Ever discover great delight in finding one of those little audio toys that no one seems to know about, is actually affordable, yet works like a million bucks? Something that pays for itself a hundred times over in saved time and effort? Well I've got something just for you, from a little one man shop hidden away in the German countryside. THE PROBLEM: I used to really hate popscreens. I hated them because every one I ever tried changed the sound, a LOT, rolling off the top end (and even changing the bottom) of the voice before it ever hits the microphone. Imagine spending big money for a mic and having a little crummy popscreen mess it up! If you think I'm making this up, try my little home popfilter test and I think you'll understand what I am talking about. HOME POP FILTER TEST STEP #1 Take your current popfilter off the stand. Hold it with your fingers on the bottom ring or frame to keep as much of the popscreen unobstructed as possible. Hold it up to one ear and listen for a moment to just the ambient sounds in the room. Concentrate on the high end. Now take the popfilter away from your ear. WOW! Suddenly the high end comes back! Try it again if you didn't hear it the first time. You may want to try it a bunch of times before you believe it. Try it with the other ear if you still didn't hear a difference. I promise that unless you have high frequency hearing loss, you'll be floored at how much top end goes away with your handy dandy cheap little popfilter. The cheaper they are the worse the attenuation of high end. Even some very expensive popfilters mess things up. I've tried this little test with some very experienced and famous engineers I know and have had watched their faces as their jaw drops. I've tried this with every other popfilter I have seen with a similar result: the high end goes away. [Try this with a Pauly Superscreen and you will almost no difference!] STEP #2 Holding the popscreen by your fingers and hold it up to your mouth. Now put your other hand behind the screen so when you blow through it, you will feel any wind that "gets through" on your palm. Take a deep breath...and give one of those explosive breaths that will make any mic go wild. Feel any wind on the other side? I bet you did, and bet you felt a lot more than you ever thought was possible. [If you try this with a Pauly Supersceen, you will feel almost no blast appearing on the other side!] STEP#3 Now, the last part of the test is simple and you don't have to do anything. Remind yourself of how you picked your vocal chain, how you selected your preamp, selected your mic. I'm willing to bet that you thought darn hard about "how wide" the bandwidth was of the mic preamp or microphone you bought, how "transparent" or "colored" the top end, how detailed it was. If you are like most other engineers I know, you spent extra money for the improved top end! Now, just think about that lousy popfilter you're using in your vocal chain, in front of darn near everyone that records on your best vocal mics. Doesn't make a lot of sense does it? Spend all that money and immediately throw it away with a cheap popfilter? Now you know why I used to hate them! THE ANSWER: I heard a rumor about a popscreen in Germany that was unbelievable. Supposedly this popfilter was differetn from all others. The man that pointed me in the right direction was Dirk Brauner, of Brauner Mcirophones. "Oh, everyone here knows about them. Hilmar Pauly of Tonstudio Pauly builds them for German Broadcast." Eureka! I set about trying to get in touch with Mr Pauly, and after a few months of unsuccessful tries, arranged a meeting at an upcoming AES Europe. I met Hilmar Pauly, a tall elderly gentleman at AES Munich. He didn't speak a word of English, so he brought a friend to intepret, a really nice guy named Heiner Schultz. Mr. Pauly was Tonmeister , not just some guy off the street. He handed me his creation and I got to hear the screen for the first time. I did my test (just like the one above) and WOW! This little popscreen actully really sounds good-and works! Not only could I hear almost no difference with and without the screen, but when I blew into it, almost NO air came out the other side. WOW again. This IS amazing. The funny thing was, it looked like an ordinary popscreen. I asked Mr Pauly, "Is this pantyhose? It can't be ordinary pantyhose." Heiner said for Mr Pauly, "Oh no, no, no. This is NOT pantyhose." I thought I blew it, insulted the guy before we even got started! Heiner continued, "This is very very special material, made for Herr Pauly. He looked a long long time before finding it." I did my little test again, not believing what I was seeing versus what I was hearing. I was sold! I ordered them on the spot. On the airplane ride home from Munich, I was thinking about this little screen-the coolest thing at the show! This thing is no ordinary screen, this deserves some kind of special name. "Superscreen" would be fitting. I wonder if I should put my TransAudio brand on it or help Mr Pauly? No, help Mr Pauly. So I asked Mr Pauly by email if we could call it the Pauly Superscreen. "Yes, this is acceptable, if this is what you want." Well hell yes, it deserves his name! I originally thought I could sell them to dealers. The trouble was, after I import them, the dealer makes a little, this thing cost a small fortune! It would have to be about $225-$250 List price, and sell for about $175 to $200! I would never sell them at that price...and I was right-I didn't. I few friends bought them from me, and that was it. So not until we finally launched this TransAudioDirect idea that it made sense again. I can sell them to you at a price that's a genuine BARGAIN ($125), and a screen you will use for years and years. I have Pauly Superscreen in three versions. All have the same size screen, (4 and 5/8 inches in diameter, 3/8 of an inch deep). One is for large diaphragm mics, one is for small diaphragm mics, and one has both small and large diapragm mount systems included. Here's what they look like, along with an explanation for each. |
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