---
title: "Avoiding plosives and breathing noises (Voiceover)"
date: 2010-03-10
description: "Voiceover techniques   1.1 Finding a Conversational Voice in Video Tutorials   1.2 The Problem with Speaking..."
canonical_url: https://idratherbewriting.com/2010/03/10/4-avoiding-plosives-and-breathing-noises-developing-a-personal-voice-in-audio/
---
# Avoiding plosives and breathing noises (Voiceover)
Unfortunately, as you get closer to a microphone, the microphone starts to pick up more sounds from your mouth. Say the word "pick" or "pull" and you unleash a gust of wind toward the mic. Really, hold your hand up two inches from your mouth and say a few P or B words. Can you feel the gust? To your microphone, the puff is like a tsunami sound wave. This burst of air is known as a plosive. 

When you get close, in addition to plosives, microphones also pick up a variety of breathing noises. When you exhale through your nose, the sound can be a low rumble in the microphone. As you finish one sentence and take a breath to start another, that sudden inhalation gets picked up by the microphone. When you open and close your mouth, the sound of your lips separating and smacking finds its way into the microphone.

Here are a few of the sounds I'm talking about. I've used four different mics for comparison.

Shure SM58 (no pop filter)

Shure SM58 (pop filter)

Audix (no pop filter)

Audix (pop filter)

Electro-Voice RE20 (no pop filter)

Electro-Voice RE20 (pop filter)

Radio Shack 33-3042 (no pop filter)

Radio Shack 33-3042 (pop filter)

The easiest way to prevent these plosives and breathing noises from ending up in your recording is through something called a pop filter. You can find a good [condenser mic](http://www.musiciansfriend.com/microphones) and pop filter online to help give you the most professional sound. The pop filter is essentially pantyhose-like material stretched across a ring and held several inches in front of your microphone. For some reason, the fabric of pantyhose seems to stop plosives. Pantyhose also helps to reduce the various breathing noises I mentioned. In part this is because the pop filter ensures you don't get too close to the mic.

![pop filter](https://s3.us-west-1.wasabisys.com/idbwmedia.com/images/popperstopper1.jpg)

You can make your own pop filter if you're skilled working with wire and have a way to attach it to your microphone. I once tried this but found no way to gracefully attach the coat hanger wire to my microphone outside of gaudy-looking masking tape, which left my mic handle all sticky when I removed the tape.

I have since bought a $38 Shure Popper Stopper and have had felt it to be worthwhile. (Remember that you're not buying a strip of pantyhose for $38. You're buying the mic attachment clip and arm as well as the ring.)

Some pop filters are actually made of metal. I haven't tried a metal pop filter, but I assume they work too. And metal is durable. If you get a nylon (pantyhose) pop filter, make sure you're careful not to tear the nylon. One careless scratch and the nylon gets a run. (I know because when I originally removed my pop filter from the case, I think I scratched it against a package staple and it immediately had a run in the nylon, [kind of like this](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronaldwidha/2641297134/). Luckily for me, the store still exchanged it.)