Posts Tagged ‘filter’

Just a few months back I made my own adjustable mic stand with a shock mount to hold my Rock Band mic for podcasting.

Mostly I’ve been using a sock to cover the mic to stop both air and pops from being recorded. However, I am sick of trying to find clean small socks around the house when I need one. Solution? A quick and cheap way to make a pop filter. Multiple sites around the net recommend using a needlework hoop with some nylon. After that, mounting is completely up to you.

My parts include:
1x 4″ Needlepoint Hoop – $1.49
1x Sheet of Black Felt – $0.29
1x Metal Coathanger – FREE

I chose to use felt over nylon straight up for the fact that I did not want to purchase ladies nylons at the store. Also, felt is cheaper, stiffer, stretches just as easily and is less see through. I really feel that nylon is not exactly the right fabric for a DIY approach. Then again I could be wrong.

After placing the felt in the hoop and tightening it up, the felt was already smoothed out. I knowingly purchased felt due to the fact that it does have quite a bit of give. To finish step one, I cut away excess felt. Step two is harder as it involves cutting metal. I basically broke the cheap wire cutters my grandfather left behind and I had to bend the wire to complete the break. I also bent the wire with two pliers to break it at the other bend. Both cuts were made at the bends, but I suggest giving yourself a little more to play with.

I looped one end of the wire so that my thumb nut would cinch down on it. With the wire sticking straight out and threatening to poke my eye out, I place the loop’s screw over it and began to position it. I made one bend to stop it from sliding back and then looped the wire over and behind the filter. At this point, I had some excess wire and a slight problem. There was no way to stop the filter from being pushed in the mic either by humans or adjustments. So I bent the remaining wire so that it would contact the frame of the filter in two places, holding it away from the mic.

I’ve yet to paint the hoop black. I would suggest doing this first as not to clog the felt. I might go back and color mine with magic marker. Tests with Skype show a drastic reduction with air noises and I will test further with a podcast I am guesting on tonight.
The final pictures are below, showing both the support wire and the final look.