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Popping Ps and Plosives
Plosives are the bain of podcasters. They are the breathy sounds that sneak into the microphone, however hard you try to keep them out. “Ps’ are apt to explode all over the place. I often hear them popping out of the most experienced podcasters’ microphones.
As always, it’s best to avoid them in the first place. Haul a pop guard over your microphone, or even use a silk pop screen in front of a condenser mic. Point the microphone at your chin, rather than directly at the mouth. Try to hold in and soften those ps with your lips.
But despite your best efforts, some plosives are bound to find their way onto the track. But don’t despair. In many cases, it’s still possible to edit them out. Bump up the size of the sound wave on your screen, and you should be able to see the angry zig-zags, characterised by the wide spaces between the lines of the wave. Sometimes you will also see the explosion shooting up above the natural height of the words Try cutting out the nasty bit with your sound editor, and preview it to make sure it still sounds natural.
This sort of precision editing is quite time-consuming. Perhaps it’s mostly for perfectionists.