What do you do when you feel like doing a mod. Where do you get your ideas. Do you feel ashamed to borrow from the members. I think we should talk about this because it's a MAJOR issue. Thanks for looking.
PEACE&LOVE
First off, the 'urge to mod' has to have a purpose.
I rarely open anything up 'blind' - the case in point being the BOSS SD-1 - not enough 'grunt' on the low end.
Google really is your friend in this respect - the amount of information available to us is staggering - and we don't even have to leave the desk!
There are an awful lot of things I've borrowed (learned!) from this forum - also Erik Hansen's site is very clear and concise.
As always, the hat must be tipped to the Geofex (R.G.Keen) site, and to the more senior members of this forum (Aron, Mark Hammer, PRR, RG Keen, Joe Gagan) - and lots of other folks, too - for always seeming to be able to explain *why* mod x, y, or z does what it does.
So in answer to your question, 'disappointment with existing tone' usually gets my brain working... :icon_wink:
Quote from: newfish on April 01, 2012, 03:39:58 PM
First off, the 'urge to mod' has to have a purpose.
It's a graffiti.
Quote from: newfish on April 01, 2012, 03:39:58 PM
I rarely open anything up 'blind' - the case in point being the BOSS SD-1 - not enough 'grunt' on the low end.
What amp ?
Quote from: newfish on April 01, 2012, 03:39:58 PM
Google really is your friend in this respect - the amount of information available to us is staggering - and we don't even have to leave the desk!
Google is a robotic God. What you do to stop running like chicken.
Quote from: newfish on April 01, 2012, 03:39:58 PM
As always, the hat must be tipped to the Geofex (R.G.Keen) site, and to the more senior members of this forum (Aron, Mark Hammer, PRR, RG Keen, Joe Gagan) - and lots of other folks, too - for always seeming to be able to explain *why* mod x, y, or z does what it does.
Acknowledgement, yes. But You.
Quote from: newfish on April 01, 2012, 03:39:58 PM
So in answer to your question, 'disappointment with existing tone' usually gets my brain working... :icon_wink:
Disapointment, yes. Then ? What you do ? Work on the floor ? Turn on the TV ? Shut down internet ? Light a cigarette ?
Break your habits.
From simple like do things in a different order to difficult like don´t eat for a day.
Stimulating creativity?
Ohmigod. How does one STOP? How can you keep the flood of ideas from crowding one another, fighting for attention?
A close friend (who was a practicing psychologist in their day job) once told me that although the popular view is that creative people like artists, sculptors, composers, writers, etc. are blessed with some inner advantage, that's not usually how it works out. Most highly creative people are cursed with the inability to stop. It's like an itch they can't scratch any other way.
Have you ever had a truly vicious, insistent, burning itch that won't let you think of anything else or stop clawing at it? Poison ivy style?
King Midas' curse comes to mind. Most highly creative people wind up being unhappy people who never sync up with the rest of the world. I suspect that a lot of the drug use in the artsy set comes from trying to calm things down a bit.
Creativity just happens. It happens best when you're well rested and not pushing.
Well, OK, there's that thing about necessity being the mother of invention. That's false. *Desperation* is the mother of invention. :icon_lol:
Quote from: R.G.Ohmigod. How does one STOP? How can you keep the flood of ideas from crowding one another, fighting for attention?
+1
:icon_biggrin:
Quote from: Slade on April 02, 2012, 11:13:41 AM
Quote from: R.G.Ohmigod. How does one STOP? How can you keep the flood of ideas from crowding one another, fighting for attention?
+1
:icon_biggrin:
Yes, but you guys have started and screwed so many times. You guys had developed the art and have the experience under the belt. No need to think. You can go from blast of creative nonsense intuition to rigourous evaluation of what is possible and not.
I'll throw some more cards on the table.
I feel more and more that I need a large table to be 'fluent'.
Parts bins don't need to be close to my hand. I just have to take to the table the parts I need to get started.
Scrap book with schematics glued. No order needed.
Blank block of paper. Write, write, write. Tear sheets and glue in scrapbook.
