MindPlace Kasina User manual

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Kasina:
Pali word meaning meditation upon an
object, often a colored object or bright light.
Congratulations! You now own one of the most
advanced personal audio/visual stimulation devices
available. To ensure the best experience, please take
a few moments to read this User Guide.
1. Carefully unpack your Kasina and its accessories.
The package includes:
Kasina Console
GanzFrame™ Multi-Color eyewear
Ear-bud Style Headphones
USB Cable
Power Supply
Stereo Patch Cable
Micro SD Card in Adaptor
Soft carry case
This User Guide
2. Please read the product standard and safety
statements on the front cover fold-out.
Note: The supplied GanzFrames are intended for
use with your EYES CLOSED.
3. It is advisable to charge the system for a few
hours before initial use. Plug the USB power supply
into the mini-USB socket on the top of the console.
4. Before turning your Kasina on, remove the MicroSD
card from the SD adapter and push it carefully,

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contacts facing up and towards the Kasina, into
the MicroSD slot at the bottom of the console.
You will feel slight spring pressure and then the
card will lock into place. You may need to use your
ngernail to lock it in place. To remove, ensure
your Kasina is turned off, then gently press the
MicroSD card so that it unlatches and springs out
sufciently to grasp.
5. Plug the GanzFrames into the socket to the right
of the MicroSD socket.
6. Plug the earbuds (or your own headphones) into the
socket to the left of the MicroSD socket.
7. You may now turn on your Kasina by pressing the
button on the top of the console for about two
seconds. The LCD will display four main icons
(Sessions, USB, Aux Audio, and Settings), as
well as smaller icons at the top for audio volume,
brightness, and battery charge level.

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HOW TO...
How to reset your Kasina
To reset all settings to factory defaults, turn the unit
on while holding the audio and light “-“ buttons, then
press the center ring when text appears on screen.
How to increase maximum volume level
Kasina ships with the maximum volume set to EU
standards to prevent hearing damage. If you are not in
Europe, want to use larger headphones, etc. you can
increase this in Settings/Audio/Max. Volume, use the
up and down keys then press the center ring to set.
Once done, the maximum volume level is indicated on
the volume meter by a red line.
Transfer les to your Kasina:
If you have an SD card slot in your computer, the
fastest way to transfer les is to remove the micro
SD card from the console, put it into the SD card
adapter, and copy directly into the folder of your
choice. You can also create your own folders on the
card. Alternately, you can connect via USB (select
USB on the main menu and press the mid-dle button;
the Kasina will appear on your Mac or PC as an
external drive). Just drag and drop les into the
appropriate folder. Note that les will transfer more
slowly using the USB connection.
File formats and conversion
Kasina currently supports only MP3 and WAV le
formats.
See the Kasina section of Mindplacesupport.com for
information about how to convert other formats to
MP3.

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PLAYING SESSIONS
From Memory Card
Use the Up/Down buttons to select [Sessions] and
press the central Select button. Notice that there
are several folders below “SD Card”. Use the Up/Down
buttons to select a folder and press the Select button
to view the tracks within, then scroll down to nd the
session you wish to play. Press the Select button to
start the session after the ten second countdown
timer appears, again to start immediately. During
the session, pressing the Select button once will
pause the session, keeping your place, while pressing
it again resumes the session. Pressing the Right
button during a session will cause it to fast-forward.
Once your session has ended, or while the session is
paused, use the Left button to navigate back to the
main menu.
Press or press-and-hold the buttons on the left
and right sides of the Kasina to adjust volume and
brightness. The bars on the top of the display indicate
the current volume and brightness levels.
From a Computer (USB Sound Device)
Connect the USB cable from the Kasina mini-USB
port to a USB socket on your computer. Select USB
Audio, and press the middle button. You can now
play tracks from iTunes, Windows Media Player etc.
through the Kasina. A small USB icon will appear
in the USB Audio bar at the top of the screen. In
some operating systems you may need to select the
Kasina as the default audio device and/or respond to
a message regarding the SD card (see the Kasina
section of www.mindplacesupport.com for further

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instructions). The Kasina will automatically recognize
whether the audio is encoded with AudioStrobe®
or SpectraStrobe™, displaying Mode Spectra/AS. If
your audio is encoded with neither, you can select the
ColorOrgan (CO), described later in this guide.
From a PC, iPod or MP3 player (Audio Device)
Connect the stereo patch cable to the Audio In
(AUX) socket and to the audio device headphone
jack. Select Line In and press the middle button,
then ‘play’ on your audio device.If your music doesn’t
have SpectraStrobe or AudioStrobe encoding, press
the Up button to select ColorOrgan.If AudioStrobe
is detected, the Down button cycles through the
ColorSets.
TROUBLESHOOTING AND SUPPORT
First, try turning the Kasina off (press the on/off
button for several seconds), unplugging the USB cable
and then turn it on again. Problems are often due
to discharged batteries or cables connected to the
wrong sockets. In the event of any problems, please
check all of your connections and, if necessary, place
your Kasina on charge for at least an hour and then
try again.
To reset all settings to factory defaults, turn the unit
on while holding the audio and light “-“ buttons, then
press the center ring when text appears on screen.
The MindPlace User Forum, a great place for answers
to questions and sharing experiences, as well as
manuals, tutorials, guides, downloads and other useful
material can be found on the MindPlace support site...
http://mindplacesupport.com/forum/

