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I was doing a search for tinnitus apps on iTunes and I came across an App called Tinnitus Help. The only review it has is from a guy who had tried Neuromonics and compared the two. He said they were similar and seemed to like this program pretty well.
Here is the basic run down of how it works. Bear in mind that I dont understand audio so I dont understand most of the options.
You start with the left ear and pick a frequency on a slider from 221 Hz to 20,000 Hz. You then pick a volume for the frequency. Then you go to the next screen where there are two more settings named vibrato and tremolo. Each has a sub setting of intensity and frequency. I dont know what they do exactly but they will change a monotone frequency to a warble tone sort of like a police siren. Its all on sliders so the speed is adjustable. After that you configure the same settings of the left ear. Keep in mind that each ear also has its own volume control so one ear could have complete silence if you want.
In the next step you can layer on additional sounds. The sounds can be added to each ear separately and again the volume controls are separate. The sounds include cicada, criket1, criket2, pink noise, red brown noise, white noise.
The next step allows you to add sounds of nature. There are 12 so I wont list them all. They seem to be of very good quality and my current favorite is Dolphins under water. Again choose the volume level for each ear.
Finally there are two music tracks you can add. It seems weird to only have two tracks but they are pretty good. I think they are designed to be ignored if that makes any sense. Oddly there are no separate left and right volumes controls.
The requirements are an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad with IOS 3.0 or later. The cost is $16
My Wife loaned me her iPod touch 2G to test the App. Ive only been playing with it for a few hours so I havent used it long enough for a good review. This is what I can say about it. It worked well to mask my tinnitus in a pleasant way. Its complicated to run and there are no instructions. Its really buggy. Half the time the buttons and sliders dont work unless I move the volume bar first. Its a real pain in the butt to get working but once I did get it working I liked it. Its possible that its my older 2G touch thats giving me problems. A 3G or 4G might work better.
I might try to use this App in a similar way that people use Neuromonics. $16 is a lot less than $5500.
Here is the basic run down of how it works. Bear in mind that I dont understand audio so I dont understand most of the options.
You start with the left ear and pick a frequency on a slider from 221 Hz to 20,000 Hz. You then pick a volume for the frequency. Then you go to the next screen where there are two more settings named vibrato and tremolo. Each has a sub setting of intensity and frequency. I dont know what they do exactly but they will change a monotone frequency to a warble tone sort of like a police siren. Its all on sliders so the speed is adjustable. After that you configure the same settings of the left ear. Keep in mind that each ear also has its own volume control so one ear could have complete silence if you want.
In the next step you can layer on additional sounds. The sounds can be added to each ear separately and again the volume controls are separate. The sounds include cicada, criket1, criket2, pink noise, red brown noise, white noise.
The next step allows you to add sounds of nature. There are 12 so I wont list them all. They seem to be of very good quality and my current favorite is Dolphins under water. Again choose the volume level for each ear.
Finally there are two music tracks you can add. It seems weird to only have two tracks but they are pretty good. I think they are designed to be ignored if that makes any sense. Oddly there are no separate left and right volumes controls.
The requirements are an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad with IOS 3.0 or later. The cost is $16
My Wife loaned me her iPod touch 2G to test the App. Ive only been playing with it for a few hours so I havent used it long enough for a good review. This is what I can say about it. It worked well to mask my tinnitus in a pleasant way. Its complicated to run and there are no instructions. Its really buggy. Half the time the buttons and sliders dont work unless I move the volume bar first. Its a real pain in the butt to get working but once I did get it working I liked it. Its possible that its my older 2G touch thats giving me problems. A 3G or 4G might work better.
I might try to use this App in a similar way that people use Neuromonics. $16 is a lot less than $5500.
It's VERY adjustable, has MANY sounds to choose from (from white noise of all spectrum to streams and crickets to hairdryers) costs $40 and it is super adjustable by ear for volume, frequency, etc. I use it for masking, but I don't know enough about TRT to know how I should change it to habituate to my T. Still, it has really saved my sanity!! You can download a trial version to test it.
Here is a blurb from the site:
"Tinnitus Masker Pro is extremely easy to use and get to grips with, yet versatile enough to effectively mask most types of tinnitus. You can play back the sounds in real time for on the spot masking or alternatively record the output to a Wav or MP3 file, ready to be burned to CD or transferred to portable device. Why spend money purchasing white noise masking CDs or MP3s when you can create your own, exactly to your requirements!"
Oh, and when I play a YouTube video I hear the music, but the masker is still going in the background.
The only problem is that I don't have any idea of how to turn this into a treatment. I thought about going to the audiologist and see if she could help. I believe she charges about $45 a visit.