Tinnitus pitch matching · CR tones · in your browser

Find your tinnitus frequency. Then play tones tuned to it.

Step 1: a tone sweeps up and back down through every pitch from 250 Hz to 12 kHz, over and over, so it crosses your ringing on every pass. You tap when it matches, then fine-tune to within 1%. Step 2: play CR tones and notched noise built around that exact frequency, sound patterns modeled on methods from published tinnitus research. See how it works and what the research found →

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4,000Hz

B7 −14¢

SWEEP · REPEAT

250 Hz → 12 kHz, then again

250–12kHz swept up and down

1%fine-tune steps

4CR tones around your pitch

7 daysfree trial of everything

Freeto start, cancel anytime

How it works

Every sound here is built around your exact pitch.

Most tinnitus is heard as one steady pitch, often high, somewhere between about 2 and 12 kHz. The research methods described below all start from that pitch. So first you find it, then the tones are calculated from it.

01 · THE SWEEP

A tone that crosses every tinnitus frequency

It's hard to name the pitch of a ringing sound by ear. The sweep solves that: one tone glides slowly from 250 Hz up to 12 kHz and back down, pass after pass, so it passes through every frequency your tinnitus could be on. On each pass there's a moment where the tone lines up with your ringing, and you tap Mark.

Going both up and down matters. People tend to overshoot in the direction the tone is moving, so marks from rising and falling passes land on both sides of your true pitch. After a few passes they cluster, and the middle of that cluster is your tinnitus frequency.

Free, 10 minutes a day. More in the guide: How to find your tinnitus frequency.

02 · THE MATCH

Why the exact frequency matters

A leading explanation of tinnitus: when the ear sends less sound to the brain in one frequency region, usually because of some hearing loss, the brain turns up its own activity there. Nerve cells tuned to that pitch start firing too much and in step with each other, and you hear it as ringing.

That's why the pitch has to be right. In one study, sounds that covered the tinnitus frequency region were the ones that quieted tinnitus for a short time after they stopped. CR tones and notched noise are both calculated from your matched frequency, so a match that's an octave off puts those sounds in the wrong place. The matcher lets you nudge 1% at a time and check an octave up and down.

Roberts and colleagues, 2008, J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. Read the study

03 · CR TONES

Four tones in the coordinated reset pattern

Acoustic coordinated reset (CR) neuromodulation is a sound pattern developed by neuroscientist Peter Tass and colleagues. It uses four short tones, two just below your tinnitus frequency and two just above, in a new random order every cycle. The idea is that each tone reaches a different group of those over-synchronized nerve cells at a different moment.

The researchers proposed that this could knock the cells out of step over weeks of regular listening. In their 2012 study, tinnitus loudness and symptoms went down in the CR groups but not in the placebo group. A larger trial in 2022 didn't find an average benefit. Tinnitus Sounds plays the same four-tone pattern, but the app itself hasn't been tested in a study.

Tass and colleagues, 2012, Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience. Read the study · CR explained

What the research says

Study	What was tested	What they found
Roberts et al., 2008 J Assoc Res Otolaryngol	Sounds at different frequencies, 32 people with chronic tinnitus	Sounds covering the tinnitus frequency region suppressed tinnitus best, for a short time after the sound stopped (called residual inhibition). Study
Okamoto et al., 2010 PNAS	Music with a notch cut out at each person's tinnitus frequency, 12 months, 8 people vs 8 with placebo music	Tinnitus got quieter in the notched-music group, and brain scans showed less activity at the tinnitus frequency. A very small study. Study
Tass et al., 2012 Restor Neurol Neurosci	CR neuromodulation tones vs placebo, 63 people	Tinnitus loudness and symptoms dropped with CR but not with placebo. About 75% met the study's threshold for improvement. Single-blind. Study
Stein et al., 2016 BMC Neurology	Notched music vs placebo music, 100 people, 3 months, double-blind	No difference on the main measures. Tinnitus loudness was lower in the notched group at a later follow-up. Study
Hall et al., 2022 Brain Sciences	A CR device vs placebo, double-blind	No benefit over placebo on average. Study

The honest bottom line: early studies of frequency-matched sounds were encouraging, and larger trials have been mixed. These methods are low-risk at a sensible volume, but none is a proven treatment. Tinnitus Sounds itself has not been clinically tested and is not FDA-cleared or a medical device. It's a self-help tool for exploring the sound you hear and listening to sounds you find comfortable. It doesn't diagnose, treat or cure tinnitus. Talk to your doctor or audiologist about your tinnitus.

