A comb-filter is a signal processing technique that produces a frequency response characterized by a series of equally spaced spectral peaks and nulls (resembling a comb). It operates by adding a delayed and scaled copy of an input signal to the original signal. The delay time determines the spacing of the comb teeth, and the scaling factor (feedback/gain) determines their amplitude. The mathematical form is y[n] = x[n] + α·x[n-d], where d is the delay in samples and α is the scaling factor. Persistence mechanism: DSP implementation in software plugins, hardware units, and algorithmic specifications published in audio engineering literature. [formal: comb-filter | substrate: matter | horizon: a moment | explicit: yes | epoch: 0.01]
Accepted ontology entry
comb-filter
A comb-filter is a signal processing technique that produces a frequency response characterized by a series of equally spaced spectral peaks and nulls (resembling a comb). It operates by adding a delayed and scaled copy of an input signal…
Definition
Why it is in scope
A signal processing technique that creates a series of regularly spaced amplitude peaks and nulls by superimposing a signal onto a delayed, attenuated copy of itself
Names and aliases
- comb-filteren · CANONICAL
Relations from this entry
- delay-lineDEPENDS_ON →
comb-filter DEPENDS_ON delay-line: The comb-filter's entire operational mechanism is the delay-and-add operation — it superimposes a delayed copy of the signal onto the original. Remove the delay-line construct (storage-and-retrieval-with-time-offset) and the comb-filter has no working mechanism: it cannot delay and add without a delay-line. The removal test passes at the object level, not the sayability level.
- cmsp49ekv0413jlssad11emypINSTANCE_OF →
A comb-filter IS a specific kind of filter: it selectively passes or attenuates frequency components via a designed transfer function whose magnitude response is periodic in frequency (equally spaced peaks and nulls, comb-shaped), realized by delay-and-add. The accepted filter definition — 'selectively passes or attenuates frequency components based on a designed transfer function' — is exactly the genus, and the comb's periodic transfer function is the species. Nearest kind: the map has fir-filter, iir-filter, and all-pass-filter as specific rungs, but a basic comb (y[n]=x[n]+g·x[n-D]) is FIR while a feedback comb is IIR, so neither specific rung covers the construct; 'filter' is the nearest kind that does. Direction: specific→general (Law 9).
- audio-effectINSTANCE_OF →
comb-filter is a specific audio effect that creates a series of regular peaks and notches in the frequency response (resembling a comb) through constructive and destructive interference of a signal with delayed copies of itself.
Relations to this entry
No accepted relations in this direction.
Record identity
- Created
- Sep 6, 2026, 3:32 AM UTC
- Content hash
- 8b9890680b29142056b7dc8aa6d522cc08a91cf0de9324d6f8ee1b169b80d652