A drawer to put all the parts that you don't want to tidy up. In the drawer cookie boxes to put resistors, caps, trannies, and ic. (semi tidied-up).
A corner of the big table to put mixed parts together. Reference theory books and data must be close to hand (more than parts).
A flexible method or a starter idea. Anyone is good but it's one you'll be motivated to do. You can start with:
I wanna do a circuit with a coil and a BJT. Two parts startup.
Booster with an opamp. One concept and one part.
Tagboard and LDR. One substrate, one part.
Gyrator and veroboard: Concept and substrate.
Etc.
Start with a grain of nothing and expand. At first don't worry about functionality too much: follow your inner mess.
And don't worry if you think it's not getting to stompbox town. Just enjoy.
If possible don't use PCB: it's good for production.
Breadboard, tagboard, deadbug, Manhattan is good.
Don't use too precious/rare/expensive version of a part unless you really don't care. As Picasso used to do: cardboard is good enough for the work. You have to work with ideas, not value.
Don't obsess on what you need, use what you have. Discovery is more important.
Work as if the forum were not there until you hit the rock.
Then don't use the forum.
Try an other road with what you have. Any road is good when you don't know where you are going. You will screw, hit an obstacle, don't be able to do anything more.
Do that for at least two hours.
Sleep.
Check out what you have done, make an assessment. You may have done more than what you think.
Quote from: R.G. on April 02, 2012, 10:48:56 AM
Stimulating creativity?
A close friend (who was a practicing psychologist in their day job) once told me that although the popular view is that creative people like artists, sculptors, composers, writers, etc. are blessed with some inner advantage, that's not usually how it works out. Most highly creative people are cursed with the inability to stop. It's like an itch they can't scratch any other way.
I've done arts and that is what I have to say about that:
If you take brushes and colors and lay spots and lines of color on a cardboard there is nothing in your way to do what you want except yourself, what you expect to be beautiful, good, equelibrated, etc. And the judgement of others. The judgement of others is your own judgement to a certain extent. You are a cultural drop of water in the see of cultural influences. But to be living in your art you have to do it alone. You have to start and explore and be curious all by yourself. Your classmate can't hold your brush. Then when you have done something, the teacher will put the work into pieces and will demolish what you have done. As much as the work is you you have to separate from it when it come to get down to earth.
Now lets talk music:
Scales, arpeggios, chords, inversions, picking techniques, musical theory, etudes, etc. etc. There is technique involved here. It's more technically involving that doing spots with watercolors. But you have to do spots to become good. You have to practice but screw around. You have to feel the ugly nature of technical stuff to make it your own. It's hard. If you have no friends and have nothing else to do than loosing your time on a guitar you'll be good. You can explore by yourself and don't care about other say until you meet, the guides, the teachers or the master.
Now,
Take the Maxwell equations or the Navier-Strokes equations: That is what eng students work hard for for only 'feeling' the complex nature of things. You got to do your chops to be relatively good. BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT.
You don't have to be good. You have to find the road, your inner road to the Maxwell eq. You can start with barely anything, barely nothing but you have to take your lead wire and turn it to gold. And that nobody will tell you the chemical element simply because its of no value. You will study till four in the morning for years only to notice years later that technique is everything. It's the path of love when all the technique is in your heart. When you will understand that all that technique is the history of humanity and that history is yourself. But be ready to be good because you'll eat your shoes when MBA maniacs will see you as their tool.
Quote from: R.G. on April 02, 2012, 10:48:56 AM
- Have you ever had a truly vicious, insistent, burning itch that won't let you think of anything else or stop clawing at it? Poison ivy style?
Yes, but not much in stompboxes.
Quote from: R.G. on April 02, 2012, 10:48:56 AM
King Midas' curse comes to mind. Most highly creative people wind up being unhappy people who never sync up with the rest of the world. I suspect that a lot of the drug use in the artsy set comes from trying to calm things down a bit.
Quote from: R.G. on April 02, 2012, 10:48:56 AM
Creativity just happens. It happens best when you're well rested and not pushing.
