I’m sure some of you have heard about this. I think a few news programs have runs stories on it. The gist of it is someone, usually a teenager, listens to ‘special’ mp3s that supposedly give them highs similar to chemical drugs. There are several youtube reaction videos. So, the question. Is there anything to this or is it a boatload of crap?
Sounds stupid to me. You mean something like this?
Some people once believed smoking bananas could get you high. It just shows you the power of suggestion.
I’m sure someone will come along with a bill to outlaw certain kinds of music on the grounds that someone might be having fun.
Sounds like Daily Mail hysteria at it’s finest. I’m just suprised they din’t work immigrants into the story somewhere.
My brother once got them to publish a piece on a mathematical formula explaining the optimum way to win when pull a christmas cracker (I think it went in the Mail). Of course, he just made the whole thing up.
Usually I’m pretty good at this, but I’m not sure what this means.
it’s a gigantic troll. stupid scared parents will easily whip up a frenzy about anything like this, especially if they don’t understand it. So some kids make this shit up and people buy it hook, line, and sinker. just like the “jenkem” idiocy.
Christmas Cracker. It’s mostly a British thing, I don’t think they’re very common in the States.
I’m not sure about the music you are referring to, but many cultured have used music to induce a trance like state in people and animals. On the show ‘Beyond Survival’, while the host Les regularly will partake in some of the locals spirit inducing drugs, I believe there was one that he claimed just a rhythmic beating in a drum circle caused such a effect. To some degree some may argue that advertisers use such a method today to a much milder extent, as well as some farmers claim higher yields with music.
No, it’s even stupider.
What? First I had to panic about “the brown note”, and now this!
Somewhere between my brain and the keyboard, an “ing” went missing.
No euphemism implied. Looks the the Mail has reclycled the original article.
Sure, music has the ability to alter mood. I use it all the time. I’ll take the notion of “digital drugs” seriously when I see a proper scientific study, not when someone posts a vid of a teenager making faces on YouTube.
Some dopers claim you’re an alien.
As an audio engineer and music producer, I have to call bs on this.
However, as with all ridiculuous urban legends, there is sometimes a hint of truth to it.
there is a phenomenon known as ‘Binaural Beat Entrainment’ that is fairly interesting.wikipedia
another link (maybe a little more out there…
I make no claims for this achieving a tenth of what it’s proponents claim. That said, I have experimented in the studio with binaural mic systems and creating binaural beats.
to create binaural beats:
- create hard panned channels for left and right
- generate a single sine wave, send to both and record.
- insert a sample delay to offset one wave form (or manually move one waveform)
- experiment with delay to create different intersections and pulses OR
(in Pro Tools/Logic etc) align to grid and offset second waveform by a bar/beat multiple of the frequency.
listen on headphones, this doesn’t really work on stereo speaker systems.
That sounds cool. What frequency and how much delay?
Will I fry my brain by trying this?
This is the correct answer.
Something that many cultures have done throughout the ages, something you can experience for yourself if you so desire, and you need a ‘proper scientific study’ to determine if it’s valid 
:rolleyes::smack:
This is something that can prove the validity of a ‘proper scientific study’, not the other way around.
What, no one has linked Cecil’s column on this yet?
Hey, at least they aren’t 'toping.
Mardi Gras Smiley!!!
They sell them in Hallmark and The Christmas Tree Shop, so they’re not hard to come by even in the US.
You misunderstand me. I was commenting on the absurdity of the article Musicat linked to, which draws parallels with hard drug use.