Майкл Джексон

mjOlik To fully understand this post, you really need to have a friend who will do a test with you. I'll wait till you find someone... I'm still waiting... are you ready? OK, good. Now, ask your friend to stand next to you, close to your ear, and speak at a normal volume. If you have no friends, I feel sorry for you, but you can put your hand in front of your mouth for the same effect. Now, have them say words like Popcorn, Purple, Pink, Pluto... and so on. Feel that burst of air coming out of their mouth when they say "P" sounds? (OK, tell them they can stop... it's annoying now.) Now, imagine a singer (say, Michael Jackson for example), singing phrases like "Hey pretty baby with the high heels on..." or "PYT" or "Someone put your hand out..." and so on. When the singer hit's that "P" sound at full throttle, the microphone is going to sound like it is outside in a windstorm. Microphones do not like wind... or "P" sounds. So long ago, someone in a studio discovered that if you take a coat hanger (I am not making this up), and form it into a circle, you can stretch a pair of panty-hose over it. I have no idea why there were panty hose laying around a studio, but I am just passing on the story, as if we were sitting around a campfire. Anyway, once the panty hose are on this hoop, if you talk or sing through it, the "Pop" is absorbed, but the sound go through without a problem. Pretty cool... >>Craft time: find an old coat hanger and a pair of panty hose, and build your own pop filter. If your friend is still around, have them repeat the experiment, holding the pop filter in front of their mouth and saying Popcorn, Purple, etc. Huge difference, right? << Now, fast forward to recording studios in the mid/late 80's: Beautiful rooms, elegant microphones, incredible equipment, top-notch talent, etc. It was an amazing time to be in a recording studio - they were like grand palaces of music. Yet on a typical session we were still using this type of pop filter! Oh, we made them a bit prettier with little wooden hoops, but the concept was still the same. So, you, my reader, are saying to yourself, "Brad, you are not telling me that Michael Jackson sang into a pair of panty hose to sing some of his vocals are you?" The answer is Yes!! And it sounded great! Sometimes the most glamorous solution is not the best - we were all about getting the best sound on those records, and a cheap pair of panty was sometimes part of that process.