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DURING A SESSION
While a session is playing you will notice that the
active mode is displayed. You can toggle Mode
SpectraStr/AS by pressing the Up button. If you are
playing AudioStrobe content, then the Colorsets
govern the colors you see, and can be stepped
through by pressing the Down button.
BATTERY CONDITION
At the top right of the Kasina display you will see
the battery condition indicator. When connected to a
power source (AC power supply or PC USB port) the
indicator will repeatedly “ll” from right to left. When
using Kasina away from a power source, the indicator
will show approximate remaining charge.
SETTINGS
You generally won’t need to visit this menu very often,
instead using it to tweak various parameters. When
you select or change something, be sure to press the
Select button to save them. The options are:
Language
Use this menu to select which language is used
for the various Kasina menus. This does not affect
session names, which are in English.
General
Show File Extensions turns on or off the display of
lename extensions.
Play Countdown changes the default Play countdown.
Button Backlight changes the color of the LEDs under
the Control Pad.

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ADVANCED OPERATION
This section describes in detail all of the Kasina
settings, controls and features.
ENCODED AUDIO
SpectraStrobe
Kasina uses a new form of encoding, SpectraStrobe™
(SS) which is similar to AudioStrobe® (AS) but with
six light control signals instead of just two. This allows
full red, green and blue control for both the left and
right side of the glasses, synchronized with the audio
content. Files created with this format offer a much
richer and more subtle experience than does AS.
AudioStrobe
Your Kasina is also a great AS decoder that can map
the two AS signals onto any combination of red, green
and blue via the ColorSets. Some ColorSets slowly
change the color mapping during a session, creating a
more dynamic and complex experience. See inside back
cover fold-out for ColorSet details.
ColorOrgan
Just for fun there is also a ColorOrgan (CO) option
which works with any audio, this mapping low
frequencies onto blue, mid frequencies onto green, and
higher frequencies onto red.There are three intensity
levels (50%, 100%, 200%) and response rates (fast
and slow fall). CO works best with music that has a
beat, but can be quite interesting with other genres
– please experiment! To use it, simply select and start
the piece you want to play, then press the top key.
You should see Mode ColorOrgan on the LCD. Use the
bottom button to cycle through the six CO options.

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Power Management
Use this to select display ‘Display Backlight’ (1-7, 6 is
the default), ‘Display off timeout’ (default is ‘never’),
and ‘Device off timeout’ (default is ‘Never off’, but
consider setting it to a shorter period if there is a
chance you might fall asleep, etc.)
Visuals
Adjust the maximum brightness of each LED color,
both left and right. Default is 100% for all LEDs.
Audio
Adjust left/right balance, Line-in Level, AUX/INT Mix Vol
and Volume Max.
The Volume Max is preset to a safe hearing level. This
value is the highest volume that will be displayed on
the volume indicator.
KBS is another Kasina session type. See the KBS
reference information at www.mindplacesupport.com
for more details.
Service
This screen provides technical details about your
Kasina - you may be asked to provide some of these
details in the event that you require support.
Where to nd your Kasina serial number
In the Settings section, select Service. Your serial
number follows the letters SN.
CREATING KASINA SESSIONS
There are various software tools available for creating
your own Kasina sessions.
See www.mindplacesupport.com for further details
and downloads.

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Kasina micro-SD Card Contents
When you turn on your Kasina and select Sessions,
you’ll notice six numbered folders: SpectraStrobe.
AudioStrobe, KBS Sessions, Color Organ, Docs, and
KASINA. Though most of your sessions will reside in
the SpectraStrobe folder, there is some AudioStrobe
content in that folder, to help show off how well the
Kasina can decode that older technology using the
different ColorSets. The Docs folder includes the
Kasina Quickstart manual in a number of languages,
and some bonus software. The KASINA folder has
been prepared for use with Mind Workstation and
NeuroProgrammer software from Transparent
Corporation – please do not delete that folder or the
KasinaSD.id le found inside.
The KBS folder includes sessions in the Kasina Basic
Session format, as well as software for creating
such sessions quickly and easily. The les in the Music
section are not encoded and intended to demon-
strate the capabilities of the Color Organ.
Finally, the SpectraStrobe folder is divided into six
categories: Accelerate (energy, peak performance,
focus, etc.), Meditate (meditation and relaxation
training, mainly), Mind Art (experimental, visualization,
and some intended purely for consciousness-altering
enjoyment), Night Voyage (before bed, lucid dreaming),
Rejuvenate (sports recovery, after a long day in
the ofce, etc.) and nally, Trance (hypnagogia, the
fascinating region between sleep and wakefulness, also
used for Lozanov’s ‘Superlearning’ and some spiritual
practices).
These sessions include both simple and complex