Way to cancel vuvezela drone sound?
June 14, 2010 2:23 PM

Does anyone here at metafilter have the influence to encourage the sound engineers of the World Cup broadcasts to use a notch filter or phase cancellation on the vuvuzela horn drone?

I'm curious if anyone knows whether or not specific people at the broadcast level have considered using phase cancellation or a specific frequency filter to tune out the drone sound during the FIFA world cup.

I've waited 4 years for this thing and can't believe it's being drowned out by WUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!

Thanks!
posted by fantasticninety to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (16 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
They are thinking of banning the horns.
posted by lee at 2:27 PM on June 14, 2010


There have been posts around the internet showing how to EQ them out on various TVs. But if you've been waiting 4 years for this then just buy a used 1970s graphic EQ and hook it up to your system.
posted by Jairus at 2:28 PM on June 14, 2010


A vuvuzela is tuned - to use the term loosely - at the B flat below middle C, and has a similar frequency to speech tones, says Trevor Cox, president of the Institute of Acoustics. This makes it particularly tricky for broadcasters to tune out, as to do so would dampen the commentators' voices - and not in a good way.

"I'm looking at its wave patterns and there are at least six very strong harmonics in there. It would sound really horrible to notch these out - if one coincides with the vowel sound e, you won't be able to hear the -es in the commentary. It would sound unnatural."
article
posted by desjardins at 2:29 PM on June 14, 2010


lee, they have decided not to ban them.
posted by desjardins at 2:30 PM on June 14, 2010


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup-2010/7826198/World-Cup-2010-how-to-silence-the-vuvuzelas-on-your-TV.html

Turn down the 300 Hz channel in your TV's equaliser (if it has one). Unfortunately this is right in the middle of the human speech range.
posted by atrazine at 2:31 PM on June 14, 2010


I've heard from a semi-reliable source that if your TV has an equaliser, and you take the 300hz all the way down things are more tolerable.
posted by tigrefacile at 2:31 PM on June 14, 2010


Why can't the broadcasters have their voices recorded in a separate feed and mix the two together (commentating and crowd noise)? Maybe they would have to commentate to a television screen instead of live on the sidelines but it would avoid this problem.
posted by fantasticninety at 2:31 PM on June 14, 2010


I actually thought I saw a link somewhere that said a German station was considering doing exactly that, but I can't find it again. There's lots of stuff on the tubes talking about this, just Google 'vuvuzela filter'). If you have access to EQ settings on your TV or computer you can apparently drop the 300Hz slider and that will help.
posted by PercussivePaul at 2:33 PM on June 14, 2010


fantasticninety, see desjardins 1st link - they're working on that.
posted by atrazine at 2:33 PM on June 14, 2010


Some networks (like TF1) are trying to alter the sound mix, and I don't think a ban will happen. FIFA has "strongly backed the use of vuvuzelas since they were introduced to the wider football world at the Confederations Cup test event in South Africa exactly a year ago." source
posted by kyleg at 2:34 PM on June 14, 2010


FWIW tonight's Italy vs Paraguay (broadcast on the BBC here in the UK) match didn't seem to have the drone as bad as it was the last few nights.

I am not too sure whether it was because of the sound engineering, or whether they just didn't have as many vuvuzelas.

But it is big news here, and I wouldn't be surprised if something more is done about it.
posted by TheOtherGuy at 2:35 PM on June 14, 2010


I saw this (google translation) on reddit. It turns out you can filter it out pretty easily. Scroll down and there's a 'before' and 'after' flash player so you can hear what it sounds like. You can't hear it at all.

So it's definitely possible.
posted by delmoi at 2:50 PM on June 14, 2010




If it helps at all, the frequencies to cut seem to be around 235Hz, 465Hz, 930Hz and 1860Hz.

source
posted by jjb at 3:05 PM on June 14, 2010


Do you think the other people in the stadium are bothering to try to make noise at this point? I would love it if removing the drone fixed everything, but I fear the rest of the supporters will have gotten discouraged and have stopped trying to sing at this point.
posted by bink at 4:53 PM on June 14, 2010


[comments removed - ok, enough. please answer the question or email jokes to the OP please, thanks.]
posted by jessamyn at 9:42 PM on June 14, 2010


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