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Tinnitus Clarified

Free tool

Pitch Match & Notched Sound Therapy

Runs entirely in your browser: no audio is recorded and nothing is uploaded. The pitch you settle on is kept on this device so the notched sound can use it again. Not a medical device, and not a substitute for a real audiology evaluation, especially if your tinnitus is new, one-sided, pulsatile, or came on suddenly — see your first audiology appointment for what that evaluation involves.

This tool finds the pitch of your tinnitus by ear, then generates a broadband sound with a narrow gap cut out at that exact frequency — a technique studied as "notched sound therapy." Takes about a minute. Headphones recommended, at a low, comfortable volume.

What is pitch matching?

Tuning an external tone by ear until it matches the pitch of your tinnitus. It's a basic step in a full audiology evaluation, and it's the input notched sound therapy needs: the therapy targets a frequency band around that matched pitch specifically.

How does self-administered matching compare to clinical matching?

A study comparing self-administered, computer-based tone matching to a conventional clinical audiometric procedure found a strong correlation between the two (r = 0.793), with roughly 70% of subjects matching within half an octave of the clinical result. Tone matching does have known variability even within a single clinical session — some methods can vary by more than 2 octaves from one attempt to the next — which is part of why that correlation with a self-administered method is worth knowing rather than assuming.

What notched sound therapy actually is

Broadband sound with a narrow band removed at your tinnitus frequency, played for regular daily sessions. The removed band in published protocols spans roughly half an octave to a full octave — wide enough that an approximate pitch match, like the one this tool produces, falls within the effective range without needing pinpoint precision.

What the evidence actually shows

Notched sound therapy was introduced in a small randomized trial that found reduced tinnitus loudness and reduced tinnitus-related auditory cortex activity after 12 months of daily listening. That trial's target group was small (8 people), which is worth knowing before reading too much into it on its own.

A larger, more recent double-blind randomized controlled trial in 104 patients found no statistically significant difference between personalized notched music and ordinary, non-notched music at 1, 3, and 6 months, measured on standard tinnitus handicap and distress scales. Two separate 2024 systematic reviews and meta-analyses reached the same conclusion: no significant effect on tinnitus handicap, and in the one that pooled 99 people on notched music against 109 on ordinary music, no difference between them at all. Neither review was able to pool the loudness data — that signal comes from individual trials, not from the meta-analyses.

In plain terms: this may make your tinnitus sound quieter to you, but the current evidence doesn't show it reliably reduces how much tinnitus bothers you day to day — those turned out to be two different things worth tracking separately, and at least one well-designed trial found no advantage over just listening to music you enjoy.

How to use this tool

Adjust the tone until it's as close as you can get to your tinnitus pitch, confirm the match, then generate and preview the notched sound. The full evidence picture — the eight-person original trial, the null replication, and the trials comparing notched music against ordinary music — is set out in notched sound therapy. See sound therapy for tinnitus for how this fits alongside white noise, hearing aids, and other sound-based approaches.

FAQ

Is a self-administered pitch match accurate enough to use?

A study comparing self-administered, computer-based tone matching to a conventional clinical audiometric procedure found a strong correlation (r = 0.793), with about 70% of subjects matching within half an octave of the clinical result — and notched therapy doesn't need pinpoint accuracy anyway, since the filter itself covers a band, not a single frequency.

Does notched sound therapy actually work?

The evidence is genuinely mixed. A small original trial found reduced tinnitus loudness after 12 months, but a larger, more recent randomized controlled trial found no significant difference between personalized notched music and regular music at 1, 3, and 6 months on standard tinnitus questionnaires. A 2024 systematic review found a measurable effect on perceived loudness but not on overall tinnitus handicap.

Do I need to match the exact frequency?

No. The notch filter used in this kind of therapy covers a band roughly half an octave to a full octave wide, so an approximate match — which is what a self-administered tool like this one produces — falls within the effective range.