Microphone Polar Patterns Chart: Nulls, Rejection and Proximity Effect
A cardioid microphone nulls directly behind itself at 180 degrees with roughly 20 to 25 dB of rear rejection. A supercardioid nulls at about 126 degrees and is only 12 dB down at the rear. A hypercardioid nulls at about 110 degrees and is only 6 dB down at the rear. A figure of eight nulls at 90 degrees on both sides with more than 25 dB of rejection, the deepest null available. Aiming the back of a supercardioid or hypercardioid at an unwanted source does not reject it, because the null is off to the side of straight back.
Definition: A polar pattern is the map of how sensitive a microphone is to sound arriving from each direction, expressed as level relative to the on-axis response, with a null being any angle at which the microphone is effectively deaf.
Choosing a polar pattern is choosing what your microphone will ignore, and in a home studio that matters more than what it hears. The single most useful and least known fact on this page: supercardioid and hypercardioid microphones do not reject sound from directly behind. Their nulls sit at roughly 126 and 110 degrees respectively, off to the sides of straight back, and every misaimed monitor rejection attempt starts with not knowing that.
What does each polar pattern actually reject?
Read this chart by the null column first. That is where the pattern does its work. Rear rejection matters too, but the null is the angle where rejection is essentially total, and it is the tool you aim.
| Pattern | Null angle | Level at 180 deg | Pickup angle, -3 dB | Distance factor | Proximity effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omnidirectional | None | 0 dB | 360 deg | 1.0 | None |
| Cardioid | 180 deg | -20 to -25 dB | 131 deg | 1.7 | Moderate |
| Supercardioid | 126 deg | -11.7 dB | 115 deg | 1.9 | Strong |
| Hypercardioid | 110 deg | -6 dB | 105 deg | 2.0 | Strong |
| Bidirectional, figure of eight | 90 deg | 0 dB, inverted polarity | 90 deg | 1.7 | Strongest |
| Shotgun, lobar | Varies with frequency | -15 to -25 dB | 40 to 60 deg | 2.5 to 4.0 | Strong |
Distance factor is the practical summary of all of this. It tells you how much further from a source a directional microphone can sit and still deliver the same ratio of direct sound to room sound as an omni. A cardioid at a distance factor of 1.7 can be placed 1.7 times further away than an omni for the same result. A hypercardioid, at 2.0, can be placed twice as far. In a small room where reflections arrive quickly and loudly, that number is worth more than any frequency response spec.
Why do supercardioid and hypercardioid nulls sit where they do?
Every first order pattern is a mix of two things: an omnidirectional pressure component and a bidirectional pressure gradient component. The ratio decides the pattern, and the null is wherever the two components cancel.
| Pattern | Omni part, A | Figure of eight part, B | Null solves to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omnidirectional | 1.00 | 0.00 | No null exists |
| Subcardioid | 0.75 | 0.25 | No null, -6 dB at rear |
| Cardioid | 0.50 | 0.50 | 180 deg |
| Supercardioid | 0.37 | 0.63 | 126 deg |
| Hypercardioid | 0.25 | 0.75 | 110 deg |
| Bidirectional | 0.00 | 1.00 | 90 deg |
Work the hypercardioid case through and the number stops being arbitrary. Its response is 0.25 + 0.75 cos(angle). Set that to zero and cos(angle) = -0.333, which gives an angle of 109.5 degrees, conventionally quoted as 110. At 180 degrees the response is 0.25 minus 0.75, which is -0.5, or -6 dB with inverted polarity. That rear lobe is real output, not leakage, and it is why a hypercardioid pointed away from a sound source still hears it clearly.
The supercardioid works the same way: 0.37 + 0.63 cos(angle) = 0 gives cos(angle) = -0.587, which is 126 degrees. At 180 degrees the response is -0.26, which is -11.7 dB. Better rear rejection than a hypercardioid, worse than a cardioid, and a null that is 54 degrees away from straight back.
This is the fact I wish someone had told me before my first live-in-the-room tracking session. I had a supercardioid on a vocal and a monitor wedge behind the singer, and I could not work out why the wedge was so present in the vocal track when the microphone was pointed straight away from it. It was pointed straight away from it. That is precisely the problem: straight back is the rear lobe, not the null. Once I rotated the wedge about 55 degrees off the microphone's rear axis the bleed dropped enough to be a non-issue. Same gear, same room, one piece of geometry.
