NoiseWiki

I meant well, but the entire thing came off as asinine and self serving, please ignore the following brain rot, or give us a yell if you're in a bind. Ground rule #1 is the only thing that holds anymore.

stupid question, but can you / DIY experts guess how something is wired up same as musicians can what gear is being used?

Social_Drift wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:49 pm stupid question, but can you / DIY experts guess how something is wired up same as musicians can what gear is being used?

That's not a stupid question.

The answer, at least for me, is: no, not necessarily.

In some cases it's rather easy to speculate a path or paths to achieve a means, but that does not mean those paths are the only - or the actual system under observation. There are tells though, in much the same way as your hypothetical musician can probably claim something like "that sounds like a Telecaster plugged into an early Champ" a lot of circuit types have a sonic fingerprint.

So, picking a 555 oscillator based drone box out of a mix? Fairly straightforward. But each additional layer introduces uncertainty, so I would guess anyone's ability to posit a set-up/construction/signal path via hearing it at work will vary greatly depending on complexity of source signal and their own experience with playing with similar blocks while listening/observing/learning.

so design then is mostly trial and error, rather than having a clear idea about a sound and then implementing it first time? i.e., how does a build start out?

Social_Drift wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:02 pm so design then is mostly trial and error, rather than having a clear idea about a sound and then implementing it first time?

No, not necessarily.

Is that a conclusion based on my prior answer? The context of that question seemed to presuppose a sound or effect, and one's ability to reverse engineer the source from there. This new question cannot be fit completely within that framework.

Social_Drift wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:02 pm how does a build start out?

Different builds are going to sprout differently, and different designers are going to have different methods as well.

For me it usually starts with an idea and then figuring on how best to reach my aims.

These days I tend to start the process in Kicad and draw out a schematic (often this is running "thought experiment" mode, usually I will be employing sections I am familiar with or at least understand/have tested before), then draft the printed circuit. I've never gotten on well with simulators, so I'll wind up with a physical circuit I then populate one stage at a time (sometimes backtracking and corrective adjustments are in order) until I have something that performs an acceptable function (or has undergone so much rework I'll choose to start over). Then I list all the values and stuff another one to test consistency. From there we veer into longevity/stress testing/etc.

Sometimes if something is particularly goofy I'll breadboard/protoboard, but I like the no nonsense solid connection soldering gives me, so there's usually a bit of preplanning tempering my process. I do have some open ended sketches/ideas I'm chewing on, so it's not always cut and dry.

so a build is less about a "sound", than an "idea". that makes sense anyway, the two are always blurred and mutually supporting [and implemented] in creation, ime.

Social_Drift wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2020 2:45 pm so a build is less about a "sound", than an "idea". that makes sense anyway, the two are always blurred and mutually supporting [and implemented] in creation, ime.

Yeah, SOUNDS and IDEAS are not mutually exclusive. In this context they are quite intertwined.

But if you mean "sound" in the sense of trying to say, emulate a certain sound from a certain player (it's easier to draw examples from more conventional sound areas, like a blues lawyer trying to dial in a facsimile of the exact sound some other dude played on some shitty popular record from their youth) - that sort of "sound" motivated thinking does not play heavily in my process.

yeah i guess that's why.

creativity involves original work, and sounds themselves isn't imagined before we hear them -- not outside how they can be made etc.. right?

aanyway.

I dunno, sometimes I chase a sound that's in my head. That usually starts with actually working in sound, and dreaming about a patch for a perceived deficiency.

I'm hoping this thread is more of a help others pull a question regarding their DIY into a focus and less of me talking about myself.

the topic should be split

sometimes I chase a sound that's in my head

that's what i was asking about. is that

mostly trial and error, rather than having a clear idea about a sound and then implementing it first time