In signal processing using digital filtering the representation of a filter is adapted depending on the filter characteristics. If e.g. a digital filter is represented by filter coefficients for transform bands Nos. 0, 1, . . . , K in the frequency domain, a reduced digital filter having coefficients for combined transform bands, i.e. subsets of the transformed bands, Nos. 0, 1, . . . , L, is formed and only these coefficients are stored. When the actual filtering in the digital filter is to be performed, an actual digital filter is obtained by expanding the coefficients of the reduced digital filter according to a mapping table and then used instead of the original digital filter.