No stress no depress.
Quote from: newfish on Yesterday at 01:39:58 PM
-- So in answer to your question, 'disappointment with existing tone' usually gets my brain working... icon_wink
- Disapointment, yes. Then ? What you do ? Work on the floor ? Turn on the TV ? Shut down internet ? Light a cigarette ?
Cigarettes, eating, bear etc. Not good.
Quote from: R.G. on April 02, 2012, 10:48:56 AM
Well, OK, there's that thing about necessity being the mother of invention. That's false. *Desperation* is the mother of invention. :icon_lol:
The blues or the black nights and no more money.
+1 on what RG said .
i get "poison ivy idea attacks" often at UN-apropriate times . like when i am trying to watch a movie with my family .
the only way i can stop it is to get pencil and paper make a skecth , BOM , then notes . takes around 5 minutes , but then i can get on with the evening , but it still keeps popping up for the first hour .
thats the worst . it bugs my ole lady , and i totally understand , she can tell when i am jonesin .
a lil OT but ; i find my best brainstorming , especially "troubleshooting" or debugging type thought process occurs while driving or in the rest room , usually ALONE , and there is background music going on too . sitting at the work area , after it doesn't work , thats not the ideal scenario . at that point i should LEAVE for at least 15 minutes , but , sometimes its something stupid (not plugged in) , limiting that first run of error checking would be more productive than chasing non existent gremlins . know when to walk away .
Arghh ! I get poison Ivy about anything but stompboxes. Last time I built a stompbox I ended studying Hartley and Colpitts oscillators.
... so don't listen to me. :D
So how do you wind your inductors. Plastic tubes: I know plastic tubes well.
Phoque.
Go to a quiet place - just relax and let the solution and creativity come to you.
I think the best thing one can do to stimulate their creativity is to never stop learning and don't limit yourself in what you learn. Many of the non-audio related projects that I have worked on have in some way influenced my audio-based ideas/designs. And it's kind of cool that over the years I have taken what was learned in one field and applied it in another field that seems unrelated at first glance. All of the RF, noise, network and feedback theory that has been forced down my throat has turned me into a much better general purpose analog designer. With that knowledge I can usually go much quicker from new idea to real project or at least grasp the feasibility of an idea. Part of the trick to good engineering is knowing whether something is doable and worth pursuing.
The cool thing with audio engineering is we tend to throw the rules out the window. We are in the business of pushing devices past their intended operating points to extract non-linearities that we otherwise would not encounter. With that said, if you don't understand what rules you are breaking then you are throwing punches blindfolded in a fistfight. You might luck out and get something to sound cool but it ain't going on my pedalboard if you can't explain what phenomenon causes something to react the way it does (and/or if the circuit doesn't repeat its "trick" very well in all situations). There's a lot of bad artists in the world that still make a living but the ones that garner the most respect (and money) are the ones who have mastered their medium.
I find my best ideas come from needing a solution to a problem, whether that problem be how to power something or how to get a sound that I'm hearing in my head. While I do occasionally come up with something completely arbitrarily (fwiw my best ideas are either in the shower, on the toilet or when trying to fall asleep), these ideas usually take longer to flush out and tend to be a bit more "out there" than if I am taking someones work and modifying it for my needs. The first thing to do when you want to create something new is to see what has already been done (this is especially easy with Google nowadays!) and see if improvements can be made there. If not then I start thinking about the most elegant way to do what I want (elegant being cost effective and simple). The most beautiful/elegant equations are the simplest ones..
Also don't be afraid/ashamed to borrow from others! There is always someone smarter/more knowledgeable than you out there and having too much pride to ask others for help will hurt you in the long run! I think the only time I feel ashamed about something is if I borrow the idea without understanding the circuit.
Quote from: aron on April 02, 2012, 09:45:04 PM
Go to a quiet place - just relax and let the solution and creativity come to you.
There is a park near my house. Today I took my slalom skateboard and went across the parc and to the 'presqu'ile' (barely island).