What is each pattern actually for in a home studio?
| Pattern | Best home studio use | Why | Do not use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omnidirectional | Room ambience, close work in a treated room, acoustic ensembles | Flattest off axis response of any pattern, no proximity effect, and the lowest handling and wind sensitivity | Anything in an untreated room. It hears the room as well as the source. |
| Cardioid | Vocals, guitar amps, snare, acoustic guitar, spoken word | Rejects the rear wall reflection, which is the single biggest problem in a small room | Sources that move. Off axis colouration turns movement into tone change. |
| Supercardioid | Drum overheads with a tight sound, isolating one player in a live room | Best front to total rejection of any first order pattern, so it captures the least room energy overall | Rejecting anything directly behind. The null is at 126 degrees. |
| Hypercardioid | Toms in a close-miked kit, isolating instruments in a shared space | Highest directivity factor, so the narrowest usable pickup for a first order capsule | Vocalists who move. The pickup angle is unforgivingly narrow. |
| Bidirectional | Two singers face to face, Blumlein pairs, mid-side recording | The deepest null of any pattern, at 90 degrees, so side rejection is genuinely excellent | Untreated rooms. It hears the wall behind it as loudly as the source. |
| Shotgun | Dialogue and video work, capturing one voice across a room | An interference tube narrows the forward lobe far beyond first order limits | Music in a small room. Side lobes and comb filtering make it colour badly. |
How much does proximity effect actually change the sound?
Proximity effect is a low frequency lift that appears as a directional microphone gets close to a source, and it is a consequence of pressure gradient operation rather than a design flaw. The closer the microphone, the more curved the sound wavefront, and the larger the pressure difference between the front and back of the diaphragm at low frequencies.
| Distance | Lift at 100 Hz | What it sounds like | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 in | +10 to +16 dB | Chesty, boomy, radio announcer | Deliberate intimacy on a thin voice. Use a high-pass to control it. |
| 2 in | +8 to +12 dB | Warm and forward | Close podcast and voiceover work. |
| 4 in | +4 to +7 dB | Full but still natural | The usual sung vocal distance in a home studio. |
| 6 in | +2 to +4 dB | Slightly rounded | Loud singers who need the extra distance for level anyway. |
| 12 in | Under +1 dB | Neutral | Acoustic guitar and anything where the room is treated. |
| 24 in and beyond | None | Neutral, plus room | Ensembles, and any source that needs air around it. |
The reason this matters at home is that proximity effect and room rejection pull in the same direction. Working close gives you a better ratio of direct sound to room sound, which is exactly what an untreated room needs, and it also gives you a bass lift you may not want. The standard solution is a high-pass filter, either the switch on the microphone or the one in your DAW, set around 80 to 100 Hz on a voice. A microphone with a built-in roll-off switch like the Audio-Technica AT2035 earns its extra money on this alone, because you can hear the correction while you set the distance rather than fixing it later.
Why does off axis colouration matter more than off axis level?
A polar plot shows how much quieter a source becomes off axis. What it shows less obviously is that the amount of rejection changes with frequency, and that difference is what your ear actually notices.
Almost every directional microphone approaches omnidirectional behaviour at low frequencies, because a small capsule cannot resolve direction when the wavelength is many times its own diameter. At 100 Hz the wavelength is 11.3 ft, so a one inch capsule is seeing essentially uniform pressure regardless of direction. The practical consequence is that the low end of a room reflection is not rejected at all, even on a cardioid, while the midrange and top of that same reflection are heavily rejected. What arrives off axis is therefore dull and thick rather than simply quiet.
That is the real reason a good room matters even with a directional microphone, and it is why treatment and pattern choice are complements rather than alternatives. Put broadband panels at the reflection points, or a sE Electronics RF Pro Reflexion Filter immediately behind the microphone for a vocal, and the off axis energy arriving at the capsule drops before the pattern has to deal with it. The room treatment guide covers where the panels go, and the treatment coverage chart covers how much you need.
Which microphones give you which patterns?
Most home studio microphones are fixed cardioid, which is the right default. Multi-pattern microphones use two back-to-back cardioid capsules and derive the other patterns by mixing their outputs, which is why a multi-pattern microphone always costs more than a single pattern one of similar quality.
