
AI generated music to improve focus, relaxation and sleep - jasbrainfm
http://brain.fm
======
sergiotapia
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:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-tTmSY4m4M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-tTmSY4m4M)

Voice of Autum:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvcQWJaaQDw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvcQWJaaQDw)

Arurian Dance:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6E9WMM0vko](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6E9WMM0vko)

~~~
alva
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s--IkNqI9og)

Brian Eno - Discreet Music
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE6nQ0lkLdY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE6nQ0lkLdY)

Willits + Sakamoto - Reticent Reminiscence
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdJdDwi1RS4&list=RDdskvPFt7w...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdJdDwi1RS4&list=RDdskvPFt7wf8&index=2)

Aphex Twin - Stone in Focus
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG16BTj5qT4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG16BTj5qT4)

Bvdub - A Moment's Peace
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exr3IAMaLPM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exr3IAMaLPM)

cv313 - Beyond The Clouds
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqrRIDd5pSk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqrRIDd5pSk)

If you enjoy this type of music I thoroughly recommend the Headphone Commute
blog. Apologies if a bit off topic.

~~~
ulrikrasmussen
Great list! Listening to "Gas", I thought you might also like

Fennesz - Venice:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWAghDS6s4Q&list=PLKtI6DyKnY...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWAghDS6s4Q&list=PLKtI6DyKnYmNmVOGTz0wTki0kiLHVpdi5)

And while we're at it, just a few of my favorites:

Greg Haines - Slumber Tides:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmMDkZhl_R4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmMDkZhl_R4)

Nest - Retold:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r69TiaIE4uo&list=PLaAArUShcY...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r69TiaIE4uo&list=PLaAArUShcYEBUb8U_XnpL6vKD2kfp49We)

Murcof - (Ulysses, Martes, Remembranza - all great):
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMPaSdC1ncw&list=PLhoTtA1a63...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMPaSdC1ncw&list=PLhoTtA1a639pS0ANW_hJJf4alFgKlQvfY)

Iso 68 - Zwei Engel Korrigiert :
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NvkPmMHGBI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NvkPmMHGBI)

Edit: And thank you for the Headphone Commute link - it looks like a great
source!

~~~
unicornporn
Best list I found in this thread yet. Am I the only one that likes to work to
(mostly) instrumental sludge metal and post-rock?

ISIS — Celestial (2000)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8XN-3YZL5Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8XN-3YZL5Y)

~~~
adcsd
I work to much of the same type of music, although I tend to group
instrumental post-rock/post-punk (e.g. isis, pelican, russian circles, mono)
with some electronic (e.g. ratatat) and small amounts of punk (tragedy/hhig,
neurosis). Compared to what I usually listen to, the brain.fm focus channel
didn't do anything for me.

~~~
unicornporn
Then we're two at least. :)

------
ahewett
Adam from Brain.fm here! Happy to answer any questions. :)

I've been doing this stuff for a while and I love talking about it.

I've contacted Giovanni, our lead neuroscientist, so hopefully he'll be able
to get on soon as well.

I'm a regular of HN and it's wild to see something of mine up here.

~~~
tarblog
Do you have any science to back those claims up? What are you basing it on?

~~~
plowman
On the brain.fm they list results, but they are super flimsy. For focus, for
example, n=17, and the difference between music vs non-music is much smaller
than the standard deviation of either group.

So it's possible this stuff helps you focus, but it doesn't appear to be
showing up on these studies.

~~~
ahewett
Giovanni responded to the main thread. I asked him to respond to this
specifically but he's super busy. This is his response:

"He doesn't know what he is talking about. Means do not have to be a standard
deviation away to make the result significant."

------
bamazizi
I believe taste/preference as the differentiator is missing.

The "intense + focus" music on brain.fm puts me to sleep. My coding music is
ASOT weekly series, it's usually couple of hours of house and trance music
where I get immersed into coding zone and once finished i take a 10-15min
break, repeat.

When I concentrate I don't hear anything that's when I know I'm in the zone.
It's my preference and it's surely different from yours, hence why the
differentiator is missing.

ASOT Episode 751: [https://www.mixcloud.com/dancecontrol/armin-van-buuren-a-
sta...](https://www.mixcloud.com/dancecontrol/armin-van-buuren-a-state-of-
trance-asot-751-18-feb-2016/)

~~~
LoSboccacc
same. I prefer anything _but_ the relaxing kind of repetitive music they'd
suggest. the whole thread above this also has very nice music suggestion, but
nothing I'd use to get in the zone.

------
jkxyz
I'm sure that most of the benefit of using this tool is derived from the fact
that the music is consistently low-tempo and relaxing ambient music. Comparing
that to an album of ambient music, it might not be so consistent in its style
and so could distract from the focus.

Still, the generated music is quite nice. I still feel that I'd rather listen
to a real album, though, created with artistic intent and not computer
generated. Music (as a listener and creator) is very important to me and I'm
not ready to concede its creation to the machines just yet. Perhaps in a few
more years...

~~~
ahewett
Hey, this Adam from Brain.fm. I created the music "AI" thing.

Glad to have the praise of a musician! My family's very musical, so it took
some convincing for them as well.

The thing is, it still takes creativity! It took me half a year to create it,
and there's a little piece of my soul in this AI.

A horcrux, programmed in. :) It makes music how I would make music. Well, most
of the time.

I had to create the thing because it was taking me a month to create a single
session manually, and much of what I had to do was so precise that an
algorithm could do it easier. Every note, every beat, has to be perfectly
synchronized with the other filters we're applying to the music. So I built
some algorithms, but they piled up, had to be constantly re-calibrated based
on additions to the music as I kept composing. Keep in mind these are half
hour to hour long pieces! And there's no shortcuts - I can't just throw a
bunch of music in there, because even the smallest pop/overclip/dissonant
moment, could wake someone up, or break their concentration... It just got to
a point where something with more working memory than me had to take over.

The music in Brain.fm is very structured and obeys strict rules. There are
some genres I can't get right yet - rock, folk, and so on. Although I'm always
happy when people like it, and I like to think I did a good job giving the AI
decent taste, I definitely don't have any illusions about this replacing
humans :)

Did you take a listen to the Focus categories? Most of those are 120bpm. (skip
around till you hit the classical one - I fed the AI harpsichord concertos I
grew up with. Cool example of how maybe this could help some composers!)

