Suppress the sound of vuvuzelas using Reaper

Download Reaper

This will work for Windows and Mac. Linux has many options to do this and it’s even easier to do so I won’t even bother covering Linux for once.
http://www.reaper.fm/download.php

Windows (4.9MB installer)
Windows x64 (5.4MB installer)
OS X Intel (7.9MB DMG)
OS X PPC (5.9MB DMG)
OS X 64-bit Intel (9.2MB DMG) betad

Download a preconfigured filter

You can download a preconfigured filter, or you can make your own.
Download a preconfigured filter here: http://martin.bz/post/vuvuzela-filter-windows.aspx

Launch plugin/reaper

Save it somewhere (the desktop would be a good place) and then just launch the plugin. With Reaper installed, it should load Reaper and the filter. (or you can start Reaper, load a project, and select the file you downloaded)

Select audio devices

Press CTRL-P to open the Preferences dialog, or find it in the toolbar along the top (for you mouse junkies). Make sure your input and output is set correctly. This will depend on your OS and hardware. I have Realtek HD audio on my laptop, so I select those I/O’s.

Connect your hardware

Male mini-plug headphone to male RCA

Use converters from some place like RadioShack, or make your own.

If you take a male-to-male RCA cable and cut it in half, then take a male-to-male mini cable (both of which are easy to find in stores), you can cut them both in half and splice RCA-to-mini to make two identical cables that convert left/right RCA to your plain old ipod-style headphone jack.

For each of the cables, separate the ends and strip the inner wires. The headphone mini plug should have 3 wires, left , right, and a common. The RCA’s should carry one 2 wires for each plug, which are a single left OR right channel and a common wire. These are usually found as a pair connected in one cable so you have left and right RCA plugs together.

TV Audio Output -to- Computer Mic Input

I used the RCA left/right audio output from the back of my TV. These are usually yellow/red connectors. (red=right) and connected to the mini-stereo headphone jack on my laptop.

Computer audio output -to- Stereo Input

I connected my laptop’s headphone jack to a set of left/right RCA audio inputs on my stereo.

If your sound goes crazy with 100% noise, which I have seen on two laptops running Windows XP, try muting the mic input and un-mute the line-in input in Windows’ advanced volume settings. If you have some sort of audio application that monitors what you’re plugging into your computer, (RealTek is infamous for this) you might have to open that instead.

You should be able to hear the roar of the crowd much louder than the horns at this point.

Perfection

Make your own filter

If you’re not happy with the range of filtering and want a DIY approach that you can tweak to perfection, read on young jedi…

Download the free plugins

ReaEQ is what you’re after. This one allows you to setup multiple notch filters and control how aggressively you want to filter around each frequency.
http://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/index.php