White noise covers your tinnitus while it plays. Notched music does the opposite: it removes the sound at your tinnitus pitch and leaves a quiet gap there, with the aim of a slow change that lasts after the music stops. White noise gives relief you can feel today and needs no setup. Notched music needs an accurate pitch match and months of regular listening, and its evidence is mixed. Many people use both, for different parts of the day.
How white noise (masking) works
White noise is a steady hiss with sound spread evenly across every pitch you can hear. Because it has sound at every frequency, it also has sound at the frequency of your ringing, so it can blend over the tinnitus or cover it entirely. That is called masking. Pink noise, brown noise, fans, rain and running water work the same way, with more of their energy in the lower pitches, which many people find softer.
Masking is the oldest and most widely used kind of sound therapy because it is simple. You don't need to know your tinnitus pitch, it costs little or nothing, and it helps right away, which is why it is so popular for falling asleep. Its limit is that the help usually lasts only as long as the sound is playing.
Many clinicians suggest keeping the noise just below your tinnitus, at the point where the two begin to blend but you can still faintly hear the ringing (often called the mixing point), rather than drowning it out completely. The idea is to help your brain get used to the tinnitus instead of hiding it.
How notched music works
Notched music starts with songs you enjoy and cuts out a narrow band of sound centered on your tinnitus pitch, usually one octave wide. You then listen to those songs regularly, for an hour or two a day, over months.
The theory comes from how the hearing parts of the brain are wired. Nerve cells tuned to neighboring pitches quiet one another, a process called lateral inhibition. When everything around your tinnitus pitch is active and the pitch itself is left empty, the surrounding cells may gradually calm the over-active ones that produce the ringing. So the goal is not to cover the tinnitus. It is to turn it down at the source, and for that change to stay after the music stops.
This only works if the gap sits on the right spot, so an accurate pitch match matters more than anything else. Studies have also found it works mainly for steady, tone-like tinnitus pitched at or below about 8,000 Hz.
Side by side
| White noise (masking) | Notched music | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does to your pitch | Adds sound there, covering or blending with the ringing | Removes sound there, leaving a gap |
| The goal | Relief while it plays; easing the contrast between tinnitus and silence | Gradual reduction in loudness that lasts after listening |
| Needs your tinnitus pitch? | No | Yes, as accurately as possible |
| When it helps | Right away | If at all, after weeks to months of regular listening |
| Best suited to | Any tinnitus, including hissing or buzzing types; sleep | Steady, tone-like tinnitus at or below about 8,000 Hz |
| What you listen to | Noise, fans, rain, nature sounds | Your own favorite songs |
| Strength of evidence | Long clinical use; reliable short-term relief | Promising early studies; larger trials mixed |
What the research says when they're compared
Few studies put the two head to head, and the ones that do are small, so treat this as the current picture rather than a verdict.
- The early notched-music study (2010) compared notched music against music with a notch placed away from the tinnitus pitch. After a year, only the correctly notched group reported quieter tinnitus. Each group had eight people.
- A notched-noise study (2009) tried the same idea with white noise instead of music, notched at each person's pitch. The researchers reported a long-term drop in loudness for notched noise but not for plain white noise or water sounds.
- A 12-month comparison (2021) had 30 adults listen three hours a day to either notched noise or ordinary broadband noise, set at the mixing point. Both groups improved about equally. The authors suggested that people who struggle to pin down their pitch can simply use plain noise.
- Notched music against ordinary music: a 2021 trial of 104 people and a 2024 meta-analysis both found no clear advantage for notched music over listening to the same kind of music unaltered, though the notched groups often trended slightly better.
The honest summary: sound therapy of almost any kind helps many people feel better, and nobody has yet shown that notching beats a good plain sound for most of them. Notching remains a reasonable thing to try if your tinnitus is tonal and in the right range, and if you'd rather spend your listening time with music you love than with static.
Which should you choose?
Reach for white, pink or nature noise when you want relief now: falling asleep, a quiet office, a bad evening. It is also the better fit if your tinnitus is a hiss or buzz with no clear pitch, if it sits above about 8,000 Hz, or if you can't get a pitch match you trust.
Consider notched music when your tinnitus has a clear, steady tone at or below about 8,000 Hz, you can commit to an hour or two of listening most days, and you enjoy music enough to make that easy. It's a patient, daytime practice, not an instant fix.
Use both if that suits you. They don't compete. A common pattern is notched songs during the day and a fan or soft noise at night. Whatever you choose, keep the volume comfortable and turn it down or stop if any sound feels sharp or stirs the ringing up.
Frequently asked questions
Is notched music better than white noise for tinnitus?
Not proven. Small studies have found benefits for notched sound, but a 12-month comparison found notched and ordinary noise helped about equally, and trials of notched music against plain music have not shown a clear advantage. Notched music is worth trying if your tinnitus is tonal and at or below about 8,000 Hz; white noise is simpler and helps right away.
Can I use notched music and white noise together?
Yes. They serve different purposes, so many people use notched songs for daytime listening and a fan or soft noise for sleep. Keep both at a comfortable volume.
What is notched white noise?
White noise with a band removed at your tinnitus pitch. It works on the same principle as notched music. Some people prefer it because it fades into the background; others find music easier to stick with. Notch Music includes notched sleep sounds (pink, white and brown noise, rain and ocean waves) made at your pitch, and it can also notch any noise or nature recording you own.
Should white noise cover my tinnitus completely?
Many clinicians suggest setting it just below your tinnitus, where the two blend but you can still faintly hear the ringing. The goal is to help your brain get used to the tinnitus rather than hide it. Never turn noise up to uncomfortable levels to drown the ringing out.
Does notched music work for every kind of tinnitus?
No. Research suggests it suits steady, tone-like tinnitus at or below about 8,000 Hz. It is not designed for pulsing, clicking or hissing tinnitus without a clear pitch, and studies of very high-pitched tinnitus did not show a benefit.
Sources
- Okamoto H, Stracke H, Stoll W, Pantev C. Listening to tailor-made notched music reduces tinnitus loudness and tinnitus-related auditory cortex activity. PNAS 2010;107(3):1207–10. doi:10.1073/pnas.0911268107
- Teismann H, Okamoto H, Pantev C. Short and intense tailor-made notched music training against tinnitus: the tinnitus frequency matters. PLoS ONE 2011;6(9):e24685. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0024685
- Lugli M, Romani R, Ponzi S, Bacciu S, Parmigiani S. The windowed sound therapy: a new empirical approach for an effective personalized treatment of tinnitus. Int Tinnitus J 2009;15(1):51–61. PubMed 19842347
- Notched and nonnotched stimuli are equally effective at the mixing-point level in sound therapy for tinnitus relief. J Am Acad Audiol 2021. doi:10.1055/s-0041-1728701
- Atipas S, Therdphaothai J, Suvansit K, et al. A randomized, controlled trial of notched music therapy for tinnitus patients. J Int Adv Otol 2021;17(3):221–7. doi:10.5152/iao.2021.9385
- Scarpa A, Carucci F, De Luca P, et al. Am J Otolaryngol 2024;45(6):104467 (meta-analysis of notched music versus listening to music). doi:10.1016/j.amjoto.2024.104467