Got a link to your stuff? Love to hear it.

\- Adam

(oh and also there is definitely more than ambient music even in the
relaxation sessions. Give it another listen if you have a moment. Skip around.
There's indian music, mongolian chants, and the nature sounds are also all AI-
generated. Every gust of wind, every raindrop :)

~~~
bonoboTP
What makes you use the word "AI" as opposed to "algorithm"? What kind of AI
techniques do you use just broadly speaking (I mean techniques that are
described in AI textbooks, AI courses, AI conferences)?

~~~
ahewett
Sure! Happy to explain it. Although I have to say I'm not sure what textbooks
are saying these days. When I talk to programmers right out of college
sometimes there's a bit of confusion as they talk about patterns I know, but
using different names. I grew up programming on an 8088. :)

In a podcast called College Info Geek and recently in I did a talk at
Northwestern (The Garage) and I called what I'm doing "Emergent" because there
are many competing little pieces. Let's see if I can explain it quickly here,
though please don't be too hard on me I'm trying my best to answer a lot of
questions, but I'm really happy to go more into later after all this dies down
:) Conceptually, you could think of it as first creating what I'll call "song-
bot", which acts a kind of overlord, and has some instructions from me (like
maybe there's some specific chords I want it to use, keys to avoid, tempo,
brainwave protocols, genre, etc, etc). This song-bot guy then spawns a bunch
of little other bots that compete with each other for the right to play/fade
in/or generally be a part of the final result. These little guys have
different characteristics, like a "drum-bot" might has different places it
"wants" to be placed, and so generally competes with other drums, but not
always. Sometimes I'll even have little "bots" for individual notes of a
certain instrument. They obey certain rules of course, to form a background,
drum line, or a simple melody, and then they pass that information along to
subsequent incarnations (there's some learning involved in that process,
though I hesitate to give it any textbook term - man, you have me terrified
here of defining something wrong! :) ). Through that learning, the pattern the
original little guys made has more weight and will tend to repeat. But again,
not always.

After a while, a song... emerges. A kind of "emergent intelligence."

The resulting song can be quite complex and varied. Of course there's more to
it, because songs have sections, but all in all the genres I'm using are very
structured. Techno especially, is very easy for the AI. Sometimes I'm tasked
with creating a theme in a particularly difficult genre, and that's when it
gets really tricky/fun (such as some of the Indian ones, which were labors of
love). In these cases, I may have to re-rerun many "generations" of the AI
through the same song from beginning to end, with different
parameters/instruments, but with the same patterns/learning, because what can
happen in these cases is that it starts out simple, and increases in
complexity as it goes, so the start can sometimes be a bit boring.

Also keep in mind this is just a conceptual explanation. The code is much less
amusing. Thinking of naming processes "bots" though just for fun.

I hope I explained it OK. Listen, I'm not saying it's Watson or anything, it's
really just a necessary step I had to take in order to make the computer do
what I wanted it to do. I tried out some different ideas, and this one worked
the best. I like the result at least :)

~~~
bonoboTP
That's fine and makes sense. I wouldn't call it AI though.

The marketing is just too overhyped and in-your-face for my taste. It reminds
me of the startup called "The Grid", which claimed they will build a website-
creating AI. It's an often misused term in marketing.

Another cool mystery term is precisely "emergent". Okay I'm not trying to be
harsh on you, and I know that marketing is all about exaggeration and wooing
people into buying your product and having the right keywords so that tech
news portals pick up on you and can produce a clickbaitish title etc. Also it
may enhance the placebo effect in such soft areas as this.

Anyway, I do like how it actually sounds and it seems to have worked on me
somewhat, but I'm not too sure about that or how much of it is placebo.

~~~
ahewett
I didn't make up the term "emergent." AFAIK it's an established type of AI.

[http://chetansurpur.com/blog/2013/08/emergent-
intelligence.h...](http://chetansurpur.com/blog/2013/08/emergent-
intelligence.html)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence#Computer_AI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence#Computer_AI)

We're not using that term anywhere in the marketing either.

This is just me talking here man. I'm not a marketer, or even really a good
businessman. I did this for 13 years and we're just now taking off. I do music
and programming, that's it. :)

But I do think Junaid did a great job on the site. Yeah there's more work to
do, always is.

Tough crowd here at HN.

\- Adam

------
6stringmerc
After a quick little look through the Terms of Service...

> _IT IS ALSO SOLELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO EVALUATE THE ACCURACY,
> COMPLETENESS, USEFULNESS OR VALIDITY OF ALL OPINIONS, ADVICE, SERVICE,
> PROMOTIONS, ADVERTISEMENTS, AWARDS, PRIZES OR OTHER INFORMATION, AND THE
> QUALITY AND MERCHANTABILITY OF ALL SERVICES AND /OR MERCHANDISE, PROVIDED BY
> OR THROUGH BRAIN.FM. BRAIN.FM MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES OR
> ENDORSEMENTS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED AS TO THE ACCURACY, QUALITY, COMPLETENESS,
> NON‑INFRINGEMENT, OWNERSHIP, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
> PURPOSE, OR OTHERWISE OF ANY INFORMATION, GOODS OR SERVICES ACCESSED THROUGH
> BRAIN.FM._

