If you’ve recently purchased a snowball microphone and want to enhance the way it records your speech (and also keep it from breaking) it’s recommended that you get a pop filter for it, also called the pop shield.
The pop filter is an add-on to the microphones used to filter out the pop noise caused by the rapid air movement towards the microphone during recorded speech or even singing Basically when you say a word, you push air out of your lungs through your throat and this same air hitting the microphone makes the popping sound. You can hear it if you play back your regular speech recordings and pay attention. It’s hard not to notice it.
An average studio pop filter is made out of multiple layers of almost see-through fabric such as nylon, can be attached to the microphone via some kind of clamp and is usually round.
If you don’t feel like buying a pop filter, which isn’t really that expensive, you can make your own. If you chose to go this route you’re not going to lose out on functionality either.
Think if you have a material that’s similar to woven nylon that can be used to build a pop filter. Good items to look for would be tights or stockings that have the same stretchy fabric used in them as professional pop filters. Now, you could take an embroidery hoop or a wire hanger and twist it into a round (or square) form, securing the stretchy stocking fabric tightly around it.
Here’s a mistake most people make when they get a pop filter: they put it too close to the actual microphone. If you do that then pop filter can’t do what it’s supposed to because it’ll simply transfer the vibrations of your voice onto the recording. To avoid that simply hold the pop shield a few inches away from your snowball mic for the best recording quality.
There’s a difference between pop filter and microphone windscreen. As you’d guess, the windscreen protects the recording from the hissing sounds of the wind and is used mainly when recording outdoors, while pop filters or pop shields’ main use is in the studio, filtering out the popping sounds from the speech or singing. Also note that pop screens protect the microphone from saliva that can corrode the microphone parts and therefore force it to stop working a lot sooner than it’s supposed to otherwise.
So if you’re doing a lot of podcast recordings with a snowball microphone and want to get the best quality sound you can possibly get – it’s recommended that you invest in a pop screen sooner or later. They usually cost around $10, thought you can find one for around $5 or make one yourself. Pop screen is one of the best investments into your recording endeavors because it will make all of your recordings sounds much, much better. Test it out.