World Cup Vuvuzela Din

[UniBrier]

Trying to enjoy some World Cup, but the constant Vuvuzela background noise is convincing me otherwise.

They're fine in moderation, we have on from our local Seattle Sounders FC, but this is ridiculous.

http://www.banvuvuzela.com

[Hung Like Saddam]

Voted for you.:)

[Into the blue]

Trying to enjoy some World Cup, but the constant Vuvuzela background noise is convincing me otherwise.

They're fine in moderation, we have on from our local Seattle Sounders FC, but this is ridiculous.

Agree 100%.

Sorry GILD.

[JohnnyReggae]

You guys have no passion for the game of soccer, particularly with the world cup being in South Africa. The Vuvuzela has been a staple in South African soccer for many years now and as such is soccer in this country.

So live with it !! ;)

[Into the blue]

If you think showing passion for the game is honking on a giant plastic kazoo for ninety minutes, then you can keep it.
All I can think of when I watch a game is flies hovering around a giant turd.
I'll be viewing the rest of the tournament with the volume turned down.

And it's football, not soccer btw.

[EwokChieftain]

I agree. The vuvuzelas are just annoying. I'm sure the shares of
earplug manufacturers are rising at the moment...

But for everybody who wants to keep watching the world cup, I have the following hint from the blogger Zettel who normally covers political issues (first the German original, then my translation - I want to be transparent):
Ich war gestern schon nah an dem Entschluß, mir die Spiele grundsätzlich nur noch ohne Ton anzusehen. Zuvor habe ich aber noch ein kleines Experiment gemacht, das gar nicht so schlechte Resultate brachte: Ich habe ein wenig am Equalizer gespielt.

Der Schall einer Vuvuzela verteilt sich ziemlich gleichmäßig über das Frequenzspektrum von 500 bis 8000 Hz. Menschliche Sprache bleibt noch gut verständlich, wenn man die hohen Frequenzen wegfiltert. Also habe ich im Equalizer 1000 Hz auf maximal gestellt und alle höheren Frequenzen auf ein Minimum reduziert.

Das Resutat war erfreulich: Ganz weg ist das Summgeräusch zwar noch nicht, auch hört man ein leises Rumpeln wie von einem vorbeifahrenden Zug (Trommeln?) im Hintergrund. Aber jedenfalls für mich ist das Ansehen von WM-Fußball einschließlich Ton danach wieder zum Vergnügen geworden.

# # # # #

Yesterday I was close to the decision to watch the matches in muted mode. But before, I did a little experiment, and its result were not bad after all:
I played around with the equalizer.

The sound of a vuvuzela is distributed quite evenly over the frequential spectrum vrom 500 to 8.000 Hz. Human voices are is still well understandable if you filter out the high frequences. So I set the equalizer's maximum at 1000 Hz and reduced the higher frequenzies to a minimum.

The result was gratifying: The humming noise was not gone completely, also there is a subtle romping left, like the sound of a passing train (drums?) in the background.
But anyway, this made watching this tournament fun for me again.

[UniBrier]

YThe Vuvuzela has been a staple in South African soccer for many years now and as such is soccer in this country.

So live with it !! ;)I'm willing to make a compromise:

They can blow them 100% of the time whenever SA is on the pitch; otherwise, just at appropriate times. I have a great appreciation for hearing the crowd responses to the game, not the sound of my head inside a bee hive.

[johnfoss]

I call them fart horns. At least the version we see around here, and they're available for sale at all the parades in my area. I don't know if I'd be able to find one outside a parade though. :)

I think Unibrier's question was more about watching the World Cup on TV rather than being there. It's quite a distraction in the TV coverage, indeed making it sound like the game is under constant threat of a massive swarm of angry bees!

[critter]

So that's what that is.:mad:

It's quite a distraction in the TV coverage, indeed making it sound like the game is under constant threat of a massive swarm of angry bees!I agree . I had to watch with the mute on.
Why were they doing it during the american/english game?

[johnfoss]

That's like asking why Americans would buy beer while watching South Africa and Australia play in one of our stadiums here.

[JohnnyReggae]

If you think showing passion for the game is honking on a giant plastic kazoo for ninety minutes, then you can keep it.
All I can think of when I watch a game is flies hovering around a giant turd.
I'll be viewing the rest of the tournament with the volume turned down.

And it's football, not soccer btw.
To be honest I don't like the noise of the Vuvuzela, especially when some bugger blows them indoors. But this is the World Cup, it is in South Africa, and the vuvuzela is soccer ;) in this country.

Yes I know you call it football... I grew up calling it soccer.

Why were they doing it during the american/english game?
What John said... :)

[Zzagg]

I don't care about vuvuzela at all, I suppose losers will use it as an excuse for being lame (just like the french team... and I guess the english one too, given Blue's reaction;):p)
Side note: US Team was pretty impressive on saturday night, well done yanks!

