what is the thing that you put on the microphone to block out background noise
If you mean a Pop Filter all that does is keep your breathing noises to a minimum which after you use the tips I say below make it even less relevant. I work in an extremely loud environment but watch any of my videos you hear no background noise whatsoever. The way I do it is I do commentary and I have both a loud a** air conditioner and a ceiling fan on in the background. You do this method it's very simple in Audacity (Free program)
1. Compress the whole track with the compressor tool
2. Have 5-10 seconds of you not saying anything at all. Then highlight that when you are done. Click noise removal > Get Noise Profile.
3. Hit CTRL + A to select the whole track and then press CTRL + R. Bam no more fan or AC unit but the audio in my commentary is intact and cleaner.
4. Then find your breathing spots so if your breath sound is -22 DB but your commentary is -9 DB use a plugin called
Noise Gate. Set the noise gate all stock except have the threshold at -20 or so, Decay at about 150 ms. Hit noise gate bam all the breathing sounds are gone and your commentary is clean.
A Noise Gate is a simple tool that basically gates all sound above a certain decibal level. So if the noise you want eliminated is quieter then all of your commentary it gates it off (removes it) and all your commentary stays the same because it's above the noise gate's threshold.
Added tip of advice. Make sure you're about a foot from the Mic, have a pop filter, and only set the mic's level between 1-10 to about 6. Once you compress it, it will make all the audio levels higher so it makes them not clip like you hear those people who eat their microphones have happen.