help with project

[Autophase]

ok so a few months ago i started college doing electronics, i also embarked on my first DIY project the GSSL.
I'm nearly finished putting the GSSL together, while I've improved my soldering skills and have a bit more confidence and understanding of the electronics, i still have a lot to learn regarding design.
Anyway, at college I found out that in the final year we have to design our own circuit, now I want to do something a bit beyond what everyone else is doing, so I'm thinking some kind of simple pre amp or a simple VU meter.
So really I';m just asking for some advice and pointers as to where to start.
remember guys this is probably going to be more simple than anything you have done in a long time, so dont get carried away.
Thanks

 

[JohnRoberts]

Stand on the shoulders of those who went before.. there are many schematics published for preamps and VU meters.

Collect at least three versions of whichever circuit you decide to do. Dissect the schematics to the point that you understand how they work and the differences between them. Then make personal design decisions regarding these differences. Mix and match to make a 4th design that uses the best features of all three (if they all actually have good features worth using  )

Ultimately circuit design is cobbling together the thousands of little circuit tricks or snippets from the library of prior work. When you gain a better footing in how components act, you can experiment with connecting them in ways that haven't been done before to make your own snippets. But be prepared for most of those alternate configurations being a waste of time and solder.

I guess kids today use sim instead of solder... I never became very fond of sim, because the early stuff I dabbled with was so sketchy. i suspect the modern stuff today is much better.

JR

 

[Autophase]

This is excatly the kind of input i was after, thanks for that.
As i said its more of a final project, so at least a year away, but i want it to be above the standard of others.