My first open source contribution was a bug nobody could hear

I am an audio DSP student, and for a long time "contribute to open source" sat on my list next to "learn to swim properly". Something I would clearly do at some point, with no first step attached to it. This is what the first step turned out to be: a bug in Surge XT, a free synthesizer, where notes started up to 15 milliseconds late and no one had noticed because you cannot hear a delay you have nothing to compare it against. The pull request is in review as I write this. What follows is the part I would have wanted to read before starting, including the four times I was wrong. Picking something I did not go looking for a project. I went looking for an issue I could hold in my head. The one I picked was titled BLIT oscillators are a bit late. It had three properties I would now look for on purpose: A symptom stated as a measurement, not as a feeling. "Late" is checkable. "Sounds weird" is not. A small surface. Three files, one function each. No product decision insi