Signal Path

[randomair]

So, I was wondering if anyone had a link or an idea to a tutorial on signal path that actually shows you how a signal moves through a circuit? You know like watching the signal move from point A to B and so on.Does this type of thing exist? and if it does where can I find it? Thanks.

[GibsonGM]

Hi Random,
You have a good question there.  I've never heard of this, not that it doesn't exist.  I think you have to separate components into a couple of categories, and after that the 'signal path' becomes evident.  Like, you have power supply/biasing components, feedback components, and switching things. In a trem or phase, you could have oscillator feeds working on parts of opamps or FETs.  In some portions of a circuit, you have DC, AC + DC, and just AC...learning to identify these areas tells a lot about what's going on in the circuit.   After you've isolated these subcircuits, all else is pretty much signal path.

On this pic, the heavy black lines show what I believe to be a good representation of the signal path thru an MXR Distortion+.  Signal runs thru the input cap and input resistor to the opamp...there's a cap to ground for further high freq shunting. The biasing network connects here, adding DC to the signal.  Notice the feedback loop counts, too, and is frequency-dependent due to the  .047uF cap there. Output runs thru a DC blocking cap to the clipping diodes and another cap to ground. Then thru the volume pot on the output.   The other stuff is power supply and biasing subcircuitry. 
I hope you find this helpful...on GEOFX, there are articles like "What does that little bit there do?" that will give you more information!   Happy building!