Why does my studio setup keep electricuting me?

K

Kerfoot32

New member
So I've been trying to setup a studio in my new two story house. My upstairs is a large one room, loft like area that I want to use as my control room. There is a small door upstairs that leads to a uninsulated attic like storage space. In that space I drilled a doorknob sized hole in the floor. Directly below that hole is a closet to a bedroom downstairs. That bedroom is the room I want to use as my recording room. I ran my 8 channel snake and a 1/4 inch extension cord (from my interface) through the hole in the floor to the bedroom downstairs. But whenever I try to plug in anything downstairs (headphones, microphone) I just get electrocuted by anything metal (microphone, metal end of headphones). Any idea why this is happening? Is there a solution?
 
It sounds like its time to get an outlet tester (just found one on Amazon for $5) and test your upstairs outlet and your extension cord for proper grounding.
 
New to me. My snake and headphone extension cord have always worked fine. It's something with this particular setup.
 
some older houses have messed up wiring. At any rate it sure sounds like an electrical issue in your "new" house.
 
Are you plugging different devices into different electrical outlets? It sounds like one of them is wired backwards. Get the outlet tester like Tadpui suggested.

Also verify, if possible, that all ground leads run back to the same terminal block in the electric panel.
 
RFR said:
some older houses have messed up wiring. At any rate it sure sounds like an electrical issue in your "new" house.
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Yeah I've already specified that I meant new to me.

Chili said:
Are you plugging different devices into different electrical outlets? It sounds like one of them is wired backwards. Get the outlet tester like Tadpui suggested.

Also verify, if possible, that all ground leads run back to the same terminal block in the electric panel.
Click to expand...

It's one device, my interface. So one lead.
 
Whenever electric shocks are happening call an electrician, I would bet that there is no ground in one of the rooms, you could also have a problem of different phases in each room and incorrect wiring on one phase, do not mess with mains wiring unless you are qualified.

Alan.
 
^^^^ I think this is good advice.

They could also install a seperate grounding rod for the studio.
having the studio seperate from the rest of the house wiring isn't a bad idea.
 
GET IT CHECKED / FIXED aside..
Rather than redoing dedicated single source for all the outlets in the two rooms in my little setup, I run everything off one known good source (where the 'rig' is, that one got a new shielded (EMT, ground back to the panel), then out with extension cords to any amps etc in the other room.
 
In order to get an electrical shock from a mic or a non-power cable, not only does there have to be a ground problem in your device supply but you have to be supplying a grounding path.

What happens when you have a mic/cable plugged into your interface in your 'control room'? Same thing? Are you getting any kind of a hum/buzz in the headphones or monitors?

You havent told us what interface you are using - we assume it has a power supply (not USB powered). Have you tried it in a different outlet in the house?
 
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