A way of switching a ac signal

Hi there,

I'm just starting out with electronics and I have an idea that i was hoping someone could help with. I want to make something like a step attenuator that could be controled with a dc control voltage. I was thinking that maybe there was some kind of IC that would do the job of switching the signal between different combinations of resitors. Maybe with relays.

Basically its for a passive preamp for an audio signal and I want to avoid using a carbon track potentiometer as I want to try and avoid using and carbon in the circuit as this seams to be very popular in expensive Hi fi equipment.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks Gavin