Prevent popping and solve sibilance with a little beauty known as the pop shield. A pop shield or pop filter, as it is sometimes known, is an essential in any voice over kit and can be found in all professional recording studios.
Pop shields and more!
Yesterday, while browsing Amazon’s extensive catalogue, I noticed they deal in various bits of audio equipment. They have basic PC & laptop speakers for sale right the way up to pro condenser microphones. The cataloguing of these products are not always as you would expect them to be. Spot the odd one out in the picture. Yes, a microphone pop shield is sold amongst iPhone and Blackberry covers in the Screen Covers & Filters category!
If you’ve ever recorded a voice over into a microphone and noticed that there is a clipping or distortion, in places, when you play the audio back it may well be down to the audio “popping”. Your recording can also suffer “sibilance”. Sibilance is caused when you say a word with a “shhh” sound like “sheep”. When you play the audio back you will notice a harshness and possible distortion on the “SH” part of the word.
How can you prevent these intrusive sounds? The best, easiest and cheapest method is to make sure you buy a pop shield for your microphone. This tiny microphone screen consists of tightly woven nylon, it’s circular in shape and you can attach it to a mic stand with ease! Not only will it reduce or eliminate the annoying sounds you can get when recording voice overs it also helps to protect your microphone. The salt in your saliva is corrosive and the use of a pop shield will prevent you spluttering (unintentionally, of course) all over your expensive microphone and may well prolong the life of your mic as a result.
Tags: annoying sounds, clipping, condenser microphones, laptop speakers, mic stand, microphone, pop filter, professional recording studios, recording voice, sibilance
