Notched Music Therapy (DIY, AudioNotch, etc.)

[rogi]

Used this app for 3 days but didn't gave me the feeling i was getting results. (There are no reviews of this app too) Now i'm using AudioNotch (http://www.audionotch.com/) for like 4 days, which is basically kind of the same product, and i already feel a reduction of the T. (When waking up it sounds less hard).
AudioNotch is more expensive though.

Btw, it's quite difficult to match the frequency of your T. (which is necessary with both methods)

 

[JS10]

rogi,

Thanks so much for the response. Just wondering, with either app, how long did you listen to it per day? Also, at what volume? Especially if it has to be significantly loud, I think I might find it hard to listen for hours per day, if that's what it takes.

Also, any kind of earphone in particular required for this type of thing? Again, I've never tried anything like it before (I don't think I've ever listened to any kind of music before for anything other than entertainment), so that's not something I would know.

PS. Yes, I know part of the challenge is finding the right pitch, and I AM, in fact, concerned about that, especially since my tinnitus is kind of "layered," with noise on top of other noise.

 

[rogi]

You're welcome, i'm just trying like you to find a sollution. Most of the times now i listen for 1,5 hour per day, some days i tried 3 hours. I listen to a low volume since i don't want to risk it becoming louder. They also don't recommend a loud volume. But i guess you just need to trial & error and notice yourself. I use headphones which cover my ears and listend to the white noise therapy. Since scientific evidence showed white noise therapy gave the best results. I'm not finding it hard at all to listen to it while doing other stuff.

Just try multiple times to find the right pitch. I had the feeling that i could say after a few minutes of listening if i had chosen the right pitch. But now after a week i use a new pitch since it didn't gave results anymore. They also have a kind of plan in which they say that you need to recheck the pitch every day in the first week and every week after 2-4 weeks.

If you try to use it, would like to know your experience/results with it too.

 

[JS10]

rogi,

Okay, thanks again. Yes, if I do end up trying it, I'll certainly post again here and let everyone know the results. Right now, I'm still in "interested but not without reservations" mode. By the way, I'm a Blackberry user, so I actually don't use any of the Apple products. Therefore, I would have to invest in the iPod itself, not just the app. So, there is some cost involved here, and for something that still sounds somewhat speculative (which I suppose all Tinnitus treatments are, unfortunately).

 

[Peter Phua]

Hi Peter,
Does this treatment work if the pitch of the tone fluctuates or changes?
Thanks

Hi Tweak,

Thank you for your reply. The treatment does work if there is a fluctuation - that's why we ask users to periodically "retune" their tinnitus frequency in the event that it does.

 

[Peter Phua]

rogi,

Okay, thanks again. Yes, if I do end up trying it, I'll certainly post again here and let everyone know the results. Right now, I'm still in "interested but not without reservations" mode. By the way, I'm a Blackberry user, so I actually don't use any of the Apple products. Therefore, I would have to invest in the iPod itself, not just the app. So, there is some cost involved here, and for something that still sounds somewhat speculative (which I suppose all Tinnitus treatments are, unfortunately).

Hi there,

We've deliberately avoiding placing DRM restriction on our sound therapy files. If a blackberry can accept a transfer of mp3 files from a pc (I believe it can, almost assuredly) then there's no need to buy an iOS device.

 

[Peter Phua]

Peter, your offering would benefit greatly from tools and techniques that help identify tone pitch, particularly if it's narrow-band white noise. If the band fits within 1 or 2 ERBs, I'd still be willing to try it. As it is, without being able to identify where notching should occur, your product is unavailable to me.

I understand your frustration. Our development team is presently tied up taking care of other features. It's something that is likely several months away at this point, unfortunately. However, we do plan to implement it.

 

[Peter Phua]

I tried Audionotch and the site is well designed, user friendly with step by step instructions. My problem is that I had a hard time pinpointing the frequency of my fluctuating T and it seems to be over 12K so this does not really benefit me.

Hi Erik,

I understand your frustration. Pinpointing the frequency is no easy task and requires some degree of effort and patience. Please note that white noise was shown to have a volume reduction up to a frequency of 13K. If you register on our site, then e-mail me, I'll offer you a free trial.