I guess this is a helpful disclaimer in many ways, because this allows me to
presume that all their claims are invented, all their peer reviews are
suspect, and that their entire product line is inferior to a generic recording
of waves hitting the beach, crickets at night, or a babbling brook.

~~~
ahewett
It's just a standard TOS, man.

Here's the Terms Of Service for Yale:

I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWING ANY WRITTEN CONFIRMATION STATEMENTS PROVIDED TO
ME (ON PAPER OR IN ELECTRONIC FORM) REGARDING ANY INSTRUCTIONS, CHOICES, OR
REQUESTS THAT I MAKE THROUGH THIS WEB SITE. I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR REVIEWING FOR
INACCURACIES ALL OF THE INFORMATION TRANSMITTED TO ME. IF THERE ARE
INACCURACIES, I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR CORRECTING THEM USING THE TOOLS AVAILABLE
TO ME ON THE WEB SITE OR BY CONTACTING THE BENEFITS CENTER TO POINT THEM OUT.

Here's Amazon:

AMAZON ATTEMPTS TO BE AS ACCURATE AS POSSIBLE. HOWEVER, AMAZON DOES NOT
WARRANT THAT PRODUCT DESCRIPTIONS OR OTHER CONTENT OF ANY AMAZON SERVICE IS
ACCURATE, COMPLETE, RELIABLE, CURRENT, OR ERROR-FREE. IF A PRODUCT OFFERED BY
AMAZON ITSELF IS NOT AS DESCRIBED, YOUR SOLE REMEDY IS TO RETURN IT IN UNUSED
CONDITION.

And here's Pfizer:

PFIZER MAKES NO WARRANTIES OR REPRESENTATIONS OF ANY KIND AS TO THE ACCURACY,
CURRENCY, OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED IN SUCH WEB SITES AND
SHALL HAVE NO LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES OR INJURIES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM
SUCH CONTENT OR INFORMATION.

I mean, I can talk to my lawyer about changing it if you really think it's
that bad. :)

~~~
6stringmerc
Nah I mean I just read it and it basically gives the impression that there's
no merit to the claims and any and all results are subject to personal
interpretation.

Or, to put it in more simple terms pending peer reviewed, refereed scientific
findings, Brain.Fm is the HeadOn of audio.

~~~
ahewett
OK fair enough, I'll see if we can get a better one then.

Honest to god we just used a standard one we got over a decade ago, and
customized it with our name. We might have even gotten it off of legal zoom or
something.

\- The HRV/(stress/anxiety) study is peer-reviewed (and independent, we had no
part in it).

\- All our other papers are pending publication.

\- Giovanni's work on acoustic stimulation is peer reviewed, and from
Northwestern. Again, we had no part in that.

\- The meta-analysis one of our previous neuroscientists made is also peer
reviewed.

\- Dr. Olmstead's paper is peer reviewed, so's the Fatigue one we have up
there, and all the other ones in our bibliography:
[https://www.brain.fm/pdfs/ResearchLibrary.pdf](https://www.brain.fm/pdfs/ResearchLibrary.pdf)

\- Hell, we're even having our statistical user analysis peer reviewed, the
one we have up (before we got popular) and the new one we're making now.

Tryin' our best here :)

\- Adam

------
vinchuco
If you open all of them in different tabs, do you become good at everything?

~~~
skeletonjelly
You achieve enlightenment and use up your 7 free sessions

~~~
holmboy_
You can bypass the 7 free sessions limit by using Chrome Incognito, just open
a new tab each time you run out of sessions

~~~
nefitty
Rude to put this out there. If anyone here couldn't have figured this out
themselves then I'm curious as to how they ended up trawling HN.

------
bonoboTP
I like the way the music sounds but I'm very skeptical of the science and the
AI behind it.

~~~
iQuercus
Dr. Steven Novella on brainwave entrainment, from 2008:

[http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/brainwave-
entra...](http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/brainwave-entrainment-
and-marketing-pseudoscience/)

 _" That is generally where the science ends and the pseudoscience begins. A
number of companies and individuals have then extrapolated from the phenomenon
of entrainment to claim that altering the brain waves changes the actual
functioning of the brain. There is no theoretical or empirical basis for this,
however. Entrainment is a temporary effect on the synchronization of neuronal
firing – it does not improve or increase brain functioning, it does not change
the hardwiring, nor does it cure any neurological disorder. There is no
compelling evidence for any effect beyond the period of entrainment itself."_

I do like the "Cyberpunk" atmosphere of some of the music. But their other
claims require some extraordinary evidence.

For example, does this impart any more benefit than me listening to my
favorite working music whilst working? It doesn't seem to. But I haven't had a
chance to sift through their supposed "180 studies"

~~~
bonoboTP
Yeah, I'd also like to see a study where they test this magic-AI-music against
some generic 10 hours relax/focus music from Youtube (or the Machinarium or
Age of Empires 2 soundtrack). Properly randomized and blinded etc.

I'd also like to know what it means that this is produced by an AI. What do
they optimize for? I mean it would be really cool if they could do some
reinforcement learning with real time EEG feedback and whatnot, but I think
there is not much AI going on here. Perhaps even zero.

Also, the UI contains a lot of bullshit frills and wizardry, writing stuff
like "generating your brainwave" and shiny animations (It's like how MSN
messenger used to write "Loading your friend list..." and other recognizable
and understandable things for half the time of its loading screen).

And then after one session it makes us click through a personal survey, where
you have to click yes or no, for questions like "are you easily distracted",
"do you have problems with concentrating", "do you have issues with personal
organization" and similar stuff, do you have anxiety etc etc. It's a bit like
they are trying to make you realize that "yeah, kinda, I think I could improve
myself in these things, let's click yes". I'm not sure how they call this
psychological manipulation technique, but I've read about it somewhere.
Basically it's the same idea as some cashiers being instructed to ask you if
your shopping was a pleasant experience. You want to be polite and go on with
the script, but then you'll still identify with that "yes" answer.

Generally, the site rubs me the wrong way. It seems to be targeted at people
who don't know much about science or AI, but like the brand and image of
science and AI, as these are cool things nowadays. It also builds upon
gamification and all these manipulative things.

~~~
the4dpatrick
> "I'm not sure how they call this psychological manipulation technique"

You could see this personal survey as a way for the site to make you doubt or
question yourself subconsciously. For you to even read the question, you have
to process that question introspectively. The more questions you answer, the
more likely you'll find something you'll want to improve. Then miraculously
this site is the silver bullet. Buy more sessions here [enter credit card
info].

Another way you could see this product, the survey, and the upsell could be
through the perspective of NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming). The two
concepts to focus on would be pacing and leading. You listen to the relaxing
ambient music and you become calm. (Pacing) Afterwards the survey pops up when
you're in a more docile state. You answer these questions. Each of which is
ever so slightly leading you to the conclusion that this product is the
solution to the problems you've clicked "Yes" to.

~~~
harryjo
Are you saying that the site uses specially crafted music to trick you into
believing that specially crafted music can modify your mind?

