One relatively inexpensive piece of gear that can have a lot
of impact on your recordings is the good old pop filter. For most, this is a
fabric mesh screen to place in front of a vocal mic in order to prevent
plosives - those horrible pops created by “P” and “B” sounds when a burst of
air comes out of the singer’s mouth - and you learned how to build your own
last issue. Stedman has come up with a new twist on the pop filter though,
creating a metal screen that has a louver-type pattern which allows sound to go
to the mic but diverts air away from the mic element. While tracking vocals on
a recent session we decided to give it a test. On hand were a single layer pop
filter with a heavier fabric, a double layer filter with a lighter mesh fabric
and the Stedman. We tracked a verse that featured lots of “P”s on three
different tracks with the three filters up. The Stedman won hands down. It
allowed clearer highs to come through and cut the plosives as much as the
heaviest fabric. The two-layer filter was next best but cut the highs a little
bit and allowed more pops to come through. The single layer cut the pops but
was audibly murky. Maybe there’s some situations where you need to rim off the
high-end of a vocalist, but in general I
found the Stedman pop filter to be far superior to the traditional mesh
variety, and I plan to go buy a few this week.
-Larry Crane
Tape Op Review