DIY Desktop Mic Stand and Pop Filter

So a few weeks back I got in my Xenyx 1002 mixer and a Behringer XM8500 mic. I had tried experimenting with them a bit but honestly I needed a mic stand for the desk. Holding a mic is not possible for audio recording, at least not possible for me.

So I looked online and realized I flat out did not want to pay $20 for a crappy mic stand. Hell if anything I can build my own crappy mic stand! So that is what I did.

I had a bunch of left over PVC odd-and-ends and several pieces of cutt-offs from various projects and figured that I could use that as the stand. So I made a roughly 10" x 6" square base and on one of the short sides inserted a 3/4" to 1/2" PVC tee. This would allow me to fit a piece of 1/2" PVC as a boom.

On the tip of the boom I cut out a notch for the mic clip to rest in. And then another notch perpendicular to that that would hold a square bolt. The nut and bolt are actually some extra server rack hardware pieces that I re-purposed for this. With the mic clip attached I was fully functional, and it hold the fairly heavy XM8500 without tipping. It was still ugly though, not a problem that is why man invented black electrical tape.

After sitting it on the desk I realized that I now needed a pop filter more than ever. So, riding on the success of the fresh mic stand, I decided to make one of those as well. Shouldn't be too hard, just need a pair  of pantie hose and a wire coat hanger, no problem! Or so I thought.

As it turns out in a house with three women in it there was not a single pair of pantie hose to be found. And to make matters worse, there isn't a single wire coat hanger in my house.

"OK Brian," I says, "time  to get creative." I figured the wife's lingerie had enough spandex in it to do the job, so I went in search of the once worn, failed birthday gift from years past. And so there I was about to slice this shiny teddy to ribbons when, "Oh. What's this?" In the same box as the teddy was a lone silk sock. obviously forgotten about for years and no chance of a match coming into play. And better yet it was mine. No guilt associated with this acquisition.

So what did I have to replace a coat hangar? Well, I garden a bit and I have some tomato cages lying around the back of the house waiting patiently for me to drive them into the ground again next spring. That would work, bit f an overkill, but fuck it! I need a pop filter.

I quickly realized that this wire is really heavy, so thick that I had a hard time bending it with a heavy pair of lineman's pliers. OK, shit Well now I need a hoop. Something sturdy but somewhat flexible. "What do you have thousands of feet of lying in the garage, Brian?" "Fuck me. Cat5."

Yeah so I braided a ring out of Cat5 and then wrapped it in duck tape. It wasn't pretty, but I was going for free on this one. Then I made use of the vise in the garage and bent the wire around one end of the Cat5 hoop as best I could. Taking the partially made pop filter to the newly made mic stand I figured the best place for mounting and started bending. There was a very good possibility that this mount was in no way going to be removable, ah yeah not coming off. But that is OK because why would I record with out it?

Now the interesting bit... I decided to mount to the stand before I put on the screen, not really all that interesting actually, sorry. So I stretched the sock over the hoop, and ZIP tied it around the stiff wire. After pulling it as tight as hell and clipping off the excess it was time to try it out.

Holy shit this actually works! Sometimes I surprise myself. It might not be pretty at all. But it is functional, which is all that I really care about.