Welcome, Start Here!

#1

Welcome to the 2nd edition of the Solu: ToneStream Meditation app forum. The 1st was open to our beta testers. We’ll slowly bring some of that content over here. I’m Michael Joly, founder of solu. I’m excited and joyous. We’re just 6 days away from the public launch of Solu: ToneStream Meditation.

This is a “get the party started” post. If you’d like, feel free to introduce yourself, tell us where you are, and especially, how are you listening to Solu?

This can be a big, glorious, messy “all for one and one for all” post. Bring it!

And welcome again!

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#2
#3

Chad Allen in Los Angeles, CA. Honored to be here.

One of my favorite uses is during my weekly community online gathering. Our session begins with heart-focused breathing and a voice of inspiration and then we listen to ToneStream for 3 minutes after as we integrate and connect to the inspiration. We love it.

My second favorite use of ToneStream is in my office/studio as a space conditioner. As clients enter the space with ToneStream playing they always comment how ‘nice it feels’.

Just for starters.

:heart::heartpulse::purple_heart:

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#4

Very much appreciating the NOW devices, listening at least twice a day for just a few weeks has been positively changing.
May be a silly question but will be able to use the Stream Meditation app on my home computers?

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#5

Will I be able to use the app on my home computers? This sounds like a very addition to my N. O. W. devices. Very happy with them, wonderful results so far just a few weeks in!

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#6

Hey Jeff, thanks for positive feedback about our n.o.w. Tone Therapy System.

Re: Solu: ToneStream app for computers. Not a silly question at all, in fact this is the second time today it has come up. Solu: ToneStream runs on iOS and Android devices. I’ve personally tested it on iPhone and Android mobile phones and iPad and Samsung tablets.

It’s such an obvious question you asked and I don’t know the answer. I’ll get an answer asap and post again. Thanks for the heads up!

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#7

Hey @jeff1, our own @Jeff Milam answered this question in our ZenDesk system a little while ago. Here’s his answer:

You can use the app on any iOS or Android tablet with an up-to-date operating system on it. Most of those devices will provide some form of audio output that is hard-wired (headphone out). The device will need to be connected to the internet, and I suspect most of those will require wifi and/or cell signal. I’ve never used an ethernet adapter for a tablet or phone, but if you have one and it works, that’s great!

It is also possible to run Android apps on desktop computers using an emulator. This requires some technical proficiency, but it is possible.

Additionally, if you have a Chromebook, you can download and run the Android app on that. A quick Google short showed me that there are several Ethernet (RJ-45) capable Chromebooks on the market.

Technically, the app is capable of running on desktop computers, and we’ve developed it to be easily adaptable to different environments. However, we have not developed official desktop releases yet. We can add this to the roadmap for future releases!

Thanks!
-Jeff

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#8

Thanks for the replies. I do have a very low end cell phone which I-reluctantly-acquired for security ID so I may try and see if it will work. I do hold out hope though that someday a pc version will be available. I do support your vision of a connected group experience; I’ve found them to be highly beneficial.
Peace

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#9

A low end phone should work. I’m using an unlocked, WiFi connection-only (no cellular account) $99 Android “Nuu” brand phone and Solu ToneStream is working on it fine.

But yes, PC / Mac versions of Solu ToneStream are under consideration.

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#10

Thanks Michael. I only know you as Michael the vintage mic master but you decided on a different life path. I just downloaded the app myself which I am using with Galaxy Pro earbuds but I really wished there was a desktop version in the future so I could play this on my mixing monitors. Yes, I am a sound man too, for 32 years. I am currently on a spiritual journey and after my 1st hour of listening to your app in darkness I felt the heart Chakra starting to vibrate and soon the chakras from root to heart were vibrating. For some reason I wanted to here the next 3rd harmonic up from the highest tone currently playing, which is an octave up from what made my heart chakra first vibrate. Throat and 3rd eye chakras did not respond during this first hour. Very relaxing and the app gave me a feeling of aligning of energies.

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#11

Hi Warewhulf, thanks for sharing those detailed observations––fascinating. And thanks for following my microphone work first, now this work in sound.

re: desktop version…yes, the idea is noted and the team will be discussing it. For now you’d have to take your phone’s wired headphone signal (if your phone still has such a thing!) into your console and monitors.

re: life path, with n.o.w. Tone Therapy System and Solu ToneStream I’m actually returning to an interest of mine (pure sine wave tones) that I first delved into in 1990––well before my professional work with microphones. Another loop around the spiral it seems!

#12

Thanks for your response Michael. I believe each soul has its own frequency or resonance, so different people probably resonates with their own unique set of frequencies or qualities of frequencies. The sounds used in the app very much resonate with my partner and I. Anything that is made of enclosed metal, hollow on the inside, and then hit by something, like a hang drum or a gamelan really resonates with me. But also, deeper wooden flute notes (not the whistle notes). Which are the fundamental notes or frequencies you use in the app, and, how did you derive at those specific frequencies?

