"Blind" Electrode Placement w/audio track

[alexcantrelle]

Situation:

You are about to have an e-stim session, whether it's a video with an e-stim track, or an audio-only file. Despite searching high and low, you cannot find any suggestions on electrode placement for this specific track, AND you cannot even find whether it was composed for dual channel or tri-phase.

Question:

How do YOU tell what electrode placement would be a good place to start, and/or how do you even tell if a file is meant for dual channel or tri-phase, when you have no information whatsoever to go on other than just having the audio e-stim file?

Obviously trial and error is to be expected in almost any situation like this -- but what are some shortcuts you have found to help shorten the process of finding a good or optimal setup?

[Electro]

I'll pull up the file in Audacity and look at how it appears.

It takes a little bit of knack to see what's going on but there are some telltale signs that it is designed for use with a common electrode(tri-phase)

1. If the audio volume is cycling between left and right for the whole file and there aren't point where it has full volume with both at the same time, it will feel like a stroking file with triphase. There may or may not be some overlap in the middle where both are active at a mid-volume between the left and right being at a higher level. It could also be higher in one channel while lower in the other without one going to zero.

2. If there is a fairly constant volume for long durations with both channels, zoom way in so you can see the individual waves, if you scroll left and right and see the waves between one channel and the other diverging and moving around relative to each other, this will create a phase-shift effect in devices that support it, such as a Stereostim(DIY or BT Stim audio amplifier based estim device) or ET312. Files like Funstim conversions of Funscripts are like this, mostly a constant volume while the signal is active, but the waveforms are shifting relative to each other to generate a movement sensation.

Signs it is designed for dual channel
1. Both channels have a matching waveform where the peaks match but the amplitude(volume) of the audio are doing something completely different and not "rocking back and forth" between channels.

2. You can't find any frequency phase shift.

3. The file has one channel(mono), in which case you could use it in tri-phase if you want and the common will feel stronger than the other two electrodes, or use both channels separately and it will do the same thing for both.

There's multiple ways to look at a file to get an idea, if in doubt you could approach the file either way and see how it feels and try it the other way if it doesn't feel right. If you try a file with a dual channel configuration and it just feels like a constant buzz and seems to be missing character, there's probably some frequency phase shift going on that you can't feel. If you connect with triphase and something doesn't feel right or it feels like things are not intense at all in some parts and you feel like the common electrode is getting blasted and it isn't described as being a pain related file where that would be expected, swap over for a dual channel configuration and give that a shot.

I might be missing a few things and others will fill in some of the blanks, but that's what comes to mind for what I look for. I've played with nearly every file that's readily available, especially if it was posted on one of the forums, discords, or the stimaddict monster stimfile archive so if you have questions about a specific file, I could take a look.

[verynicekojak]

.

[alexcantrelle]

My approach is:

For webteases placement is usually left channel - somewhere low (ass or balls or shaft), right channel - somewhere high (cock head). For videos is usually the opposite. I also check in Audacity if there are any sections with one channel muted for longer time, then I assume it's ass channel .

For type of audio track I open it in Audacity and I zoom to have like 1 minute on screen. If there is no visible volume changes, it's triphase:

Spoiler: show

tp.png

If there are changes, it is DC:

Spoiler: show

dc.png

And I also zoom out to find time of max volume, obviously usually somewhere at the end, so I can calibrate my device there:

Spoiler: show

full.png

Great examples! I didn't realize Audacity was a free program, so I finally downloaded it. I looked at the graphs of several files I have, and none of them fit nicely in to either of the examples you gave for triphase or DC -- but I'm sure you chose such clear examples to illustrate the point. I just re-read your post again and realized something I missed: where you said you zoom in to about 1 minute of audio on screen to examine the structure. I left it at default when I was looking yesterday, but did use your method of finding a good calibration point by where in the entire file the loudest volume is seen. Thank you!

[alexcantrelle]

I'll pull up the file in Audacity and look at how it appears.

It takes a little bit of knack to see what's going on but there are some telltale signs that it is designed for use with a common electrode(tri-phase)

1. If the audio volume is cycling between left and right for the whole file and there aren't point where it has full volume with both at the same time, it will feel like a stroking file with triphase. There may or may not be some overlap in the middle where both are active at a mid-volume between the left and right being at a higher level. It could also be higher in one channel while lower in the other without one going to zero.

2. If there is a fairly constant volume for long durations with both channels, zoom way in so you can see the individual waves, if you scroll left and right and see the waves between one channel and the other diverging and moving around relative to each other, this will create a phase-shift effect in devices that support it, such as a Stereostim(DIY or BT Stim audio amplifier based estim device) or ET312. Files like Funstim conversions of Funscripts are like this, mostly a constant volume while the signal is active, but the waveforms are shifting relative to each other to generate a movement sensation.

Signs it is designed for dual channel
1. Both channels have a matching waveform where the peaks match but the amplitude(volume) of the audio are doing something completely different and not "rocking back and forth" between channels.

2. You can't find any frequency phase shift.

3. The file has one channel(mono), in which case you could use it in tri-phase if you want and the common will feel stronger than the other two electrodes, or use both channels separately and it will do the same thing for both.

There's multiple ways to look at a file to get an idea, if in doubt you could approach the file either way and see how it feels and try it the other way if it doesn't feel right. If you try a file with a dual channel configuration and it just feels like a constant buzz and seems to be missing character, there's probably some frequency phase shift going on that you can't feel. If you connect with triphase and something doesn't feel right or it feels like things are not intense at all in some parts and you feel like the common electrode is getting blasted and it isn't described as being a pain related file where that would be expected, swap over for a dual channel configuration and give that a shot.

I might be missing a few things and others will fill in some of the blanks, but that's what comes to mind for what I look for. I've played with nearly every file that's readily available, especially if it was posted on one of the forums, discords, or the stimaddict monster stimfile archive so if you have questions about a specific file, I could take a look.

Great and easy to understand explanation of a real-world approach to finding A.) what style of file a stim track is; and B.) how to go about using informed trial and error to experiment with a configuration and evaluate if you're on the right track......ba dum 'tss.......or not.