------
PascLeRasc
I just worked on something similar at a hackathon this weekend with the Muse
Headband, it was really fun. We used a support vector machine to maximize the
"calmness" output of the band, which is some weighted sum of gamma and beta
waves I believe.

~~~
dmazin
Is the Muse easy to hack? I was thinking of buying one to play with.

~~~
PascLeRasc
The hardest part of the weekend was getting real-time data through OSC. It's
been done in Python and node before, but none of us were super proficient in
getting data from the local server the scripts pushed to. This is the matlab
library we eventually settled on:
[https://github.com/MuSAELab/muse_osc](https://github.com/MuSAELab/muse_osc)

I'd say it was pretty easy compared to Myo, but I wouldn't pay $300 for one.
I'd use it again though if it was available for a weekend.

------
pjbrunet
Sounds like typical "drone" or "space" electronic music, which is arguably a
subcategory of "ambient" music. (Not my cup of tea, but it is what it is.)
Also recently discovered [http://mynoise.net](http://mynoise.net) they have
some interesting soundscapes.

------
lettergram
My startup built basically the same thing, but if you had an eeg it would also
learn your preferances and iterativly improve. We called it BrainBeats:

[http://synaptitude.me/blog/brainbeats-your-new-music-
player/](http://synaptitude.me/blog/brainbeats-your-new-music-player/)

Startup: [http://synaptitude.me](http://synaptitude.me)

------
oli5679
White noise helped me cope with exam stress at undergrad. Here's my
favourite....

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzjWIxXBs_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzjWIxXBs_s)

------
option_greek
It doesn't seem as good as
[http://musicforprogramming.net/](http://musicforprogramming.net/)

~~~
fit2rule
I concur - although that may be because I've been a huge fan of
musicforpgramming.net for years, and find it an immensely valuable tool.

That said, this HN thread has an awesome resource of other new music to listen
to ..

------
shinefuller
>17 subject were tested to measure effects of a Brain.fm focus session

------
d0mdo0ss
:( no mention of JM Jarre. Here are some oldies but goodies

Oxygene
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE9jShG9sD0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE9jShG9sD0)

Magnetic fields
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyzXZ_NFVrg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyzXZ_NFVrg)

------
gumpyoung
I don't mind to try this new one... my favourite is
[http://musicforprogramming.net](http://musicforprogramming.net), all tracks
are available as podcasts on iOS devices too.

~~~
roflmyeggo
I use these for coding/studying all the time. If you download all of them and
put them on shuffle you basically have ~40 hours of music to jump into at any
given moment.

~~~
look_lookatme
Here is a script to download all of them : )

[https://gist.github.com/anonymous/62574c1f8161744395e4](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/62574c1f8161744395e4)

[edit] Previous gist only had 34 of the tracks, updated one has all 38.

~~~
gumpyoung
love it :)

------
mathrawka
I subscribe to [https://www.focusatwill.com/](https://www.focusatwill.com/) I
would like to see a comparison of the two to understand the pros and cons of
each.

~~~
jkalmadi
Oooo..

would love for you try brain.fm vs focusatwill and hear your review!

here's '$25 for life' deal to brain.fm:
[https://brain.fm/hackernews](https://brain.fm/hackernews)

junaid

cofounder, brain.fm

~~~
mathrawka
I've used both a few times today, but it is really hard for me to judge how
"focused" I was. Did I get work done with them? Yes... but I also get work
done without either of them.

I like how you have a lot of the science information on the site that explains
it. Plus the sleep mode is intriguing, as F@W says it is for focus at work and
reading only (via their whitepaper [https://www.focusatwill.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/White...](https://www.focusatwill.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/04/White-Paper-on-Focus@Will-Reading-Research.pdf)).

I'd like to hear a third party opinion that objectively compares the science
behind both of them.

Thanks for the discount, I'd probably keep using so I went ahead and paid the
$25. Even though I have been burned a few times by the "for life" purchases, I
don't expect it to last for more than 1 or 2 years ;)

------
hrbrtglm
As the primary goal is to listen to the music, I do really appreciate the fact
that the webpage stops its graphics animations when it loses the focus.

It is great to improve my focus as I am not disturbed by my waving cpu meter.

Great work, love it.

~~~
jasbrainfm
Thanks a ton!

~~~
Scramblejams
Would appreciate a checkbox so I could disable the CPU-saturating
visualization without having to hide the page.

------
jalopy
Curious about the tech/science behind this. Is it mostly binaural beats?

~~~
jasbrainfm
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 that could be precise enough, drums could also
stimulate the brain.

But, neither clicks nor binaural beats nor isochronic tones sound very good.
Yes, you can get used to them. Adam used them for a decade. But he spent all
of that decade finding a better way.

And what he found is that if you embed rhythmic modulations into the music in
a natural way - disguising it as natural vibrations or vibrato or tremolo -
not only is it more pleasant, it is _more effective_. MUCH more effective. The
intensity levels we can get using this method are much higher than what we can
get with older methods and still be comfortable for the user.

So in 2005 Adam created a system that could single out instruments in a
recording and add natural-sounding "vibrations". He has been perfecting it
ever since.

There's a lot more to Brain.fm as well! We've perfected MIT's HRTF technology
to create a kind of "3D audio". And that's the real reason we suggest using
headphones for the full effect of Brain.fm. It is a vital part. We spatially
place sound around you to enhance your goal (for focus it is in front of you,
for sleep it mimics the rocking of a hammock, cradle, etc). And then there's
the algorithmic AI-generated music. Believe it or not, all the music in
Brain.fm is produced by an algorithm that Adam spent a very long time.

The benefit? 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.

I'll have Adam hop in the thread soon so we can answer any further questions!

~~~
sklivvz1971
Can you provide evidence of the effectiveness of your methods? Are there peer
reviewed studies that sustain your statements? Spot checking the site, there
isn't much convincing evidence (a double blind trial with very few subjects
that you sponsored is not really convincing).

~~~
Hydraulix989
As they say, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

------
mixmastamyk
So, tried it and was enjoying it a lot, helped me to focus writing (finally)
on a particular chapter of a book I've been dreading for some reason.

So, I get in the zone and then click! internet error. Had to refresh, and now
it demands I complete a survey and register... grumble grumble. :/

Cool site though, good luck.

~~~
ahewett
Sorry about that! We're under heavy load right now, and there's just a few of
us :)

Registration is free though! Then you get more free sessions.

