AI Tutor
Leaning two inches closer to a microphone can instantly transform a thin speaking voice into a deep, booming radio broadcast.
That dramatic bass boost is called the proximity effect, and it is governed entirely by your microphone's polar pattern—its 360-degree map of directional sensitivity.
How do microphones create these different pickup shapes in the first place?

Polar Patterns: The Directional Map

An on-axis sound arrives directly at 0∘0^\circ (the front of the capsule), while off-axis sounds arrive from the sides or rear (90∘90^\circ, 180∘180^\circ, or 270∘270^\circ).
In the 1930s, audio pioneer Harry F. Olson at RCA combined open and sealed acoustic capsules to give recording engineers precise control over which angles a microphone captures or ignores.
Why do some mics capture everything in the room while others completely cancel sounds coming from the rear or sides?

The Four Primary Patterns

An omnidirectional pattern captures sound equally from all 360∘360^\circ with zero off-axis rejection, making it immune to wind noise and positioning shifts.
A figure-of-eight (bidirectional) pattern captures sound equally at 0∘0^\circ and 180∘180^\circ, but creates complete null points—angles of total phase cancellation—at 90∘90^\circ and 270∘270^\circ.
A cardioid pattern combines omnidirectional and figure-of-eight designs into a heart shape, achieving maximum off-axis rejection directly behind the mic at 180∘180^\circ.
A hypercardioid pattern narrows the front pickup lobe for tighter reach, moving its deep null points to roughly 110∘110^\circ and 250∘250^\circ, leaving a small rear pickup lobe at 180∘180^\circ.