What In The World Is A Crowd Sweetener?

It’s been a whacky year. There’s been lots of pivots and changes that required us to be on our toes. As a boutique company of full time music professionals, we are able to make changes on the fly for all of our customers. One such change became an interesting opportunity for some of our team members, and quite certainly one of the strangest gigs we’ve landed: Crowd Sweetener.

What the hell is a Crowd Sweetener?

When COVID hit and the stadiums emptied, the NBA took to the bubble to finish their season. But, how can you even remotely keep the energy the players thrive on when there’s less than 100 people in the stadium??

Enter: FAKE CROWD NOISE.

A pair of smart fellows partnered with a production company to create the ultimate in fake crowd noise experiences. Using samples sourced from real games and video games that were VERY carefully EQ’ed to remove squeaky shoes, the Crowd Sweetener position was created. One user controls the general ambient sounds of the stadium and anticipation swells, while the other controls specific reactions - all in real time. The NBA required all the teams to bring the system in for the 2021 season, so we worked with the Timberwolves to shift several of our DJs in that role. Fans are slowly coming back, but our very own Anthony Kasper got his moment to shine in this awesome video by the Timberwolves. Check it!

For all your in game music director, arena DJ, custom mixes, AND fake crowd noise, GenerationNOW has you covered.