Episode 16 – Quick Tip on Pop Screens – Calgary sound rentals – Behind the Scene Podcast

Today on the podcast, a quick tip for the home recording enthusiast on controlling plosives.

(this weeks sound advice)
If you listened to the previous episode of this podcast you may have noticed some clipping on certain consonants while I was speaking. This occurred because I did not use a pop screen in between my mouth and the microphone.

A plosive is when you obstruct air flowing through your vocal chords with your tongue or lips. Usually on a recording they will be most noticeable on p’s and b’s.

Plosives can clip your mic by creating a sudden burst of air on your mics diaphragm.
Smaller diagrams like those found in condenser mics will likely be more effected.
A well known way to control this when recording, is to use a pop screen.

For those of you who don’t know, A pop screen is a thinly woven mesh like material similar to a woman’s nylon which helps to break apart the energy of problem consonants.

For me a pop screen seems to work best when it is slightly angled, or not parallel with my mouth. This places more fibers in between the sound source and the mic. The whole idea is to break apart that burst of air or sound energy so that the diaphragm is not pinned and the mic does not clip.
Another reason for a pop on your recording could be that the circuitry of your condenser mic can not handle the sudden burst of energy. The pop screen solves these problems by reflecting some energy in various directions away from the mic.

But Kris what about higher frequencies you say? won’t they be effected by the nylon material? Yes they will but arguably very little and it is worth it to not have your signal asymmetrically clipped every time a p or a b is used.

Unfortunately since we are usually recording on the go or in untreated spaces, we are not always in ideal recording conditions. Sometimes we’re on two condenser mics, sometimes two dynamic, sometimes I record directly into a portable recorder or even my iPhone. We record with what’s available at the time.
Sad trombone.

Actually right now I am recording this on an sm58 in a very large reflective room. (I just finished sound checking a mariachi band for a performance in Jameson places winter gardens. )

Coming up this weekend.
Check out the last day of the high performance rodeo If you haven’t seen it yet.
Past guest, Reuben bullock’s, devils time video premier is on Jan 28th.

Next week Amos will continue his sound check walk through and we should have an interview from another local musician