Faking tinnitus

[idris]

I need to fake a tinnitus sound for a feature.
AFAIK it's often a sort of whistling sound, but I'm wondering whether something like a 10kHz sine wave will be the right sort of thing, or whether it needs to be something more complex? (I dare say every tinnitus sufferer hears something different, but ...)

[Dism]

Originally Posted by idris

I need to fake a tinnitus sound for a feature.
AFAIK it's often a sort of whistling sound, but I'm wondering whether something like a 10kHz sine wave will be the right sort of thing, or whether it needs to be something more complex? (I dare say every tinnitus sufferer hears something different, but ...)

Apparently it can be perceived as a number of different sounds including clicking, buzzing, pulsing, etc... but is commonly a whistling or consistent tone.

Personally (I get it on occasion from wax build up), it's a consistent sine wave sounding tone somewhere around the 4-5k area.

[pindebraende]

Mine is a high pitched A That, combined with sort of a pressure, like when you have a cold.

[mgoorevich]

In the beginning of film "Children of men" there are some good examples.

[Jay_uk]

I had it for a while a few years ago.
It manifested as the sound of a large vehicle/truck at a distance with its engine idling. Say you were about to drop off to sleep and you could hear this outside halfway down the road. I always thought that they were resurfacing the road at night,

[Henchman]

Check out "it's all gone Pete tong" there's a scene in it that's a good reference.

[kptkarl]

I last heard it in Hunger Games. It's in Saving Private Ryan, Children of Men, Lost, The Raid and some others I can't think of right now. Over done!

[Ryan Young]

Mine sounds and feels like my eardrum is a busted speaker. Vibration and kind of a distortion sound. Like I'm listening to a busted speaker through a kazoo with a phone on vibrate behind my ear.

I notice that mine acts up when:
• I'm laying down and I have a lot of pressure and/or blood flow to my head
• I'm talking to someone who has a really loud/powerful voice on the phone
• When roughhousing (maybe associated with the pressure)
• Overly loud situations (110+ dB). Concerts, nearby drums, nearby guitar amps, yelling
• All of the above or any of the above combined has an additive effect

[chrisdee]

My tinnitus sounds like a aggressive constant high frequency beep.
I notice it more when its quiet around me and when Im more aware of it.
At times its a horrible thing.

I hope there will be an proper cure someday, but im not holding my breath.

[tamasdragon]

High pitched sine wave combined with little "air".
The above film examples are good starting points. The start of phenomenon with sudden silence, fast fade in high pitched tone, add some little reverb as time goes, and play a bit with its volume as well.