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.

How do I change the polar pattern on my mic?

A common way of creating different polar patterns in one microphone is to mount two condenser cardioid elements back to back inside the mic housing. A common construction method is to create a single element with two diaphragms (one facing the front of the mic, the other facing the rear) with a common backplate.

What microphones usually have multiple polar patterns?

Multipattern microphones often feature a combination of these polar patterns: Omni, Wide cardioid aka Broad cardioid aka. Subcardioid, Cardioid, Supercardioid, Hypercardioid, and Figure-8.

What polar pattern are boom mics?

A boom mic has a highly directional polar pattern and is positioned at the end of a boom pole. These mics are staples in film and video. They are highly directional (pick up sound where they point to and reject off-axis sounds). Boom mics are often held by an operator, making them movable during a performance.

What is the figure-8 polar pattern microphone?

A microphone with a Figure-8 or bidirectional pickup pattern is sensitive to sound coming from the front and coming from the rear, but has a very high rejection for sound coming from the sides. This may not appear very useful to you, at first.

When would you use a figure-8 polar pattern?

The figure-8 pattern is often used to record two sources at the same time; this could be two voices from people speaking or it could be a method of recording in stereo although other techniques to achieve this are available too.

What polar pattern is best for acoustic guitar?

Ribbon mics are generally excellent, because they capture very natural-sounding acoustic guitar tones with great sensitivity. Ribbon mics have a figure-eight polar pattern, meaning the front picks up direct sound while the back picks up ambient sound, acting almost like a second mic.

What is the stereo polar pattern?

A microphone’s polar pattern is the sensitivity of how well the microphone receives sound relative to the angle or direction of where the sound originates. In simpler terms, a microphone’s polar pattern is how well the microphone can capture sound from various directions.