Topic: 660 & Cell Phone Interference

[d5]

Recorded a show last week and left my cell phone turned on, inside the bag, right under the 660. In two spots on the recording I'm hearing typical cell phone interference "eh eh eh... eh eh eh". Oddly enough it was only on the right channel.

oh well, lesson learned...

[dennisrtyler]

noticed the same thing on my Bela recording from 3/26. only lasted about a minute or two and i believe it's only noticable with headphones. there were two or three cell phones around me so i'm pretty sure that was the culprit.

[d5]

What kind of cables and type?  Unbalanced cables?

balanced,  canare starquad

I'm thinking it's directly from the cell to the 660, not though the cables. Its the same noise from alarm clock when the cell phone is to close.

[china_rider]

Hmm...  I've been curious about this for a while.  Wonder if the type of phone or the type of signal it is on effects things.  Or maybe it is just the 660.

Read a few other threads about cell phone interferance a while ago and tried to recreate it with both my rigs to see if it effects me.  Used a  sonic studios stealh setup and akgs->ua5->microtrack.  With a razr I could not introduce any interferance either when it was ringing/vibrating or when it was in constant use as a modem.  I use regular sonic studios cables or silver wrapped with teflon that were made by brian here on the boards.

[ingsy]

I have not experienced this w/ my 660 - but I could see it happening.  At work, I hear that noise all the time from cell interference with my PC speakers - since there is a speaker in the 660, I bet the same process is happening there.  Thanks for posting this, I will try to keep some distance between my cell and 660 when taping.

[Joshua Boyens]

Hey I saw a myth busters where they were trying to get a cell phone to ignite gas and they needed to isolate the cell phone from the cell towers.  So they made a cage like thing and wrapped it in what I think was brass screening.  I looks just like the stuff on your screen door, just made out of brass.  They said that the brass weave is small enough to capture all the radio frequencies.  When they turned on the phone inside of the box it had 0 reception.  You might want to look into that, the only thing I'm not %100 sure about is if it was brass, but it was definitely a yellow metal (not gold for sure).  You could probably find the episode on youtube, it’s the one about the cell phones blowing up you car when you fill your gas tank.  Hope that helps, let me know how it goes.

[vox humana]

I use my Oade advanced mod 660 with Neumann KM184s or KM100s. My KM184s, which are 10 years old, will pick up cell phone interference within 50 feet! The KM100s are quiet up to about 1'. Neumann has a new circuit board introduced to the KM184s around 1998 that they say solves the problem. I'm going to try Neumann cables with the 184s before I go for a circuit board upgrade. Right now the 184s are not safe in any room where a cell phone is on.

I can get interference with the 660 with the KM100s connected or with nothing connected if I get withing 2-3 feet of the recorder. So I would say the 660 is safe if your mics and cables are okay as long as the phone isn't within about 5 feet of the recorder.

[BayTaynt3d]

This is a known problem and is widespread and it pretty much doesn't matter what gear you have. In fact, I've heard on movie sets with location sound being recorded, it has become a HUGE problem that causes things to be re-recorded all the time. Best thing you can do is turn your phone off, and have anyone in your immediate party turn theirs off, and then cross your fingers. The more modern the phone, and particularly GSM phones, the more likely this will happen regardless of whether there is a phone call being made -- the new phones "phone home" a lot more than they did back in the day.

[wsphansam]

wrapped it in what I think was brass screening.

You're correct it was brass screen, I guess if you're really concerned you could cover you gear with it.

[prof_peabody]

wrapped it in what I think was brass screening.

You're correct it was brass screen, I guess if you're really concerned you could cover you gear with it.

It's called a Faraday cage.

You could always bring one of these with you:



http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/toe.html

[Jamos]

It's definitely the GSM based networks where this is a problem...

For several years that I had Verizon, I never saw this problem, but now that I use Cingular, I hear it all the time.  I've always seen that the phone needs to be pretty close to the piece of electronics to get picked up though...

best just to turn your phone and ask others to turn their phones OFF while recording.

 

[oleg]

http://www.neutrik.com/start.asp


check for emc connectors


XLR Cable Connectors / EMC-XLR

 
       

   
  The EMC-XLR cable connector is the answer for a noise-safe audio signal connection. 3 pole male / female XLR cable connector with capacitive cable shield - shell connection to avoid RF-interference and LF-noise. 360° shield contact on female connector ensures best possible shielding and chassis contact.
 
 

[BayTaynt3d]

http://www.neutrik.com/start.asp


check for emc connectors


XLR Cable Connectors / EMC-XLR

 
      

  
  The EMC-XLR cable connector is the answer for a noise-safe audio signal connection. 3 pole male / female XLR cable connector with capacitive cable shield - shell connection to avoid RF-interference and LF-noise. 360° shield contact on female connector ensures best possible shielding and chassis contact.
 
 

And you'll still get cell interference under certain conditions... 

[nic]

I used to have this problem all the time with older analog cell phones, but no longer with the digital GSM phones.
this wasnt with the 660, but with DATs and speakers.

my work Nextel is the worst offender by far...so far nothing but good results with my 2 Cingular phones(Razr and Sony/Ericson s710a)

[pmonk66]

Did the interference sound like a clock ticking??? On one track I can hear what can only be described like a clocking ticking coming our of my right channel as well!

[phr]

I haven't tried with a cell phone but my 660 definitely picks up hash if it's too near a computer.  The thing is not very well shielded.  I'm surprised nothing really better has come along yet, though the R09 has its good points.

[china_rider]

my 660 definitely picks up hash

Mmmm... if only I could pick up hash that easily.