What is a polar pattern?

A polar pattern describes how sensitive a microphone is to sound arriving from different directions. Cardioid is most sensitive at the front and rejects sound from behind. Omnidirectional picks up equally from all directions.

Which pattern is best for vocals?

Cardioid is the most common choice for vocals because it picks up the singer from the front while rejecting room sound and other instruments from behind and the sides. Super-cardioid is even tighter but has a small rear lobe.

What are null points?

Null points are angles where the microphone has maximum rejection (theoretically zero sensitivity). For cardioid, the null is at 180° (directly behind). For super-cardioid, nulls are at 126° and 234°. Position monitors at null points for maximum feedback rejection.

Does polar pattern change with frequency?

Yes. Most directional microphones become more omnidirectional at low frequencies and more directional at high frequencies. This means off-axis sound tends to be bass-heavy (proximity effect) and lacking in treble.

AudioCalcs

Microphone Polar Pattern Calculator — Pickup & Rejection

Calculate microphone pickup response, null points and rejection at any angle.

Microphone Pattern

Enter the microphone pattern

Source Distance

Distance measurement

Source Angle

0° = on-axis, 180° = behind

Number of Sources

Total sources

How We Calculate This

Response = a + b × cos(angle)

Pattern coefficients

Cardioid: a=0.5, b=0.5 (null at 180°)
Super-cardioid: a=0.37, b=0.63 (nulls at 126°, 234°)
Hyper-cardioid: a=0.25, b=0.75 (nulls at 110°, 250°)
Figure-8: cos(angle) (nulls at 90°, 270°)
Omni: 1 (no nulls)

Rejection (dB) = 20 × log10(response)

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Calculators

Microphone Proximity Calculator

Calculate signal level at the mic, proximity effect bass boost, recommended preamp gain and noise floor margin from source SPL, mic sensitivity, distance and polar pattern.

Last updated: March 2026

All calculations are estimates based on standard formulas. Always verify results for critical applications.