sportbible logo

To make sure you never miss out on your favourite NEW stories, we're happy to send you some reminders

Click 'OK' then 'Allow' to enable notifications

We Spoke To A Virtual Football Crowd Noise DJ

We Spoke To A Virtual Football Crowd Noise DJ

Virtual crowd noise has been a huge talking point since the return of behind closed doors football...

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Nothing compares to the natural sound of football fans roaring in the stadium but with the beautiful game being played behind closed doors for a few months now, our viewing experience has changed.

In an attempt to recreate the cheers, boos and general atmosphere of a football game, virtual crowd noise has entered the fray for all the leading broadcasters.

It's become a huge talking point in recent times but just how does it work? Is it just a case of pressing buttons? Well, we spoke to Andres Salazar, who fell into the role of 'crowd noise DJ' for DAZN's coverage of the Bundesliga.

Andres typically does filming, commentary and reporting for the global sports streaming service but after the Bundesliga became the first leading league to return from lockdown in May, he had conversations with his superiors about implementing some crowd noise.

While the standard sound of players screaming at one another is rather fascinating, Andres and the team set about adding to the experience for those watching at home.

They trialled in a game that wasn't live and then got good feedback when they did it on an actual match. His boss told him, 'Andres you're my man, hopefully you don't suck!'' and before he could even press a cheer button, he was manning the crowd noise on Bundesliga games.

Premier League games on Sky Sports and BT Sport have been using noise from FIFA 20 but Andres' process is very different.

"We take the original noises from previous games," he told SPORTbible.

"So for example, for the relegation game between Ingolstadt and Nurnberg, I took a game from like two years ago when they played against each other in 2. Bundesliga.

"It's the authentic, real crowd noises that the fans were making two years ago. There's nothing fake about it, it's just the old atmosphere and that's why it's so authentic in my opinion.

"Most of the time I have to hope that they have played against each other! I google the game then download the game from the Bundesliga."

Image: PA
Image: PA

Then the hard work starts. As part of his preparation, Andres must isolate every sound, every bit of whistling and every cheer and will go into the highlight suite, using the program 'Evit' to create three layers for the finished product.

On matchday, whether it be the evening games on a Friday and Saturday or the relegation play-offs he and colleagues Duncan and Ahmed do their best impression of Swedish House Mafia but with crowd noise instead of booming bass.

He explained: "First of all we have the original crowd noise from that game where you can still hear the manager yelling, we have the base which is like our loop - 45 minutes of crowd singing, chanting and making noise but it's really hard work to get that good sound.

"On top of that, we have our cheering, goal-screaming and whistling. The third layer is the thing we can react on and then we have everything prepared. It's very spontaneous for which button we press.

"All three layers together is the crowd noise we make.

"I produce every noise we need in the suite, then we transfer it to the gallery where it will happen live. I'm watching the game, I have a sound engineer by my side and another engineer who is managing the machine and pressing the buttons.

"The sound engineer will switch the buttons while everything is happening. When the matches are on, we have three people live managing all the noises."

There have been several instances so far where the fans have started cheering despite the ball hitting the side-netting or even worse, being ballooned over the bar.

So, having been doing this unique and highly reactive job for 20 games or so, has Andres made the mistake of pressing the wrong button?

"Not yet! " he replied.

"Until now we are mistake free and hopefully it stays this way!

"It's high pressure, we don't want to make any mistakes. For example, in where the first goal hit the post, it went back and hit the striker on the knee before it went inside the goal.

"We first wanted to press the 'Ooh!' button but then we quickly switched to 'Goal!' and everything went perfectly.

"I have the experience now where I've done maybe 10-20 games so now I know not to press buttons too quick because every second something can happen."

Andres' last game on crowd noise duty was Ingolstadt vs Nurnberg on 11 July and he'll now get to spend more time doing what's actually on his job description.

He has, however, thoroughly enjoyed moving into uncharted waters - doing something that has never been done before and being the only one doing it for his employers.

Summarising his experience and what he's learned, Andres said: "When we first tried it we were sitting watching the game thinking 'Oh man, there are no spectators' but you forget it.

"I was just watching the game and enjoying it and wasn't even thinking about nobody being in the stadium.

"Some hardcore fans might say it's fake and stuff but we know it's fake. We give you the opportunity to watch this game or that game and we have both options in Germany so you can enjoy whatever you like.

"The best thing I can take from this experience is that this job has never been done before so I had to figure it out all by myself. It was a work in progress and every day I am improving and thinking how we can do better.

"It's nice because I am the only one at DAZN doing it and it was a really nice experience."

Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Football News, Football