There is the river and the religious 'Missionnaires' establishment. They have their own cemetery in a big garden. On the tombs there is the location of the mission where the religious died.
Japan, Philipines, Africa and many more places.
I was looking for beavers there are a lot of them there. And there are the wild ducks, the squirels and the snapping turtle. When I was a kid I found a snapping turtle there in the middle of the grass. We kept the turtle and brought it back in a bigger protected park near the St-Laurent river.
I found a beaver hole and told it to a lady who was looking at me.
The lady told me she was a nurse in in the north at the Hudson Bay and treated Amerindians who got sick from metallurgic poisoning of the rivers; many died. She told me how they hunted the beaver. How they killed them, prepared the fur and sell that.
Eleven dollars a fur, a hundred dollars for ten skins.
Trail is under the foot of the indian.
Indian must keep walking.
Quote from: Cliff Schecht on April 03, 2012, 12:23:21 AM
I think the best thing one can do to stimulate their creativity is to never stop learning and don't limit yourself in what you learn. Many of the non-audio related projects that I have worked on have in some way influenced my audio-based ideas/designs. And it's kind of cool that over the years I have taken what was learned in one field and applied it in another field that seems unrelated at first glance. All of the RF, noise, network and feedback theory that has been forced down my throat has turned me into a much better general purpose analog designer. With that knowledge I can usually go much quicker from new idea to real project or at least grasp the feasibility of an idea. Part of the trick to good engineering is knowing whether something is doable and worth pursuing.
As I understand, to develop stompboxes you need to know electronics, the more topics, the more subject, the better. You got to be a good technician (not pejorative).
I had a creativity class in ME. The big picture is what you said. You got to alternate 'wild thinking' with critical thinking. If you get experience you do it even without thinking. If you have the personality you may be a good inventor, R&D etc.
Quote from: Cliff Schecht on April 03, 2012, 12:23:21 AM
The cool thing with audio engineering is we tend to throw the rules out the window. We are in the business of pushing devices past their intended operating points to extract non-linearities that we otherwise would not encounter.
You can push into non linearity as much as you want: if it's a good idea and you have an idea of what you are doing, it's a good thing. If you are barely blind about theory it's naive art: but i think it good. A noble aristocratic frenchman can judge a totem pedantly, it will take Gauguin to appreciate savage art. I am pushing the limits but sometimes post doctoral mind steal their students. Probably the student knows what he is getting to. :icon_lol:
Quote from: Cliff Schecht on April 03, 2012, 12:23:21 AM
With that said, if you don't understand what rules you are breaking then you are throwing punches blindfolded in a fistfight. You might luck out and get something to sound cool but it ain't going on my pedalboard if you can't explain what phenomenon causes something to react the way it does (and/or if the circuit doesn't repeat its "trick" very well in all situations).
Yes the Shaolin monk does not kung fu for nothing. Unless he knows that it's for nothing.
Quote from: Cliff Schecht on April 03, 2012, 12:23:21 AM
There's a lot of bad artists in the world that still make a living but the ones that garner the most respect (and money) are the ones who have mastered their medium.
Well some good ones die before getting know-ed. Music is very subjective and cultural. I can not judge too fast but a virtuoso is a virtuoso. Some are more composers or improvisers. Some have unusual perspective.
Wild thinking: try changing perspective. Put yourself in the head of your worst enemy.
Quote from: Cliff Schecht on April 03, 2012, 12:23:21 AM
I find my best ideas come from needing a solution to a problem, whether that problem be how to power something or how to get a sound that I'm hearing in my head. While I do occasionally come up with something completely arbitrarily (fwiw my best ideas are either in the shower, on the toilet or when trying to fall asleep), these ideas usually take longer to flush out and tend to be a bit more "out there" than if I am taking someones work and modifying it for my needs.
As Aron told, relax, go outside after stress or hard work. The brain will continue by itself and place stuff for you.
Quote from: Cliff Schecht on April 03, 2012, 12:23:21 AM
The first thing to do when you want to create something new is to see what has already been done (this is especially easy with Google nowadays!) and see if improvements can be made there.