I hear we're planning on creating a longer trial program soon. But until then,
I hope you'll give it another try.

For the record I don't really mind if people use it incognito, BUT it will
keep giving you the same sessions over and over. So you're not getting but a
fraction of the experience. We just need the survey so we can better adapt to
you, and for benchmarks later on. It really doesn't take long. Also if you
have an account it will adapt to you using ratings and other metrics, like if
you skip a song consistently, etc.

\- Adam from Brain.fm

------
jonaf
Is there any real science to this? Can someone provide legitimate references?
I tried this last time it was on HN. It felt like a hoax; I was less focused
because the sounds were less calming than the air conditioning in the office,
and because the trial repeats after about 10 minutes.

~~~
tarblog
My first thought was Lumosity [1]. I'd love for these claims to be real, but
I'm just not willing to believe claims like these until I see a significant
result in a randomized controlled trial.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumosity#Effectiveness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumosity#Effectiveness)

~~~
ahewett
We did a randomized controlled trial :)

[https://www.brain.fm/pdfs/EEGFocusAnalysis.pdf](https://www.brain.fm/pdfs/EEGFocusAnalysis.pdf)

It's pending publication, but it'll get there. And now we have enough info to
start a double blind. Sleep one is also pending publication.

The HRV (stress/anxiety) trial is already published, and was completely
independent. We didn't even know about it until it was published. There's more
in the science section too.

I remember when that Lumosity BS came out. We'd been around for 4 years
already at that point. Now that it's finally us taking off, we're pouring
everything into the science. We're going to do this right.

(oh, sorry, I just realized I'd already replied to you above. I'll leave this
here though, for anyone who's interested)

~~~
lighttower
Hi Adam, I love that you did an RCT. What journal did this get published in?

I've been using Brain.FM since yesterday, first with speakers in another room,
then with speakers in my office and separated by about 2m, and finally today
with Bose noise canceling headphones (I can kind of hear the 3d effect, but it
is vastly outweighed by my ears overheating in the headphones). I liked #2 the
best; some tracks the 3d effect was pronounced. I tend to like the percussion
tracks a lot more --- going back to the webpage to skip etc is a pain. Why not
provide a list of effects that you can select from and if I hate violin (bad
example) then I can exclude tracks that use it.

In the past I've used rain / thunderstorm recordings. I have a Marpac noise
machine with a actual mechanical fan inside. I found that machine great for
sleep - but then I had a baby and she confiscated it for her own use :-)

------
j45
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 of vocals so I kept looking
and came across a few instrumental tracks on itunes.

There's maybe a reason babies benefit from wave/sleep machines. White noise
does have an effect that can aid in focus and concentration, science, placebo,
or otherwise, I'm happy for the sustained productivity boost I've been able to
have for several years.

I did buy brain.fm on a whim a while back it has replaced simplynoise or more
to that point. If there was a bit more information published on how it was put
together I'd be interested, and if not, I'd probably keep using it.

Would like it to be a downloadable or app that I could keep with me. Some
things aren't for those who can't put themselves in other people's shoes, or
imagine something may work for others that doesn't seem to be imaginable or
work for them.

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

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

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

~~~
j45
I didn't know I could log in from my mobile browser. Hopefully the sound works
in the background, thanks!

------
julianz
I set this to "intense focus" and the result is almost exactly the same as the
opening track to Tangerine Dream's 1983 album Hyperborea, "No Man's Land".
Funnily enough, I've always found that an amazing album to listen to when in
need of concentration or relaxation.

------
rjurney
I don't know why, but this makes me feel smart. Placebo++

~~~
corvus_sapiens
Hey, placebo effect is good enough. The placebo effect works even if you know
it's a placebo.

~~~
jackweirdy
If you send me £30 I'll give you some of my double-strength placebo. Really
powerful stuff, not available on the general market.

------
vijucat
3 suggestions:

"Library Background Noise for Relaxation"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTm2oQRsISk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTm2oQRsISk)

"DISTANT TRAINS ECHOING IN THE RAIN.. Relaxing SoundScape to help Sleep, Study
& Meditate"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTXoxV-
MFMo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTXoxV-MFMo)

"One Hour of HQ Coffee Shop Background Noise"

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOdLmxy06H0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOdLmxy06H0)

brain.fm is great, too!

But honestly, silence + just getting into the groove works best. Minimizing
distractions is key. Unfortunately, nothing beats late nights at meeting these
criteria.

~~~
ahewett
Those are great!

And glad you like Brain.fm as well :)

To my great surprise, silence is actually the _worst_ performer in our
research and for other researchers I've talked to. check out our focus study,
and also if you hit the "more" button you can see a kind of bibliography (that
we need to organize better).

Silence can be a distraction in itself. Counter-intuitive, I know. I actually
think I remember an article about this popping up in my news feed recently,
trying to explain why. I was in a hurry so couldn't really read it, but I'll
try to find it again after all this craziness dies down :)

But anyway, everyone's different, and different situations call for different
tools. When the noise level is just too high for me (like, construction
outside, vacuuming, etc) I use those crazy earmuffs meant for gun ranges. A
shopvac could be right next to your ear and you wouldn't notice hah

------
SCHiM
As someone who experiences asmr I was expecting a somewhat similar experience
while listening to the 'sleep' module/mode. But I don't think this does
anything for me, in fact the sound set me a bit on edge for no apparent
reason.

~~~
endergen
Not me, I'm listening to the Calm -> Guide Meditation one and wow is it
relaxing. Not quite getting asmr symptoms, but one average I feel quite
relaxed and content. I agree on the on edge quality, for me it's subtle though
and probably why I'm not getting full blown asmr bliss.

------
tunnuz
Similar service which I really like (no AI, but you can calibrate the sounds
to match your hearing curve) [https://mynoise.net/](https://mynoise.net/)

------
Hydraulix989
Brainwave entrainment is pseudoscience. The placebo effect is powerful.

~~~
siddboots
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.

~~~
Hydraulix989
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.

------
exception_e
Related: [http://mtcb.pwop.com/](http://mtcb.pwop.com/)

This is by Carl Franklin of the .NET Rocks! podcast. Definitely helps me
focus.

