What are microphone directional characteristics?

on
Wat zijn microfoon richtingkarakteristieken?

When looking for a new microphone, there are many features to consider. One of these features is directional characteristics. The most suitable directional characteristic depends on the application. If you're buying a microphone for your podcast, you want it to pick up virtually no ambient noise, while if you're buying a microphone to record meetings, you want it to pick up everything in the room. To help you make your choice, in this blog post, we'll discuss what directional characteristics are and which one is best suited for each situation.

Navigate quickly

What is directional characteristic?

Polar pattern is also called a pickup pattern or polar pattern. The precise nature of polar pattern is partly reflected in the name itself. It indicates the direction from which the microphone picks up sound. Broadly speaking, there are five different polar patterns: cardioid, supercardioid, hypercardioid, bidirectional, and omnidirectional. There's also a hypercardioid polar pattern, but this is simply an even more focused pickup pattern than supercardioid.

Cardioid

A cardioid microphone has a pickup pattern that picks up sound from the front. This ensures that background noise can easily be filtered out. Very useful when, for example, you only want to record someone's voice and otherwise want as little background noise as possible. Think for example of recording a podcast or interview. In a setup where you sit opposite each other with your own microphone, you will hardly be bothered by sound that will be picked up by both microphones with a cardioid pickup pattern. Suppose you only use one microphone for your podcast, then you will need an omnidirectional or bidirectional microphone. In the image on the right you can see that almost only sound is recorded within 180 degrees at the front of the microphone.


An example of a cardioid microphone is the AU01-K1 microphone from 7RYMS

Supercardioid

A supercardioid polar pattern is even more focused than a cardioid polar pattern. A supercardioid pickup pattern captures less sound at the front of the microphone than at the sides of the microphone. This ensures that even less ambient noise is allowed in. Very useful when, for example, you have to make a recording in a situation with a lot of background noise, such as a performance with a large audience or a recording in a noisy room. The emphasis here is really on recording a source of sound. In the image below you can see that sound is also recorded at the back. This may seem strange, but the sound at the back is necessary to dampen the sound at the sides.

An example of a supercardioid microphone is the Comica CVM-V30 LITE directional microphone.

Hypercardioid

A hypercardioid polar pattern is even more focused than a supercardioid polar pattern. Hypercardioid microphones pick up even more sound from the back. This makes these microphones more sensitive to feedback.

What is feedback?

Feedback is a kind of sound loop, where the sound coming from the speakers or amplifiers is picked up again by the microphone and gets stuck in a kind of loop, which creates a very high pitched sound. You can also get this when you are video calling with 2 laptops or phones in the same room. You can avoid this by placing the microphone and speakers well.

Due to the highly focused pickup pattern, a hypercardioid microphone is again suitable for recording in noisy environments.

View our microphones

Omnidirectional

An omnidirectional microphone picks up sound from all sides. The purpose of this microphone is to actually pick up all the sound. This recording pattern is suitable when you want to record a sound atmosphere impression. It can also be very useful for group meetings or group interviews. Everyone who participates in the group conversation uses the same microphone. This means that not everyone needs to have their own microphone and you certainly do not suffer from feedback. An omnidirectional directional characteristic is also suitable for recording instruments where you want to record the entire sound including the resonance. Think of a piano, for example.

An example of an omnidirectional microphone is a clip-on microphone . This is a microphone that you attach to your clothing and therefore sits close to your mouth. Another example is the BOYA BY-PM500 . The unique thing about this microphone is that you can switch between omnidirectional and cardioid. This is ideal when you switch between a voice-over and a group meeting.

Bidirectional

Finally, there is also the bidirectional directional characteristic. Here, the same amount of sound is recorded from the front and the back, and the sides are dampened. This can be useful when you are conducting an interview and want to record both people with 1 microphone. The advantage of a bidirectional microphone, compared to an omnidirectional microphone for an interview, is that a bidirectional microphone still dampens ambient noise well. This means that you can also use these microphones in noisier environments. In addition, it can also be used to record 2 instruments or 2 singers sitting opposite each other.

An example of a bidirectional microphone is the 7RYMS MinBo M2 Directional Microphone.

If you are looking for a microphone with different directional characteristics, check out all our microphones. Do you have questions about which microphone is best suited to your situation? Please contact our customer service . We will be happy to help you with all your questions.

View Microphones