Monaural beats and binaural beats.

These simple wav. files relate to a discussion of the difference between monaural
beats and binaural beats.

If you own a wave editor which displays these files graphically you will see that the
left and right channels of the file “4hz Binaural Beat.wav” appears as two smooth sine
waves.

If you look at a graphical representation of “4hz Monaural Beat.wav” you will see
that both left and right channels have a modulated amplitude: the tone pulsates on and
off like a note on a keyboard being played four times a second.

Both these files can be created by combining a 200hz tone and a 204hz tone, but in
different ways.

For the monaural beat, a stereo 200hz tone is copied and mix-pasted into a stereo
204hz tone. (NB. Of course a monaural beat does not require stereo, but this is simply
used to contrast the file with the binaural beat).

For the binaural beat, the left channel of the 200hz tone is muted, as is the right
channel of the 204hz tone. Then the 200hz tone is mix-pasted into the 204hz tone.

The point of all this?

As you will see, a monaural beat is a physical pulsation, a rhythmic “on and off”.
A binaural beat is not. When you “hear” a binaural beat pulsating, it is your
brain constructing the pulsation. Neither your left ear or your right ear are
hearing anything but pure sine waves.

(Joseph Kao)