Scratchy Sound in Pots - any cure?

[wackelpeter]

Do you think it is geolocation moisture bringing these problems?
Would sillica gel balls help?
If so, the ones that change colour maybe useful?

Don't think that they will help a lot. They're normally at best use in an full enclosure, like a camera placed outside and then in it's housing.
There it would suck up liquidity from air condensation at the metal of the housing. In a normal module or case there is simply too much airflow and too much humidity can come in and as such the effect would likely only be marginal.

What's definitely not good for pots is cigarette smoke or simply not being used for a long time... So sometimes it's a good adivce to turn the pots on the modules or synths to not have them collect too thick layers of dust and what else kind of aerosoles are around in your air.

Aerosols could for example also be the tiny small fractions of oil when it's heated up or burned. The smoke from that oil carries the tiniest particles of oil and they are small enough to go everywhere. You can see this in factories or some restaurant kitchens where oil and similar substances are regulary used and exposed to higher temperatures. The spots where no regular cleaning occurs always have a thick and nasty oily layer on them.

[Blairio]

" The number of synthesizer modules with low quality pots is a time bomb waiting to go off and you won't want to be told it's a disposable item when that happens. "

In my experience, that time bomb is set for about 10 years of heavy use, at least for quality products with sealed pots. The other time bomb is the jacks. They will crud up (due to oxidation) in about 15 years, even if never used. (Subject to climate in your area.)

I have a DSI Mopho keyboard and DSI Tetr4. Last year I had to have all the midi sockets replaced on both, as they had corroded to the point that midi information was being scrambled. Both units are 8 years old. The two units are 'chained' together so that I have (1 + 4 ) 5 voices in total. The plugs on the midi cable used to connect the two were so corroded, it needed loose-oil to remove them from the sockets.

I mentioned this before on another thread and from memory the conclusion was some kind of galvanic reaction. Once the midi sockets were replaced (many thanks to DSI's customer service dept) I used only very high quality cables and every so often I pull then out and check the problem hasn't come back.

Do you think it is geolocation moisture bringing these problems?
Would sillica gel balls help?
If so, the ones that change colour maybe useful?

I think in my particular case, probably not. My gear is located in a room with average temperature & humidity, and no great variation in either. The root of my issue lay in different metals used to plate a particular combination of plugs and sockets, interacting with each other. If my issue was one of humidity I would have expected a far more widespread problem, affecting other plugs and sockets.

[jimfowler]

I've had surprisingly good results using MG Chemicals SuperWash on noisy/scratchy pots.

[Pelsea]

I've had surprisingly good results using MG Chemicals SuperWash on noisy/scratchy pots.

You should follow up the wash with a spritz of lubricant like Deoxit F5 (or better, a drop or two of F100). The MG spray removes the existing lube and accelerates the grinding process described earlier by KSS et al. Note that this is only effective with open frame pots that are crudded up from the atmosphere. (NO SMOKING). Sealed pots physically wear out, and there is no shortcut to fixing them.

[jimfowler]

Thanks for the tip! I'll adhere to your advice. In my case (~35 year old Neotek console) I'd be surprised if there was any lubricant left in there at this point.