14 DAY TRIAL // After repeatedly postponing to review such programs, today is the day: I randomly downloaded one from Softpedia, chose some "creative" noise, put on my headphones, made screenshots and now I am writing this story. Yes, it is a "live broadcast": I am writing the review while listening to some hushy noise and waiting to get more and more creative.
Do binaural beats work? I still don't know...maybe I'll find out by the time I finished writing this article. So many sites on the net are presenting and selling this kind of software. Since I am a bit suspicious I won't tell now things like "great" or "fraud" but rather wait and see what's going on, if something goes on anyway.
Looks & Works
The GUI of the Neural Noise Synthesizer is a rather usual one, quite common and easy to use, nothing "out-of-this-world" as I would have expected, considering the "alternative and edgy" things it is supposed to do.
No skins, just the current Windows theme I'm running right now, with neatly-designed buttons and very readable text. Almost one third of the Neural Noise Synthesizer's screen area is dedicated to the Help & Info section contained in the software, with quick links to warnings, brainwave guide, technical info, tutorial or tips and tricks which open in a new window resembling an e-book.
The rest of the main window is dedicated to a drop-down menu which allows you to choose from a broad category of presets, each of them having direct indications. About 50 or more presets are available, grouped upon recommendation, i.e. "Creativity Increase", "Sleep Cycle - Lucid and Wild Dreams - Alpha Interrupt During Theta", "Get Those Cerebral Juices Flowing!" and so on. These should obviously be used whenever their alleged results would be desired to occur.
About half of the Neural Noise Synthesizer's area is dedicated to explaining what each preset does or should do, at the same time offering information about DOs and DON'Ts. These presets have various lengths and some of them are meant to be used looped, while others are especially created for a single-pass listening.
The lower part of the main screen features the Play and the Loop buttons, the volume slide bar, the time counter and the Export button. The Export command allows you to save the preset files to wave tracks. If you think you can just download the trial, export every preset to wave and then play them in your Winamp, you are a bit wrong because the Neural Noise Synthesizer has a perfect looping technology so you can't hear a thing as loops are starting again; a thing you can't obtain in any multimedia player.
The TrackView Module in the Neural Noise Synthesizer is basically a brainwave editor. This (weird, for me) editor tool allows you to create and save your own presets by means of tweaking several tracks such as: Pulse, Low-Pass, Auto-Pan, Smoothness, Noise Volume, Binaural/Monaural Beat Rate, Tone Base Pitch, Left/Right Pitch and so on. Needless to say that - in my humble opinion - one should know which does what when editing a track. The producers of the Neural Noise Synthesizer state very clearly in the disclaimers associated with this program that no liability can be held against them as long as the terms and specifications of use for this software aren't fully complied with.
I guess there is something serious here after all, since I read some warnings written in big bold letters, as follows: "Neural Noise Synthesizer? should not be used by the following: pregnant women, those who wear a pacemaker, those who have had or are prone to seizures or are epileptic; those who should consult a physician before using this application include: individuals who are under the influence of medication or drugs, users under the age of 18. This application is not to be used while under the influence of alcohol or other mood altering substances, whether they are legal or illegal. Finally, DO NOT LISTEN TO NEURAL NOISE SYNTHESIZER? AUDIO WHILE DRIVING OR OPERATING MACHINERY, AS IT COULD BE DANGEROUS."
It's not everywhere such a serious warning is given in the first lines of technical data of a program...
Well, 700 hundred words have passed since I started to listen to some of Neural Noise Synthesizer's Creativity - enhancing noises and...frankly, I can't tell the difference; or at any rate I can't sense it. Still I won't say anything bad because I guess such things as brainwave activity aren't supposed to be perceived in minutes. As a personal remark, I'd say my expertise is too little if not totally absent in this particular field so little can I say about this software's efficiency. One thing I can surely tell you: it works; the IT in it surely works at its best, no errors returned during use, even though I mistreated the poor TrackView module as a totally inexperienced brainwave user which I am.
The Good
If this brainwave thing really works, then this software is a good piece of code, a good brainwave-tool. If this software turns out to be efficient, then for its price it really is a bargain.
The Bad
Speaking of software, the Neural Noise Synthesizer works without any kind of errors. It really does what the readme says.
The Truth
In what concerns the Neural Noise Synthesizer, I am very tempted to say that "The truth is out there". The programming is very good, the GUI is OK, it's easy to use as long as you know what is all about. However, its physiological results are still to be seen.
