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THEORY & PRACTICE
Since the pioneering days of Joe Meek, 'close mic'ing' has become more and more the norm in most
genres outside of classical music. This has made near cardioid pattern recording a fairly common practice.
A downside to 'close mic'ing' can be an exaggerated proximity effect or lack of perceived space to an
instrument. An advantage of 'close mic'ing' can be much greater isolation and control of individual
instruments in a mix. 'Close mic'ing' also tends to capture less unwanted room reflections or bleeding from
other sources when recording multiple instruments simultaneously.
USES IN FIGURE-OF-EIGHT MODE
Figure of eight pattern recording is often used with pairs of the same microphone for advanced
recording techniques such as the Blumlein Pair array; but it has several more common practical
applications as well. One common figure-of-eight application is the 'duet' or group vocal capture
with a single microphone. In figure-of-eight mode, two or even four vocalists can stand on either
side of the microphone, each getting the full attention of one side of the mic capsule. A variant of the duet
application is when someone plays an instrument, such as acoustic guitar, into one side of the
microphone while a partner sings into the other side.
USES IN OMNIDIRECTIONAL MODE
Omnidirectional pattern is most often associated with room mic recording, be it a room mic on a
drum kit or an ambience mic placed farther out from a guitar or bass cabinet, or other instrument.
Omnidirectional stereo recording is also sometimes associated with 'live' recording techniques and
classical recording. Additionally, an omnidirectional mic can be one ingredient, along with a figure-of-eight
microphone, to creating a Mid/Side matrix for stereo recording. It is also worth noting that most
condenser microphone capsules are, by nature, designed to be omnidirectional devices. For this reason,
omnidirectional patterns tends to yield the most linear frequency response and suffer the least from
proximity effect.
ROOM TREATMENT
Room acoustics should be considered just as important as the microphone you choose. Just because
a microphone is set to cardioid pattern will not always mean that it is not picking up unwanted room
reflections or outside noises such as street traffic, footsteps, or air condition vents. Though a walk-in
vocal booth is hardly necessary for most situations; a good quality 'vocal shield' type of product can
make an enormous difference by blocking unwanted room artifacts from getting into the recorded track,
often making the difference between a demo quality and a professional quality recording. Getting proper
instrument isolation and just the right amount of room ambience is one thing that really cannot be
effectively corrected for later in the process.
SIGNAL INTEGRITY
In professional audio engineering as with so many other disciplines, a chain is only as strong as
its weakest link. When it comes to microphone cables, a quality cable can actually make a difference.
Though not as critical as with instruments or dynamic microphones, a thin, poor quality, unshielded,
unnecessarily long, or worn XLR cable can affect the sound of a microphone.
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