Why is it a bad idea to filter by zeroing out FFT bins? $\begingroup$ It's very easy to filter a signal by performing an FFT on it, zeroing out some of the bins, and then performing an IFFT. For instance: t = linspace(0, 1, 256, endpoint=False) x = sin(2 * pi * 3 * t) + cos(2 * pi * 100 * t) X = fft(x) X[64:192] = 0 y = ifft(X) The high frequency component is completely removed by this "brickwall" FFT filter. But I've heard this is not a good method to use. Why is it generally a bad idea? Are there circumstances in which it's an ok or good choice? $\begingroup$