NI's Vuvuzela Filter Strips Droning Horns from World Cup Broadcasts

07/09/2010

Kevin Purdy(kevin@lifehacker.com):You can use an EQ filter method to silence the dreaded vuvuzela sounds in World Cup broadcasts, but if you're looking for an all-in-one solution, a sound engineer has whipped up some software that automatically cuts out just the right frequencies (around 233Hz).

Simon, product manager at National Instruments (NI), wrote in to point us to a free bit of software he wrote up, which uses the back-end of NI's LabView software to automatically filter and cut out the frequency ranges where vuvuzelas, the celebratory horns that sound like disturbed locusts, or maybe angry bees, drone on endlessly during World Cup matches. Simon's software has an adjustable number of harmonics it can cover, so those with slower computers can lower the number for less latency, and others can cover the spectrum pretty thoroughly.

You'll need to insert your computer as part of the audio chain to use the software with a television or sound system, but this Vuvuzela Filter does all the hard work for you. It's written to run as a stand-alone package for Windows or Mac, but I had to install the free LabView engine to get it running on my own Windows 7 system.

It's a free download, and one that looks like solid relief for beleaguered fans.
World Cup-2010 - filtering the annoying vuvuzela noise [National Instruments, www.ni.com]

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