Although it can’t fix the World Cup’s officiating mistakes, a company called Audioanamix has devised a solution to another gripe dogging the tournament by silencing the buzzing drone of the vuvuzela horns commonly played by fans at African soccer matches. Audionamix is providing the drone relief to French pay television broadcaster Canal+, and says it will do the same for any other broadcaster who wants it over the next month or so of World Cup matches.
Like many innovations, Audionamix Vuvuzela Remover was invented to solve a problem for its inventor. Olivier Attia, the CEO of the Paris-based Audionamix, said his crew didn’t like the way the vuvuzela overwhelmed other crowd noise — the oohs, aahs and coordinated songs that usually permeate soccer matches.
Lucky for them, the company makes software for separating source audio into distinct elements to help integrate music into film scores (somewhat similarly to the Melodyne Direct Note Access ).
“We were watching the WorldCup with the rest of the world, and found our enjoyment of the experience hindered by the loud drone created by the blowing of thousands of the vuvuzelas,” said Attia in a statement. “Our Audionamix engineers immediately went into to the lab and emerged 48 hours later with a solution that removes the higher frequencies created by the festive instrument.”
As the demonstration to the right shows, Vuvuzela Remover can strip just about every auditory trace of the controversial plastic horns, which produce a low B-flat tone at about 230 KHz with minor variations that occasionally make one stand out from the others. We have verified in the past that computers are capable of teasing out elements from within an audio recording based on pitch and other sonic elements. This technology is real.
For those who wish to remove the sound on their own, one do-it-yourself solution involves running software on a normal computer that removes the vuvuzela’s frequencies using EQ. Another technique involves removing the offending frequencies using the EQ in a stereo system. But Audionamix claims its broadcaster-ready software works better than EQ, and backs up that claim with the above demonstration.
“We have installed a technical process developed by Audionamix, which can filter the vuvuzelas’ sound without affecting the rest of the game’s vibrant atmosphere and excitement,” said Canal+ sports director Cyril Linette in a statement. “We will now be transmitting the World Cup matches with most of the vuvuzelas’ higher and intrusive frequencies removed.”
The BBC and possibly other broadcasters are considering hitting the mute button on these horns, as well. Should they join Current+ in excising the vuvuzela during the coming weeks?
On one hand, this persistent sound, which gives one the distinct impression that all of those missing bees have suddenly turned up, succeeds in ratcheting up the tension in matches. And besides, removing it from broadcasts won’t restore the songs and chants that fans aren’t bothering to sing this year because they’re being drowned out. And the crowd loves them, with vuvuzela makers struggling to keep up with demand.
On the other hand, the horns reportedly prevent players from communicating with each other and we’re only about a week into a five-week tournament. Even viewers who defend the vuvuzela as an intriguing custom that lends character to this year’s cup might change their minds after another couple more weeks of that B-flat drone.
Perhaps the best solution would be to broadcast both versions, if only because Audionamix makes it so easy for broadcasters to do so. According to one psychologist, some people find the vuvuzela annoying because they can’t exert control over it, although we did spot a family at the stadium wearing matching ear protection. Broadcasting a vuvuzela-free option alongside the unexpurgated version of the soundtrack would help with that, as bizarre as it might sound, by letting fans — at least the ones at home — pick for themselves.
What do you think?
(via Digital Music News; correction: this article originally stated that Audionamix was based in Germany)