#13

Thanks for that share @Warewhulf. You point out something I wanted to be aware of as I was making n.o.w. Tone Therapy System (our hardware product) and Solu ToneStream––personal differences.

I don’t subscribe to the popular idea that there is a particular frequency that can be used for a particular healing purpose. We are all far too complex––miniature versions of an Infinite Source, to be reduced so such a 1:1 correlation between a particular frequency and result. Instead…

I designed these systems to offer a range of tone frequencies and tone pulsation rates in hopes that something in the tones would, at some time or other, resonate with a wide range of listeners who are, of course, unique individuals. We also don’t tell people how to listen, or for how long. People find there way to the tones and find there own ways of using them.

Re: Tone frequencies used…the 12th question down in our FAQ answers this and I have a deeper look at the tones in this post.

As a sound guy I love these sorts of questions and comments so feel free to come back here to chat!

#14

As I now get a much deeper sense of you, seems to me this is your life mission at this point and you are traversing a field with no peer-reviewed text book but an infinite amount of knowledge and intuitions from within. Yes, we are all miniature versions of Source, or perspectives as I like to call it. There are 12 zodiacs and 12 basic vibrations of Source with different energies. Each person, I believe, resonates more with one of these. Add to that the 5 elements and all the geometric nodes each individual perspective have and it becomes clear, to me, there are probably very few universal “right” frequencies or resonances.

But your app is different as everyone listening will hear/feel the exact same thing, which hypothetically could create a sort of global synergy perhaps, if enough users. This has great potential in theory.

Purely anecdotally, sine waves have never done anything for me as far as making me feel something when listening to individual notes. The exception is sine wave bass frequencies below 100 Hz. These can sometimes resonate with my general state of mind and if I’m not mistaken the alpha, beta, gamma and theta levels of brain waves are somewhere in that region of frequencies. As a mixer however, I can’t think of a more boring bass sound than a pure sine wave :slight_smile:

Personal note: it really helps me to listen to your app with noise-canceling headphones as it keeps external sound distractions out to a large extent.

Note 2: When I first started listening I found the extreme panning of the left and right tones a bit distracting as the panning changes drew attention to itself instead of just feeling the tones. However, after maybe an hour of listening my attention was no longer drawn to the panning changes. I actually get irritated when watching a movie when somebody walks to the left or right and the dialog is panned accordingly. As soon as the dialog leaves the center it distracts me somehow, but maybe because I mix soundtracks, only I will have my attention get distracted by such things? Some of the really radical stereo mixes of Beatles songs are very distracting to me, as a listener. A piece of music that doesn’t make my attention go to a technical aspect of it but just let’s me enjoy the tune, is for me a good piece of music.

#15

"ToneStream is based on the concept of Oneness, brought into sound. We use 1 cycle per second (1Hz) as a metaphor for Oneness, then by a combination of Octave multiplication (2:1 ratio) and Perfect Fifth transposition (3:2 ratio) we arrive at a system reference frequency of C-256 (which places A in that octave at 432 Hz).

The main frequencies used are: C-256, D-288, E-320, G-384, A-432 (a Pentatonic scale) with companion frequencies heard one octave lower. There is subtle use of other frequencies and tonal centers, but ToneStream is “just intonated” (Pythagorean), Key of C (mainly), A-432 system."

This makes complete sense as it is based on geometric math, starting from 1 and expanding outwards in a trinity (with occasional 2ths and 6ths and lower octave harmonics) within each octave. No wonder it is making at least 4 of my chakras (same as my partner) vibrate like crazy. I took the liberty to add (a similar but not identical) note of a higher C, after the currently highest 5th of your tones and my throat chakra was affected as well. I think it needs the high energy resonance. Each of these 5 chakras has to do with your 5 senses (and more) while the 6th one has to do with intuition and the 7th one deals with dimensions beyond the here and now.

#16

Lot’s here!

I like your use of “Perspectives” (my capitalization) as a synonym for source. Because Consciousness sure likes to inhabit a lot of different forms to get a myriad of perspectives. Nice word!

What I didn’t mention before was my perception (lol) of the difference between the effect of “specific frequencies” and the effect of perceiving “frequency ratios”––especially those derived from the harmonic series (1, 2, 3, … ), in particular 1:1, (unison), 2:1 (octave) and 3:2 (perfect 4th). These “relationships” are archetypes of “interbeing-ness”, each with their own unique qualities. And because they are abstract (as well as non-linguistic) they can be felt, or perceived in somewhat similar fashion by humans with different life experiences.

