Synchronaut

Synchronaut is a brain wave entrainment program that can synthesize sounds. It creates both binaural beats and isochronic pulses.

I wrote Synchronaut to be the entrainment program that I personally wanted to have. I believe it is the best on the store.

Here's why:

1. It's a real time synthesizer, not a glorified MP3 player. You can move sliders around and change the characteristic frequencies of the tones in real time, based on how you are specifically feeling in a given entrainment session. If your session is going well, you can lower the tones a bit. If you are having difficulty, you can raise them a bit.

2. Binaural and isochronic in one app. Flip between binaural and isochronic tone at the press of a button, without stopping playback. No other app does both: isochronic works better for most people, but binaural is more effective down in the delta range, from .25-4hz.

3. Presets. Bookmark your favorite frequencies and access them easily in the future.

4. Programming. Even better than presets is programming. Synchronaut lets you connect lists of waypoints together to build your own custom entrainment programs. These programs allow you to vary the carrier frequency, the entrainment frequency, the type of sound, and the volume. You can chose the way that you transition from one waypoint to the next: either by stepping down in fixed time intervals, or by smoothly ramping down.

For example, one of the built in presets, called "Meditation", starts with isochronic tones pulsing at 14.5hz. It steps down every five minutes until it reaches 6hz, and then it switches to binaural beats, which work better in that range. The binaural beats then keep stepping down to 2.5hz, and then hold steady there for 30 minutes. This kind of sophisticated programming is not available from any other iPhone app, and is hardly available anywhere, outside of specialized machines that cost $250-500.

5. Low frequencies. Entrainment frequencies as low as .25hz can be useful for entrainment, particularly for helping you to sleep, but other apps inexplicably only go down to 4hz. The app can also emit very low carrier frequencies, which is also useful, but you'll need expensive headphones with good bass drivers in order to hear anything much in the lower regions.

5. Oscilloscope. See the waveforms that are being generated in real time.

6. Native iOS lockscreen controls. You can play, pause, and skip around from the lockscreen just like you would play a song in iTunes. This also means that it works with third party devices that you can plug an iPod into.


Caveats:

In the entrainment community, different groups of people use entrainment to accomplish different ends. I personally use brainwave entrainment as an aide to meditation: it helps me concentrate my mind and attain a state of focus called samadhi. Entrainment is also legitimately useful for falling asleep when played at delta frequencies less than about 4hz. Many people report benefits to their wellbeing just from listening to the tones without doing any active meditation. The U.S. government doesn't acknowledge any health benefits from entrainment; however, I suggest that you try it for yourself if you're curious.

The free version is ad supported and does not allow modification of the built in presets. The premium version (purchased via iAP) allows you to save your own entrainment programs and supports further development. Even the free version is better than any competing product, so give it a try and let me know what you think.

Binaural beats only work with headphones! If you listen to binaural beats over speakers, the sound waves combine in the air on the way to your ears, and become monaural beats, which are ineffective. Isochronic also works better with headphones, but is still effective over speakers.