If you’ve ever seen the video of your favorite actor recording their vocals in a production company, then you’ve probably seen a large dark circle hanging between them and the recording device.
A pop filter is indeed a circle of nylon mesh or lightweight metal located a few centimeters next to the microphone.
It is attached to the microphone stand by way of an adjustable metal rubbed bronze mount. A singer records his or her voice, ensuring to step a few centimeters away from the filter.
A pop filter is placed next to the microphone to help reduce this rapidly moving air. It is a filter that’s usually connected to the handle microphone, so you also need a place for the microphone.
If you only have an audio table microphone hold, you probably wouldn’t be able to connect a pop filter to it.
History of Pop Filters
Brian Gunn introduced Popless Speech Screens in 1988. The purpose was a design with flexible pop and tape hiss filtering while retaining sound clarity.
The new architecture made it easier to change the power over pops and tape hiss until the sound hit the microphone.
The outcome was improved vocal tone that needed less electrical amplification and helped avoid overload vibrations in the microphone and related electronics.
The company will continue to introduce new versions using the ‘Variable Acoustic Compression’ design ethos.
Brian Gunn is the creator of Poplessvoice.com and a known specialist in audio technology. It’s the only organization with the design.
Popping sounds appear in the speech of the sucked plosives (including the first ‘p’ in the Old language ‘popping’). The pop-up sound captured by the microphone contains two components.
Their high-frequency elements are air traveling past the grid and other areas of the microphone’s body.
The low-frequency part is made of air influencing the diaphragm.
Mechanical and electrical interference, for example, the cutting, may also play a significant role based on the number of headrooms built for these devices.
An average pop filter consists of one or even more strands of the melodically semi-transparent material, including woven nylon stretched across a circular piece, often including a clamp and even an adjustable mounting bracket.
Steel pop filters are using a fine metal mesh display rather than a nylon filter. Some production company condenser microphones have developed pop filters for their design.
Why is A Pop Filter Important?
A pop filter, pop shield, or pop panel is a noise security filter for microphones usually used in a music studio.
It is used to suppress or remove pop-up sounds generated by the mechanical effect of fast-moving air on either the phoneme microphones during captured speech and recording.
The pop filter is an aspect of the recording puzzle that is frequently ignored.
Easy implementation, this modest device has a range of advantages that make it an incredibly recording tool.
If you’re a musician, guitarist, or studio technician, you’re still always just acquainted with a pop filter, and it’s just as useful to someone who tracks your voice or vocals regularly.
Types of Pop Filters
There are three different types of pop filters that you can purchase:
Nylon pop filter
These pop filters use a double-coated nylon fabric spread over the interior of a metal loop or a plastic loop.
Firstly, they dissipate the oxygen from your intake by the first nylon sheet and then through the second nylon sheet.
The air hits the esophagus microphone, and the air may be diffused enough to avoid the plosives.
A nylon mesh pop filter is the original title of the product and has been used for centuries. Nylon mesh pop filters are indeed a great choice.
Some technicians, however, say that mesh pop filters can potentially cut a few of the top ends off vocals. However, metal pop filters were generated and sold to the market.
Pros of nylon pop filters
- Low-cost
- Industry quality for most recording studios
- Great for the elimination of plosives
Cons of nylon pop filters
- It can easily get affected as nylon is pretty delicate
- Can minimize high frequencies marginally
- It appears to be larger than metal or foam filters
Metal Pop Filter
Metal pop filters are a far more modern development, with just a few centuries to come. They’re usually harder to create, so they’ll function longer than the mesh counterpart.
They can be cleaned quickly, too. You will get out of all the saliva that’s presumably developed up through thousands of applications on the filter.
Most importantly, they assume to take the original end of the vocals intact. It has not been officially proven to become a real issue with both the mesh version.
However, recordings seem to sound a bit more accurate with just a metal filter.
They have a single panel of a thin sheet that is painted in a pattern. It is a unique appearance that is rounded to the top and triangular to the bottom.
When the air comes into the form of a mesh. The air travels in a direction (almost straight down).
The metal filter should last forever, and you won’t risk losing it when you wash it. However, the mesh filter is inexpensive, efficient, and easy to replace.
Unless you think a need for a better design, go out for a metal filter. Otherwise, the mesh filter should work great.
