Microphone Categories

The directivity pattern (or polar diagram) of a microphone indicates its response to sounds from different directions. The most important directivity patterns are given below.

Omni-directional

Sound pick-up is normally independent of angle of incidence but in fact this is only the case at the lower frequencies (typically below 2–4 kHz). Except as ‘personal’ microphones (e.g. for use with radio microphone systems) the use of omni-directional microphones is limited in television studios because of their inability to reject reverberation and general studio noise.

Cardioid

These are widely used because, when pointed at an artiste or presenter, their ‘dead’ sides are likely to be directed towards areas of noise in the studio. ...

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