(Peter@AudioNotch.com)

 

[Peter Phua]

rogi,

Okay, thanks again. Yes, if I do end up trying it, I'll certainly post again here and let everyone know the results. Right now, I'm still in "interested but not without reservations" mode. By the way, I'm a Blackberry user, so I actually don't use any of the Apple products. Therefore, I would have to invest in the iPod itself, not just the app. So, there is some cost involved here, and for something that still sounds somewhat speculative (which I suppose all Tinnitus treatments are, unfortunately).

Hi JS10, I think I may have already replied to another one of your posts, but if you're referencing the AudioNotch app, we've deliberately avoided restricting the files to iOS devices. Any device that can play mp3's will work.

 

[Peter Phua]

Used this app for 3 days but didn't gave me the feeling i was getting results. (There are no reviews of this app too) Now i'm using AudioNotch (http://www.audionotch.com/) for like 4 days, which is basically kind of the same product, and i already feel a reduction of the T. (When waking up it sounds less hard).
AudioNotch is more expensive though.

Btw, it's quite difficult to match the frequency of your T. (which is necessary with both methods)

Rogi, I'm glad to hear that the preliminary experience you've had has shown a reduction in your tinnitus volume. We'll be sending out a user feedback survey in the near future to see how our subscribers are doing.

Peter.

 

[dan01]

I am trying notched white noise. I try to listen at least 2 hours a day. Matching my tinnitus tone is a bit hard as it is so subjective. I check it once a week. At first the tinnitus seemed to improve after just a couple of weeks. Then I went to a club with reasonably loud music and the T came back. Since then there has been no re improvement, but the tone I hear has changed a little. I will continue with it. I find the white noise quite theraputic and an aid to concentration. I only listen at low volumes. If anyone has any advice please let me know.I used audacity to make the white noise and notch filtered it with the EQ feature of Audacity.

 

[erik]

Dan, I think you are on the right track with what you are doing. Hopefully you will see improvement in another couple of weeks. Don't forget to protect your ears next time you go to a club.

 

[rogi]

@dan i have exactly the same experience. At first my T seemed reduced (i have posted in this thread before), but after i went to a festival (even with earprotection) my T came back. After that i tried notched audio again but it didn't seem to reduce the T anymore. So i'm wondering if it actually did reduce my T in the first place or it was just the so called "placebo" effect.

 

[Goofy]

Hi Markku,
Another website you might want to check out is called AudioNotch, it offers plenty and info and provides a way of creating a noise matched to your T frequency. Although these are not free treatments I'm afraid, however considerably cheaper than ANM.

Mark, thanks for the post. I went to the AudioNotch website and tried the "find your tinnitus tone". I was able to match my left ear to around 8000hz. I have never been tested before. I wonder if this would be worth trying? It sounds a lot like the Neuromonics system.

 

[Markku]

Mark, thanks for the post. I went to the AudioNotch website and tried the "find your tinnitus tone". I was able to match my left ear to around 8000hz. I have never been tested before. I wonder if this would be worth trying? It sounds a lot like the Neuromonics system.

I moved your post Goofy from the Acoustic CR thread to this thread dedicated to NMT.

Read this thread through and you'll get the gist of it.

Basically, AudioNotch is a simple interface for creating notched music/white noise files.
It all can be done manually, too, for free, if one so wants.

I do think AudioNotch is priced quite high for what it does, but then again... it's far from the hundreds of snake oils there are out there for tinnitus. And certainly if one wants an easy way to create notched files, AudioNotch is worth a consideration. You do get to download the notched files to your computer, so continuing the subscription isn't required after you've got a nice collection of notched files - that is, if your tinnitus tone stays about the same.

It wouldn't hurt though to check out if you are technically capable of creating the notched files yourself (it isn't that hard) - doing that would save you a pretty penny.

As said, the previous posts in this thread are worth a read.

Let me know if you try NMT (self-made or a service like AudioNotch) and how you find it...