[EwokChieftain]

So was the German team, and I complain about the vuvuzelas too (contrary to your theory^).

PS: Yu-Es-Ay! :p

[GILD]

Just got back from the Chile Honduras game at the Mbombela Stadium.
Good times, except paying R30 (equivalent to 5 cans of Coca Cola) for a plastic bottle of Budweiser.
Budweiser?
They couldn't serve actual beer?!?

I love the sound of the Vuvuzela, I've recently aquired the warmer-sounding "kuduzela", a comparable instrument, but one shaped like the horn of a Kudu.

I had hoped, after the complaints arising from the Confederations Cup last year, that international television carriers would've worked on their crowd-microphone mix.
Apparantly not.
Leaving millions of football fans to complain about something they only get to experience third-hand, at best.

Travelling bands of "cheerleaders" move thru the stadium, using their vuvuzelas to set up fabulous call-and-response patterns, answered by fans around the stadium as they move about.

By simply pointing crowd-mics from the touchline into the crowd, yeah, you're only going to hear the drone.

So, please don't crap on an instrument you probably can't play and definately haven't experienced.
Have a go at your television provider who simply believes 'it's all the same'.

I'ts not.

This is Africa.

It's not for sissies.

[Zzagg]

I'm 100% with you on this one, GILD.
At least it's an instrument played by the crowd, not like those organs we can hear at hockey games (wich I find ridiculous, but not to the point I'd complain about).
Man, the S.A public is so beautifull, they seem to enjoy this cup so much that it's a real pleasure to watch (and hear) them. I wich I could be sitting in the middle of the tribune, though I'm not a football addict.

For the haters: keep in mind that IF your team wins the cup, vuvuzelases sound will be a memory you'll cherish for years.

[Zzagg]

'Can't stand vuvuzelas? try this (http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk/www.unicyclist.com/forums).

[Into the blue]

For the haters: keep in mind that IF your team wins the cup, vuvuzelases sound will be a memory you'll cherish for years.

I doubt it.
Tell you what Zzagg, turn up to the next French Six Nations game and start honking on it.

Let us know how that goes.

[Zzagg]

I wouldn't be surprised to hear vuvuzelas for our next respective rugby/football championships. Not to such a sound volume, though.

[GILD]

As a result of the stadia being handed over to FIFA before the conclusion of the Super14 tournament, the Bulls, who play from Loftus Versveld in Pretoria, had to host the Stormers for their 'home' final, at the Orlando Stadium in Soweto, a traditionally 'black' township in South Africa and scene of some of the major uprisings of the 70's and 80's.

This cross-cultural exercise (broadly speaking, rugby is seen as a 'white' sport and soccer as a 'black' sport) brought a whole load of vuvuzelas to a rugby game.

I think it might be there to stay, but time will tell.

[JJuggle]

Perhaps there is a benefit to being partially deaf. I'm watching my first matches and find the vuvuzela's hardly noticeable.

[Zzagg]

Perhaps there is a benefit to being partially deaf. I'm watching my first matches and find the vuvuzela's hardly noticeable.I don't know if it's a typical french thing but there's a "special" activity wich is well known in popular wisdom for making people deaf (beside listening to loud music with headphones):D:D
...never mind, I can tell you that popular wisdom is wrong on this one.

[JJuggle]

I don't know if it's a typical french thing but there's a "special" activity wich is well known in popular wisdom for making people deaf (beside listening to loud music with headphones):D:D
...never mind, I can tell you that popular wisdom is wrong on this one.
Here in the states it makes you go blind. :D

[EwokChieftain]

Interesting.
Over here, parents used to tell this activity makes you blind, not deaf.
So performing it on one shore of the Rhine and then on the other should make you deafblind...

Edit: Oh, you were first. Er...
SECOND!!!!1111one

[EwokChieftain]

Budweiser?
They couldn't serve actual beer?!?
If it was that American "Bud", I agree (probably was).
Whereas the Budweiser from the 'real' city of Budweis in CZ is more than alright.
(and I'm a judge, for I live in Franconia. We know about brewing here, really.)

[maestro8]

So, please don't crap on an instrument you probably can't play and definately haven't experienced.

Ok, I'm a sissy.

But how do you "play" an instrument that can only produce a single note?

And I've experienced what you're talking about... in band class in 6th grade, when the brass section were given their instruments for the very first time.

Call and response works just as well when the crowd uses their voices... what's wrong with this? Why must they use implements that are as loud as jet engines?

'Can't stand vuvuzelas? try this (http://www.vuvuzela-time.co.uk/www.unicyclist.com/forums).

I LOLled.

