iPhone RFI in the Studio Problems?

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iPhone RFI in the Studio Problems?

Post by TapeOpLarry » Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:05 am

Are other folks having problems with the iPhone making all kinds of racket over their analog gear? We had one in the back of the room, at least 10-15 feet from the nearest wiring or gear, and it would make that cell phone buzzing noise all the time. Be wary of the damn things!
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Post by mn412 » Sat Mar 01, 2008 8:45 am

Yes. Not just in the studio either. in the car, watching tv. Always have to make sure its in airplane mode before recording anything. its funny/annoying when whole bands have them

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Post by KungFuLio » Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:03 am

Not just iPhone, any phone on GSM system.

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are the offenders.

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Post by JGriffin » Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:14 am

Yeah, we have that here as well. Any cel phone or blacknerry, it seems. I'm thinking of trying to ban the damn things from the studio.

I've only noticed the celphone chirp actually getting printed once though, usually it's just in the monitors and doesn't record. Still annoying as heck.
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Post by Trick Fall » Sat Mar 01, 2008 9:26 am

Nextels have their own special funkyness which I think is because of the walkie talkie. I'm dying to record the delay effect you get though when you walkie another nextel from a foot away though.

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Post by electrofloss » Sat Mar 01, 2008 10:17 am

KungFuLio wrote:Not just iPhone, any phone on GSM system.

AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon are the offenders.
Verizon? I haven't heard any problems with Verizon's phones - I thought they were CDMA, no?

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Post by RefD » Sat Mar 01, 2008 11:46 am

*BEEEEPitttiBEEEEPitttiBEEEEPitttiBEEEEPitttiBEEEEPittti*
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Post by cgarges » Sat Mar 01, 2008 12:55 pm

I know of one album that had to be remastered because the mastering engineer left his cell phone near the gear and didn't hear the effects until the artist checked out the reference after the session.

Fortunately, I don't have much trouble with cell phone interference. I would, however, love to ban cell phones from sessions just so people would fucking pay some attention to what's going on.

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Post by Jess P » Sat Mar 01, 2008 1:07 pm

Guys carry these things in their pants pockets about 5 inches away from their junk. Forget ruining recordings, I'm a bit weary of testicular cancer.

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Post by Recycled_Brains » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:28 am

It's so annoying. I always tell bands to turn them off when we're tracking anything, and always do so myself. They never listen though.

I did a live recording where the performer's cell phone went off during his performance, and I had to edit about 4 measures out of the song to get rid of the bleepidy bleep bleep sound. Luckily there was no vocal happening and it was a long song to begin with.


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Post by SpencerBenjamin » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:16 am

Tide Recording wrote:I'm a bit weary of testicular cancer.
... or even wary...?

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Post by Phiz » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:17 am

electrofloss wrote:
Verizon? I haven't heard any problems with Verizon's phones - I thought they were CDMA, no?
Yes, but according to wikipedia, they are starting to roll out the G4 standard LTE, which is a GSM variant. There are probably very few, if any, people using GSM phones with Verizon -- yet.

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Post by lunatic » Fri Mar 14, 2008 3:38 am

This is where I guess we are lucky. Cell phones do not work here at our studio. Too many hills! Well, they will work *if* you go to the end of the driveway, face a particular direction, and sit perfectly still. For the most part, though, they don't work and because of that band members have usually turned them off just about the time they get to the studio.

It's funny, even though there is a studio phone in the Control Room available at no charge to customers, they still try to turn on their cell phone and make a call. Every time I tell them, "Good chance it will not work." they try anyway and within minutes I see them on the studio phone.
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Post by Aquaman » Fri Mar 14, 2008 11:55 am

Tide Recording wrote:Forget ruining recordings, I'm a bit weary of testicular cancer.
So you've had it for a while now, then?

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Post by thieves » Fri Mar 14, 2008 12:50 pm

i first had to deal with the cell phone interference about 7 or 8 years ago in my band's practice space. our PA would pick it up and no one had any idea what it was for the longest time.

has anyone heard the track by max tundra that samples this sound? it made me figure out what the heck the sound was. it's got a nice little shuffley rhythm.
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