Design of a Digital Octave Band Filter

Abstract: This report describes the design and implementation of a fixed audio equalizer based on a scheme where parts of the signal spectrum are downsampled and treated differently for the purpose of reducing the computational complexity and memory requirements. The primary focus has been on finding a way of taking an equalizer based on a simple minimum-phase FIR filter and transform it to the new type of equalizer. To achieve this, a number of undesireable effects such as aliasing distortion and upsampling imaging had to be considered and dealt with. In order to achieve a good amplitude response of the system, optimization procedures were used. As part of the thesis, a cost-effective implementation of the filter has been made for an FPGA, in order to verify that the scheme is indeed usable for equalizing an audio signal.