Pay less for a Popless

Have you ever seen one of those screens that pro studios use in front of the vocal microphones? Ya know those things that most people think are spit guards? Well. they're not...

Actually those unit are usually referred to as a "Popless". What they do is help remove, or at least minimize the "pop" that some people's voices introduce to a microphone when singing words that start with a "P" or a similarly powerful sound like that.

What it does, in effect, is filter some of the air from the voice so it doesn't all hit the microphone as hard as when it left the mouth. It sort of "softens" the air flow, but doesn't distort or change the personality of the voice itself.

Have you ever seen the price for these units?!?!?! Music stores and pro audio stores sometimes charge a lot of money for these silly little things, and they can be built for nearly nothing if you know where to go and what to buy.

Just find your local craft store and ask someone where they keep their needlepoint supplies. In that section you will find small, wooden frames that come in pairs, one fits inside of the other and the outside frame can be tightened against the inside frame. This piece is the basic component of your Popless.

After getting that, all you need is some thin nylon material like the stuff women's leg nylons are made from, heck you can even cut up a pair of your mom's, girlfriend's or wives old nylons and use that (please ask them first though, and make sure they take them off before cutting :-).

Take the two wooden rings apart and stretch the nylon over the smaller ring (one or two layers should be plenty) and then tighten the larger ring around the smaller ring with the nylon between them making sure the nylon is stretched tight (that can be a trick).

There ya go, your popless is done...the only thing left is mounting it in from of the mic. This is where the store bought units are cool cuz they have a gooseneck or something similar to attach to the mic stand. However, I have sometimes just taped the home-made popless to a second mic stand and placed it in front of the mic and it works great, obviously it doesn't look the prettiest, but it works, and that is the key in the world of Do-It-Yourself, right?