Saturday, January 16, 2010

What are Binaural Beats?

By Carrie Spry

Binaural beats are created by introducing two tones differing frequency into each ear. If we play one tone at 100Hz in one ear and another tone at 114Hz in the other ear, the brain will detect a phase difference between the two wavelengths of each signal or tone. In nature, detecting the phase difference is important for directional information.

The signals integrate and become a third frequency or what we call a ?binaural beat?. The resultant beat of 14Hz is produced within your brain. The tone will sound like a wave or beat depending on the frequency. If the generated beat is 4Hz, then it will sound more like a wave, however if the beat is at 20Hz, it will sound more like a beat.

Binaural beats audio files can only be used with stereo headphones. Speakers cannot be used since the tones would mix in the air and produce more of a monaural beat. Those types of beats are usable in brainwave entrainment (bwe), however if the audio files in meant for binaural beats, that's how it should be used.

When first listening to these binaurals, you may initially hear a warbling sound until your brain adjusts. If you have a hearing loss in one ear, it does not reduce the effect of binaural beats. It's not how loud they are, in fact you could actually used them just below what we can naturally hear, and they would still be effective. Commonly, binaurals are masked with noise or music of some kind.

There is a lot of controversy over whether or not binaural beats can be used for brain-wave entrainment. According to Dr. Gerald Oster binaural beats can be used to produce beats from as little as 0.235Hz to as high as 26.25Hz. Oster also concluded that binaural beats would be insufficient for brainwave entrainment because the depth of the beat is only around 3 decibels or 1/10 the volume of a whisper.

Many companies use binaural beats as the basis for their products such as The Monroe Institute (Hemi-Sync), I-Doser, and Centerpointe (Holosync). The beats are usually mixed with noise, music, ambiance, or guided instructions.

There are alternative audio methods that are more efficient that binaural beats, such as monaural beats, isochronic tones, cross-feed modulation, low-pass filter modulation, pitch modulation and auto-pan modulation. Each method has its own place and limitations. We use a combination of methods to get the best out of each session.

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