------
vhiremath4
Been using Brain.fm for a few months now. Incredibly boosted performance
programming on my end.

~~~
ahewett
That's what we like to hear :)

\- Adam from Brain.fm

------
dclark5218
I have to say, I tried this as something that has always piqued my interest -
using sounds and music to make me a more efficient human. I was skeptical, I
put it to the test while coding.

Within 10 minutes I felt a strange calm hum in my head and have now been using
it for 2 hours with no sign of dropoff. Very cool, going to keep using. If
this continues like it did tonight, I could see this becoming part of my daily
work routine.

------
daveguy
While everyone is giving their favorites I thought I would throw mine in. Two
sites -- pandora.com and coffitivity.com

On pandora -- their baroque classical station

On coffitivity -- University undertones.

You have to fiddle with the volumes a bit to get them balanced, but once you
do it is a great passive sound for concentration and focus.

Also a good one that I picked up from my college roommate -- drum and bass
techno. Anything with lyrics gets me thinking about the lyrics.

------
silviu_istrate
I got intrigued by your post and I searched deeper to find tested solutions
for relaxation trough music

Can anyone tell me if they tried these products: \- Schumann Meditation
[https://www.mental-waves-for-
happiness.com/product/secrets-o...](https://www.mental-waves-for-
happiness.com/product/secrets-of-schumann-meditation-7-83-hz) \- Zen
meditation music [https://www.mental-waves-for-
happiness.com/product/secrets-o...](https://www.mental-waves-for-
happiness.com/product/secrets-of-zen-meditation-zen-music) \- Mental Waves to
overcome insomnia [https://www.mental-waves-for-happiness.com/product/how-to-
ov...](https://www.mental-waves-for-happiness.com/product/how-to-overcome-
insomnia)

Your advices are very appreciated.

------
robinduckett
Put on intense focus and promptly fell straight to sleep at my desk.

------
davnn
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.

~~~
ahewett
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

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

------
itsnotvalid
So there are already tons of apps on App Store or Play store featuring auto-
generated beats for working and sleeping. Is there any clinical studies saying
that this service is better than any of those? If the effects are the same,
why choosing this over others?

------
mattdlondon
I found the intense focus music (and the "white noise"/hissing in it) to be
really, really grating and kinda put me on-edge while listening.

I also found the repetitiveness/predictability of the rhythm to be troubling -
I'd end up focusing on the noise and thinking about "what was coming next" to
be ultra-distracting.

Kinda like when you have a noisy neighbor at night and you are just trying to
get to sleep, but all you can focus on is the noise coming from your neighbor.
You cant switch off - all you can do is focus on the noise.

Personally nothing beats rainymood.com for focus for me, but thanks for
sharing. I guess I am different as everyone else seems to think this is
effective.

~~~
noyesno
Rainymood is excellent! I typically combine it with "Midnight Radio" by Bohren
& Der Club of Gore - They mix perfectly.

------
louprado
Does this music ever repeat ? I can't tell if it is a play list of previously
AI generated music or continuously novel AI generated music.

I stopped listening to focusatwill.com because the repetition was too
distracting even with a paid subscription.

~~~
j45
I have been using this the past few months, there is some repetition but not
enough to notice. It seems brain.fm is keeping track of what it does and
doesn't play for me and asks me for feedback if I liked a track or not.

I used focusatwill for a bit too, I liked the mobile aspect of it. brain.fm
captured me as a customer with a lifetime offer.

------
justsaysmthng
My cat is totally mesmerized by the "Intense Focus" stream. He's laying here
in an absolute trance state .. haven't seen him like this.. He enjoys music a
lot and often sits near the speaker and listens to music, but this stream
seems to be doing something to him, because he's really tripped out :).

I also enjoy it , so you've definitely have something there.

Great stuff ! I'd really like a mac app though - maybe it's just me, but I
really dislike listening to music from the browser - I like my music app to be
distinct and accessible from the OS.

@Adam from Brain.fm: I could give a helping hand with the Mac app if you're
interested ?

------
illogikal
Marconi union has always worked very well for me. The weightless album in
particular:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKsEqFgKhoA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKsEqFgKhoA)

------
jtmarmon
been using this for months and enjoying it a lot while hacking. i definitely
get into flow more quickly and stay in it more easily

~~~
j45
Me as well. Some of the tracks (or rather the instruments that seem to show up
regularly) are starting to build some muscle memory to at least trigger my
brain to start focussing.

------
paulrd
Sometimes super down,down tempo is the way to go for working:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVnLon8TvXk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVnLon8TvXk)

------
jqm
I listen to soma.fm groove salad while programming.
([https://somafm.com/groovesalad/](https://somafm.com/groovesalad/))

I've discovered some great artists on there. Jens Buchert for instance.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GomA...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GomAbBP9IaU)

~~~
fredley
I like beatblender or poptron depending on my mood.

------
jkalmadi
Hey all! cofounder of brain.fm here.

Wowza :O

We had zero clue that we would hit front page of hn (the spike!
[https://imgur.com/RpUvpiH.png](https://imgur.com/RpUvpiH.png)). Thanks for
the upvote love!

Here's some deets on brain.fm:

==

MOST COMMON USE CASE -

Background music while focussing (i.e. coding, working, studying, creative
work)

==

SCIENCE -

We actively study the relationship between music and the brain via our lead
neuroscientist at Northwestern University (2 pilot studies via EEGs on
brain.fm, on focus: [https://goo.gl/t2qPPb](https://goo.gl/t2qPPb), on sleep:
[https://goo.gl/i324Zj](https://goo.gl/i324Zj)).

We're also working the with the Team USA Olympic wresting team (via coach Matt
Lindland). Hoping to have the research case study live soon :)

==

REVIEWS -

"It feels like your headphones are giving you a mild dose of Ritalin."

^ Hustle ([https://goo.gl/Quzwsd](https://goo.gl/Quzwsd))

"Brain.fm has had a radical effect on my focus and mental clarity."

^ AppSumo ( __ _check out 290+ reviews_
__[https://appsumo.com/brainfm](https://appsumo.com/brainfm))

"One of the cool things about Brain.fm is that you can try it for a few
minutes and immediately reap the benefits."

