midwayfair
Well-known member
Usually I decide what I'm going to use it for, and then go with the taper that gives me the most control over the usable range for that use.
Most of what I do is guitar pedals, so the volume control is usually a lot less important there -- there's not really gain staging a lot of the time, just trying to get the thing the right volume when it's turned on. I think the most frustrating tapers I've ever had to deal with are depth controls on some tremolos, where the usable range doesn't neatly box into any particular range.
Anyway, I don't think my general rules for deciding the taper are very different from Dualflips, but from what you've described it sounds like they used an audio taper and needed a linear taper, or a linear taper and needed reverse log. In fact, I'd say that the range you described sounds like they used an audio taper when they needed a reverse log. If they're sticking a pot between a cap and ground hanging off the emitter of a transistor or the ass end of an op amp, they wanted a reverse audio taper, or even, as John said, a REALLY reverse log taper, which might require fiddling with some extra resistors across the pot lugs.
If the design is more finicky than that, to the point where none of the common tapers work, then there's always a stepped rotary switch.
EDIT: The guitar pedal reference I have for this behavior is the stock fuzz face's fuzz control. Nothing nothing nothing nothing ALL THE FUZZ.
Most of what I do is guitar pedals, so the volume control is usually a lot less important there -- there's not really gain staging a lot of the time, just trying to get the thing the right volume when it's turned on. I think the most frustrating tapers I've ever had to deal with are depth controls on some tremolos, where the usable range doesn't neatly box into any particular range.
Anyway, I don't think my general rules for deciding the taper are very different from Dualflips, but from what you've described it sounds like they used an audio taper and needed a linear taper, or a linear taper and needed reverse log. In fact, I'd say that the range you described sounds like they used an audio taper when they needed a reverse log. If they're sticking a pot between a cap and ground hanging off the emitter of a transistor or the ass end of an op amp, they wanted a reverse audio taper, or even, as John said, a REALLY reverse log taper, which might require fiddling with some extra resistors across the pot lugs.
If the design is more finicky than that, to the point where none of the common tapers work, then there's always a stepped rotary switch.
EDIT: The guitar pedal reference I have for this behavior is the stock fuzz face's fuzz control. Nothing nothing nothing nothing ALL THE FUZZ.