Pros of metal pop filters
- It has a transparent tone than the other two filters
- Improved reliability
- Tends to have a smaller circumference, meaning they won’t be in the way
Cons of metal pop filters
- They can be quickly bent if you’re not careful since the metal sheet is thin.
- Any metal pop filters could have a faint whistling sound as the air flows through them.
Foam Windscreen
The windscreen is a wide foam cylinder and has been mounted at the microphone ends when it is filmed outdoors. They are specially created to deflect the breeze used outdoors in events, meetings, or movie shoots.
They never made to hang on to the intense breeze of the phoneme. Since the singer is too close to the stage, the windscreen isn’t doing anything to avoid the phoneme.
They trimmed a lot of the top side out of the audio of the microphone, however. So they’re not helpful with pulmonic, and they cause the voice to sound worse.
When you’re using these of what they intended for, stop using a windscreen.
These are also used when you buy a new microphone. There are about ¼ inch thick foam shield slips over the edge microphone and absorbs the air until it hits the esophagus microphone.
It has a similar impact (not quite as efficient) on either the nylon layout, except protecting the microphone from all sides.
Pros of foam windscreens
- Acts with omnidirectional microphones
- It’s better to walk around with a microphone
- Great for outdoor use as it eliminates wind disturbance
Cons of foam windscreens
- Can cause the sound of the mic somewhat muffled
- Not as successful in minimizing plosives as the other two pop filters.
- It doesn’t have a clear sound as the other two pop filters
DIY Pop Filter
When you’re an amateur artist, you don’t have a huge amount of money to purchase expensive equipment, and you’ll have to record the perfect sound demo with inexpensive recording instruments.
When you learned that pop-up is a frequent issue when recording voices on some different microphone, and when you noticed that a decent pop filter was pricey at the supermarket. The best idea to make your one from items around the house.
Step 1: Materials Required First
Since this is a friendly DIY instructable, it shouldn’t be easy to get the supplies. Either way, they are reasonably cheap, or maybe you should have this lying around in your home.
Material
- Scrap old MDF (a piece of 30cm x 30cm should do the work)
- A couple of nylon woolen material (a new pair of stockings)
- A hosepipe clamp (to secure position on your microphone stand)
- The electric tape which is always needed
- The outer black rubber plastic portion of the cable (which can be used as a gooseneck)
- Pliers, guy
- The wire hanger
Step 2: Measurements Required
Well, firstly, we’re going to trace a 6-inch diameter of a circle on each of the MDF parts with a concave 5.5-inch concentric circle so that you can create a nylon monitor frame.
After designing and shaping, you’ll have a nylon stocking frame. Straight after that, you must paint everything black with spray paint or any other kind of paint which you like, and you’ll get a nice professional finish.
Step 3: The Gooseneck
As it’s a DIY accessible intractable, it will be hard for certain people to find the very same gooseneck that experienced pop filters have. You can replace it with a strong wire, in this situation, the wire of a coat hook, with a microphone cable cover.
Step 4: The Joint
Since the neck of the filter is always modified, the joint should be very solid. So I built the same kind of joint to be secured with a small piece of MDF stuck together (Timebound works wonders)
Step 5: The Nylon Screen
The panel is composed of a pair of modern nylon stockings.
Step 6: Pop Filter Done
Your videos are going to be much cleaner than they used to be. It makes you understand that many studio recording types of equipment can be DIY so that you don’t waste tons of money on a rock n’ roll lifestyle.
Conclusion
The most crucial point is that you should always use an appropriate pop filter when filming your recordings close-up.
You’re not going to need a pop filter for any other instruments but maybe hi-hats, since they eject air gusts as they near.
You certainly won’t need one if you are recording voices at a distance like choruses, for instance, but for regular vocal recordings where the speaker is a few inches away from the microphone, they’re essential.
Getting a decent pop filter will help you reach superior sound quality on your tapes and enable you to filter out any unnecessary pulmonic.
If you’re away from your studio without a pop filter and you happen to need a voice recording, there’s a great solution to a pop filter. Just put a sock on your microphone.
It works well as a pop filter and is guaranteed to be easy to find or pack. Just note to use a clean sole or risk your vocalist’s loss of consciousness before you get any decent recordings.
