# How do I play a tone to only one ear?

**URL:** <https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-play-a-tone-to-only-one-ear/4981>\
**Category:** Programming Help\
**Created:** [May 4, 2023, 9:32am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-play-a-tone-to-only-one-ear/4981 "2023-05-04T09:32:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Nathan5653](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@Nathan5653](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Nathan5653)\
**Post date:** [May 4, 2023, 9:32am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-play-a-tone-to-only-one-ear/4981/1 "2023-05-04T09:32:34Z")

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Hi everyone,

I am currently programming an experiment where a participant is cued towards one side via a brief tone that is presented either to the left or right ear. How can I go about doing that?

Kind regards,  
Nathan

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**Author:** ![Ian-Max-Andolina](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/psychtoolbox.discourse.group/ian-max-andolina/32/4_2.png) [@Ian-Max-Andolina](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/u/Ian-Max-Andolina)\
**Post date:** [May 5, 2023, 1:29am UTC](https://psychtoolbox.discourse.group/t/how-do-i-play-a-tone-to-only-one-ear/4981/2 "2023-05-05T01:29:45Z")

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`PsychPortAudio` is the main command for flexible audio presentation. There are probably several ways to switch channel, but perhaps the easiest is to just use channel volume to “mute” one channel, read through `PsychPortAudio Volume?` for the details and look through the many `PsychPortAudio` demos. There is a mixing interface if you need more advanced channel switching…