Data gathering, stop surfing read more. Take notes, the menory is in the hand. Moses was a great strategist because he knew how to write down what he thought about. He could trace cards in the desert and put the right name on the objects he was persuing.
Quote from: Cliff Schecht on April 03, 2012, 12:23:21 AM
Also don't be afraid/ashamed to borrow from others! There is always someone smarter/more knowledgeable than you out there and having too much pride to ask others for help will hurt you in the long run! I think the only time I feel ashamed about something is if I borrow the idea without understanding the circuit.
At least, we should try to understand.
Thanks Sensei Frank. I am enjoying this thread very much.
I'm lucky because I live near the sea.....unpredictability, turmoil, irresistable force, and then resolution.....it's all there.
Quote from: markeebee on April 03, 2012, 04:03:57 AMI'm lucky because I live near the sea.....unpredictability, turmoil, irresistable force, and then resolution.....it's all there.
I, on the other hand, have kids. I get most of what you're saying, but that "resolution" you're talking about sounds fun, I might have to try the sea some time.
Well here is a way:
I just became a dad, which gives me less time building/tinkering/fooling around with circuits in the shed and more time thinking about designs.
So: spend more time thinking about circuit designs then plugging wires on the breadboard.
My creative ideas are musical ones now, not electronics which is just a means to an end. I don't mod anything unless I have a specific thing I want to improve or fix. That's what drives me to do it in the first place.
Quote from: markeebee on April 03, 2012, 04:03:57 AM
Thanks Sensei Frank. I am enjoying this thread very much.
I'm lucky because I live near the sea.....unpredictability, turmoil, irresistable force, and then resolution.....it's all there.
It's Girlyman fault. ;D
Hey Mark, if you want to come see me just take your boat.
Quote from: DougH on April 03, 2012, 11:49:25 AM
My creative ideas are musical ones now, not electronics which is just a means to an end. I don't mod anything unless I have a specific thing I want to improve or fix. That's what drives me to do it in the first place.
I don't know who would build stompboxes and don't like music in the first place. Who would do that. If someone get the kick for it in a moment in it's life or most of it's life: cool. How I see it is that building ship into bottles can be tedious as a hobby. If you build boats into bottles it's that you acquired the disposition of mind and a taste for boats. If you get tired of putting and gluing toothpick in you last night party container, I see no problems. Plenty of poeple come to the forum to talk boxes and tone and have a technical point of view on the topic, that is great to have a knowledgeable buddy who can point out that the stagecoach is driving right to the cliff. We are doing all that for fun, but when the trill is gone, it's not there. Wright ?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120514134332.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100518064610.htm
Quote from: frank_p on May 16, 2012, 12:51:49 PM
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100518064610.htm
Quote"Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box," says Dr Ullén about his new findings.
How's your box? ;D
Quote from: Perrow on May 16, 2012, 02:31:35 PM
How's your box? ;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjmmjXGwarU
1% inspiration
99% perspiration
Quote from: cthulhudarren on May 16, 2012, 03:44:17 PM
1% inspiration
99% perspiration
See serendipity (preparation)
http://cogprints.org/1627/1/harnad.creativity.html
Motorcycle.. Ride until I am out of gas or have an ideal..
I'm in RG's camp with sticky notes everywhere that once a month get typed into spreadsheets - Excel is the ultimate creativity organizer
I don't agree, however, that ideas come when you are well-rested, as many of my best ideas are at 3:30 a.m. when my mind stops editing my thoughts
What I have found is that when the solution to a problem isn't coming, I don't move on to another project, instead I step away and make some food that requires lots of vegetable chopping or maybe grilling a lot of individual wings or ribs - something that requires close attention but not deep thought - and inevitably some creative solution to the problem will pop in my head.
So that's my ritual - cook some Thai food. Worst case, you'll enjoy delicious curry!
frank, i appreciate your quest, it is good.
very much as Rg states, how does one put a stop on it?
i have 30 or 40 things that require real-world fabrication. i guess i have limited myself until i get at least one third of them "tried out"
a shame , really, what else is there once the cork is uncapped?