So yes, lots of people listening the harmonic-series loaded ToneStream, at the same time, could, as you point out, create a global synergy consistent with the perspectives of “unity” (the 1:1 “onesness” tonal relationship), “infinity” (the 2:1 tonal relationship suggestive of infinite doubling in space) and perfect 5th (or as I like to call it "the first differentiated tonal identity that is not unison or its octave––the first differentiation into form) of 3:2.

Experiencing this harmonic series archetypes, for me, instills a recognition of intelligent order and the “OK-ness” of the present moment, as that present moment emerges and evolves.

re: low frequencies and low frequency rate pulsations––yes, n.o.w. Tone Therapy System and Solu ToneStream present a multitude of pulsations in the brainwave entrainment ranges of Alpha (8-12 Hz), Theta (4-8 Hz), and Delta (less than 4 Hz) that have been shown to correlate with various meditative or “flow” states as subjectively observed, and reported, by research subjects.

re: Left / Right panning…others (sound mixers in fact) have made similar comments. The extreme Left and extreme right panning is a hold-over from my development of the 2-loudspeaker n.o.w. Tone Therapy System. Solu ToneStream pays homage to the n.o.w. System by using extreme left and right panning. And this actually sounds quite nice when heard at “arms length” as was intended with n.o.w Tone Therapy System. While I do listen to Solu ToneStream on headphones, earbuds and open-ear bone conduction headphones, I keep the volume low and allow for some adaptation time to the extreme left and right presentation, which is far more noticeable in headphones, than over speakers.

Btw…I spent 15 years working a product design engineer in the motion picture business, on the exhibition sound system side.

#17

Thanks for this very detailed description. Yes, in English I think “perspectives” is the best word to convey the myriad of versions and experiences each being is the result of, with no insinuation to “good” or “evil” or other falsely identified polarities.

I can tell you went for “frequency ratios” rather than “specific frequencies” and this approach makes sense to affect as broadly as possible. Though having 1 being the Source, and maybe I am biased in this, the notes produced from the base of 1 have always seemed more “harmonious” to me than for example A=440Hz. I know this is a contentious subject so I will keep this as hyper subjective. A 440Hz piano ALWAYS sounds a bit out of tune no matter how “well” it is tuned, anyway lol.

My specialty has been either advanced sound restoration of either old recordings or shitty dialog or set/location sound, but I also love mixing music, especially shitty recordings which give me a challenge to try to restore the sound the recording engineer failed to get. Bad playing I of course can’t fix.

Certain instruments playing pentatonic melodies always give me goose bumps but only a few. The uilleann pipes, hang drum, gamelan, pan flutes and non-whistle, larger flutes. Just something about those instruments.

Here’s another observation I think you find interesting. When I first tried the app, my partner was in the same room but she was involved with something else. As I started to vibrate she felt it and she started to vibrate with me, without listening to the music. How do I explain that? I can’t but we both perceived it.

#18

Blockquote

Now we’re well into the realm of the metaphysical where the unexplained is commonplace! I just accept your observation as a “go signal” that we’re on the right path with our work.

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#19

My name is Carla. I am a spiritual seeker and have practiced meditation over 30 years and incorporating tuning forks. I’ve been attending sound bowl healing practices for the last year, but I have been wanting that experience more often and in a solo situation. I’m very excited to have come across this app, and apply it into my daily routine. Thank you for offering this option.

#20

Hi Carla, thank you for finding Solu and for writing.

I see you also wrote to us via our help desk email. As I’m up early I’ll answer your question.

Looks like you’re having difficulty downloading, or installing our Solu ToneStream Meditation app. Here’s the general process:

Just to start from the beginning…you can find links to Solu ToneStream Meditation at the Apple App Store and Google Play store by going here: https://www.solu.app/

That is a “splash page” where you can find links out to the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Once you click either link (depending if you’re an iPhone user or Android phone user), you will be taken to an App Store or Google Play page where you can download the Solu ToneStream app onto your phone. Just follow all the directions as they appear before you.

Once downloaded onto your phone, find the Solu logo (the three concentric arcs on a dark background). Tap the logo to launch the app. At this point you will have to sign up using your Apple ID or email address. After you sign up, you will be sent a registration link. Look in your email inbox, and also check your “promotions” or spam folder for this link.

Click this link. The Solu ToneStream app will now be fully functional. The very first time you use it there is a quick “tap here” tutorial that steps you through a few functions. But the main function…just tap the Solu logo on the main screen and start listening.

I hope this helps, if you’re still having issues, please reach out to Ruane@nowbysolu.com and she’ll be happy to walk you through the process.

Best, Michael

Michael Joly
Founder / CEO
Hear Now Systems, Inc. / dba solu
1512 E 12th Ave, unit 375
Tampa, FL 33605
Mobile: (413) 627-5513

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