Anyone done any theta wave style design tracks?

[wub]

You play a separate sine wave in each ear at different frequencies where the difference between them is the desired frequency. So like 200hz in the left ear and 190hz in the right ear. You can also modulate noise or some signal at the sub audio frequency, basically an LFO.

Gotcha, much clearer than some of the explanations on line.

Im quiet interested in the whole idea of thetawaves but like sunklo said, you cant say a certain frequency range will work, it will differ from person to person, some people will hardly notice a thing while others will be sure they do.

Yeah I've heard some examples and either they work or I've convinced myself they do, so will have a go at generating a short (~10min) track today and see what comes of it.

[wub]

Okay, so done my first draft of this;

Soundcloud

Layers used;
- Sine wave @ 100hz, amp 1, panned hard left
- Sine wave @ 110hz, amp 1, panned hard right
- Sample of rainstorm

The sine waves were generated using Audacity, and the storm sample I got off SimplyNoise.com, a website I'd used previously at the office for white/pink noise generation purposes to see how it affected my concentration levels whilst working.

Really really basic to get started with on this, just to see how it works. I've done some reading on Pink Noise, so going to look at working something like that in as previously discussed;

Pink Noise - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_noise
Pink, Red, Blue and Violet Noise Generation with Matlab Implementation - http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/ ... inknoise.m
DSP generation of Pink (1/f) Noise - http://www.firstpr.com.au/dsp/pink-noise/

Last two links (Matlab and DSP generation) are more oddities that I came across whilst reading up. I remember Matlab being mentioned somewhere on here, and DSP I've seen referenced in Autechre interviews.

EDIT - Soundcloud embed is giving me some playback issues, not sure if that's local or not to my machine, but if you follow the Private link it should take you through.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I use matlab at uni so i might have a go aha.
I thought that this is an example of binaural beats???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats

[wub]

I use matlab at uni so i might have a go aha.
I thought that this is an example of binaural beats???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats

There is definitely some crossover from what I understand;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binaural_beats#Brain_waves

Not sure if one is a part of the discipline of another, or vice versa though?

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

hmmm i dunno tbh haha! either way the thing you made sounded like it was pulsating on phones. that means something is happening psycho-acoustically.

[wub]

hmmm i dunno tbh haha! either way the thing you made sounded like it was pulsating on phones. that means something is happening psycho-acoustically.

Sweet, that's the first step then

Going to adapt it midweek to have a less of a variation between hz...doing some reading further on this, and apparently some applications of this kind of sound are to treat kids with autism

[SunkLo]

Yeah binaural beats are just a method of brainwave entrainment. Isochronic tones is the name for that other method where you're modulating noise with an LFO. I was experimenting with LFO shapes, I find a sharp short burst works best so like a square wave with a narrow pulse width, or just a quickly decaying envelope.

In the binaural section of the Reaktor patch I'm working on, I have a couple different harmonics of the fundamental frequency that are also detuned between ears. You can't just use two different saw waves or whatever because if the first harmonics are 10hz apart, the harmonics above will be 20hz apart, and so on. So I used separate sine oscillators so that the right ear has sines at the usual harmonics of the overtone series like a saw wave, but the left ear has harmonics that are all minus-whatever hz from the right ear's harmonic. If you listen to just that one ear, the sines don't even make up a saw wave. It's like the difference between frequency shifting and pitch shifting I guess.

I've noticed it can be effective in a few certain scenarios like going to sleep or focus. It can also be kind of distracting at the same time which affects both scenarios negatively. The volume it's at makes a difference, especially for sleep. I find it seems too loud once I'm more relaxed so I'll automate the volume to drop slightly over the session. I think dialing in exact frequencies is kind of bullshit, it's really just about picking between the different ranges. I doubt there's much of a difference between 13hz and 14hz for instance.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Love reading your posts sunklo haha. Im going to read more into that isochronic tones thing.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/isochr ... erator.php WEsted myself out with this haha

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Jst started experimenting with this sort of thing in a new track im working on haha, 160 beats with all this going on in the background. By the end it probably wont even be recognisable as music.

[hubb]

If it's really a thing to relieve yourself of stress sort of thing then get your 'sinuses' (sp) checked. It can have the same sort of - effect as a clodded ear or constant 'pressure' sensation just above the brows.