+Pablo Cossio thanks for you feedback. No I haven't as yet produced a video describing the polar pattern for speakers. It's a great idea because there is such a contrast between the low and high frequency plots. I will add it to the list of ideas. Appreciate the suggestion.
wow i just found your channel, and love the videos so far. i am a small youtube channel, and am finding it frustrating to sort out my microphone settings using a combination of obs recorder filters, the windows 10 microphone options and dell audio. Do you have any video which might help my issue? thanks
AKG D5S has a strange pattern where they have a lobe in the back that will pick up sound directly in back of the Mic. I like this Mic the best but I just do not understand the purpose of this. Do you know why it is like this?
Sebastian, this is a hyper-cardioid pattern. My favourite as well. The lobe is just a consequence of shaping the sound for cancellation. To eliminate the lobe you would have to go to a simple cardioid pattern. Even with the lobe the one you have rejects most rear sound.
great video. i actually came on here because i had already bought an AudioTechnica cardioid microphone but i didn't really know anything about it, other than the fact that the clerk at the music store told me it would be helpful for home studio recording. do you think that's true?
+Aditya Mane If there was no reason to concern ourselves with other instruments, reflections, other singers etc we could just use an Omni-directional microphone for everything. If we want to reject certain things we select a polar pattern to suit the task. For most, a cardioid pattern is fine. It picks up sound mainly on the front and rejects sound from the back and some from the sides. Allowing just enough room noise into the mix to add a realistic feel to the recording. In situations where there is so much unwanted sound as well, you have to choose a tighter polar pattern to reject more.
can knowing polar pattern help us know how to use the microphone in the best way. like what room treatmnt or what acoustic treatmnt to get ood proffesionl vocals through a low budget cardiod microphone
Yes it is very helpful to know the polar patterns of the mics you will choose. It can help to work out how much acoustic treatment you will need. Even so, don’t think that cheaper cardioid mics produce the same quality sound. They may reject sound in similar ways but the sound quality is relative to the quality of the microphone capsule inside.
Thanks for the explanation, if I have understood correctly, then the "plane" of the circle is in a vertical orientation , and the mike is placed vertically, then @ 1.05 the sound coming from the " front " at "0 deg" is actually "top" of the microphone and at @1.14 sound at 180deg coming for the "back" is actually coming from the bottom of the microphone. Kindly correct if I am wrong...
Super and Hyper cardioid Mic's are very similar to standard cardioid Mic's but have a tighter pattern. They are more directional. The down side is they pickup sound a little from behind or back unlike the standard cardioid that is next to nothing from the back.
The dB markings still confuse me. One mic I'm looking at has a cardioid that gets to the 0 dB marking, the other has also a cardioid but it reaches the -5dB. What does that mean??
+Mario Paul Don't worry if the front only measures -5db. The polar pattern is only a visual representation of the difference between the front, sides and back sensitivities. The best measurement of overall microphone sensitivity is another measurement that is listed in the microphone specifications list. The higher that milli-volt@94db number the more sensitive the mic is overall from the front. Hope that helps.
Hi Gary, thanks for this video. I do have a question. I have to shoot guitar instructional videos where there's a guitarist, and a digital piano player. I have both the RODE NTG-1 and a Shure SM58 as well. The problem is, the guitarist and pianist don't wear head phones, so we have to have speakers on with amplified sound of the guitar and piano so they can hear what they're playing. The guitar and piano are recorded direct, not mic'd. The only mic'd source is the guitarist's voice. Problem is that I don't want to hear the bleed over of the guitar and piano that are coming out of the speakers, in the mic. I only want to hear the voice. Or minimize as much as possible the other instrument sounds. I've been using the RODE mic, but now I've just learned that it's super-cardioid so I should probably be using the Shure, and place the speakers somewhere to the rear? The farther away the better? But is there a point where if the speakers are too loud, the mic is going to pick them up no matter what? Thanks for any advice :-)
Mike, you are correct in choosing the SM58 for this job. Using it at close proximity to the singer is essential. That is what that mic is designed for. BUT. There is a good reason why any recording studio uses closed headphones for recording. Even then, they have issues with the noise of the keyboard keys and ambient noise from the instruments as well. Have you thought of multi-tracking the recording and recording the vocals later? Just a thought.
Hi Gary, these are instructional videos, it's not a performance. The guitarist is on camera talking and playing, and he uses a piano player to play chords every so often. I just had a long chat with someone at B&H and they suggested that I need to deal with acoustic reflections. Shooting in a residential home basement (finished) with sheet rocked walls and carpet. I even moved the speakers about 8 feet behind the mic and pointed them 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and the mic still picks them up. Tried putting a blanket in front of the speakers as a quick test to see if it absorbed the sound but it didn't seem to do anything. So I'm not sure what to do at this point.
Mike, you have been given some good advice there with the acoustics. Condenser mics, even cardioid pattern tend to be very sensitive and are not a good choice in this setting. Do what ever you can to lower the volume of the monitors they are using. Get them to turn them down as much as they can and get the singer to sing close to the mike.
Thank you for all this information
Your simulation is exactly what I needed to make this real!
That's great Steve, I'm glad the video was helpful. Thanks for letting me know.
Thank you for the information
This was incredibly informative. Thank you!
Thanks Robert. I glad the information was helpful.
Nicely done, thanks for this Gary!
Thanks Curtis, I spent way too long on this one but I'm happy how it turned out.
Very well explained, congratulations for the work
+Gabriel Nardin Music Thanls so much. Tried to keep it simple. I would like to do a video on frequency response as well one day.
Thanks a lot in explaining in simple words.
No worries at all. I appreciate your feedback.
Thanks. Great explanation.
Thanks for letting me know. Glad it was helpful.
Thank you so much Gary..!!!
Happy that the video was of help. I'm trying to keep them simple and to the point, easy for anyone to understand. I appreciate your comment.
Very helpful
Thank you
Glad to hear the video was helpful Ahmad. Thanks for letting me know.
Thanks for important information
I'm glad it was helpful to you. Thanks for commenting.
thank you gary
+Royal Budgie no problem. For some the polar pattern can be confusing. Glad it helped.
another mystery solved for me - many thanks
I'm very happy the video was helpful. Thanks for letting me know Robert.
great video. i thought expensive are better, now i understand it depends on the application.
+Burn Medina Yes the polar pattern must be considered when making a purchase. Thanks for commencing.
great video! do you have a similar one explaning polar patterns of speakers?
+Pablo Cossio thanks for you feedback. No I haven't as yet produced a video describing the polar pattern for speakers. It's a great idea because there is such a contrast between the low and high frequency plots. I will add it to the list of ideas. Appreciate the suggestion.
wow i just found your channel, and love the videos so far. i am a small youtube channel, and am finding it frustrating to sort out my microphone settings using a combination of obs recorder filters, the windows 10 microphone options and dell audio. Do you have any video which might help my issue? thanks
I'm sorry Mindhumble, I don't. It that you are trying to a PC or is it a microphone your having trouble with?
AKG D5S has a strange pattern where they have a lobe in the back that will pick up sound directly in back of the Mic. I like this Mic the best but I just do not understand the purpose of this. Do you know why it is like this?
Sebastian, this is a hyper-cardioid pattern. My favourite as well. The lobe is just a consequence of shaping the sound for cancellation. To eliminate the lobe you would have to go to a simple cardioid pattern. Even with the lobe the one you have rejects most rear sound.
great video. i actually came on here because i had already bought an AudioTechnica cardioid microphone but i didn't really know anything about it, other than the fact that the clerk at the music store told me it would be helpful for home studio recording. do you think that's true?
Yes it will work fine. Cardioid Mics have a nice pattern for recording.
Gr8 sir
Thank so commenting. I appreciate it.
Great Video!
But how do you select a polar pattern in different situations
Mainly In a studio sound proof room for VOX and INSTRUMENT
+Aditya Mane If there was no reason to concern ourselves with other instruments, reflections, other singers etc we could just use an Omni-directional microphone for everything. If we want to reject certain things we select a polar pattern to suit the task. For most, a cardioid pattern is fine. It picks up sound mainly on the front and rejects sound from the back and some from the sides. Allowing just enough room noise into the mix to add a realistic feel to the recording. In situations where there is so much unwanted sound as well, you have to choose a tighter polar pattern to reject more.
