What does polar pattern mean in audio?

Directionality or Polar-Pattern. Directionality refers to the sensitivity relative to the direction or angle of sound arriving at the microphone. A polar pattern graph shows the variation in sensitivity as you move 360 degrees around the microphone.

What polar pattern is best for vocal?

cardioid
The most commonly used polar pattern for recording vocals is cardioid, which is more sensitive to sound arriving from the front of the mic than the back. Cardioid mics have the advantage of reducing ambient noise; however, they will also colour the sound more than an omni-directional design.

Why are polar patterns important?

A polar pattern defines how much of the signal will be picked up by the microphone from different directions. By selecting the right pattern, you can avoid unwanted sound sources to bleed into your signal, adjust the mix between dry and room sound, or change the frequency response, and influence the proximity effect.

Do condenser mics have proximity effect?

But the proximity effect can be put to good use in recordings. For example, moving a cardioid condenser mic closer to a bass guitar’s speaker can cause low frequencies to be boosted.

What polar pattern is best for acoustic guitar?

cardioid polar pattern
When using one microphone, a cardioid polar pattern generally yields the best result by allowing for a combination of sound from the guitar’s soundhole and fretboard.

What is the polar pattern?

Polar patterns refer to the sensitivity of any given microphone to sounds arriving from different angles, to its central axis. As we can see, the shape of the polar pattern touches the outermost circle at zero degrees, falling below -5 dB at the 90 and 270 decibel points.

What are the three basic polar patterns?

Before we get into some specific benefits for the stage and studio, let’s review the basic polar (or pickup) patterns. There are three basic types: omnidirectional, unidirectional and bidirectional (also called figure-of-eight).

How do polar patterns work?

What different polar patterns are used for?

Certain polar patterns are better for vocals, different recording scenarios, or capturing specific instruments. A microphones polar pattern is usually represented in a circular chart format. This visual data offers a look at just how (and where from) the sound is picked up by your mic.

What are microphone polar patterns and how do they work?

Microphone polar patterns describe the way a microphone’s element picks up sound from sources positioned around it. Knowing how a microphone’s polar pattern works will help you position it the right way to get the sound you want.

What is a polar pattern?

Polar patterns are three dimensional. They’re portions of a sphere not of a circle. When you see them with a microphone for reference, it starts to make more sense: That brings us to my next point: nulls. The polar pattern tells you what a mic will pickup, but what’s even more valuable is knowing what it won’t capture.

What is cardioid polar pattern?

Cardioid (kar-dee-oid) is the most common directional polar pattern, with the highest sensitivity to sound coming in from directly in front of the microphone capsule (0º), practically no sensitivity to sound coming directly from behind (180º), and a reduced sensitivity to sound coming in from the sides (90º/270º).

What are the 3 basic patterns of sound sensitivity?

The 3 basic patterns are: Here’s a diagram showing how they look: Mic 1 has an omnidirectional pattern – meaning the entire red area is equally sensitive to sound. Mic 2 has a figure-8 pattern – meaning the two blue areas on the front and back are sensitive, while the sides are ignored.