How useful is this popshield?

by **awjoe** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:14 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUpdfpOPf4Y

The guitar solo's interesting too, but it's the popshield I'm mainly interested in. I thought it worked best with a distance of air between shield and mic.

by **Hugh Robjohns** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:54 am

It does! Physics, innit! ;-)

But great things can still be achieved despite technical faux pas.

Just imagine what it would be like if everyone was truly competent! :lol:

by **Dr Huge Longjohns** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 4:04 pm

Don't the Neumann U47 popshields sit really close to the mic?

by **CS70** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 9:42 pm

It's a video. Very unlikely what you see has any direct relationship with the sound you hear :)

by **Wonks** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 9:45 pm

^^^
:thumbup:

Probably moved to get a good close-up mic+singer shot.

by **CS70** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 9:56 pm

And worth it I'd say :bouncy:

by **Hugh Robjohns** » Sun Oct 20, 2019 10:21 pm

Dr Huge Longjohns wrote:Don't the Neumann U47 popshields sit really close to the mic?

Yes... We all know better now! ;-)

by **MOF** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 1:03 am

Windshields are there to break up the turbulent blasts of air.
So long as the external windshield and the built in one on the mic’ do that before the sound wave reaches the capsule then there shouldn’t be a problem.
I don’t suppose all windshields are equal in their capabilities. I wonder if the U47 one has a finer mesh or sandwiched meshes?

by **awjoe** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 2:57 am

CS70 wrote:It's a video. Very unlikely what you see has any direct relationship with the sound you hear :)

So, maybe it was a joke?

by **CS70** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 8:23 am

Not a joke, but when you make a video not all these details may be checked property, and so long the picture is good and overall resembles the performance, it's usually fine.

Maybe it was really like it appeared, of course, there's no way to know, but the fact that there's multiple angles and accurate cuts makes it less likely.

by **John Willett** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 1:18 pm

Personally I don't like metal pop filters - they do work and have less colouration that the nylon ones; but can resonate and strong plosives can get through.

The Nylon ones do colour the sound.

The best are the foam ones with course open-cell foam - this tends to me hydrophobic so doesn't absorb moisture and are easy to wash clean and dry quickly.

But, as Hugh says, any pop filter needs some space between the filter and the mic. to work effectively.

by **MOF** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 1:56 pm

You could avoid windshields all together by positioning the mic’ above the mouth, looking down at it, since the plosives go straight out/downwards. That does rely on the singer looking straight ahead and not angling their mouth back at the mic’.
Or you could go old school and have the mic’ similarly positioned but a few feet away, to get more of the chest sound. That does rely on good acoustics though.

by **John Willett** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 2:03 pm

MOF wrote:You could avoid windshields all together by positioning the mic’ above the mouth, looking down at it, since the plosives go straight out/downwards. That does rely on the singer looking straight ahead and not angling their mouth back at the mic’.
Or you could go old school and have the mic’ similarly positioned but a few feet away, to get more of the chest sound. That does rely on good acoustics though.

Or you put a dummy mic. to sing to and the real one where it's best. :thumbup:

by **Hugh Robjohns** » Mon Oct 21, 2019 4:29 pm

John Willett wrote:Personally I don't like metal pop filters - they do work and have less colouration that the nylon ones; but can resonate and strong plosives can get through.

As always there are different qualities... Most metal pop screens have less tonal affect than the multilayer Nylon ones, and they are certainly a lot easier to wash and keep clean. I've not had any resonance problems with any myself, but if the hole size is too large plosives can definitely get through. I was sent a very attractive looking metal pop screen to test from a UK company a few months back and it was utterly hopeless at stopping plosives from hitting the mic capsule! But on the up side I've also used plenty oif metal screens that have proved to be extremely effective and usable.

That said, though, I'm completely with JW that the open-cell foam types are easily the best option -- I'd recommend either the Rycote Studio inVision models, or the Haken ones (that JW sells through SoundLink).

H

by **MOF** » Wed Oct 23, 2019 7:10 pm

I watched this video in full after my original reply.
The windshield has been pushed in at the top and so isn’t as effective.
However it’s a fairly understated vocal and doesn’t contain many of the plosive type words. If you were able to hear it soloed it most likely wouldn’t have any plosives.
For most vocalists it’s best to keep 2”+ of air space between the mic’ and pop shield.

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How useful is this popshield?