audio pots?

[REGNAD]

whats the benefit of using audio pots on the volume and sustain on my GGG muff clone? I would think that it would be better to use linear pots on everything.

[tehfunk]

to the human ear, the log pot (audio) will give the impression of a steady increase in volume, while the linear will increase A LOT right at the end of its travel but very little up to that point.

[REGNAD]

hmmm. I understand that they are just the oposite with the audio pot having a curved ramp and the linier being straight. Can anyone confirm?

[~arph]

You are right about the ramp...

but what tehfunk states is also true... a curved ramp sounds linear to the ear.  eg. Volume (audio) is a logartihmic scale.

So for all controls that control something logarithmic it's better to use audio(logarithmic) taper pots.

Hope this clears it up

[bipedal]

Nice, clear explanation excerpted from wikipedia's entry on potentiometers:

The 'log pot' is used as the volume control in audio amplifiers, where it is also called an "audio taper pot", because the amplitude response of the human ear is also logarithmic. It ensures that, on a volume control marked 0 to 10, for example, a setting of 5 sounds half as loud as a setting of 10.

As a volume control, a log pot will be 'heard' as having a more natural increase as it moves through its range of travel when compared to a same-value linear pot.

As I understand it, the same underlying principle of sound explains why a 50 watt amp isn't necessarily capable of sounding twice as loud as an otherwise-equivalent amp that's 25 watts.

Cheers,

- Jay