Is there a device or software that i can use to measure the voltage passsing
between two points and record that somehow, over a time period of say, a month?
Cheaper would be better. Here's why I need such a thing.

The Calrec Sigma console I use at work is intermittently making a loud Digital
kind of Zapping noise, like when your Converters totally wack out for a second.
And if I touch the touch sensitive faders say a second later I get a strong
electric shock, which on next retouching is gone. This has also happened when
i have *already* had my hand sitting on one the faders, so the explanation of
"static electricity" - at least as we commonly think of it - does not make
sense. It also has happened in quite humid times of year, not just when the
air is dry as is typical for static.

The first time this happened my A2 was plugging in a hardline mic at the time.
We have mic direct outs from the Calrec feeding a PA MIxer on the Studio floor,
incorrectly patched into mic inputs. When I got the first shock I went down to
that PA Mixer and found Phantom power was engaged on some console channels, and
I assumed that as this was feeding multiple channels of 48V back up into the
output busses of the Calrec that this accounted for the shock - yeah I know,
they have diodes and blocking caps in there for protection, but it seemed to
happen at the same time. However I have since been shocked and heard the noise
bursts with the PA mixer totally shut off, this has happened about 12 times
since August.

The Studio D/Control facility is first class in terms of design, Chris Bauer
our former Director of Engineering is no slouch (and his Dad was an original
"Harmonicat"), and all is according to Calrec's specs for the mixer
installation (except for how the PA Board is interfaced, there the facility
Install guys ignored my warnings about how that shouild be done. Hey, XLR -
XLR!) Anyway everything is well tied to heavy copper buss bars tied to a star
ground buss bar, tied to the building. The Calrec's Control surface and Audio
rack have separate power supplies.

I would like to record the voltages passing between say, one of the Calrec's
faders and a ground point for a month and see it we get any spikes, and record
the time, duration and voltage of any events. I would like to record and
quantify this mystery.

I am concerned this could be a Console manufacturing defect or design problem
obviously, but one of the construction guys who physically built the room made
an interesting comment. He said "The room is built for Static electricity. When
we were building it we were getting strong shocks *from the building* and
called in electricians, and they said it was just static." Now there were once
defects in some of the Robo Cam pedestal that caused them to spit garbage into
the BSP panels they shared with our mic inputs throuigh the common grounds,
making our mics "pop", and I am wondering if it is possible that something
similar is happening? Although there are shocks involved here, so is there any
way that might make sense? Maybe there sometimes such a different potential
between the studio floor and the control room that there are current spikes
through the patchbay ties? Could bad lighting dimmers electrify our BSP panels
mometarily through the grounds, or if there was a short between a ground wire
and pin 2 on a mic connection would that allow a potential in somewhere it
should not go?

This is a hard one to nail down, especially for a guy who is mainly a mixing
engineer such as I, and it is such a transient event. Ideas anyone?
Thanks.

Will Miho
NY Music & TV Audio Guy
Audio Guy / Fox News
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits