Subtractive Synthesis

Subtractive synthesis is (you guessed it!) the opposite of additive synthesis. The fundamental idea is that you take a sound that naturally has an infinite number of sine waves added together (lots of harmonics), and start reducing ranges of frequencies with band-pass filters. A bandpass filter is made of two parts; a high-pass and a low-pass filter. High-pass filters reduce the lower frequencies, and let the higher frequencies pass through them unchanged. Low-pass filters are just the opposite; the higher frequencies are reduced and the low frequencies are left unchanged. The means a band-pass filter reduces any frequencies outside a band/range of frequencies.

Trumpet Example

TODO