iPhone RFI in the Studio Problems?

thieves · Post by **thieves** » Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:52 pm

...bip bip- bip-bip bip bip bip- bip-bip bip

NewAndImprov · Post by **NewAndImprov** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:02 pm

My band had a gig recorded at a jazz club, really nice sounding room, and we hired a great engineer to track it. We were hoping to release it as a live CD (and still might). At this club, there's tables right up to the front of the stage. At the beginning of on of the sax solos, some guy at the front table's phone goes off, he had the ringer off, but the interference just obliterated the sax channel. And it was in the quiet section where he was doing some really nice textural stuff. Otherwise, the track was great, but editing that section out of the solo made it a lot less dynamic and interesting.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 5:17 pm

thieves wrote:...bip bip- bip-bip bip bip bip- bip-bip bip

*BEEEEPitttiBEEEEPitttiBEEEEPitttiBEEEEPitttiBEEEEPittti*

toddpipes · Post by **toddpipes** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:31 am

it's our policy that cell gadgets of any kind are not allowed for this reason--actually i've found that it's just a good excuse to get rid of dumbasses talking incessantly to their girlfriend/manager/a&r guy/etc

it's easy to enforce: just have someone call a cellphone, wave it by a monitor, ask,'do you want this sound all over your record?', they put their phones in their cars, you later explain that your phone has a special chip in it so the interference doesn't go to tape. . .

scott anthony · Post by **scott anthony** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:24 pm

Happened just last night, I was editing a live show taped with a ZoomH4. Luckily the take they wanted didn't have the offending interference until the end of the tune when audience was clapping. The ringer was off, just the rf chugging away...

JdJ · Post by **JdJ** » Thu Mar 20, 2008 12:16 pm

Damn this crap kills me. It took me a bit to figure out what the hell it was coming from, but every time a blackberry updates there is this freaky ghostly bidddybippppbidddybipppp thing.

-J

uniquebassplayer · Post by **uniquebassplayer** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 3:40 am

You guys ever notice how often this cellphone interference pops up on C-span? Seriously, it does...a ton. I'm convinced that the engineers there have no idea what is going on and it's probably one of them in the booth that is to blame.

It is also very common on a lot of televised news conferences.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 4:33 am

Why is this even an issue?

TURN THAT SHIT OFF.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:07 am

Sloan wrote:Why is this even an issue?

TURN THAT SHIT OFF.

Well, there are clients who come in who either feel they must always be reachable by celphone/blackberry, or who are required by their employer to always be reachable by celphone/blackberry, or are juggling three or more other projects in other studios and have to be reachable by celphone/blackberry, and if they can't have those devices turned on in my studio they may 1) lose their job, b) fuck up one of the other jobs or iii) decide to not use my studio in favor of a place that's not so anal about it.

rwc · Post by **rwc** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:18 am

Everytime this guy's cellphone goes off in my english class his iPod's volume shoots to max.

Freaky shit.

chris ryan · Post by **chris ryan** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:31 pm

i've never had a problem with it going to tape(disk) i can imagine iPhones are really bad though, because at&t's interference is always by far the loudest and worst. i had sprint and never heard it, but when i switched to t-moblie, sometimes i can hear it in the monitors.

too band sprint is a horrible service provider...

joel hamilton · Post by **joel hamilton** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:39 pm

My iphone does it.
Just lock the SIM so you can use the WIFI aspects of the phone, without the cellular aspects.

I just use it that way until we take a break, then i unlock the SIM and use it normally until it is time to dive back in. No big deal.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:42 pm

We actually did have it print to "tape" the other day, doing an ISDN session from LA--the engineer or the voiceover guy (not sure which) had his celphone on and it chirped in the middle of a take. And of course it got into their system and was fed through to mine. Oddly it's never printed during a totally local session.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:15 pm

dwlb wrote:
Sloan wrote:Why is this even an issue?

TURN THAT SHIT OFF.
Well, there are clients who come in who either feel they must always be reachable by celphone/blackberry, or who are required by their employer to always be reachable by celphone/blackberry, or are juggling three or more other projects in other studios and have to be reachable by celphone/blackberry, and if they can't have those devices turned on in my studio they may 1) lose their job, b) fuck up one of the other jobs or iii) decide to not use my studio in favor of a place that's not so anal about it.

In that case, you just deal with it.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 11:18 pm

Sloan wrote:
dwlb wrote:
Sloan wrote:Why is this even an issue?

TURN THAT SHIT OFF.
Well, there are clients who come in who either feel they must always be reachable by celphone/blackberry, or who are required by their employer to always be reachable by celphone/blackberry, or are juggling three or more other projects in other studios and have to be reachable by celphone/blackberry, and if they can't have those devices turned on in my studio they may 1) lose their job, b) fuck up one of the other jobs or iii) decide to not use my studio in favor of a place that's not so anal about it.
In that case, you just deal with it.

by ejecting them during takes.

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