French Filter Explorer
Sweep a resonant low-pass across a looped saw-chord bed live — drag the pad to open and close the filter and add resonance, pump it with a four-on-the-floor sidechain, and hear the French-house “filter” move in real time. Copy the settings into any DAW.
A looped saw-chord bed through a resonant low-pass, over a four-on-the-floor pump. Drag the pad to open and close the filter (left–right) and add resonance (up). Hit Auto to let it breathe to the bar.
Free route: any DAW’s stock resonant low-pass, a compressor with an external sidechain, and a saturator. Purpose-built filter and console plug-ins add polish, not the sound itself.
French filter FAQ
What is the French touch filter?
It is a resonant low-pass filter swept across a looped sample or chord bed, with its cutoff automated so it opens and closes to the groove. That moving cutoff — from muffled to bright — is the sound of French house. Drag the pad here left-to-right to hear it.
How do you get the pumping sound?
Route the kick as a sidechain trigger into a compressor on the loop, with a fast attack and a tempo-timed release, so the loop ducks on every kick and springs back between hits. The Sidechain pump slider above does exactly that.
Do I have to sample a disco record?
No. You can replay the part yourself — stack detuned sawtooth waves into rich chords, which is what this tool does — and filter that instead. Replaying also sidesteps sample clearance entirely.
Is the audio in this tool a sample?
No. It is a Web Audio synth generating the saw-chord bed and filtering it live in your browser. Nothing is recorded, downloaded or uploaded — the audio never leaves your machine.