The tools

From "what is that sound?" to a nightly routine.

The tools work in order. Each step uses what you found in the one before.

01 · Find

Sweep

A tone glides slowly from low to high and repeats as long as you like. Tap Mark when it sounds like your ringing. After a few passes, your marks cluster around your pitch.

Free, 10 minutes a day

02 · Match

Match

Nudge 1% at a time, check an octave up and down, and pick the ear. Use a pure tone, narrow-band noise or hiss, whichever sounds closest.

Free, 10 minutes a day · noise types and saving in full

03 · Play

CR tones

Four short tones, two just below your pitch and two just above, in a new random order each cycle. This follows the acoustic coordinated reset method from published research.

Full version

04 · Listen

Sounds

Notched noisePinkBrownRainOceanStreamWind

Notched noise cuts a one-octave gap around your exact pitch. Layer it with nature sounds, set each level, and let the timer turn everything off after you fall asleep.

Full version

Pricing

Try everything free for 7 days.

Try it free. Subscribe if it helps.

The basic tools are always free. The full version is a simple subscription that starts with a 7-day free trial, and you can cancel it anytime.

Free

Repeating frequency sweep with marks
Pitch matcher with pure tone
Octave check, left, right or both ears
10 minutes of sound a day
Auto-stop up to 15 minutes
CR tones
Background sounds (pink, brown, notched, nature)
Saved match history

Open the free tools

Full version

$9.99/month $59.99/year

That's about $5.00 a month, billed once a year.

7 days free. You won't be charged until your trial ends.

Everything in Free
Unlimited listening, no daily limit
CR tones built around your pitch
Notched noise tuned to your pitch
Pink and brown noise, rain, ocean, stream and wind
Mix sounds together, each with its own level
Narrow-band noise and hiss for matching
Saved match history to share with your audiologist
Auto-stop up to 4 hours
Every future sound and tool we add

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Guides

Understand what you're hearing.

Plain-language guides with honest research summaries, including where the evidence is mixed.

Start here

How to find your tinnitus frequency at home

The slow sweep, the 1% matcher and the octave check.

Sleep

White vs pink vs brown noise

Which sound to try, how loud, and for how long.

Research

Notched noise for tinnitus

The idea, the setup and what three studies found.

Research

CR neuromodulation, explained

The four tones, the timing and the trial results.

Questions

Good to know.

Is this a treatment for tinnitus?

No. Tinnitus Sounds is a self-help tool for exploring and describing the sound you hear, and for playing sounds you find comfortable. It doesn't diagnose, treat or cure any condition. If your tinnitus is new, sudden, in one ear only, pulses with your heartbeat, or comes with hearing loss or dizziness, see a doctor or audiologist.

Do I need headphones?

Headphones give the most accurate match, and they're required for picking the left or right ear. Laptop and phone speakers often can't play below about 200 Hz or above about 14 kHz.

How loud should it be?

Quiet. Start low and raise it slowly. For matching, CR tones and notched noise, set it to about the loudness of your tinnitus and no louder. Stop if any sound is uncomfortable or makes your ringing worse.

What are CR tones and notched noise?

CR (acoustic coordinated reset) plays four tones spaced around your pitch, at 0.766, 0.9, 1.1 and 1.4 times its frequency, in shuffled order, based on research by Tass and colleagues (2012). Notched noise is pink noise with a one-octave band removed around your pitch, an idea that comes from research on "notched" sound by Okamoto and colleagues (2010). Both are experimental, and study results have been mixed.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes. It runs in any up-to-date browser on iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Chromebook. Nothing to download or install.

Is my information private?

Your matches, marks and settings are stored only in your own browser. We don't receive them. Payments are handled by Stripe, and we never see your card number.

How does the subscription work?

Start with 7 days free. You enter a card at signup, but you aren't charged until the trial ends, and if you cancel before then you pay nothing. The full version is $9.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and includes new sounds and tools as we add them. It renews automatically until you cancel. If it isn't for you, email us within 30 days of your first payment for a full refund.

How do I cancel?

Use Manage subscription at the bottom of any page, sign in with your email, and click Cancel. You keep the full version until the end of the period you've paid for, and you won't be charged again.

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Go to Restore on this device and enter the email you subscribed with and the last four digits of your card.

Takes about ten minutes

Put on headphones. Find your tone tonight.

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