Singers performing live never use a pop filter and it is never noticeably plosive – recording with a very good microphone still seems to require a pop filter. Why??

Question

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stage performance where there’s a pop filter, but they’re extremely common in recording. I record myself with a pretty good microphone and the plosives can become fairly obvious without the filter. I also believe it’s not a thing that can easily be countered live by any soundboard wizardry. So how do they get around this live? Or maybe they don’t and we just don’t really notice?

In: 13

Answer 1

I don’t know about technology, but in terms of minimizing or eliminating plosives, some singers train to not vocalize them. I was in a jazz choir where this was discussed and also in a Spanish linguistics class where we had a whole unit dedicated to eliminating the “pop” that native English speakers put on p and b which are absent in Spanish. It’s a pain, but you can consciously avoid it if you practice enough.

I’d guess there is some tech wizardry involved though too.