Alternative Controllers

[John Speth]

There is a company called WaveAccess headed by Jonathan Purcell that makes several products for "turning brainwaves into music".  There is a WaveRider Jr - $750 (2 channel that reads heart, brain, or muscle; 1 channel GSR, WaveWare Windows software; head bands figer clips and leads).  There is a WaveRider Pro - $1500 (same as Jr but with 4 channels).  There is the DDE kit ($??) for applying the device in a custom Windows software program.

Contact info is: WaveAccess, PO Box 1764 Sebastopol, CA, 95473
Phones: 707-824-1461 or 800-697-8823
Email: waveridr at crl.com or 74243.657 at compuserve.com

Please note that my last contact with them was late 1995 and I've heard nothing about them or from them since then.  Prices and specs are also from that time.  I retrieved a demo program from Compuserve.  I wasn't too impressed but in all fairness, it wasn't my brain that was making the noise but rather somebody elses brain waves that are recorded and provided as data files.

I got a report of a showing they made at a NAMM show a couple of years ago and the guy said it was pretty cool.  For a demo, somebody from WaveAccess  who's into Tai Chi (or some such) was able to "jam" with somebody from Twelve Tones (now Cakewalk) using Cakewalk.  (But how you interact with a sequencer during playback, I'll never know)

John Speth
johns at oei.com

-----Original Message-----
From:	zappa at bellsouth.net [SMTP:zappa at bellsouth.net]
Sent:	Saturday, August 16, 1997 4:47 PM
To:	synth-diy at horus.sara.nl
Subject:	Alternative Controllers

Greetings,
        I have started experimenting with an EEG (Electroencephalograph) 
CV to midi interface.
Sounded very straight forward at first but our brainwaves don't exactly 
track our immediate thoughts and the resultant control voltages obtained
from the device can be very useful one second and be useless the next.
Anyone out there familiar with high accuracy medical instrumentation?
Anyone insane enough to collaberate on this project? 
If anything the EEG looks awesome for live shows!
All of the electrodes hanging off your head.                           
Free brainwave hardcopies for your adoring audience.