Topic: Cell phone interference

[Scooter123]

I've not experienced it and usually have my cell phone on (but silented) during taping......

[yates7592]

It happened to me for the first time last week. At least it could have been cell phone interference. My phone was on vibrate mode and in my trouser pocket, my recorder and preamp in my lower inside jacket pocket, probably only 6 inches apart from the phone.
However there is another possibility. The club I was in lies directly beneath Glasgow Central Railway Station. You can hear the trains trundling over before the band comes on. There must be a hell of a lot of signalling and telecommunications cables running along there too, athough you would think they'd be pretty well isolated?
I had cleaned all my contacts prior to the show so im sure that wasnt a problem.
My best bet is that it was the vibrating phone, i did receive a couple of emails during the show.....

[huskerdu]

It happened to me for the first time last week. At least it could have been cell phone interference. My phone was on vibrate mode and in my trouser pocket, my recorder and preamp in my lower inside jacket pocket, probably only 6 inches apart from the phone.
However there is another possibility. The club I was in lies directly beneath Glasgow Central Railway Station. You can hear the trains trundling over before the band comes on. There must be a hell of a lot of signalling and telecommunications cables running along there too, athough you would think they'd be pretty well isolated?
I had cleaned all my contacts prior to the show so im sure that wasnt a problem.
My best bet is that it was the vibrating phone, i did receive a couple of emails during the show.....

Can't it also be a phone belonging to someone a few feet away in the audience (or is there a "safe" distance)?  Even when someone puts a "smart phone" in a silent mode it is still sending and receiving data.

[Shadow_7]

Can't it also be a phone belonging to someone a few feet away in the audience (or is there a "safe" distance)?  Even when someone puts a "smart phone" in a silent mode it is still sending and receiving data.

It gets better with distance, but if you're not immune from it, it's still there.  Just buried deeper in the mix.  For the gear I have that's sensitive to it, 3' or less is VERY noticeable.  If it's a silent or soft part of the show, even at ten yards you can clearly hear it in the recording.  You might have to add +10dB to the levels to make it blatantly obvious, but it's still there.  For the one time that I got the radio station on my gear, I did manage to lessen it enough by mic placement and recorder location, but it's still there on good monitors at a decent volume.  It sounded far worse in the headphones on location, than it ended being in the recording.  But it's still an eternal part of that recording.  However subdued.

[kubacheck]

It happened to me for the first time last week. At least it could have been cell phone interference. My phone was on vibrate mode and in my trouser pocket, my recorder and preamp in my lower inside jacket pocket, probably only 6 inches apart from the phone.
However there is another possibility. The club I was in lies directly beneath Glasgow Central Railway Station. You can hear the trains trundling over before the band comes on. There must be a hell of a lot of signalling and telecommunications cables running along there too, athough you would think they'd be pretty well isolated?
I had cleaned all my contacts prior to the show so im sure that wasnt a problem.
My best bet is that it was the vibrating phone, i did receive a couple of emails during the show.....

Can't it also be a phone belonging to someone a few feet away in the audience (or is there a "safe" distance)?  Even when someone puts a "smart phone" in a silent mode it is still sending and receiving data.

that's why, as I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread, just to be on the safe side, I put my phone in "Airplane mode"..... it's not sending/receiving data when in that mode, but you can still use it for photos/video, or in my case, use the notepad function to keep track of the setlist as the show is going on.......

[jamroom]

It happened to me for the first time last week. At least it could have been cell phone interference. My phone was on vibrate mode and in my trouser pocket, my recorder and preamp in my lower inside jacket pocket, probably only 6 inches apart from the phone.
However there is another possibility. The club I was in lies directly beneath Glasgow Central Railway Station. You can hear the trains trundling over before the band comes on. There must be a hell of a lot of signalling and telecommunications cables running along there too, athough you would think they'd be pretty well isolated?
I had cleaned all my contacts prior to the show so im sure that wasnt a problem.
My best bet is that it was the vibrating phone, i did receive a couple of emails during the show.....

Are you talking about The Arches? I have taped there a couple of times without issue, though we probably have different equipment.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

Finally got bit by the ol' Cell Phone interference. Had my "small rig" on a table in a bag with the mics pointing out of it. My friend had her AT+T iPhone on the table as well. She got a few texts thoughout the show and the interference came at the same time as the texts...

So moral of the story is...if you or your friend has AT+T either have them turn their phone off or ask them to keep it as far away from your rig as possible. I got more interference in the mic that was close to her phone. The "far" mic was only about 5 inches farther away and had significantly less interference. I think keeping the phone a few feet away may have been enough to prevent the interference.

Real bummer as it was a totally unamplified show so I had to run my levels for the music pretty low to avoid getting overloaded during the clapping. I don't think it would have been as bad at a normal show.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

Another show with interference. Same rig as above. Starting to wonder if my Verizon Android phone could be the problem, or if there is something else I'm doing to increase the chance of this occurring. Luckily it was minor this time around.

The rig in question is Nevaton MCE400 (tech flexed together) > Tinybox > M10. I keep the Tinybox and M10 in a tiny hip pack. Not sure if the close proximity is causing issues. I need to mess around with this. Wish I had a GDM iPhone to mess with. When I had one of those it was very easy to cause the issue.

Of course it could be unrelated. I recorded a show last week with the same rig and didn't notice anything, but it was a pretty loud show and you might not be able to hear it.

Other problem could have been someone sitting near me. I had the people I came with turn off their AT+T phones. I thought I turned my phone off, but apparently I didn't.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

The lead from the Nevaton capsule to XLR is probably unbalanced, and that's a long cable run.  You could consider modding the cable to the minimum length required.

It's pretty much at the minimum now. The cables are about 4-5 feet long. Not sure if that is too long, but I could really only cut off about 1 foot max.

I'm guessing the cables are picking up those signals.

Do you know if there is a way to sheild the cables. I have them techflexed together up to the last 8 inches.

[John Willett]

Phones should be off or flight mode while recording - if left on silent they transmit just as much as when fully on.

[harimau]

I was recording a concert with the on-board mics on a Zoom H-4 with the recorder on my lap.

The cellphone (GSM being the dominant protocol in India) of a guy in a seat in front of me (one row ahead) rang.  That interference was recorded by the Zoom.

When he talked on the phone, there was no intereference however.

Clearly, the Zoom recorder with its plastic casing is not shielded for radio-frequency interference.

That was my experience.  YMMV.

[harimau]

Audacity's Click Removal function nicely removed the cell phone interference!

[tree]

I always turn my cell phone off while recording - unless I am patching into someone elses mics/rig. Ive had too many issues with the cell interference and got tired of f'ed up recordings.

[Belexes]

I always turn my cell phone off while recording - unless I am patching into someone elses mics/rig. Ive had too many issues with the cell interference and got tired of f'ed up recordings.

You can still get the problem from neighbors nearby with their cell phones.

Would be nice if venues made everyone coat check the damn things at the door.

[Brian E.]

I picked up some by holding my r09-HR with my cell phone in my pocket.  I would suggest turning off your phone or airplane mode if you are touching your setup.  Other than that, hard to guard against the crowd.