 

[Mark]

Mark, thanks for the post. I went to the AudioNotch website and tried the "find your tinnitus tone". I was able to match my left ear to around 8000hz. I have never been tested before. I wonder if this would be worth trying? It sounds a lot like the Neuromonics system.

Yeah I found it pretty good at masking my T. Id give it a shot if you find your T annoying you during the day. As Markuu said, it can be done manually as well, actually if you read the AudioNotch blog they actually have a section describing how to notch sounds manually without their service.

 

[Aisling]

Would this work if your tinnitus is a low hum at 500hz??

 

[Markku]

Would this work if your tinnitus is a low hum at 500hz??

I don't know.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/12/15/0911268107.full.pdf+html

"Irrespective of filtering protocol, the frequency bands below 707 Hz and above 15,321 Hz were not filtered."

"Frequency 5,949 ± 1,886 Hz; range 2,375-8,000 Hz"

Technically notching 500 Hz is possible. You might want to give this treatment a try; what can you lose?

 

[jamesg]

Hi there. I am new to this Forum. Had minor low level tinnitus for years but then around 6 weeks ago it suddenly got much louder! - now it comes and goes sometimes pretty annoying mostly not too bad. Been looking around for 'cures' (ha) - found this one:

www.audionotch.com/how-it-works

Not a cure but sounds interesting - anybody have any experience with it? They want $75 for two months worth of adjusting the pitch of their MP3 files they send you - which apparently you get with your specific frequency cut out which is supposed to bla bla bla - everybody has a theory - I dont care so long as it has some effect!

So - anybody know about these guys - think its worth a shot?

And then...... they seem similar to this lot:

www.notchtherapy.com

But that lot charge you $25 for each change of frequency - so that could get expensive real quick if your frequency changes a lot. Mine seems to be at 8820Khz - so maybe that would be a better deal if it doesn't change.

Again - any thoughts anybody?

Cheers,

James.

 

[Markku]

Hi there.

I merged your post with this thread.

NotchTherapy.com I would avoid, they didn't even bother to spell tinnitus right. It states next to their logo "Tinnintus control starts now"

NotchTherapy doesn't seem to offer custom mp3 notching; it's only white or brown noise.

AudioNotch is better, but more expensive.

If you'd like a notched white noise/brown noise file, I'm sure somebody here could help you. @Steve might be busy, but it's worth it asking him about it.


Hopefully this thread will give you a better understanding of NMT and whether it's something you'd like to try.

 

[jamesg]

I managed to follow the instructions to make a 'notched' MP3 of some white noise - so thanks for whoever posted that - and I must say I have noticed that it does impact the volume of my tinnitus even if I play the noise for a short period of time.

 

[jamesg]

The other thing I noticed was that its actually pretty soothing just listening to the notched white noise MP3.

 

[Steve]

Attached is a 10 second file (import and loop in your music player) of white noise notched at around 9Khz. It's actually really easy to do and free using a piece of software called 'Audacity'. Just Google it and download.

To notch any audio file very simply, follow the below:

Either create white / pink / brown noise - Click on the generate menu, select noise. In the drop down menu select white, pink or brown (probably best to use white as it is equal across the frequency spectrum). Keep the settings as they are and you'll get a 30 second file, WARNING, it will be at full volume so

Or import any audio file - Click on the file menu, select open, find the audio file on your computer.

To use the filter on the file - Click on the effect menu, select equalization. On the window that pops up, make sure that 'draw curves' and 'linear frequency scale' are selected. You'll see now that each block of the graph represents 1000Hz. Each time you click your mouse on the graph it will create a dot, you want to end up with 4 dots to create your notch filter as per the attached picture. It isn't precise but you should be able to notch your frequency fairly closely. If you mess up just click on 'flatten' and it will reset.

To save the filter - Click 'save / manage curves', in the window that pops up 'unnamed' should be selected, click on 'rename' and call it 'x Hertz notch filter' (where x is the frequency you centered it on). Ok that and it should be there to select whenever you need it.

To check it has worked - Click on the analyze menu, select plot spectrum. You should see a nice 'notch' taken out of the graph on the frequency you selected.

