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MICROPHONE TYPES

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MICROPHONE TYPES

what picks the sound up and where it stays deaf — five patterns from one formula

Built as a memo rather than a table: the thing worth hanging it up for reads across the room, with the full reference in smaller type below it.

Three sizes in one archive — from a sheet on the fridge to a poster on the wall.

Free

Payment and email are handled by Paddle. The download link arrives by email — no account, no password.

Formats
A4 · A3 · A2
What you get
Print-ready PDFs, one per size, with every letterform converted to outlines — nothing to install, nothing to shift.
Subject
music · beginners · reference · music room

A is the pressure share, B the gradient share, A + B = 1. Angles, decibels and directivity are computed from the formula; sensitivities and ranges come from the datasheets named, checked 4 August 2026.

IN MOST MICROPHONES THE DEAF DIRECTION IS NOT BEHIND

Only the cardioid is deaf exactly behind. The supercardioid is deaf at 125.3 degrees and the hypercardioid at 109.5, that is, off to the rear sides, and a lobe remains straight behind them: −11.4 dB for the first and −6.0 dB for the second.

Hence the rule on stage: with a cardioid the wedge goes right in front of the performer, with a super- or hypercardioid it goes as two wedges to the sides, at those same 125 and 110 degrees. A monitor moved behind the singer stands in the loudest spot for them, not the quietest.

A figure-8 hears as much behind as in front, only in opposite phase. Its directivity is nonetheless the same as the cardioid’s, 4.8 dB: it rejects just as much, only in another direction.

On the sheet

  • A is the pressure share, B the gradient share, A + B = 1. Angles, decibels and directivity are computed from the formula; sensitivities and ranges come from the datasheets named, checked 4 August 2026.
  • Colour carries meaning, but meaning never rests on colour alone — the sheet reads in black and white.
  • Nothing about how it was made: the sheet carries only what the reader needs.

Printing

  • Three sizes in the archive: A4 — 210×297 mm, A3 — 297×420 mm, A2 — 420×594 mm.
  • All text is converted to outlines. No fonts to install, and nothing shifts on another machine.
  • White background and sparing fills — it prints on a home printer without draining the cartridge.
  • Margins of at least 10 mm: a home printer cannot print to the edge.
  • No stroke thinner than 0.3 mm, so nothing disappears in print.

Why the numbers can be trusted. Every countable number here is computed from data rather than typed in, and the sheet must pass 8 independent checks before it is allowed to build — how many items there are, the order they come in, and the claim in the highlighted box itself. If one fails, there is no file.

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