Quote from: joegagan on May 18, 2012, 02:25:33 AM
i have 30 or 40 things that require real-world fabrication. i guess i have limited myself until i get at least one third of them "tried out"
a shame , really, what else is there once the cork is uncapped?
Put the most you can on paper. In some papers I've read the authors say that if you are an experienced designer your knowledge will weed out stems of ideas that are not optimal, automatically. But that may not be the best idea for innovation. In desing methodology, you put the most possible ideas that comes from you, your team, past technological endeavors of others and competitors solutions to formulate
the functions. In other terms, 'what is what you found will do'. Then you have to find criterions to judge the value of all the ideas. (That is where you have to recap the bottle) Once you have a display of all the ideas you have on hand, all the rebarbative truth about the real value of these ideas, you can have a better insight on what you want to put your energy into. Of course that is a very systematized method and what I think is to keep in mind about that OCD stuff that engineers use to make competitive products on the market is that: the flow of idea can continue, that is not a problem at all. The problem is more the limited time you have on hand. How much time can you give to the best ideas you had so that it can become the best success as possible. And than can be applied to start a new project, perfecting it, putting it in a realistic production scheme and marketing it to the best target buyers.
There is a french slang expression we use here that is: 'Un moment donné faut être realisss calisss. That mean: There is a time when a son of a gun must be realist.
Put the Marshall suit, take the best insight, give orders and go to war. Do you want to fight for the best ideas you found ? Perhaps you would like to delegate some work ?
PS: Joe, I'll come back with more concrete stuff for your specific question.
Every night I tell myself, "That's it. Find something more important to do. Instead of sitting at this bench tomorrow night, go make love to your wife."
Then every morning on my way to work, "Hey...what if I used "x" instead of "y" and biased it with "z"? I bet that would sound killer!" And then I spend all day obsessing over it until it isn't fun anymore. Then I after I put the kid to bed I rush down to the basement (to my bench) and tweak R's and C's until about midnight and then I swear I'll never do it again.
I think I just don't want to walk away from something I've invested so much money and time into. I'm afraid of sunken costs (with a hobby???-it makes sense to me)! But I really do need a break. I've taken to simulating as much as possible to avoid breadboarding but sometimes you really need to tune by ear.
I think once I've tried everything, or everything that interests me, I'll put the iron down. Unfortunately, that list keeps growing.
Or find a more advanced hobby. How about some kit cars?
The things is that creative phase (divergence) and ciricism (convergence) can be done whenever you feel like doing it. Perhaps you have a friend who is really good at criticising. If you are not good at it and don't want to do it, find somebody who is willing to do it. In engineering there are LOADS of persons with that personality. They can't help themselves not to organise everything and work until they burn out. Human diversity exist to feed sustainable group of person. If you work alone you have to be able to do everything. That is really hard.
I oscillate. I iteratively approach a problem until each part of it is solved. Same thing with creativity. I start with a base idea and shot gun it taking each part of it and extrapolating until the idea has reached its logical end (I don't usually create for no reason, at least not in a technical environment). If I get hung up on something I either move on and loop, or talk it through with someone. Often the act of talking it through will allow me to step into the answer, or the other person will say something that either triggers the answer or that person provides the answer. I tend to find inspiration everywhere (hence why I am on several different forums that cover the same basic topics). Each of them have a different bend that allows me to see into a different corner of the topic which then gives me material to pull from. The more tools in the box the easier it is to build something from nothing. I also tend to find inspiration from everyday life, but that's a little more abstract and difficult to explain. As for using someone else idea, I'm not proud, I call it research!
In the great words of Tom Lehrer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL4vWJbwmqM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL4vWJbwmqM)):
Plagiarize
Let no one else's work evade your eyes
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes
So don't shade your eyes
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize
Only be sure always to call it please "research"
Quote from: defaced on May 18, 2012, 04:01:05 PM
As for using someone else idea, I'm not proud, I call it research!