^ Product hunt (see: [https://producthunt.com/tech/brain-
fm](https://producthunt.com/tech/brain-fm) \+
[https://goo.gl/6aYiDK](https://goo.gl/6aYiDK))

"I press play, my brain switches into super focus mode. It genuinely feels
like I’ve taken a double-dose of my ADHD meds at times."

^ Smart girls with ADHD (see: [https://goo.gl/VQx3XT](https://goo.gl/VQx3XT))

Reddit discussion thread ^ see:
[https://reddit.com/3s0sq1](https://reddit.com/3s0sq1)

==

SPECIAL OFFER :)

I'd like to share the hn community a '$25 for life' deal. (usually it's $149
for lifetime, $7 for monthly and yearly for $48). Link:
[https://brain.fm/hackernews](https://brain.fm/hackernews)

==

Happy to answer any questions!

Junaid

------
jwl
Really like the intense focus music. Seems to work really well for me. However
I am not a fan of the nature based ones. The nature sounds comes of as too
artificial. I might consider buying something like this, but not sure if I
think a monthly subscription is worth it. Could there be a market for making
an "album" with 10 generated songs in a category?

------
chejazi
Currently listening to intense focus. I've been casually looking for
background music like this for a while. Thank you.

------
nitrogen
The customization popup seems a bit too aggressive. The first sound I tried
was cool, but I want to hear two or three different example programs before I
invest any amount of time into the site. I like the concepts of generated
music and brainwave entrainment, but I want to hear at least one sample from
each category.

------
vbezhenar
I use this service for a few days and I can say that Intense Focus helped me
to concentrate. Might be placebo effect, but as long as it works, I don't
really care. I'll definitely use it.

Now thinking about buying sleepphones to try sleep sound. I don't have
problems with sleep, but everything could be perfected.

------
Diederich
I have a background in music composition, so ANY music I listen to...no matter
what, distracts me, since part of me is decomposing it.

It's taken several years, but I've conditioned myself to enter high focus mode
by listening to white noise. Self conditioning is, I think, the key part for
me at least.

~~~
atom-morgan
I play drums. I can't listen to any music I know well otherwise I start
drumming along.

------
Kpourdeilami
I have been using this for a couple of months to stay focused while I'm coding
and it is very effective.

------
cyanbane
Some awesome suggestions on here.

Also wanted to note:

[http://raining.fm](http://raining.fm)

[http://www.power85.com/](http://www.power85.com/)

[http://poolside.fm/](http://poolside.fm/)

------
hugofirth
I know you probably have more important things on your roadmap about now :),
but any plans to support media keys (Pause, Skip etc...)? Perhaps using
something like [http://www.sway.fm/api](http://www.sway.fm/api)

------
cpeterso
I like the White Noise Meditation albums. Some tracks are literally just white
noise or pink noise. It is much more relaxing than it sounds! :)

[http://whitenoisemeditation.bandcamp.com/](http://whitenoisemeditation.bandcamp.com/)

------
StapleHorse
I'so bookmarking this thread :)

I use to listen Digitally Imported streams. It offers very fine granularity in
electronic styles, like (ambient, lounge, chillout dreams, space dreams). Very
nice for background music doing stuff. Also, Amethystium is very nice for
relaxing.

------
netgusto
This is awesome. I was using
[https://rain.simplynoise.com/](https://rain.simplynoise.com/) as a whitenoise
generator, and some Spotify focus playlists.

Been using brain.fm for 1h now, and I'm loving it :) Thanks !

------
pmontra
"Those who fit into any of the above categories, _whether knowingly or not_ ,
should not use this application." (Emphasis mine)

Doesn't that "or not" invalidates all the disclaimer? How could they enforce
that clause in a court?

------
jiraaya
Would love to understand how this tool overcomes sensory gating
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_gating](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_gating)

------
martindevans
I just tried this and really liked it. However the sign up process seems
totally broken.

Each screen of the process asks 3 questions and seems to completely freeze up
the entire browser tab (latest chrome) for about 30 seconds.

------
leafac
Hi, Adam (ahewett).

I tried getting in touch via the website's "Contact Us" link. But apparently
the form is broken due to your email server verifying DMARC records.

Please, get in touch with me via brain-fm@leafac.com.

------
unsignedint
I signed up for lifetime :-) It would be cool if I can Chromecast this. (A
little easier to connect headphones to my sound receiver than sleeping right
next to my PC...)

------
runjake
I like this a lot but, in my opinion, the pricing is way too high and keeps me
from giving you money.

I'd buy it as a $5 app, for sure.

~~~
alooPotato
really? If it works for you then isn't this worth an incredible amount of
money (i.e. if you can focus for longer and get more productive work out of
the same hours)? If it doesn't work then its worth $0.

My guess is that they need to price it low enough not to scare ppl away, but
if it works, then ppl will pay a lot.

~~~
runjake
> really? If it works for you then isn't this worth an incredible amount of
> money

No.

> If it doesn't work then its worth $0.

No, it's worth about $5 to me.

I was providing _my perspective_ as a would-be customer interested in the
product, nothing more.

------
frr149
Any promo codes for Hacker News denizens? :-)

~~~
jkalmadi
yes! here's a '$25 for life' deal:

[https://brain.fm/hackernews](https://brain.fm/hackernews)

:)

junaid

cofounder, brain.fm

~~~
saiprashanth93
Hey, on clicking on the link it takes to the home page and nothing happens, am
I missing something here?

~~~
ccakes
Click through the Listen link and the pricing is applied when you get to that
stage

------
ogig
I've been using music for years to improve my focus, relaxation, sleep,
happyness, sadness, social relations and many more. Music make us feel things,
we all know that. For me it's out of question that it can make you better,
speaking broadly.

Now, having brain.fm picking the music so I can feel X seems like a step
backwards. I already can do that but much better just using the wonderful
universe of existing recorded music.

I don't see the value for me here.

------
whelp
Mozart's music sounds like AI generated. Not sure about the focus/relax/sleep
parts though.

------
jrometty
This might sound hilarious, but I've always used Frank Ocean's Channel Orange
as coding music.

------
PSeitz
Makes rather tired than focused

------
bad-joke
Just curious: why is this program not recommended for people using a
pacemaker?

