Pop filter essentials
Day 1: An ordinary session in the project studio - you and your homies settle in, chat about life, music, chicks (guys) - then move on to track some stuff. The groove is great, all goin’ nice and smooth, man it could be the long awaited magic performance that can really impress the label you’d like to sign to. All done - tired and satisfied you turn off the lights and walk out, waiting for the next day to mix this golden piece.
Day 2: OK this one will be quick, after loading up the project you realise that the vocal tracks are full of horrible sounds capable of blasting your monitors when turned up. Now what you have is real POP :) to be exact, a couple of pops… they happen nearly on all stop consonants (mainly B, P). Another signature problem is excessive sibilance which is also quite annoying, but needs more sophisticated approach to cure.
To be able to deal with these effects, one should understand what causes them (this should be your golden rule either). If you examine the vocal tracks in your Wave editor, you should see a lot of bottom-end energy on the mentioned areas. Often there are loud spikes resembling cracks and clicks on the beginning. These are caused by sudden mechanical stress on the microphone’s capsule when the air from a vocalist’s mouth blows in. The grille on the mic is too airy to prevent this. Manufacturers don’t usually mount dense filters between the capsule and grille because the mic could lose too much high-end and may become bad sounding with certain instruments.
Rescue time
Vocal tracks with pops present CAN be corrected with a high rate of success. As stated before, pops are low frequency bursts on beginnings of plosive consonants. Notice the two key parameters - frequency and time. All you have to do is to use an envelope controlled high-pass filter to shave off the low seamlessly on a defined passage of the word. One should use spline (smoothed) curves, if available, to avoid abrupt changes in the filtering frequency. I have used a special preset created in Adobe Audition’s Dynamic EQ plugin, then I have set up a hotkey to allow quick editing. I bet you can find a similar tool in your favourite editor. 
Now let’s talk about a permanent solution to plosive garbage. You have probably seen it before, that strange object between the vocalist and the mic is called a pop filter, plosive filter or wind screen. As with any other studio equipment, you can purchase one in your shop (or elsewhere :-) These have some really solid mechanisms allowing to attach them on a variety of mic stands and to position them to fit your acoustic needs.
Another way is to make your own. Don’t be afraid it’s really easy! But I won’t bother writing another step-by-step tutorial, you can find a few on the web :) My opinion is that following steps can teach you something only when you understand the dependencies. So let’s point out the basic requirements for a good pop filter. It should block bursts of air effectively while remaining transparent enough for the highs, it should be big enough to cover the mic even when the vocalist moves and finally it should have good mechanics to connect and position. 
Here is a tip to check the first (and most important) requirement: Blow onto your fingers a few times from a similar distance than the vocalist used to keep from the mic, say a few B’s and P’s to feel the air. Now hold the candidate for the filter in between your fingers and mouth and repeat. The attacking character of the blows should be much more subtle, often only a feeling of warm air remains. Now move to your speakers and play back a track you are familiar with. After a short listening, cover the tweeter with the filter as close as you can. Listen if there are big differences between the covered channel and the other, also try moving the filter away and back. If the sound is not degraded in means of openness, the filter should do its work in front of the mic.
Happy recording!
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