They mention taking out 1 octave, not sure myself on the studies to know just how much should be removed, I guess you have to understand the width of your own tinnitus to decide. The frequency of an octave though depends on where you are on the Hertz scale. For a chart showing the hertz frequency and musical notes, look at http://www.phy.mtu.edu/~suits/notefreqs.html

 

[James White]

Dr Lugli, the author behind Windowed Sound Therapy recently contacted audionotch to tell them Notched Nature sounds seems even more efficient than Notched White or Music.

Dear Peter Adrian & Alex,
Let me introduce first .. I'm Marco (Lugli), first author of the paper of the Windowed Sound Therapy. I must congratulate you for your website 'AudioNotch' for the treatment of tinnitus (something that we would have liked to do long time ago). I noticed that you have recently given patients the opportunity to listen to notched natural sounds. We have firm experimental evidence (not yet published) showing that some notched natural sounds may be as much as , or more, effective that just notched white noise in the treatment of tinnitus.
Therefore, we long ago stopped using simple notched white noise and replaced it with notched rain noise. Rain noise has a broad frequency spectrum resembling white noise but it is more pleasant to patients because it is frequency and amplitude modulated. Also the noise of tree leaves shacked by a gentle breeze is a nice noise whose spectrum resembles the white noise flat spectrum. Therefore, our suggestion concerning the use of white noise as baseline noise for the treatment of tinnitus is to abandon it and use rain noise, or other natural noise with a white-noise like spectrum, instead.
To conclude, we hope that these few suggestions may be helpful to you and may improve your therapy.
We are about to commercialize WST in Italy and hope that we may exchange ideas and findings in the future to make the WST more and more effective care.
Sincerely,
Ciao
Marco Lugli​

http://www.audionotch.com/blog/anno...hite-noise-paper-are-working-with-audionotch/

 

[James White]

Hi everyone,

I've been trying some new stuff regarding notched music. I thought it was really boring to notch every music files manually, saving them, etc. As I've been working with music for more than 10 years now and I'm also a computer scientist, I found a very simple way to notch every single sound on my computer.

Unfortunately, this is only for Mac OSX (I've done it with Mountain Lion) for the moment. I'll try to find something for you windows folks (or even linux.. )


What you'll need :

• Soundflower : https://code.google.com/p/soundflower/
• Garageband : included in all Macs normally (it's included in the iLife bundle)

In this tutorial, we'll capture all sounds from the computer, input them into soundflower, grab them with garageband, notch them and output them to your speakers.
Soundflower is a virtual audio unit. It enables you to pass into it, process it and then pass it out to another program.

Once installed, it needs some configuring.

• Open up System Preferences

• Then select Sound

• In the Output tab, select "Soundflower 2CH"

• Now, launch Garageband and create a new "Piano" project (you can delete the piano track)
• Create a new track

• Select the options as follow

• Next, on the right panel, go to the Edit tab and click on a blank "plugin slot". If you don't see the right panel, it's the blue "i" button that is at the bottom left of the interface.

• In the plugin list, choose "AUParametricEQ".

• Then you need to open the plugin configuration windows, click as shown in the screenshot below

• You'll see the default plugin window

• Here is the notch i used for myself. Note that YOU CAN SHORTEN THE NOTCH WIDTH WHEN PULLING ON THE EQ SETTING BORDERS.

Enjoy !

 

[Esko]

That is brilliant James! I just have to figure out my frequency and I will do that. Well made guide too.

 

[Markku]

I agree with Esko, this is a great guide.

If I understood correctly, this will notch the music I listen to on Spotify, too?

Simply brilliant. Thanks James!

 

[James White]

Yes Markku, this will notch every single sound in real time. I use spotify too as you can see on the screenshot

And it only uses like 2% CPU

 

[spleen]

Very helpful James. I have done exactly the same for Windows some time ago but I don't use free software at all

 

[Markku]

Very helpful James. I have done exactly the same for Windows some time ago but I don't use free software at all

Would you mind sharing what software you use on Windows to achieve this? And is it approximately how difficult to get done (if one buys the software)?