Anyone else been getting static bursts right before a spirit comes through on their recordings?

Yes mate, every single time without fail. I've been doing EVP sessions in a couple of the old kirkyard sites around Edinburgh and the static burst before a voice comes through is almost like a warning shot now, I've learned to just stay quiet and let it happen rather than reacting and ruining the clip. My old Zoom recorder picks it up cleaner than my phone does for some reason. What kit are you using when this happens? I'm wondering if certain recorders are more sensitive to whatever electromagnetic weirdness causes it. Also curious whether anyone's tried logging the gap between the static and the actual EVP - mine feels like its consistently about 2-3 seconds but I've never properly timed it.

@SortOfEcto yeah this is something I've noticed too, been doing EVP work down here in Cornwall for a couple years now and the static burst thing is pretty consistent. My theory is that whatever's manifesting is pulling electromagnetic energy from the environment right before it communicates, which creates that interference spike. Some researchers call it a "carrier wave" effect basically the entity needing to build up enough energy to produce the voice anomaly. I've started logging the duration of the static bursts and theres a rough correlation between longer bursts and clearer, louder EVP responses afterwards. Worth noting down timestamps if you aren't already, the pattern becomes really obvious when you review sessions side by side.

Really glad you posted this @SortOfEcto, welcome to the forum if you're fairly new here! I've noticed something similar doing sessions out near Rendlesham - the static almost feels like it has a texture to it if that makes sense, like certain bursts are "heavier" than others right before you get something intelligible come through. Started wondering if the static itself carries information that we're just not equipped to decode yet. Do you notice whether the duration of the burst correlates at all with the clarity of the EVP that follows? That's the pattern I keep seeing in my own recordings and I haven't seen many people talk about it specifically.