[johnfoss]

I had hoped, after the complaints arising from the Confederations Cup last year, that international television carriers would've worked on their crowd-microphone mix.You can use directional microphones to pick out sounds in a certain direction, but if you're anywhere in the stadium, unless you point your mic away from the stadium guess what's going to be in the background! :)

Perhaps there is a benefit to being partially deaf. I'm watching my first matches and find the vuvuzela's hardly noticeable.There are many benefits to being deaf/partially deaf. Apparently you are deaf in the vuvuzela range. :D

...how do you "play" an instrument that can only produce a single note?By blowing real hard with your lips together. Hence, fart horn.

Yes, that vuvuzela-izer link is pretty funny!

[Zzagg]

South Africans, honk your vuvuzelas till you blow your temples!
support your team till the end!
make your bafana bafanas kick our shy little asses, for if one team deserves the last place of the group, it's not yours.

worst thing is now french people will hate Domenech (the french coach) more than Sarkozy and he'll profit of the diversion to come back stronger in 2012. Mayans may well be right about the end of the world, it has already begun.

Very well done Mexico!

[GILD]

Ok, I'm a sissy.

Acceptance is the first step.

But how do you "play" an instrument that can only produce a single note?

I'm not supremely proficient at it and I can produce two notes, a clear octave apart.

Call and response works just as well when the crowd uses their voices... what's wrong with this? Why must they use implements that are as loud as jet engines?

It's a bit of African folk-lore that "a lot of noise kills a baboon", which is why you'll find the general noise level at African football games increasing substantially in the last 15 minutes as fans will on their team to "kill off" the opposition.

[wobbling bear]

teacher: "who would show me the horn of Africa?"
http://d.yimg.com/i/ng/ne/chappatte/20100618/10/963930182-world-cup-2010.jpg

[wobbling bear]

worst thing is now french people will hate Domenech (the french coach) more than Sarkozy and he'll profit of the diversion to come back stronger in 2012. Mayans may well be right about the end of the world, it has already begun.

Very well done Mexico!
It was a Mayan tradition: the loser of a football match was sacrificed to the gods. Tradition is tradition!
(I don't risk a heart failure or ear failure by watching football matches: being a snob I pretend to be uninterested :D= )

[siafirede]

http://i.imgur.com/WXNmF.jpg

[GILD]

But, but, but...that's my solo?!?

[GILD]

You can use directional microphones to pick out sounds in a certain direction, but if you're anywhere in the stadium, unless you point your mic away from the stadium guess what's going to be in the background!
My point exactly.

Get a cordless and a techy to carry it around, following the 'cheer-leaders' and allow your audience to experience it the way we do at the stadia.

Just say 'know'.

[GILD]

And just before someone brings it up:


Vuvuzelas don't spread swine flu shock
12:05 17 June 2010
Health

Debora MacKenzie, correspondent

We have explained why the sound of vuvuzelas irritates so many people. Interestingly, they sound like a swarm of angry bees (they use the same note, B-flat) - and that noise scares elephants.

Love 'em or hate 'em, however, it may be going a bit far to blame the vuvuzela for spreading disease, as this AP story suggests. What the story amounts to is this unsurprising finding: blowing a prolonged raspberry through a tube spatters lots of tiny spit droplets around.

These droplets admittedly can spread germs - and right now it is flu season in the southern hemisphere, this year featuring swine flu.

Droplets may also carry tuberculosis (TB), including the drug-resistant kind found in South Africa.

However, there is no evidence that tooting a vuvuzela broadcasts germs any better than talking, screaming or singing.

Anyway, catching TB normally takes more exposure than ninety minutes and stoppage time. Even passing your vuvuzela around probably won't add much to the germ contact you already have with fellow fans. (http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/06/vuvuzelas-dont-spread-swine-fl.html)

[Girleeryder]

This is Africa.

It's not for sissies.

Whilst everyone sits behind their computers and TV screens commenting on the vuvuzela, love it or hate it ... I hear the B flat bellowing on the street at 2, 3, 4 in the morning.

Hey, it's the World Cup and it's in sunny SA, love it or hate it, we're showing our gees (spirit) in african stylie.
:)

[critter]

For the haters: keep in mind that IF your team wins the cup, vuvuzelases sound will be a memory you'll cherish for years.

True Dat!

Once I knew what source of the noise was, I'm good with it. In fact it's makes me giggle inside.

I hear the sales are up on the horns. Hope nobody buys one in my 'hood.:D

[dan de man]

I dont know about the rest of your guys but all this soccer is really distracting, its like i turn the tv on for some calming vuvutsela music and what i get is adistracting football game

[wobbling bear]

another cartoon in a french newspaper:
lady (watching TV) :" How can Africans withstand this little thing, that buzzes all the time and whose only goal is to make noise?"
man: "well they are like us: we have president Sarkozy".:D

[TheJoker]

did anyone see the vuvuzela prank on failblog?