------
anentropic
AI generated "music" to improve focus, relaxation and sleep

there, fixed that for you

~~~
runeb
How do you define music, then?

------
subpixel
I dig it. I'm creating an SSB pinned to my menubar for this right now.

------
autotravis
I've been working (programming) to this album lately:
[http://pza420.bandcamp.com/album/friends](http://pza420.bandcamp.com/album/friends)

Nice and mellow, but not boring.

------
timwaagh
its interesting. definitely something i would use. but not something i would
pay for. why not have an ad-supported version for those who care about their
wallets?

------
akerro
This is great, I nearly felt asleep before going to work!

------
Paradigma11
I love it.

My only suggestion would be, more lastfm and less khan academy.

------
caglar
Here is a perfect list of focus music playlist by GURUs

------
sharmi
I find age of mythology soundtracks work very well too

------
sebringj
I get a little uncanny valley from listening to this.

------
pawurb
Just subscribed. Thanks for the hackernews discount.

------
ericlamb89
kept me off facebook for 3 minutes...nice!

------
phacops
An Apple TV app for this would be great

~~~
jkalmadi
yes! agreed. on the roadmap.

junaid

cofounder, brain.fm

------
gsantostasi
My name is Giovanni Santostasi. I have a PhD in Physics and I work in the
field of neuroscience of sleep at Northwestern University, in particular I'm
interested in slow wave sleep. I'm also the leading neuroscientist at
brain.fm. Slow wave sleep is the deepest stage of sleep and it is fundamental
for learning and cognition (and several other physiological functions like
getting rid of toxins in the brain, metabolism and hormonal regulation). Slow
wave sleep is one of the most regular rhythmic brain state. It is easy to
recognize using an EEG system because it produces very regular bursts of large
amplitude and relatively slow oscillations, called slow waves (with a
frequency of about 1 Hz). This is one of the most active fields in
neuroscience right now. Many experiments in labs around the world have shown
that the amplitude of these oscillations are strongly correlated with learning
activity during the day. Also performance on cognitive tasks in particular
related to memory are strongly correlated with the amplitude of the slow
waves. Scientists tried to understand if slow waves were just an
epiphenomenon, i.e. if they were the indicators of a fundamental physiological
principle or they had a causative role, i.e. if by generating slow waves the
brain caused physiological changes that helped the process of memory
consolidation in the brain (making memory long stable over long term).
Therefore in the last 10 years scientists tried to modify the slow waves using
external stimulation. The used initially transcranial direct current
stimulation tDCs and obtain amazing results. By creating currents that
oscillated at a frequency close to the typical frequency of slow waves (about
1 Hz) they were able to enhance the amplitude of the waves. What was even more
amazing that the enhancement in amplitude changed the memory performance of
the study participants in a standard memory tests relatively to a sham
condition. The change were not just statistical significant but quite dramatic
(they enhanced by 20-30 percent the natural benefit in memory due to sleep
alone). The results were published in Nature, the most prestigious science
journal. In our lab we reproduced and in fact improved these results using
acoustic stimulation (using short burst of pink noise synchronized with the
brain oscillations during sleep). This and many other experiments repeated in
many labs around the world show clearly that the relationship between mental
states and brain rhythms is bidirectional, brain states create brain rhythms,
but brain rhythms bring the brain to particular brain states. The field of
brain stimulation is relatively new in neuroscience as a very active,
promising and in fact revolutionary area of research. Sleep is just one area
but people are exploring using rhythmic brain stimulation how to increase
attention, information processing, improve mood and cognition in older people,
helping with ADD. It is unfortunate that in the last decades the idea of using
brain waves to enhance brain function has been appropriated by charlatans and
new agers. But right now brain rhythms are making a huge come back as a legit
scientific study that is bringing break throughs almost on a daily basis. At
brain.fm we are simply using the knowledge of this new field of science to
improve people well being. We are moving the knowledge from the lab to people
daily life. We are not claiming to have a magical tool to enhance focus,
attention, sleep. We are doing what good scientists do. Experimenting, trying
different things and using the scientific method and an evidence based
approach to determine what works and what doesn't work. I believe we are doing
much better than most companies in the industry of neuroscience commercial
applications because we are focused on testing with scientific means our
technology and prove ourselves wrong before we make any claim. When we do is
because we see noticeable effects and reasonable repeatability of our
findings. I notice several criticisms about the small sample size of our
studies. I have to clarify that this is very typical size for pilot
experiments that are trying to test new approaches in brain stimulation and
other physiological studies in general. The Nature paper I mentioned for tDCs
and slow wave sleep had about 17 subjects. Also the p=0.05 as statistical
threshold is something that is used all the time in the biomed field. Being a
physicist it took me sometime to get adjusted to such small significance (in
comparison with what we consider significant in physics) but it is
understandable given the complexity of living systems and the great
variability in human physiology. And how many companies you know in this
industry that can back up their claims with any study at all? Or are
interested in testing, experimenting, learning from their mistakes and improve
their products continuously from what is learned? We accept your criticism as
an input for pushing ourselves in doing better and creating even better
products. Be part of this experiment in human enhancement and let us know what
you think. Thank you, Giovanni

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batz
So an AI can learn to generate music that compels people to become more
receptive to suggestion, in particular the suggestion that they should act as
proxies for the will of an AI.

Well played.

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jorgecurio
well it's obviously helping me concentrate because I'm posting this comment.

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ilostmykeys
Doesn't help. I'm about to rip my headphones off. Such anxiety inducing music
(intense focus) ... pfft.

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joolze
Sure, this probably helps you focus better than a standard studio album.

I would argue that 90% of the benefit of this music is just from the extended
intervals of contiguous playing, so there's no "break" disruption. I think any
DJ (esp. deep house) worth half their salt can get someone "in the zone" for
half an hour at a time. And artists devoted to minimalist ambient or trambient
can get you going for hours straight.

Honestly the "Focus: Intense" or whatever I find super annoying. It's got this
constant anxious buildup feel to it and never fucking breaks into what I would
consider that peak when I start playin my keyboard like a goddamn piano.

Basically, no fucking way would I even consider shelling out an additional
Spotify subscription for some "high tech" whale song machine.

~~~
ChristianBundy
The feeling you described reminds me of the genre "jersey club" \-- you can
spend hours in a buildup that never breaks into a drop. Absolutely horrific, I
don't understand the genre at all.