In the great words of Tom Lehrer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL4vWJbwmqM (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL4vWJbwmqM)):
Plagiarize
Let no one else's work evade your eyes
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes
So don't shade your eyes
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize
Only be sure always to call it please "research"
The basis to work in group is plagiarism and sharing. You have to dose the two of them to be a dot on the net. To talk, you have to imitate and give. To have ideas is to live in the culture where humans stand.
Quote from: MoltenVoltage on May 18, 2012, 02:07:36 AM
So that's my ritual - cook some Thai food. Worst case, you'll enjoy delicious curry!
I love to cook asian food. Sooo much... ;D
Quote from: joegagan on May 18, 2012, 02:25:33 AM
i have 30 or 40 things that require real-world fabrication. i guess i have limited myself until i get at least one third of them "tried out"
a shame , really, what else is there once the cork is uncapped?
Ok. Perhaps that is what you are looking for. There is a tool I've learned at school (It was a bit far behind but there it was).
There it goes (smilies faces added to follow text better):
Joe want to put out some stuff for his products he will put on the market... But he have too much stuff in his papers and he have to decide on some circuits for going into production. ??? The best circuits he can get to fabricate are complex, too big, too (whatever). There is a lot of inconveniences there because it's far from easy to put in production, getting the parts is long, the casing is expensive because it's a standard. So he decide on some avenues. :icon_confused: What does he do. :icon_neutral: :icon_question:
The first step is to formulate your problem . You have to know what is your problem. :icon_exclaim:
In your case (I think), YOUR PROBLEM IS:
you have to put 10 circuits or ideas of circuit into pre-production. :icon_idea: :icon_idea: :icon_idea:
That is absolute number one stuff to do absolutely. But god damn you can't help youself, you are scared on what to do first. :-[
Second, you have to separate what you have to put into pre-production into what is what you
want and what would be a total
must circuit into your products to be sustainable or OK.
In your case you already told me you had 10 circuits that are super important to work on. You already made the work (well choose 10 or 5 or 3, whatever it is more realist and must do)
That is what I talked before about judging, deciding, putting the bar to a level where you can do it and will be judged as success. That is the criteria for a given
function. 10 CIRCUITS.
What you have there is a numbered criterion. :icon_cool:
OKAY that is numbered: YOU have to number it absolutely. That is the abolute must, the 20 other circuits are a desire. You have 10 products in your front line for going out. You know the electronics OK, you know what musicians in what you are working would like, etc. You are not a beginner. To be by the book, you are OK.
20 other circuits that you have in your papers. That you like a lot, it is really getting you exited and other stuff that are good avenues, and the rest is... well... so-so.
Sit down, put your 20 circuits in front of you and brainstorm on why, what, when you think those circuits are cool, not so or probably or a really good idea. Expand what you know about them.
List everything down on paper.
You will probably have really long list of thing there... :icon_rolleyes: It is the big work to do... Be patient. :icon_wink:
You have to take each comments and compare them to each other in your list.
DO THAT WITH THE 20 CIRCUITS that are just the desired ones you left to play into. Relax, chill get to the bottom.
Example:
Circuit 1
Circuit 2
Circuit 3
Circuit 4
to 20Th circuit
1) case is expensive
2) circuit is tedious to solder
3) amazing sound
4) too much wires
...etc
down to the 20th.
OuKi. I put it basic but you can understand you can go more precise or more beefy.
Then put it in basic language:
- case price
- solder work load
- coolness of the sound
- wiring difficulty
etc...
When you compare an idea to the other give it a score 1 to 10. Or 1 to 5. Whatever scale you choose.
1) vs 2 ... case is less important than the work to do on soldering
1 vs 3 ... the sound of the effect is much more important than what the case cost
1 vs 4 ... I don't like wiring man, it's a total pain. bottom
2 vs 1 ...
2 vs 3
2 vs 4
For each round of fights give points (ex: 1 :-\ :P to 10 :icon_smile: :icon_biggrin: :icon_twisted:) to the best winner
Do that for everything. Put the point of each items together (+ or *) You'll already have a list of factors with an order of criteras that are top to bottom, super willing :icon_mrgreen: :icon_biggrin: to ''man give me a break'' >:(.
