If you're watching the World Cup, you've no doubt learned about the vuvuzela, a buzzing horn capable of drowning out TV announcers. Here's how to filter the vuvuzela buzz from your World Cup broadcasts.
A German hacker named Tube details how he banished the vuvuzela from his World Cup audio by selectively muting four frequencies on his equalizer. A (loose) translation from Tube's German post:
For the Vuvuzela-killer, we need only a high-slope band stop filter that takes out the corresponding frequencies. For this, in principle, any modern computer that has a sound card with low latency and corresponding software should work. In our case, we used a Mac Mini and Logic Express 8. (Actually, such a complex software such as Logic Express is not necessary. We use it only because it was already on it on the computer and the necessary filters are included.)
You Don't Need a Computer
In fact, you don't need a computer at all. If you've got a stereo with an equalizer or even a TV with a built in equalizer, you can adjust your hardware settings to significantly filter out the noise. For example, the Book of Joe blog details the process on a Samsung TV.
How to Filter the Vuvuzela Drone
We spent the morning here at the Lifehacker labs trying out the settings ourselves, and found that if you duck your EQ at 465Hz and 235Hz, you can in fact filter out the buzz with great results. Ideally you'll reduce each frequency by at least 40dB (which got rid of the drone completely for us), but if your equipment can't quite duck that low, just go as low as you can. Here's how it worked when we tried it in GarageBand on a Mac:
Before and After
Video by Adam Dachis.
Update: We've since been tipped to a Windows and Mac download, an automated but adjustable Vuvuzela Filter, that saves you the trouble of setting up your own filters.
Remember, the video is just an example of the EQ adjustments in action. You should be able to use those basic settings in any software or hardware that can handle them. As you can see, it's not all that difficult to silence the vuvuzela with an equalizer—again, at 465Hz and 235Hz (or as close to those numbers as you can get). Got another method that's worked for you? Let's hear it in the comments.
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