Sonosfans Uses DPA Mics To Create Stadium Crowd Sounds

As with many things over the past year, the world of sports saw significant disruption to its regular routine. From halted or delayed seasons to little or no live audiences at the arenas, sporting events around the world had to operate differently. With no ambient sounds to enhance the broadcasts, television networks also had to find alternative ways to replicate the at-home viewers’ experience.

In response, Fred Vogler launched Sonosfans, an immersive sports crowd performance system. The sound library was created using recordings captured with DPA Microphones’ 4091 Omni Condenser Mic, 4560 Binaural Mic and MMA-A Digital Audio Interface.

Touted as a performance-based enhancement tool for empty stadiums or those with limited attendance restrictions, Sonosfans provides live, dynamic crowd response with a library of reactions that have been mined and curated over the past 15 years. Included among these are sounds recorded during college football games using DPA’s 4091 Small-Diaphragm Omni Condenser Microphone with Rycote windscreens, which Vogler installed atop mic stands elevated 15 feet above the ground.

“Back in 2006, I was providing scrimmage and practice field noise for USC Football players, using crowd sounds that I had gathered during regular games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum,” Vogler said. “The coach at that time, Pete Carroll, liked what I was doing so much that he gave me field access to all the games they played that year. This included other stadiums in the Pac12, as well as at the Rose Bowl. I recorded all the crowd noise from each of those games using four DPA 4091 microphones placed around the stadiums.”

Though Vogler says that experience was incredible in and of itself, he never imaged that those files would prove vital in the future. Over the past year, Vogler has used the sounds from the USC games to provide crowd enhancement for professional and collegiate baseball, soccer, boxing, football, basketball and bowling on one of the country’s top sports networks.