Thank You SO MUCH your reply did helped me.
can knowing polar pattern help us know how to use the microphone in the best way. like what room treatmnt or what acoustic treatmnt to get ood proffesionl vocals through a low budget cardiod microphone
Yes it is very helpful to know the polar patterns of the mics you will choose. It can help to work out how much acoustic treatment you will need. Even so, don’t think that cheaper cardioid mics produce the same quality sound. They may reject sound in similar ways but the sound quality is relative to the quality of the microphone capsule inside.
THNK U SIR FOR URE GENREOUS RPLY..
Thanks for the explanation, if I have understood correctly, then the "plane" of the circle is in a vertical orientation , and the mike is placed vertically, then @ 1.05 the sound coming from the " front " at "0 deg" is actually "top" of the microphone and at @1.14 sound at 180deg coming for the "back" is actually coming from the bottom of the microphone. Kindly correct if I am wrong...
Yes, the back of the mic is where the lead comes out. For the purpose of the illustration the back is the bottom of the graph.
@@GaryDmedia thank you..
Sir please explain on super cardiod ..
Super and Hyper cardioid Mic's are very similar to standard cardioid Mic's but have a tighter pattern. They are more directional. The down side is they pickup sound a little from behind or back unlike the standard cardioid that is next to nothing from the back.
The dB markings still confuse me. One mic I'm looking at has a cardioid that gets to the 0 dB marking, the other has also a cardioid but it reaches the -5dB. What does that mean??
+Mario Paul Don't worry if the front only measures -5db. The polar pattern is only a visual representation of the difference between the front, sides and back sensitivities. The best measurement of overall microphone sensitivity is another measurement that is listed in the microphone specifications list. The higher that milli-volt@94db number the more sensitive the mic is overall from the front. Hope that helps.
Hi Gary, thanks for this video. I do have a question. I have to shoot guitar instructional videos where there's a guitarist, and a digital piano player. I have both the RODE NTG-1 and a Shure SM58 as well. The problem is, the guitarist and pianist don't wear head phones, so we have to have speakers on with amplified sound of the guitar and piano so they can hear what they're playing. The guitar and piano are recorded direct, not mic'd. The only mic'd source is the guitarist's voice. Problem is that I don't want to hear the bleed over of the guitar and piano that are coming out of the speakers, in the mic. I only want to hear the voice. Or minimize as much as possible the other instrument sounds. I've been using the RODE mic, but now I've just learned that it's super-cardioid so I should probably be using the Shure, and place the speakers somewhere to the rear? The farther away the better? But is there a point where if the speakers are too loud, the mic is going to pick them up no matter what? Thanks for any advice :-)
Mike, you are correct in choosing the SM58 for this job. Using it at close proximity to the singer is essential. That is what that mic is designed for. BUT. There is a good reason why any recording studio uses closed headphones for recording. Even then, they have issues with the noise of the keyboard keys and ambient noise from the instruments as well. Have you thought of multi-tracking the recording and recording the vocals later? Just a thought.
Hi Gary, these are instructional videos, it's not a performance. The guitarist is on camera talking and playing, and he uses a piano player to play chords every so often. I just had a long chat with someone at B&H and they suggested that I need to deal with acoustic reflections. Shooting in a residential home basement (finished) with sheet rocked walls and carpet. I even moved the speakers about 8 feet behind the mic and pointed them 180 degrees in the opposite direction, and the mic still picks them up. Tried putting a blanket in front of the speakers as a quick test to see if it absorbed the sound but it didn't seem to do anything. So I'm not sure what to do at this point.
I also have this mic available www.audio-technica.com/cms/resource_library/files/73630cfb4ffd4a65/pro_7aprodpro.pdf Says it's a cardiod too
Mike, you have been given some good advice there with the acoustics. Condenser mics, even cardioid pattern tend to be very sensitive and are not a good choice in this setting. Do what ever you can to lower the volume of the monitors they are using. Get them to turn them down as much as they can and get the singer to sing close to the mike.
Yes, it seems that lowering the volume on the monitor speakers is the only good fix. Seems impossible to reduce the bleed into the mic.
thanks f
Thanks for watching. I appreciate your comment.