Sound Engineering and Music Production blog #13
Hello Steemians! Let's discuss the Polar Patterns of Microphones today.
Based on how the mic will capture the sound in its vicinity, the Polar pattern of the mic is designed. There are many polar patterns of different microphones but I will discuss those which are commonly used. So, let's get started.
- Cardioid:
Most commonly observed polar pattern amongst microphones. The shape looks like a human heart hence it is called Cardioid.
As we can see, if the source is in front of the mic's diaphragm, the sound can be captured well, while there is rejection on the opposite side.
- Omnidirectional:
This type of mic captures sound from all directions. Room mics, for example, while recording drums are omnidirectional. Hence they capture sound from all directions and can make the drum kit sound fuller.
Consider the centre of the above diagram as the mic's diaphragm and we can observe how exactly the polar pattern is.
- Figure of Eight or Bi-directional:
That's how the mic captures the sound. The polar pattern looks like the digit 8, hence it is named figure of eight. These microphones reject sound almost completely at -90° and +90° as you can see in the above figure.
- Shotgun:
These are highly directional microphones and can capture sound even if the source is far away from the diaphragm. Hence these are used in location shooting of a film or a video, where there are many noises around.
That's how these mics capture sound.
There are many other polar patterns like hypercardioid, supercardioid, subcardioid etc. but these are rarely used. You can google or read about them in detail on wikipedia.
A microphone generally has a fixed polar pattern but there are microphones with multiple polar patterns. There's a switch on the mic by which the polar pattern can be switched.
That's something about microphone polar patterns. Comment your views, share your knowledge as well, Upvote if you liked it and do not forget to check out my other blogs as well. Also you can suggest me topics in audio engineering that I should discuss about or ask anything you would like to know about.
Thank You.