lowcut

Low-cut is an adjective describing a garment with a neckline that exposes more of the chest or shoulders than a typically modest neckline. It is commonly used to describe dresses, blouses, or swimwear. The term can carry different connotations depending on context and culture, including formal wear, fashion trends, and social norms around modesty and display.

In audio engineering, a low-cut filter, also called a high-pass filter, attenuates frequencies below a chosen cutoff to reduce rumble, handling wind noise, plosives, or proximity effect. The cutoff frequency is adjustable and can range from around 20 Hz for general voices to several hundred hertz for instruments or subwoofers. Slopes such as 12 dB/octave or 24 dB/octave determine how sharply the frequencies are reduced. Implementation can be analog (RC networks, active filters) or digital in software and digital signal processors.

Applications include microphone inputs, loudspeaker processing, and mastering workflows, where a low-cut helps prevent unnecessary low-frequency energy from masking higher frequencies or consuming headroom.