Fake Crowd Noise

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Since I spend half of my match watching time also doing other things, I appreciate the crowd noises as a sign that I need to run back into the living room because something is happening.

The sounds they had for the Chorley vs Derby match on Saturday were dreadful, though - a kind of high pitched shouting that sounded like it had been taken from a schools international, or some other match where vast numbers of tickets had been given it to kids.

I noticed that too - it was as if the producer had said "this is a tie you'd have got 3,000 fans in for, what have we got that's like that?".

[Jah Womble]

The fake minute's applause during the Manchester derby last week was a new low point.

Well, that's taking matters a little far, I must say.

However, broadcasters seem to use it fairly sparingly so, in general, I have little problem with it. (In many cases, channels offer alternative coverage, so if people prefer the empty clatter of a training session, then that's also available.)

[DCI Harry Batt]

If you tolerate this...

[EIM]

The fake minute's applause during the Manchester derby last week was a new low point.

[DCI Harry Batt]

It's vile. Everything about it. Including people saying "it's better with the sounds". Hideous. Burn it down. There's a reason you hate watching football on telly without there being a crowd there. So instead of not doing it, you want to try to pretend there is, so it feels less weird? There's something massively wrong with that.

[My Name Is Ian]

Since I spend half of my match watching time also doing other things, I appreciate the crowd noises as a sign that I need to run back into the living room because something is happening.

The sounds they had for the Chorley vs Derby match on Saturday were dreadful, though - a kind of high pitched shouting that sounded like it had been taken from a schools international, or some other match where vast numbers of tickets had been given it to kids.

[diggedy derek]

It seems to have become much more sophisticated as it's gone on – with sounds for controversy, etc. Whether that's a good thing or not is another matter.

[Satchmo Distel]

Which broadcasters are doing it and which not? Does it work?

I was strongly opposed when I first encountered it (Fox Bundesliga) but seem to now accept it provided it's well done, which is usually the case. OTOH Radio Sheffield had no crowd noise for Barnsley v Tranmere and I did not miss it. I think it's one of the COVID adaptations that has now become normalized for me. The exception might be when we had small crowds back briefly in London and Liverpool and it was jarring to have a real crowd for a 3pm game then a fake one at 5.30pm. The other issue is that it's jarring when a goal is scored and the fake noise hasn't caught up, but maybe that is being worked on?

Perhaps also there's a fear that the technology is now so good that it might be used after COVID to add fake noise to a crap game or a Man U Europa League tie.