Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Beyond Human Binaural Beats, EEG, etc.

You guys mentioned the possibility of inadequate headphones a few posts back. I'm one of those Holosync users who's up to Purifying Level 1 and has yet to experience the dramatic effects so touted by the literature. I have a pair of Denons with a range of 2Hz-30kHz and am using a portable Sony Discman. In your opinion, are these adequate?

More than adequate, it sounds like. Purification Level 1 tones wouldn't be any lower than 100 Hz, and any commercial player can easily reproduce that.
I have never heard of headphones that have a frequency response that low -- are you sure its not 20 HZ? If not, I'm awfully impressed, although I don't think many homo sapiens can hear below 20. Maybe there's some indirect advantage to reproducing the lower frequencies which are imperceptible.

If you want to experiment with lower carrier frequencies to try to discover more of an effect, you can use Brainwave Generator, the website was mentioned in a previous post.

i havent done much of these cept a bit of HS
i must say that gateway is by far one of the best things ive come across
just relax into it it will have some effect
but do not think you are going to be some new kind of person sometime soon
the personality change only comes easier when you do it intuitively with the state you have reached
some do not see it or recognise it because they have never been there
like the love of God or the world (or all existence) seems forced on many
but i think with a fresh mind and relaxed emotions you have time to decide on these things

im more into this side of things and do not know anything of frequencies but id love to get to know more one day
i love to learn
but it would have to fit into my 8 hours a day i do now lol

yay its christmas
don't celebrate it but i do celebrate the happy people and yummy food
i've got some shortbread
merry christmas all

Thanks for your reply garics and yes it is 2Hz. I just finished checking it on Denon's site. Thanks for the info on Brainwave Generator. I downloaded the software last night and am making wave files for most of the presets. You mentioned the possibility of lowering the carrier frequency. I'm not sure how to do that. Any ideas? Also, I noticed that the presets end abruptly with no fade-out. Do you know if there is a way I can fix this? Perhaps by masking the tones with another sound file, say nature sounds? Again, thanks for replying.

Mindsurfer,

To create a low carrier frequency track, do the following:
Open BWGen, click on the "new preset" button. Name it "carrier", or whatever.
In the general tab you will want to have two segments. When you start there should already be a segment "A" which is 10 minutes long. Click "Add" under the segments box and it will automatically add another "B" segment which is also 10 minutes long. Use the A segment for ramping down from 15 Hz to 1.5 Hz in the first 10 minutes of the preset. So click on the "A" segment in the segments box, click on the "A:Sound" tab next to the general tab, use the edit feature to ramp down linearly to 1.5 Hz. (After you outgrow a particular level you can lower the binaural freq to 0.5 and then 0.3, as they do in the Centerpointe program.)
The carrier frequency you are using is indicated in the lower part of this tab; for the "ramping down" part I usually just leave it as-is, set to "track binaural beat frequency", which should already be checked.
Now go back to the general tab, click on the B segment, and then click on the "B:Sound" tab next to the general tab.
There should be three nodes in the binaural beat frequency graph. Delete the middle one, set the leftmost and the rightmost to 1.5 Hz. You should have a straight line at 1.5 Hz in the "Binaural Beat Frequency" box.
Go down to the Audible Pitch section of the sound tab, uncheck "track another parameter" and make sure the other box is unchecked as well. Click "edit" on one of the nodes and set them to 120 Hz... this is the "carrier frequency" for the preset you are creating... 120 Hz is probably lower than where you are right now, so be careful and don't use this one for too long.
Even though the B segment is only ten minutes long, it will keep looping indefinitely so you can stay in that zone for as long as you want.
Purification Level 1 is probably somewhere between 150 and 200 Hz; I have been researching a little and trying to find the exact carrier frequencies for all the holosync levels, but have been unable to so far. (I think there's a yahoo group that published them a while ago.)
Anyway, congratulations, you have just created the holosync program and saved yourself a bunch of money on the remaining levels.. The exact carrier frequencies used in the program are not really the issue anyway. Just be safe, start somewhere that is comfortable for you, and gradually lower the carrier as the effect diminishes. If you are really eager to feel something, then you can start under 100 Hz, but I wouldn't do that for more than a few minutes at a time.

