Let us learn about microphone directivity

Microphone means that the microphone picks up sound from different directions. In the field setting, the most important thing is to confirm the type of microphone you are using, so as to reduce the feedback of the sound and where is the best place to place the monitoring based on the use of directivity. In the studio, you can use sensors with different characteristics to make changes. Microphone directivity not only affects the way it picks up the sound source, but also affects its performance in a specific room or a specific sound system.

Microphone directivity chart describes how it responds to sound from different directions, and the coordinates on the chart tell you how you should position the microphone to maximize the pickup of the desired sound source while minimizing feedback or background noise pickup. Today, let's talk about the directivity of several common microphones.

This is the type of microphone most often encountered by singers, and is often described as having a heart-shaped pattern, often used in studio recordings of vocals. If you don't want to pick up the audience's voice or the sound coming from your monitor, the cardioid microphone is very suitable in this case (when using the cardioid microphone, the monitor should be placed opposite you, 180 degrees from you). For example, AKG's C3000, with its cardioid orientation, can effectively reduce the surround sound and the sound reflected by the microphone in the studio. This can help you record in less than ideal environments, or reduce the sound of other music around you.

Super cardioid microphone, cardioid microphone's big nephew. The pickup area of the super-cardioid microphone is narrower than that of the cardioid microphone, and the directivity is more clear, which is more useful to pick up a single sound source on a noisy stage with many ambient noises, and can more effectively eliminate the surrounding noise. But this microphone also picks up sound at the back end, so the monitor speakers must be placed correctly. It is especially suitable for fixed-point recording of drum sets and pianos, and its pointing characteristics are very suitable for live recording that requires isolation (sometimes isolation of interference between instruments, sometimes isolation of noise). For self-playing and self-singing performance recordings, the mutual crosstalk of the super-pointing microphones is minimal.

8-shaped microphone is similar to the number 8, picking up sound from the front and back, rather than from both sides, and is also called a double-cardioid, bi-directional microphone. Usually used in studios, mostly aluminum strips or large diaphragm microphones.

Recording the performance of two singers is a big use of this microphone. It can make one singer in the front and the other in the opposite direction, which can also reduce the sound reflection in the room.

All-directional microphones were originally called "pressure" (pressure) microphones, and their diaphragms measure the pressure of sound at a single point in space. Since they do not provide orientation information, they are equally sensitive to sounds in all directions. An omni-directional microphone has the same sensitivity to all angles, which means that it can pick up sound evenly from all directions, so the microphone does not have to point in a certain direction.

For example, AKG's LC 82MD, omnidirectional collar microphone, can be seen in musicals, plays, churches, radio and large-scale speeches. Omni-directional microphones can balance the overall performance effect in the whole audience.