Spectral Brightness Filter — User Guide

Applies a spectral filter to a Sound object to simulate an increase or decrease in acoustic "brightness" by selectively modifying high-frequency content.

Category: Filtering / Processing Praat Script: Spectral Brightness Filter.praat
Contents:
What this does Quick start Parameters Outputs

What this does

This Praat script applies spectral brightness filtering to modify the tonal character of audio by either boosting high frequencies to increase brightness or attenuating them to decrease brightness, using a straightforward filter bank approach. When increasing brightness, the script creates two separate filtered versions of the sound—one emphasizing the 1-10 kHz range (boosted proportionally to the strength parameter) and another focusing on the 5-15 kHz range (boosted at half strength)—then combines these with the original signal and converts the result to mono to create a brighter, more treble-enhanced output. When decreasing brightness, the script simply applies a stop-band filter that attenuates frequencies between 2-10 kHz, effectively creating a darker, more muffled sound by removing the upper-mid and high-frequency content. The strength parameter (defaulting to 50%) controls the intensity of the effect, with higher values producing more dramatic changes, and the script includes an optional preview playback feature to immediately audition the filtered result, making it a practical tool for quickly adjusting the perceived brightness or darkness of recordings, whether for corrective purposes (fixing overly harsh or dull recordings) or creative sound design.

Quick start

  1. In Praat, select a Sound object.
  2. Run script… → Spectral Brightness Filter.praat.
  3. Choose either Increase brightness or Decrease brightness.
  4. Set the Strength (0–100) to control the intensity of the effect.
  5. Click OK.
  6. The output object, named brightness_filtered, appears and plays automatically if the Preview option is checked.

Parameters (form fields)

Name (GUI)TypeDefaultDescription
brightness_changechoice (button)Increase brightnessDetermines whether to boost or attenuate high frequencies to change perceived brightness.
strengthpositive50Controls the intensity of the effect. A higher number means a stronger boost (Increase) or stronger attenuation (Decrease). Range is generally 0 to 100.
previewboolean1 (checked)If checked, the resulting sound plays automatically after processing.

Outputs