“Pop-filter”: from add-on to feature

If your job title is “Product Manager”, chances are you work in software. But product management principles apply to all products – even something as simple as a piece of metal that blocks air.

I’m referring here to something called a “pop-filter”.

A pop-filter is a very simple device used in the world of music and audio recording. For years, recording engineers have known that if you have someone sing or talk into a simple microphone, certain consonants will result in a loud burst of air rushing over the mic — even if the person is talking naturally.

These problem consonants are known as the “plosives”, and they do indeed have an “explosive” sound when you record them. The more common plosives in English are “p”, “b”, “t”, and “d”. (A full list can be had on Wikipedia here.)

The problem with the plosives is that even though they don’t sound loud or abrupt “in real life”, they do when you record them. If you’ve ever been on a conference call where someone is breathing too loudly and they don’t even know it, then you have the basic idea.

The solution to the problem of plosives is something called a pop-filter, which looks like this:

It kind of looks like a tennis racket. The head of the “racket” can be made of metal lattice, as shown above, or of foam. Either way, the head of the “racket” is perforated with holes in order to allow sounds to go through, while blocking the gusts of air.

A simple solution, and one that every recording studio needs. Strangely, it has taken manufacturers a long time to figure this out. Most recording microphones don’t come with a pop-filter. Neither do the microphone stands. The pop-filter is effectively an add-on. The old metaphor in software about features or modules being “bolted onto” the main product is literally true in this case, as you can see here:

There’s a clip that attaches the stem of the pop-filter to the microphone stand. But, take it from me, these clips are awkward to use and unreliable: the pop-filters will slip and slide their way down the pole they’re clipped to. Surely there’s a better way…?

Indeed there is. At least one manufacturer has figured out that the pop-filter has become worthy of graduating from being a mere add-on to being a full-fledged feature. The company’s name is Rode. And no, they’re not paying me to write this about them! 🙂

Behold:

To explain the image a little: the microphone is sitting in what looks like a nest of spider’s legs. That nest is what’s known as the “shock mount”, which is meant to prevent vibrations in the room from getting recorded by the mic. It’s a handy tool to have, but gets in the way of the arm of traditional pop-filters — that’s why you didn’t see a shock mount in the previous photos.

But Rode has made the simple leap to making a shockmount that actually has the pop-filter attached to it. Now users get the best of both worlds: no interference from room vibrations, thanks to the shock mount, and no interference from plosives, thanks to the pop-filter.

Not exactly rocket science here, and yet Rode appears to be the only company that’s realized this simple truth of product management:

When absolutely everyone needs a custom add-on, it shouldn’t be custom or an add-on anymore. It should be a productized feature.