World Cup Vuvuzela Noise Driving You Crazy? Filter it With Open Source Tools

Soccer fans in a frenzy over the World Cup are also complaining about the annoying buzz from the noisemakers fans are bringing to the stadium. While a debate rages over whether to ban the annoying plastic horns, called vuvuzelas, from future games, software engineer Felix Kaechele found a workaround for anyone streaming the games to their Linux-based computer system.

Kaechele tweaked the settings of QjackCtl, a Qt-based tool for controlling the JACK Audio Connection Kit, then connected JACK Rack to his sound devices.

Once everything was hooked up correctly, Kaechele added a set of frequency filters to JACK Rack that capture and hide the buzz of 20,000 vuvuzelas without interfering with the sound quality of the rest of the audio. "Now you need to hook up the sound output of your TV or cable/sattelite receiver to your computer’s audio input and in turn connect your computer’s audio output to some speakers or headphones. I usually leave both filters at the end of the rack deactivated as that allows for more atmosphere while keeping the vuvuzelas down," says Kaechele.

If you're a soccer fan, now you can listen to the game without losing your hearing -- or your mind. Kudos to Kaechele for a brilliant implementation of a terrific open source tools.

Image by: flowcomm.