How to Identify the Frequency of Tinnitus If It Is Crickets, Electric, Fuzz?

I want to identify the frequency/frequencies of the noises in my head. I know it is a high pitch, but it is never a pure tone. At its most stable it is like a fuzzy high pitched static. The majority of the time it is electric surges and crickets.

When I try to compare to pure tones I can convince myself that it is anywhere from 6000-12000 Hz. I just can't make a pure tone match up to a more complex sound, not even to approximate it.

Is it possible to identify the frequency of tinnitus under those circumstances? If so how? Any tricks, YouTube channels that you use for that purpose?

Thanks.

 

@AfroSnowman

You can try to use an App to reproduce the noise range. In an iPad, you can download Noise Gen. My T noise changes all the time and rarely is tonal. The frequency is very high as well in the 10KHz range with some broad bandwidth. My left ear has an asymmetry of 20Db compared to the right ear above 8KHz, and that is likely the T reason.

 

So a few months ago a new tone appeared in my ears that sounded completely weird and alien. Kind of like scratchy oscillatory bells. Very much an alien screech kind of noise. I thought there’s no way this is a pure tone.

But a few days ago as I was sweep testing for my frequency distortion I realized that by turning up the frequency of 1500 hz exactly the alien noise that was undulating and completely haphazard disappeared entirely underneath the pure tone. And believe me, it sounds NOTHING like 1500 hz when it’s just inside my ear.

Again, at low levels you’d never have been able to tone match it. Only at this high volume did it envelope it.

And lo and behold 1500 hz just so happens to be a tinnitus tone I acquired about 3 years ago, so what I thought was a brand new tone, was actually more damage to that area, but in a strange new way.

It got me thinking that tone matching has so many other factors due to what is likely synaptic input. Maybe what is static and crickets for some people is really a pure tone that doesn’t have enough input and is being perceived that way, making it difficult to match the frequency.

Like I said, I never would have thought the weird bell like noise could ever be truly tone matched, it sounded completely atonal at the time. But it only works at the 1500 hz pretty much EXACTLY. If I go even 10 hz above or below it returns, so at least for myself I’ve found that you need to get incredibly specific with more complex tinnitus sounds in order to approximate. You don’t have the same leeway as you would with a normal sine wave.

 

There is an app to do what you want - with an option to change the tone and a slider to change the frequency/pitch.
There is also at least one YT video that goes through all ranges (starting with lowest) and shows you in writing what freq it is at, and when you feel your tone matches that's when you say ah hah (well... I did) and pause the video.
I could make some tones for you, but then they are static pitches and may (probably) miss your frequency.

FYI - I have crickets.

 

Crazy but true story. Had Tinnitus for about 10 years. Used to hate wham (George Michael) until one day driving to work my T disappeared. I realized that it had been masked by the introduction on the song club Tropicana.After doing some research I found bizarrely that the Californian cricket maks a noise at 4500hz the frequency of my hearing loss. Hope this helps someone as much as it has helped me. By random chance Im have something that now externalizes the noise. Thanks Wham !

 

I am wanting to revisit notched neuromodulation, as my tinnitus has always been reactive to sound.

I'm having trouble matching my tinnitus frequency (hissing).

Can anyone tell me if I can use the info on my audiogram to work out what my t frequencies are?

Has anyone done this?

I've attached my audiogram.

Thanks.

 

Did you manage to figure this out?

 

Not really. Just playing with TinnitusPlay I was able to figure it is in the 12.5 to 13.5 range, but nothing tight enough to try notch therapy. I suspect this is because I probably have a wide range of noise. Maybe not 1000Hz wide, but too much to just make a notch to cover it.

 

Is it possible to figure it out using audiogram?

 

I’m not sure. In my case no as audiograms don’t go up that high Looking at yours I don’t see a single defined notch so I wouldn’t think it would be of much use in defining your pitch.