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Looper's Delight
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Clifford wrote: >I just finished completing the installation of 2 capacitors to my EDP to >eliminate noise and must report it has worked perfectly! >I can't say I am glad I had to do it but there is a certain sense of >satisfaction- sounds nice... is it a bit more yours now, at least? ;-) Sorry for the inconvenience anyway! >They design those boards on a >software program now, but was it always that way?? I doub't it- it seems >like it would take some serious thinking in the way of the old game >"Simon", where you had to remember more and more of an overall pattern >as you went along - but on a much more intricate level- I dont know Simon, but yes, there are several layers of interdependent patterns that you develop, remember and forget: - the functionalities - the hard ware signal flow - the hard ware physical layout - the software - the business (partners, suppliers, customers...) While developping you go into them one by one and can remember a lot of it while working on it. Then it fades again, and next time you have to treat it, you have to spend some time relearning the patterns. And now that I only live in the software pattern for years, it got so complex that I do not manage any more to keep it all at once in brain. So I have to search through it regarding some aspect, resolve that problem and forget those parts again to learn another. Its fun reading a bit of code you wrote some month ago just as if it was someone elses... Stew Benedict answered: >I lay out circuit boards as one of my careers. Yes it is a bit >easier with software. In the "old" days, I used a special tape and mylar >film, stacking up layers of film for board layers, working on a light My first products were one sided, which is really nice to handle and I loved to work with the black tape, but its complex, since you cannot jump to the other side, the only way to cross trails is "under" the components - a strategy that the computer never learned to design automatically. The computers strategy is simple: horizontal on one side and vertical on the other. >table with an xacto knife. You used to have to refer to the schematic(s) >a lot to keep track of what's connected where. Now the software does >that for you. It is a rather enjoyable task for me anyway. An almost >artistic aspect of the design process. Yes, I remember the long nights for the LOOP delay layout as a coloured trip! The program puts the trails during hours, one after the other, trying various options and since the parts are yellow, the upper side red and the lower blue its like a big city trafic labirinth. Then when the process stops, you see where you have free space and where it lacks. You move the parts a little and run it all again, turn the light out, put some music and watch the trails appearing through the smoke... Once its done you still work another some days to simplify and correct what the soft cannot resolve and you end up knowing the meaning each trail, which is helpfull to make the prototype work. Then when you run the first little software routines to test, you can "see" the bits circulating on the trails you layed out and verify with the scope that all those impulses described in the manuals are really there, and not very clean (as a master said: there is no digital electronics, really) - I loved it! Is this OT? I think users could profit from insights about how their tools grew. There is so much fear and fascination and anger and love for the "cold" or "phantasmic" digital machines, while they are built by humans and contain emotions and inspirations just like analog ones and mechanics before - a bit more hidden, I admit, but thats evolution, things get more complex and pioneers always have been overadmired by a growing minority and rejected by a decreasing majority - while its just another job. In the middle ages they were burnt, so I feel just fine if some thirst for tape hiss... ;-) So enjoy your FeedbackLED noise. Maybe it will be the reason why in 10 years the kids will search for an old Echoplex DP with a real human error! ;-) Keep you inner ears open and play out what comes in! Matthias * Lots of music (samples), inventions (drawings), philosophy: * ---> http://Matthias.Grob.org * Archive and mailinglist about looping: * ---> http://www.annihilist.com/loop/loop.html