8. Filters — sculpting the tone

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A filter is like sunglasses for sound: it lets some parts through and blocks others.

• low-pass (lp) — lets the low (dark, warm) parts through, blocks the high sparkle. Turning the cutoff down makes a sound darker/muffled; up makes it brighter.
• high-pass (hp) — the opposite: keeps the bright top, removes the boom.
• band-pass (bp) — keeps only a middle slice (sounds “telephone-y”).
• resonance — adds a little whistle/emphasis right at the cutoff point. A bit adds character; a lot gets squelchy and electronic.

inst bass = saw cutoff 600 resonance 4     # dark, slightly squelchy bass

Slowly sweeping the cutoff up or down over time is the classic “wah” / “whoosh” synth move you hear everywhere in electronic music.

Real name: filter (low/high/band-pass), cutoff frequency, resonance (Q).

✅ Live now: the low-pass filter via cutoff and resonance on any inst. High-pass (hp) and band-pass (bp) filters, and automating (sweeping) the cutoff over time, come later — for now cutoff is a fixed setting per instrument, not something that moves on its own.

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