- Fixed cardioid dynamic. The Shure SM57 and Shure SM58 are the reference points here. Cardioid, tolerant of high SPL, and effectively immune to the humidity that upsets condensers.
- Fixed cardioid condenser. The Audio-Technica AT2035 and Lewitt LCT 440 PURE cover this range. More detail, more room, more sensitivity to placement.
- Cardioid with strong rear rejection. The Shure SM7B is the one people buy specifically for its ability to ignore a bad room, and it is a good example of a pattern being chosen for what it excludes.
- Multi-pattern. The Audio-Technica AT4050 (multi-pattern) switches between cardioid, omnidirectional and figure of eight, which makes mid-side recording and face-to-face duet capture possible with one microphone.
- Shotgun. The Rode NTG5 shotgun kit is a video and dialogue tool, and it is on this list mainly so you know when not to reach for it. Interference tube microphones colour badly in reflective rooms.
If you are choosing a first microphone, cardioid is the answer and the pattern question is settled. The vocal microphone roundup covers the models, and the instrument frequency chart covers which sources need the extra top end a condenser gives you.
The trick I use most often has nothing to do with buying a different pattern. If a room reflection is hurting a take, I do not move the microphone, I rotate it. Keep the source on axis, keep the distance identical, and swing the whole microphone and stand around the source as a pivot until the offending wall falls in the null. On a cardioid that means the wall ends up directly behind the capsule, which usually means the singer ends up facing into the room rather than into a corner, which feels wrong and sounds right. It costs nothing and it is reversible, so it is always worth trying before reaching for a panel or a different microphone.
Related reading
- Best vocal microphone for a home studio: which pattern each model gives you
- How to treat a room for recording: reducing off axis energy before the pattern has to
- Instrument frequency range chart: what each source needs from a capsule
- dB reference levels chart: SPL figures for the sources you are pointing these at
- Beginner home studio setup: the first microphone in context
Frequently asked questions
Where is the null on a supercardioid microphone?
A supercardioid has two nulls, at roughly 126 degrees off axis on each side, not directly behind the microphone. Its response at 180 degrees is only about 12 dB down, because a supercardioid has a small rear lobe. This is why aiming the back of a supercardioid at a monitor speaker does not reject it: you have to rotate the microphone until the speaker sits at 126 degrees, which is noticeably off to one side of straight back.
What is the difference between supercardioid and hypercardioid?
They differ in how the omnidirectional and bidirectional components are mixed, which moves the nulls and the size of the rear lobe. A supercardioid nulls at about 126 degrees and is about 12 dB down at the rear. A hypercardioid nulls at about 110 degrees and is only 6 dB down at the rear, so it has a larger rear lobe but a narrower front pickup angle and the highest directivity factor of any first order pattern.
Which polar pattern has the most proximity effect?
Bidirectional, also called figure of eight. Proximity effect is a property of pressure gradient operation, and a figure of eight is purely pressure gradient, so it produces the strongest bass lift as you move close. Hypercardioid and supercardioid come next, then cardioid. A true omnidirectional microphone is a pure pressure transducer and has essentially no proximity effect at all, which is why omnis are used for close work when a natural low end matters.
What polar pattern is best for recording vocals at home?
Cardioid, in almost every case. It rejects roughly 20 to 25 dB of everything behind the microphone, which in an untreated room means rejecting the rear wall reflection that would otherwise arrive a few milliseconds after the direct sound and hollow out the tone. Omnidirectional sounds more natural in a treated room and worse in an untreated one, and figure of eight picks up the rear wall as strongly as the singer.
Does a polar pattern stay the same at all frequencies?
No, and published polar plots always show several frequency curves for this reason. Almost every directional microphone becomes closer to omnidirectional at low frequencies, because the capsule is small compared with a long wavelength and cannot resolve direction. Many also narrow and develop side lobes above about 8 kHz. The practical result is that off axis sound is not merely quieter, it is quieter and tonally different, which is what off axis colouration means.
How do I use a microphone null to reject a sound source?
Aim the null, not the front. Place the microphone so the source you want sits on axis, then rotate the whole microphone around that axis until the source you want to reject falls at the null angle: 180 degrees for cardioid, 126 for supercardioid, 110 for hypercardioid, 90 for figure of eight. On a figure of eight this is the strongest rejection available in any microphone, better than 25 dB, which makes it the best tool for isolating two singers facing each other.
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