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 or podcasting kit and can be found in all professional recording studios.
Types of Pop Shield
If you’ve ever recorded a voice over or a podcast 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”. This is when you know you need one of those!
There are in general two types – one that is a shield placed in front of your microphone and another which is more of a furry microphone cover. See pictures below:
What is Sibilance?
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 to Fix Pops and Sibilance?
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.
