Plosive
The low thump a P or B sound punches into a microphone when a burst of breath hits the capsule.
See it
What it is
A plosive is a consonant made by blocking airflow and releasing it: p, b, t, d, k, g. The p and b releases fire a burst of air straight down the barrel of the mic, and the diaphragm reads that gust as a huge low-frequency thump, usually under 150 Hz, that can swamp the whole word.
Prevention beats repair. Put a pop filter four to six inches out, address the mic slightly off-axis so the air blows past rather than into it, and keep some distance. A high-pass filter around 80 to 100 Hz catches what leaks through, since the pop energy sits below the voice.
Gotcha: a bad plosive is not fixable with EQ alone, because the burst shoves the capsule far enough to distort the syllable itself. For those, clip-gain the individual pop down 6 to 10 dB and high-pass just that region, or re-record the line. Foam windscreens stop wind outdoors but are mediocre at plosives; a mesh or metal pop filter is the right tool indoors.
Ask AI for it
Remove plosives from this vocal recording: find every low-frequency breath burst under 150 Hz on p and b syllables, reduce the clip gain on each one by 6 to 10 dB, and apply a targeted 100 Hz high-pass only across those short regions. Leave the surrounding words and the overall tone of the voice unchanged, and do not high-pass the entire track to solve it.