Snap the filter

Pluck · Lesson 1 of 3 · PK1

Exercise Fast filter decay for the pew.
Result A snappy pluck.

The 1st step of the pluck track in PatchPond's subtractive synthesis curriculum. The snap is the filter envelope — and this lesson is where you meet filter envelope (env → cutoff) for the first time.

What you'll learn

A second robot — separate from the volume one — pushing the filter knob up and down for every note you play.

The filter envelope is a second ADSR — separate from the amplitude envelope — that moves the filter cutoff over time. With positive envelope amount, the cutoff opens up at attack and closes down through decay, sustain, release; with negative amount, it opens down and back up. Read more →

Built on

A dimmer switch for treble, with a side knob that lets the dimmer ring like a struck wine glass.

A low-pass filter lets low frequencies through and gradually cuts everything above a chosen cutoff frequency. Full definition →

First taught in BS3 Open the filter

Build this lesson live in the PatchPond studio. Web MIDI in, on-screen keyboard otherwise. The patch you make here loads back into iOS later on — same patch format.

Open in studio →
PK1 Snap the filterPK2 Tune the decayPK3 Echo