Zen and the art of Tinkering

[J0K3RX]

R.G. - I was just jokin by the way 

[Cliff Schecht]

I don't like to start projects and not finish them. Whether I'm working on a scratch design or a clone, I always try to have a clear goal in mind for what the end product should be. If what I call a finalized product is not working to my satisfaction, then it's a point of failure. The highly motivated designer will at this point stop, document the design, takes whatever notes they need and investigate why the design failed. I find that no matter how good my memory is, after hours of tweaking I will inevitably get to a point where I can't go back, even if I want or need to, because I've tweaked too much and didn't document my work clearly. Even basic documentation is better than nothing. I've screwed myself over many many times by getting caught up in tweaking without actually taking the time to understand what I was working on. It's much worse when there is a deadline looming btw, at least what we do is typically relatively casual!

I find it's actually pretty rare that I get good results from tweaking endlessly on circuits. Unless I have a clear goal in mind and have targeted the "trouble" area (or whatever circuit elements need tweaking), I won't just dig in. I'll study the schematic closer, dig into the circuit details and many times I will go to simulation to try to characterize what it is I don't like and figure out how to fix this. I have found that this is what gets me to my desired end result most consistently.

Not to be rude or condescending to anybody but usually the endless circuit tweakers are the guys who don't really understand the circuit they are working on. Two of the most difficult and misunderstood areas (yet most important for audio) in the electronics world are the topics of feedback and filters. These are very tough subjects that take a lot of time and study to really get a feel for. I've seen many guys who really understood the math behind these topics yet couldn't implement any of their knowledge in a working manner. Heck, even if you understand these topics and are a real EE wiz, the highly non-linear distortion circuits we work with are quite a bear to really understand on every level. These are some pretty in-depth and involved topics that you really can't just read a book and learn about. You have to build, fail, study what went wrong, improve, build more, fail more, study more, improve, etc and learn/grow from your past projects. The working knowledge I had because of pedal building even before I started my EE undergrad (I graduate with my MSEE this semester!) is what has put me ahead of students who were waaay better at math and physics than I was for many of the jobs I have worked so far.

I guess to get to the point, tweaking on a circuit is not necessarily a bad thing, it's a great way to develop intuitiveness when working with circuits, but it's actually very counterproductive if you don't try to understand what you are doing. Try to keep track of what you changed and what effect it had on the sound, otherwise you might find your designs never get finished!

[Electron Tornado]

I guess to get to the point, tweaking on a circuit is not necessarily a bad thing, it's a great way to develop intuitiveness when working with circuits, but it's actually very counterproductive if you don't try to understand what you are doing.

In any area of engineering I think you have groups of people who know the theory and math very well but not as much about "how it sounds", for example. There is also a group of people who know less about the math but have a good feel for what something "sounds like". The best engineers are the ones who can bridge that gap and combine those knowledge sets. Learning to make that connection is something that's often missing in engineering education - "OK, you got an answer to the problem, is it a reasonable answer for this case? Further - what does that answer mean?" (i.e. how does it sound?)