What is Notch Therapy?


Notch, or window, therapy is a Tinnitus therapy that can reduce the intesity of your Tinnitus by simply listening to special audio tracks on your audio player, car stereo, etc. I've provided links in the "Tinnitus Research" section that you can read if you're curious about what it is.
This site will teach you how to do this for yourself, for free. Watch the video below for a quick introduction and what types of Tinnitus are suitable for the therapy:



Before you start, you'll need to install two things:
1. Audacity
2. The Nyquist band stop filter plugin for Audacity.

To help make it easier for you, here's a video showing you what to do:


Before you start: Know that this site is here for informational purposes only. If you choose to do this, you're assuming all risk and doing it for yourself. I'm not a medical professional, and I'm not an expert in Tinnitus, neuroscience, etc. Instead, I'm providing this information to hopefully help you help yourself. If you want to contact me with questions or hopefully a success story, you can do so at mcauthorn (at) notchtherapy.com. Good luck!

The Important Part: Finding Your Frequency


First off, you'll need a modern browser like Firefox, Chrome, or Safari. Click the "Play" button below, then use the slider to find your frequency. Take your time with this part - it's often a good idea to do a few sessions at different times to confirm your frequency.
Another trick is to use an octave to help you confirm it. For example, if you think your frequency is 8,000. Move the slider down to 4,000 Hz (8,000 / 2). If it's the same pitch, just lower, you've nailed it. Just take your time and try and get it as close as possible.


Play Stop

Use the slider below or your arrow keys. Your frequency will be displayed (in Hz) below.

Make a note of your frequency. You'll need it for your notch filter, no matter what audio processing you use.


Here is a short video on the process.




You're On Your Way! Here's What to Do Now.

Listen to this track every day. Here are some rules of thumb:


NOTE #1: If your frequency is 8,000Hz or less, you can potentially speed up your results by listening to long sessions - 5 or so hours at a time. Sleeping with the notched noise track playing works here too. It's great for masking as well, so you'll probably sleep better too.

This technique can give you results within a few weeks (I experienced this with my Tinnitus).

NOTE #2: If you've got a frequency above 8,000Hz, listen morning, noon, and night for a 1-hour session each. This is somewhat slower, and can take months to take hold so be patient. Here too, sleeping with it next to you at night may help speed things up, so definitely try it.

Recent Research On Tinnitus

There have been some important studies done on Tinnitus, and this section aims to help you learn more about your condition. It's far from comprehensive; instead, consider this to be a curated, living list of interesting developments in the Tinnitus research world.

The List is below.

Note: None of this is light reading, but you owe it to yourself to understand your condition as much as possible. So jump in! Some advice: to get a quick feel for the article read the abstract, introduction and conclusion sections. I hope you find them useful...

  • PDF: Tinnitus Window (i.e. Notch) Therapy This is one of the original studies done on the efficacy of notch therapy for Tinnitus, and is the basis of the approach outlined above.
  • Short and Intense Notch Therapy Sessions are Effective >8,000Hz This research, and personal experience, is why I suggest that you do longer sessions if your frequency is at or below 8,000Hz.
  • PDF: Customized Web Based Tinnitus Therapy. This is a most interesting study, and I'm considering adding this technique to www.notchtherapy.com as another option for you! While it's not clear how long the effects of this technique lasted, they did realize very significant relief - a small number of subjects even had 100% reduction!
  • PDF - An Integrative Model of Auditory Phantom Perception This PDF is an excellent read on Tinnitus, the auditory system, and much more. Highly recommended.
  • PDF - Counteracting Tinnitus This is a must read, especially because of the emphasis on decrease in alpha wave activity in Tinnitus patients. This alpha wave connection has come up in several studies and is fairly well documented. This particular treament decreased Tinnitus and incresed alpha wave activity, which seem to be correlated. This is important, because there are other things you can do - specifically medidation and relaxation techniques - to increase alpha waves in your brain, and potentially helping Tinnitus and the symptoms (anxiety, depression, stress) that go along with it. See the next link for some validation of this.
  • Mindfulness Based Tinnitus Therapy. This is an interesting article on more holistic approaches to Tinnitus treatment, including meditation, stress reduction, etc. really interesting stuff here. One note is that there's now more and more support for suppressed wave types in Tinnitus patients vs. normal. This is encouraging because there are various ways to stimulate specific brain wave activities...