....To do a fade-out, go to the sound tab and choose "user-defined" under the Volume Settings. I usually use either pink or brown noise at 50% when I make these kinds if tracks...the settings for this are in the same tab.

Oh, by the way, some versions of BWGen can be a little buggy, so you may need to check and re-check your settings to make sure everything stays where you put it.

Good luck,

Garic

[This message has been edited by garics (edited December 27, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by garics (edited December 27, 2004).]

garics--thank you, thank you, thank you! You've given me all the info I needed and more. Can't wait to get started.

Hope everyone had a happy holy-days!

What model Denon headphones? 2 Hz to 30 kHz now that's impressive +/- 30 dB? <grin>. I couldn't find any flatness graphs. How flat are they?

I am going to respect-full-y disagree with the warning about lower carriers being "dangerous." IMHO They ain't.

The only thing "dangerous" about low binaural frequencies is that you may fall asleep and get a crick in your neck.

Current theory says brain entrainment occurs based on frequency differences (binaural) or amplitude modulation (monaural). Carrier frequency is not mentioned.

Carrier frequency does make a difference in things like auditory localization. Low beat frequencies like 0.3 Hz will probably cause things to seem kinda swirly (change spacial position). At 50 Hz, for me, that swirly sensation dropped off and just became changes in loudness.

The folks at BWGEN.COM are good people. They are providing a community for discussion and exchanging presets.

For those wishing to do some experimentation I can send you a windows freeware program. Just email me. I've got a spam blocker so just put "binaural" or something like that in the message.

Alan,

The model I have is AH-D950 which, most unfortunately, has been discontinued. They were pricey (a little over $300.00)but worth it. I think I'll e-mail you for the program--love to experiment! You and garic have supplied me with priceless information. Many thanks--and a prosperous New Year!

Well here's a little update for those wanting more precise info, this was passed along to me by someone on the Awakened Minds yahoo group, these are the exact frequencies on the Awakening Prologue. Given the total number of levels in the program you can pretty much extract the reamining carrier frequencies (remember that for each level, the "Immersion" track will just stay at the last carrier and binaural beat frequency, or drop to 1.5, 0.5, or 0.3 if it is one of the "bonus tracks":

> For example, this is the binaural beat component of the Awakening
> Prologue "Dive" (to which is added all the bells and rain and other
> effects that go to make up the complete HoloSync experience):
>
> 144.6Hz carrier centre frequency, 10Hz beat, 3 minutes
> 144.3Hz carrier centre frequency, 9Hz beat, 3 minutes
> 143.9Hz carrier centre frequency, 8Hz beat, 3 minutes
> 143.4Hz carrier centre frequency, 7Hz beat, 3 minutes
> 142.9Hz carrier centre frequency, 6Hz beat, 3 minutes
> 142.4Hz carrier centre frequency, 5Hz beat, 3 minutes
> 141.7Hz carrier centre frequency, 3.5Hz beat, 6 minutes
> 141.3Hz carrier centre frequency, 2.6Hz beat, 6 minutes
>
> Level 1 "Dive" does a similar kind of thing, but going from around
> 125Hz to 120Hz. As you can see, the carrier doesn't drop very much
> during the session.
>
> (When I say "carrier centre frequency", I mean the frequency half-way
> between the two carriers, so a 144.6Hz centre frequency plus a 10Hz
> beat means 139.6Hz and 149.6Hz on the two channels.)

I do think it can be useful to start higher, around 200Hz as you say,
though.

[This message has been edited by garics (edited January 04, 2005).]

The Awakened Mind was the title of the book by Maxwell Caid and Nona Coxhead written in London about fifty years ago following research by Maxwell into EEG in the second world war. His first commercial machine the MIND MIRROR( one of which I still have ) was plotting brain electrical activity at that time.
Everything written since has been re inventing the wheel.