eye of the storm

[osa]

I have been battling touch faders on a control surface showing erratic behavior, dropping in and out during recording automation, fighting me during movements etc. I had been dealing with this off and on for months. Finally got around last couple days to hardcore troubleshoot. Got online with tech support, resinstalled supporting software, hardware tests, network troubleshooting...until late last night when i thought all hope was lost and ready to send these in for repair, i finally discovered the problem:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have had this since the 80's via my grandma as a gift. I have always kept it in the studio for maintaining contact with spiritual realms as well as a lighted indicator linked to the power conditioner powering studio speakers to indicate if they are on or off. It had never occurred to me that this thing was creating problems until running tests last night with speakers off and suddenly everything was working as it should. This plasma ball was spilling electrical energy all over the faders causing touch automation mayhem.