Tips & Hacks to reduce Clicks, Pops, PLOSIVES and other nasty mouth noise

Human beings are complex creatures. Each one of us has a unique voice because we all have different vocal cord lengths, folds, cheekbones, jawlines, sinus pockets, hollows, fat, tissue, muscles, and skin types that resonate sound differently. Our voices are as unique as our thumbprints! But what we do have in common is the natural, hard-to-control clicks and pops that our tongues create when we articulate certain words like ‘click’ for example. 😉

So, what causes these annoying and totally unwanted sounds that spoil perfectly good voiceover audio? The amount of saliva build-up, the mucus in the back of our throats, that gooey slime that occurs after talking a lot or due to lack of hydration or drinking copious cups full of coffee with milk and sugar. Sometimes it’s things that are out of our control like the way our tongue formulates and articulates words; our tongues tend to smack against the cheek or our cartilage or jawbone hinges pop when the mouth is open wider than normal.

Luckily there are a few handy things you can do to minimize or get rid of these nasty sounds for good.

1) Hydrate throughout the day: Sipping lukewarm or room-temperature water throughout the day keeps the mouth and nasal cavity well-hydrated reducing the clicking sounds considerably. Don’t just hydrate before the recording, make sure to tank up consistently throughout the day so the pH balance in the mouth is maintained and there is no dryness or mucus build-up potential.

2) Avoid drinking coffee or tea with milk and sugar on the day of the recording: More than the coffee or tea – it’s the milk and sugar in the beverages that causes thick mucus to build up at the back of the throat and the sounds that it can generate are rather unpleasant to say the least.

3) Angle your face to the side of the microphone: This will minimize the clicking sounds or the plosives hitting the microphone dead on. They get deflected to the side.

4) Increase the distance between your mouth and the microphone: This will help reduce the extremely sensitive condenser microphone from picking up the minute clicks and pops allowing for cleaner audio at the recording stage itself; the best place to ensure pristine audio. You might need to project a bit more in this case.

5) Carry along or eat apples, celery, carrots or cucumbers: m- These fruits and veggies act as an excellent palette and mouth cleansers if taken just before a recording session.

6) Brush your teeth, use a tongue cleaner and gargle with mouthwash – Just before your recording session begins to get rid of mucus, food particles that might have got stuck in your teeth and to ensure you cleanse your mouth and throat.

7) Try not to close your lips between lines or sentences: Practising this technique until it becomes muscle memory will significantly cut the C&Ps out at the source. Use a little chapstick on your lips to help it stay smooth and avoid it sticking together should your mouth turn dry from keeping it open while speaking.

8) Olive or Coconut oil pulling : Swishing a tablespoon of one of these oils in your mouth for around 10 minutes and pulling it through your teeth can act as a fantastic mouth cleanser just before your recording session. The added advantage is that it whitens your teeth too!!

9) Apple Cider Vinegar-water solution, Electrolytes Water or Sugar-free Gum: These acidic drinks will restore the pH balance in your mouth. Sugar-free gum is another neat trick as the gum contains a plant-based sugar called xylitol. It will increase saliva production, which is the strongest natural way to raise a low pH.

10) Izotope RX 9 Mouth De-click Plug-In: If all else fails don’t worry you can resort to the best, most highly recommended plug-in to get rid of those nasty sounds once and for all. It’s a bit of an investment but if you’re doing long-form voice-over like audiobooks and e-learning from your home studio – It’ll be a lifesaver and a huge time and effort saver and we all appreciate that time is money!

Armed with your arsenal to take on the enemy, we hope clicks, pops and plosives will be banished from your audio recordings for good and we say GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH!!