Fast and repetitive popping sound randomly interspersed throughout audio

[iRDM]

Audacity Version: 3.1.3
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro
Microphone: Fifine K669B
Computer: MSI Notebook PC (Model No. MS-16GB)

Setup Details:
Laptop sitting on table with USB microphone plugged into laptop, speaker standing 1-2 feet away. Recording using OBS, with an “Audio Capture” source ported directly from the USB mic.

Issue:
Within the audio of a recorded video of normal speech, there are random sets of very fast, somewhat quiet popping noises, (they sound like a drum pad being hit over and over at about 700bpm), and I don’t know their source, how to remove them post-recording, or how to prevent their creation upon further recordings.

Issue Details:
I have attached an example of the noises randomly popping (haha) up while I’m saying something, and also the Audacity waveform of that sample (the popping is only visible at the beginning, before the speaking starts, appearing as five small spikes in the audio). You may have to turn your volume up to be able to hear them. The popping happens about once or twice every couple of minutes, within a fifteen-minute video, and seems to only happen when I speak particularly loud, although it persists long after the loud volume has ceased, so I don’t think it’s clipping noise. Also in the sample, another issue comes up near the end, where the audio gets all glitchy, but that’s the only time that happens in the recording, so it’s not as big a deal as the popping.

Attempted Fixes:
I tried all of the proposed fixes for clipping I could find, including Clip Fix, Click Removal, and High Pass Filter, and none had any effect on the popping sound. (Repair might have worked, but to apply it would have taken hundreds of hours to cover fifteen minutes of audio.) Recording circumstances only allow rerecording once every couple of weeks, so it would be much preferred to find a post-recording fix so I can save my current audio, but if this is not possible, simply finding a way to prevent popping in further recordings would be amazing. Thank you.

[iRDM]

bumping because it’s been a few days (forum guide said 24 hours was typical max response time)

[SecretCode]

A zoom into one of the pops shows this (attachment) - a pretty sharp attack. But I don’t have any theories as to what is likely to be causing it. Better to remove the source than to try to fix with a filter, I think, but the experts may know of techniques.

[kozikowski]

(Repair might have worked, but to apply it would have taken hundreds of hours to cover fifteen minutes of audio.)

And there in one sentence you have the reason it’s far better to fix the recording rather than try to patch the errors later in post production.

My favorite method of avoiding computer recording problems is stop recording on the computer.

This is a Zoom H1n sound recorder.

Its reason for existence is to record sound, not calculate spreadsheets, paint Photoshop pictures, and Skype to your office.

We shall note that all the odd sounds in this recording are my mouth noises, not the microphone doing naughty things.

With suitable setup, you can also record on your phone. There are tricks to it, but that’s how I recorded this interview in a crowded restaurant.

If you’re recording on a busy computer with a USB microphone or USB connection, it can take quite a while to sort through all the possibilities of distortion and noise. You can have wacky problems. One noise solution a while ago was either plug or unplug the wall power supply. I have recordings with noise made by the phone screen I was reading. I had one noise problem that changed by touching the computer.

Do you have a drop-dead time when you have to get this running?

Koz