[GILD]

Link?

[erick]

Hahaha, this video fits well in this thread

YouTube- Gandalf Goes to the World Cup Full [HD]

[johnfoss]

I hear the sales are up on the horns. Hope nobody buys one in my 'hood.:DHoly crap, you just reminded me of something. My next door neighbor blowing on one of those things every morning, at the crack of dawn, for an entire summer break from school, in the 1970s! :eek: Those were the days...

I even have a picture of him (http://www.unicycling.com/things/index.htm#4) on my web site (doing something else stupid).

[WOFT]

When you hear the vuvuzelas, you ar hearing the excitement of the fans. The vuvu's are not blown when people are not interested in the game. Why do we blow our vuvus? to show our support! If you want to show support by singing, playing the bagpipes, chanting, dancing, then be my guest.

Many people wanted as much of an "Afican experience" as they could. Well, this is part of it. Fifa has taken away our beer (only bud is available), our food (boerewors rolls are sorely missed). But thankfully, the vuvus are still with us.

Many of the player have expressed their hatred of the vuvuzela. When the South African Goalkeeper (Khune) was asked about them he said he was also frustrated - they weren't loud enough! What you hear on TV is not what you hear in the stadium. The drone is always there, but you don't get to hear how the sounds change and follow the game. Being in the Cape Town Sadium to watch a Italy vs Paraguay was an amazing experience, much of due to the rise and fall of the vuvu's as the game ebbed and flowed. It is integrated with dancing, with different rhythms (much like drumming), with shouting, with singing. The "vuvuzela concerto" does not show what this very simple piece of plastic can do, both musically and emotionally.

I live in the city centre, and have vuvu's being parped at all hours of the day and night. To me, this shows that South Africans are celebrating this world cup all the time. Even though we didn't make it past the first round, we will still be celebrating the world cup. We will still be supporting all the teams from across the world. We will still be welcoming to all we have chosen to come and visit us. And we will still be making a noise. Viva the vuvuzela! Viva South Africa!

[GILD]

Viva!

[AlisterBurt]

theres now a vuvuzela button on youtube, so we can experience the vuvu's while watching our favourite videos, and listening to our favourite songs!
yay for vuvuzelas!

[AlisterBurt]

haha, this is awesome!
YouTube- Vuvuzela Symphony

[tomblackwood]

This is Africa. It's not for sissies.
A thread-killing response on this debate if I've ever seen one...

[JohnnyReggae]

When you hear the vuvuzelas, you ar hearing the excitement of the fans. The vuvu's are not blown when people are not interested in the game. Why do we blow our vuvus? to show our support! If you want to show support by singing, playing the bagpipes, chanting, dancing, then be my guest.

Many people wanted as much of an "Afican experience" as they could. Well, this is part of it. Fifa has taken away our beer (only bud is available), our food (boerewors rolls are sorely missed). But thankfully, the vuvus are still with us.

Many of the player have expressed their hatred of the vuvuzela. When the South African Goalkeeper (Khune) was asked about them he said he was also frustrated - they weren't loud enough! What you hear on TV is not what you hear in the stadium. The drone is always there, but you don't get to hear how the sounds change and follow the game. Being in the Cape Town Sadium to watch a Italy vs Paraguay was an amazing experience, much of due to the rise and fall of the vuvu's as the game ebbed and flowed. It is integrated with dancing, with different rhythms (much like drumming), with shouting, with singing. The "vuvuzela concerto" does not show what this very simple piece of plastic can do, both musically and emotionally.

I live in the city centre, and have vuvu's being parped at all hours of the day and night. To me, this shows that South Africans are celebrating this world cup all the time. Even though we didn't make it past the first round, we will still be celebrating the world cup. We will still be supporting all the teams from across the world. We will still be welcoming to all we have chosen to come and visit us. And we will still be making a noise. Viva the vuvuzela! Viva South Africa!
Well said WOFT !!!! Nice one :D

VIVA....

[GILD]

A thread-killing response on this debate if I've ever seen one...

Thanx Tom.


I do have more sympathy (now) for people who only experience the vuvuzela via television broadcasts.

I've noticed that even some of the video-footage I've taken (with my Nokia E72) inside the stadiums, reflect only the general "din" of the vuvuzelas, with little of the subtleties I so enjoy when I go to the games, in evidence.

I'd hoped to be able to post some videos to this thread to illustrate some of the points I've been on about.
It would appear that it would take more tech-savvy recording than I'm able to do with the tools I have available.

I'm sorry about that.

While I don't apologise for my dismissive tone on most of this thread, I do apologise for not being able to back up my comments with videos (I have a LOT of pictures tho...).

I'm working on being more tolerant of people who can't experience the vuvuzela-sound the way I do.

Inside the stadium, it isn't nearly as nasty as it sound on television.

Honest.