Abstract
Tinnitus matching was performed in 24 patients with various types of etiology using a commercially available music synthesizer. Pure tone tinnitus was synthesized either by sine or pulse wave. In some cases, tinnitus was matched by band noise, but its band width varied considerably among individuals. In 17 out of 24 cases, tinnitus disappeared or decreased after masking by the synthesizer. Masking was the most effective when the tinnitus was high-pitched pure tone, and had small loudness and low masking level. In contrast, tinnitus of pulsating nature showed no effect of synthesizer masking.
