We offer free sound files aimed at reducing tinnitus: just choose a ‘Frequency’ from the list and click ‘Download’.
What is in the files?
Each file contains a sequence of 3 sets of tones, each set having 4 short tones (played for fractions of a second) slightly above or below your tinnitus frequency;
each set is a random shuffling of these 4 short tones; then there is a silence for a second or two;
then another new 3 sets of 4 tones each are played, where in each set the 4 tones are again shuffled in random order; and so on for the full track.
Filenames with 'bits' after the frequency introduce more randomness:
'AMOD_' means each tone's volume is randomly multiplied by one of [0.8,0.9,1.1,1.2] (amplitudeModulation)
'random_xx' means each tone is randomly made longer or shorter by up to the stated fraction xx of its length eg 'random_0.5' by up to plus or minus 50%
'ERB_' means each tone's frequency is modified a little (equivalentRectangularBandwidth) to reflect how the human auditory system actually processes sound
hlDb-xx means ERBs are based on xx dB hearing loss
olTfreqxx means the tones flanking tinnitus-frequency have ERBs that overlap the tinnitus-frequency ERB by fraction xx (default 0.5)
olyy means the other tones have ERBs that overlap the neighbour tone's ERB by fraction yy (default 0.5)
What is my tinnitus frequency?
To find what your own particular tinnitus frequency is, download a free Tone Generator or Tuner app from your phone App Store, or search for them using your browser; change the generated tone until it closely matches your tinnitus sound. If you have more than one tinnitus sound, pick the loudest (coming soon, we will have files for 2 or more frequencies). If your tinnitus is not a clear tone (hissing has a range of white-noise-like tones spread around some central frequency), try and match what sounds like its central frequency. Determining your tinnitus frequency(s) can be hard; so we will shortly offer help, with our own tone generator plus adding noise if need be.
While we currently think choosing a file AT your tinnitus frequency is a good approach, there is another approach (‘stochastic resonance’) which suggests choosing a file at 75% of your tinnitus frequency – we are still researching this, so in the meantime you may want to try it.
How do I play the files?
Ideally with over-ear headphones (or directly to your hearing aid—if you wear one—via Bluetooth), at a loudness that is just a touch softer than what is barely audible. Earphones or ear-buds are less effective. If your tinnitus is predominantly one-sided, we suggest playing the files only into that ear.
We suggest playing the files (on repeat, as they are only 15 minutes long) at least 4hrs per day in total, and for 4 weeks or so. You can then decide whether they provide benefit. Rearranging the behaviour of auditory brain cells is unfortunately a slow process, so it will take this sort of time for a benefit to emerge. Playing the files so softly as to be barely (or slightly below) audible will hopefully help.
Why might these files help? They provide personalized tonal sound therapy to reduce tinnitus loudness and annoyance
Many tinnitus explanations suggest your brain may have become unable to process sounds of certain frequencies; for example, hearing loss at certain frequencies may fail to generate enough signal from the ears. The brain cells that normally process these frequencies, and/or neighboring cells alert to this lack of signalling, may spontaneously fire themselves, possibly synchronously (for more volume) so as to generate these ‘missing’ frequencies for themselves, which we perceive as tinnitus.
Our files aim to disrupt the spontaneous/synchronized firing of those cells, by playing disruptive tones in/around the perceived tinnitus frequency.
What's more, this disruption has been shown to induce long-lasting tinnitus loudness and annoyance reduction effects based on the concept that tonal tinnitus arises primarily from abnormal firing-together in a specific set of neurons, and that these disruptive tones weaken the synapses of these neurons, in turn weakening their firing-together-ness.
Do your files have any scientific basis? Why can co-ordinated reset therapy help calm the auditory cortex
Also, filenames containing 'ERB' have tones that better reflect how our ears perceive and process different frequencies of sound.
Your inner ear doesn't process sounds with perfect precision across all frequencies. Instead, it acts like it has a series of overlapping filters - think of them as frequency ranges ('bands') that each respond to a range of frequencies rather than single pure tones.
The ERB measures the width of these auditory filters: for a given center frequency, what range of frequencies around it does our ear group together and process as a unit.
Our 4 tones (with overlapping ERBs) are then as follows, for overlaps of 0.5:
tone2 ... middle of ERB2 where ERB2-upperBound = TinnitusFrequency
tone1 ... middle of ERB1 where ERB1-upperBound = tone2
tone3 ... middle of ERB3 where ERB3-lowerBound = TinnitusFrequency
tone4 ... middle of ERB4 where ERB4-lowerBound = tone3
In 2022 I awoke to a sudden and total deafness in one ear (no obvious cause… it can just happen eg. virus, autoimmune attack etc). I recovered a little hearing… and a lot of tinnitus. I have been researching heavily since then, and ‘auditory coordinated reset’ seems very compelling, and has some positive scientific papers. I have been experimenting with building my own sound files, generally following the ACR approach; typically I Bluetooth them from my phone to my hearing aid, for at least 4hrs per day. I find towards the end of the day my tinnitus is nowhere near as loud.
So I thought I would see if other tinnitus sufferers can benefit. I certainly hope so. If you have comments please email support@tinnitustones.com. We hope to add functionality that people ask for, so please let us know how you get on with our files, and any suggestions are most welcome.
Are your files just “masking” sounds?
No. Masking tries to drown out tinnitus frequencies; in contrast, our “tinnitustones” are barely audible, and try and disrupt (turn off) the tinnitus frequencies.