Faithless Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 (edited) Hey guys, The past week I've been doing extensive TV Sessions, the singers contest/show "The Voice Of....", and I planned to use my little Microkorg synthesizer to pull some skanky basslines on a few tunes.... The sessions were supposed to be held in a nice little arena's (SPA center, restaurant,etc) music club, that was 'designed' for live music events, if I can say so.... When I set up my bass and synth, and started my synth's line-check, there was a continious high squeaky pitch and [i]ringing-cellphone-alike[/i] (just put a ringing phone near your bass pickups, and you'll get the idea...) sounds coming through the PA and in-ear monitors....... We've checked the leads, I ran the keyboard on batteries so that it doesnt get power supply, we then ran the keyboard straight to desk using a DI Box, I even brought it near the main desk and ran it using a symmetrical cable, but the result - same sounds..... I even brought a brand new Microkorg (same model) from a local-shop to check if there are any issues with my synth, and, quess what, it made the very same sounds as mine ... We then found out that at near the very top of the building we've been playing in, there is a [b]huge [/b]mobile phone freq. transmitter, and probably a radio-station transmitter too. Next day I brought my Microkorg packed into a cooking foil, so that it isolates keyboard from frequencies, and while it did make quite a bit of difference, it didnt completely cut the off, which mean that signal coming from those transmitters was really hot, and my synth was still acting as an 'antenna' (really bad isolation). One of the things about Microkorg's construction that really struck me was that it's made main out of plastic, rather than metal, which really makes the difference (I lent an Alesis synthesizer later ,which has a metal body, and there are no squeeky sounds....) Anyone faced anything like this? The thing is that it's the first time I had to deal with this sort of thing, and it caused lots of problems, and I dont want to face them again in the future, so I was thinking of getting a more reliable synth, like Roland Gaia, but isnt its body also made from plastic? easy Laimis Edited January 7, 2012 by Faithless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faithless Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 I later was told by one of our sound-guys, that he faced the same problems in a different area, huge sports/enterntainment arena, that had huge radio transmitters at the top of it, and the in-ear systems they've been using were squeaking all those unwanted pitches, until they requested to isolate those transmitters with some huge metallic isolation shells... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Alsatian Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Sadly, most synths are made from plastic these days, to keep the costs and weight down (many of them are portable) - the Gaia is plastic, as is the Novation Ultranova and the M-Audio Venom. Whether these are are also vulnerable to the interference is unknown. If you want the same exact same sounds as your MicroKorg but in a metal chassis, you could always buy a Korg MS2000, on which the MicroKorg engine was based. It would have to be second-hand as they've been discontinued. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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