Polar pattern

The directional sensitivity of a microphone, described by how much it hears from the front, the sides and the rear.

The three common shapes are omnidirectional, which hears equally in all directions and captures the room along with the source; cardioid, which favours the front and rejects the rear; and figure-of-eight, which hears from front and back and rejects the sides. Pattern affects how much of the rest of the stage or room arrives with the wanted sound, and how likely feedback is. On many microphones the pattern can be switched, which changes the amount of proximity effect as well.

Example: an omni microphone on an acoustic guitar captures a natural, roomy sound in a good space and an unusable one in a bad room.

Polar pattern

See also