Basics – Introduction to Voltage Dividers & RC Filters

Lesson Overview: Introduction to Voltage Dividers & RC Filters

In this lesson, we break down two of the most fundamental and frequently used circuit building blocks: voltage dividers and RC filters.

You’ll learn:

• What a voltage divider is, how it works, and how it's used to control signal level or bias transistors.
• The role of resistors and capacitors in shaping frequency response.
• How RC filters (both high-pass and low-pass) work—and how to calculate their cutoff frequencies.
• Why these concepts are everywhere in audio circuits, from tone shaping to gain control.

We’ll walk through real examples and simple calculations so you can apply these concepts immediately to your own designs and analysis.

By the end of this lesson, you’ll have the tools to understand—and even design—sections of a circuit that control both signal amplitude and tonal balance.