Take these criterias and put your ten best ideas you had took as absolute must circuits to do, and judge the circuits you have there with the criterion that you found for the 20 willing circuits.
Now put your 10 MUST circuits to the test. JUDGE the the best you can with the DESIRES you had found for the 20 leftovers circuits, the ABSOLUTE MUST circuits. JUDGE THEM. Put the quotes.
You'll then have the 10 circuits to absolutely do to pre-production, prioritized with freekin' awesome desires you would like to do best. 8)
----------------------------------------------
Of course you can chill, change stuff and thinker as you sort that. Take little notes that will just put some perspective into what you change and what the method had not sorted out conveniently to your taste or situation. Or what you think would not suit you necessarily.
That is a tool that is really useful when you are a bit lost with all the avenues that are presenting to yourself. It's a resume of a much more heavy method that big manufacturers or armies use. :-\ (tedious pain)
Cool ? I tell you this is quite powerful Joe. Try it, it can't hurt.
Then, list the comments of your first 10 circuits and do the same exercise.
Keep all the list of comments and numbered criterions you had done for the circuits and keep them. If you decide to uncap the genie again, put him to the test of the Marshall you've made of yourself.
Kung-Fu time.
Quote from: MoltenVoltage on May 18, 2012, 02:07:36 AM
I'm in RG's camp with sticky notes everywhere that once a month get typed into spreadsheets - Excel is the ultimate creativity organizer.
Take the post-it to do the bubble sorting by comparing the comments about the different circuits.
Man, it's 3:50am zzz
Sorry for all the consecutive posts.
My ritual is pretty simple:
I usually just take a poop, eat some Lucky Charms and smoke a phatty... not necessarily in that order. And remember, NEVER hold in your farts! They will travel up your spine and enter your brain, that's where sh!tty ideas come from... :icon_biggrin:
Frank, i appreciate your posts, that asessment method will be helpful.
Now, all i need to do is figure out how to apply it to multiple modes. See, the 30 or 40 ideas i have are
Custom , sport and show cars.
Guitarpedal enclosures and related electronic implemetaions.
Guitars.
Amp and speaker cabs
Software
Phone apps.
Not to mention architecture.
I just read the entire Burst Box thread:
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=76932.0
QuoteStimulating your creativity, what are your rituals
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ABTF5V6BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
:icon_twisted: :icon_twisted: :icon_twisted:
Just kidding... (or not?)
I think that inspiration and in particular creativity are things that are written in your DNA or not. Things you have or you lack. You can't go to the university and take a course on Creativity II. Knowlegde helps to some extent, but knowlegde does not mean "Eureka!"
Same for business (you are a bull or a bear), sports, and of course girls (you are a Giacomo Casanova or chicks spit at you in the street) :)
mac
Quote from: mac on May 21, 2012, 11:41:53 AM
QuoteStimulating your creativity, what are your rituals
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ABTF5V6BL._SL500_AA300_.jpg)
Had a teacher who made some of homemade green brew. They called the velcro bear. Nobody could get out of the couch with that. :icon_lol:
Macasanova ? :D
QuoteHad a teacher who made some of homemade green brew. They called the velcro bear. Nobody could get out of the couch with that.
ah, college days... i bet you were not alone in that couch! ;)
QuoteMacasanova ?
:icon_twisted: On second thought, what's more inspiring than thinking that on tomorrow's show a pair of hot blondes near the stage will be looking at you delighted with the sound of a new fuzz you've just designed!!! 8)
mac
Quote from: mac on May 21, 2012, 09:53:18 PM
:icon_twisted: On second thought, what's more inspiring than thinking that on tomorrow's show a pair of hot blondes near the stage will be looking at you delighted with the sound of a new fuzz you've just designed!!! 8)
I see you are thinking about getting creative.
I bet you know the analogy and cross-fertilisation techniques. :icon_eek: