threshold is the value the sin function has to have before the tone is played, [0.0, 1.0). The closer this is to 1.0, the shorter the tone will be. There is a one millisecond fade out on all chronaural tones to prevent crackle in the sound stream so you cannot use a sin threshold such that the length of the tone is less than one millisecond or it will fade immediately. e.g. at a frame rate of 48000/sec and chronaural beat frequency of 20 Hz the maximum amplitude fraction is slightly above 0.9975. at a frame rate of 96000/sec and chronaural beat frequency of 5 Hz the maximum amplitude fraction is slightly above 0.9999. Behavior for beat amplitude is as follows:
1 sin wave - tone is multiplied by sin value
2 square wave - tone is either on or off
3 dirac delta approximation - tone is multiplied by fifth power of sin
4 extreme dirac delta approximation - tone is multiplied by fifteenth power of sin
If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split. Split beat is the frequency through time of the oscillation of the left and right split. Slide indicator must be present or no slide will occur.
Example
carrier phase begin split split beat slide
| | | | |
chronaural''145.0''4.0''1.0''5''.00''3''0.0''0.5''.050''.950''1.200''>
| | | | | | | | |
name | | amplitude | amp behave | low split |
separators beat sin threshold end split high split
| |
&''''8''''30'''',,,,10 (slide with & instead of >)
| | | |
| steps slide time fuzz percent
step slide
~,,,,5''''20 (slide with ~ instead of >)
| | |
| steps slide time
vary slide
Fields for pulse are name, carrier, amplitude, beat, phase, time, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, split beat, and slide. Beat is the frequency through time of the occurrence of the carrier tone. Phase is the phase difference in degrees between the left and right channel, from 0 to 360. If the beat is positive, the right channel leads and will be phase shifted. If the beat is negative, the left channel leads and will be phase shifted. Time is the duration of the pulse beat in seconds. There is a one millisecond fade out on all pulse tones to prevent crackle in the sound stream so you cannot use a pulse beat such that the length of the tone is less than one millisecond or it will begin to fade immediately. If the time is longer than the period of the beat frequency, greater than 1/beat, the tone will sound continuously. So at a beat of 20 Hz, the time has to be less than .05 and if you don't want immediate fade, greater than .001. If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split. Split beat is the frequency through time of the oscillation of the left and right split. Slide indicator must be present or no slide will occur.
Example
carrier time begin split high split slide
| | | | |
pulse''145.0''4.0''1.0''5''.02''''0.0''0.5''.050''.950''1.200''>
| | | | | | | |
name | beat | phase | low split split beat
separators amplitude end split
| |
&''''8''''30'''',,,,10 (slide with & instead of >)
| | | |
| steps slide time fuzz percent
step slide
~,,,,5''''20 (slide with ~ instead of >)
| | |
| steps slide time
vary slide
Fields for phase are name, carrier frequency, beat, amplitude, phase, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, and split beat. Optional fields are a left and right amplitude beat frequency and a left and right percentage to vary. Optional fields must be at the end, before the slide indicator if they are present. Phase is the maximum phase difference in degrees between the base carrier tone, the drone, and the phase shifted tone, from 0 to a positive number. The amount of the shifted tone in each channel is determined by the split. The drone tone is distributed as the conjugate of the split. Unlike the fm voice, there is no way to change the phase relationship between the left and right channels.
Example
name carrier beat amplitude phase end split max split
| | | | | | |
phase'''400''''10.01''''2.9''''180''''.5''''.5''''0''''1''''0
| | |
begin split min split split beat
Line below split for expository reasons, has to be single in script.
amplitude phase begin split
name carrier beat | | | end split split beat
| | | | | | | |
phase''''60.0''''12.01''1.0''''150''''.4''''.6''''0''''1''''0.2
| | | |
field separators min split max split
right amplitude beat right percent vary
| |
''''0.5''''0.5''''10.0''''10.0'''''''''>
| | |
left amplitude beat left percent vary slide
&''''8''''30'''',,,,10 (slide with & instead of >)
| | | |
| steps slide time fuzz percent
step slide
~,,,,5''''20 (slide with ~ instead of >)
| | |
| steps slide time
vary slide
Fields for fm are name, carrier frequency, beat, amplitude, band, phase, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, and split beat. Optional fields are a left and right amplitude frequency variation and a left and right percentage to vary. Optional fields must be at the end, before the slide indicator if they are present. Band is the frequency that defines the upper limit of the range that the frequency modulation will use. The frequency will oscillate between carrier and carrier plus band at the beat rate. Phase is the maximum phase difference in degrees between the left and right channel, from -360 to 360. If the phase is positive, the right channel leads and will be phase shifted between 0 and the phase at the beat rate. If the phase is negative, the left channel leads and will be phase shifted between 0 and the phase at the beat rate. If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split. Split beat is the frequency through time of the oscillation between the begin and end split. Phase shift and split are somewhat similar in their effect. The sound will be perceived to come from the direction where the phase shift is leading. Split creates the same effect using amplitude differential, the sound will seem to come from the louder direction.
Examples
name carrier beat amplitude band phase end split max split
| | | | | | | |
fm'''400''''10.01''''2.9''''10.0''''180''''.5''''.5''''0''''1''''0
| | |
begin split min split split beat
Line below split for expository reasons, has to be single in script.
amplitude phase begin split
name carrier beat | band | | end split split beat
| | | | | | | | |
fm''''60.0''''12.01''1.0'''17'''-150''''.4''''.6''''0''''1''''0.2
| | |
field separators min split max split
right amplitude beat right percent vary
| |
''''0.5''''0.5''''10.0''''10.0'''''''''>
| | |
left amplitude beat left percent vary slide
&''''8''''30'''',,,,10 (slide with & instead of >)
| | | |
| steps slide time fuzz percent
step slide
~,,,,5''''20 (slide with ~ instead of >)
| | |
| steps slide time
vary slide
Fields for bell are name, frequency, minimum start amplitude, maximum start amplitude, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, minimum time allowed to ring, maximum time allowed to ring, minimum time till next ring, maximum time till next ring, and decay pattern for the ring, 1 through 5.
1 decrease linearly to 0
2 decrease linearly to .5,
3 constant,
4 increase linearly to 1.1
5 decrease quadratically to 0 (this is the most natural sounding)
The minimum and maximum time till next play are relative to the beginning of the last play. i.e. unlike noise, bell will interrupt itself. The bell can start ringing again before the current ring has finished. It displaces the currently ringing bell. If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split.
Example
frequency begin split high split max time decay
| | | | |
bell'900.0'0.153'1.063'-1.0'-1.0'.050'.950'1.300'3.500'1.8'4.8'5'''>
| | | | | | | | | | |
name| |min amp | | low split | min next max next |
separators max amp end split min time slide
Fields for noise are name, minimum start frequency, maximum start frequency, minimum start amplitude, maximum start amplitude, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, minimum time allowed to play, maximum time allowed to play, minimum time till next play, maximum time till next play, minimum decay pattern for the play, 1 through 21. maximum decay pattern for the play, 1 through 21, and the number of repeats.
1 decrease linearly to 0
2 decrease linearly to .5,
3 constant,
4 increase linearly to 1.1
5 decrease linearly to 1.25
6 increase sinusoidally from .25 to 1.25 and back down to .25
7 decrease sinusoidally from 1.0 to 0.5 and back up to 1.0
8-14 same as above with 10% drop in carrier frequency during each play
15-21 same as above with 10% rise in carrier frequency during each play
If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split. Minimum decay has to be less than maximum decay or unpredicable behavior results. The minimum and maximum time till next play are relative to the end of the last play. i.e. unlike bell, noise will never interrupt itself. The next voice in a slot will never start playing until after the current voice has finished. If there is no repeat on the end, 1 is the default. To reduce crackle there is a 10 ms fade in and fade out on the noise voice.
Example - line split for expository reasons, has to be single in script
separators max frequency max amplitude end split
| | | |
noise''''360.0''''420.0''''0.50''''0.80''''-1.0''''-1.0''''.050''
| | | | |
name min frequency min amplitude begin split min allowed split
max allowed split max time to play max time to next play
| | |
''.950''''2.3000''''5.7000''''.10000''''.20000''''2''''4''''5''''>
| | | | | |
min time to play min time to next play min decay | repeats |
max decay slide
Fields for stoch are name, file name, minimum amplitude, maximum amplitude, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, minimum time till next play, maximum time till next play. If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split. Example
max time to next play
file to play max amplitude end split max allowed split |
| | | | |
stoch'''trig.aiff'''2.20'''3.303'''-1'''-1'''.050'''.950'''.5''3.9'>
| | | | | |
name min amplitude begin split min allowed split | slide
min time to next play
Fields for sample are name, file name, minimum amplitude, maximum amplitude, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, and length of the sample (constant in seconds). If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split.
Example
file to play max amplitude end split max allowed split
| | | |
sample'''trig.aiff'''1.20'''2.30'''-1'''-1'''.050'''.950'''1.0'''>
| | | | | |
name min amplitude begin split min allowed split |slide
length of sample
Fields for repeat are name, file name, minimum amplitude, maximum amplitude, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed. If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split.
Example
file to play max amplitude end split max allowed split
| | | |
repeat'''trig.aiff'''1.20'''3.30'''-1'''-1'''.050'''.950''''''>
| | | | |
name min amplitude begin split min allowed split slide
Fields for once are name, file name, minimum amplitude, maximum amplitude, beginning split, ending split, lowest split allowed, highest split allowed, when to play. If beginning split or ending split are -1, they are set randomly between lowest split and highest split.
Example
file to play max amplitude end split max allowed split
| | | |
once'''trig.aiff'''1.20'''3.30'''-1'''-1'''.050'''.950'''20.8
| | | | |
name min amplitude begin split min allowed split |
when to play
Field for silence is name.
Example
silence | name
There are test script files called binaural_test.discord, pulse_test.discord, chronaural_test.discord, bell_test.discord, noise_test.discord, stoch_test.discord, sample_test.discord, repeat_test.discord, once_test.discord, and frequency_loudness_test.discord and several script files for actual usage. A python script to do a crude conversion of sbagen .sbg files to discord script files is also included. It is called, what else, convert_sbg_to_discord.py.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Brain wave entrainment bypasses the lookup and triggers unrelated memories directly in a random manner, thus diffusing the response. The memory isn't changed, the meaning of it is transformed. In future when the memory is accessed through the scheduler, it is different because of this random triggering. Occasionally, the random triggering might cause a repressed memory to become accessible for scheduling before it has had its response altered. That is when you need a technique to remove the emotional intensity.
If you just can't get EFT working for you, if it is just too far
outside your belief system to use, here are some other methods that
do the same thing in different ways and are effective.
BUGS
Have to use Control-C to end the program while it is running.
AUTHOR
discord is by Stan Lysiak <stanlk@users.sourceforge.net>
This document is by Stan Lysiak <stanlk@users.sourceforge.net>
COPYRIGHT
Discord is copyright (C) 2007-2009 by Stan Lysiak
<stanlk@users.sourceforge.net>