Polar patterns are your friends
This is not a blog about bears in the artic making snow angels. Though I’m sure one exists somewhere.
Polar patterns are a the various directions in which microphones pick up sound. Cardiod or the “heart shaped” polar pattern is typically used in live sound situations because of it’s rejection of sound from one direction and it’s sensativity to sound in the other. This fair degree of “directionality” would allow the microphone to pick up the voice in front of it, while rejecting some of the noise from behind.
Think of how useful this is when there is a noisy computer fan right beside where you record. You in the front, fan in the back. Less noise! Seemly easy but very useful.
More fun polar pattern “trickery” to come.
September 1st, 2006 at 6:39 pm
[...] For example, the typical radio announcer voice might have a boost in the area of 250-500Hz. Or, if you’re using a cardiod microphone, often the proximity effect will give you too much in the low frequency range and you’ll have to lower some of those frequencies to acheive a smooth sound. [...]