Topic: most likely a silly question...

[rowjimmy]

As always, thanks for you insight, Mr. Satz!

QFT
Reading your posts is like going to class except
a: I stay awake
and
b: I want to learn the material... and do!

Thanks.

[Belexes]

I have learned so much from DSatz from this forum, I need to know where to write my tuition check.

[John Willett]

can someone explain the difference between caps with a sub card pattern vs. a wide card?

They are the same thing - also sometimes called hypo-cardioid.

[John Willett]

Hyper- and super-cardioid are distinctly different, though the terms are often used loosely and interchangeably. 

People often discuss the difference between super-cardioid and hyper-cardioid microphones, as many people seem to use the two terms as the same thing.

There are, however, important differences between the different types of cottage-loaf microphone patterns, which is why Sennheiser make super-cardioid microphones and not hyper-cardioid.

The pressure-gradient microphone with the best directivity of 4 is dubbed the hyper-cardioid.  Its disadvantage, however, is the lack of rejection for sound coming directly from the rear (180º). The rejection here is only 6dB. Trying to optimise the directional characteristics, Sennheiser created a super-cardioid microphone with equal rejection at 90º and 180º. This improves the rear rejection figure without sacrificing the side rejection figure too much, and still retains a high directional coefficient of 3.86.

The theoretical figures for the various cottage-loaf microphones are:-

Hyper-Cardioid
The hyper-cardioid microphone has it’s angle of maximum rejection at 109.5º.
It is optimised for the maximum directivity coefficient of 4.0.
Rejection at 90º is -12dB
Rejection at 180º is -6dB

Super-Cardioid
The super-cardioid microphone has it’s angle of maximum rejection at 125.3º.
It is optimised for the maximum front to rear index and has a directivity coefficient of 3.73.
Rejection at 90º is -8.7dB
Rejection at 180º is -11.6dB

Sennheiser Super-Cardioid
The Sennheiser super-cardioid microphone has it’s angle of maximum rejection at 120º.
It is optimised for equal attenuation at 90º and 180º, it has a directivity coefficient of 3.86.
Rejection at 90º is -9.5dB
Rejection at 180º is also -9.5dB

The attenuation at 90º is equal to the attenuation at 180º (the 180º signal being out-of-phase of course), this means that the attention is concentrated on the sound coming to the front of the microphone. The disadvantage of the hyper-cardioid is that sounds from the rear can be too high due to the lack of rear attenuation, and the disadvantage of the standard super-cardioid is that its side rejection is not enough.

Please note that these are the theoretical figures which may differ slightly in practice.

(adapted from a Sennheiser info. sheet)

[Gutbucket]

The theoretical figures for the various cottage-loaf microphones are:-

Mmmmmm, microphones and jam. 
Warning: The fruit cake variety is known for limited rear rejection if consumed in large quantities.

What's a cottage loaf? A crusty muffin top bread?

[DSatz]

> also sometimes called hypo-cardioid.

Ooh, yes--it's short, of course, for "hypodermic cardioid" because of the way it gets under your skin. Michael Williams uses that term, which has the advantage of debasing only one dead language at a time. (Subcardioid is an unholy mixture of Latin and Greek, like tonsillectomy, sociopath or Pentium.)

Such is life that people compete for these obscure bragging rights. Feel that tug on your sleeve at the local AES meeting? And the quavering voice that says, "Remember me, sonny? In the winter of ought-three I invented the name 'pulminoid' for a microphone pattern. Yeah, that was me! Believe it! But I never got rich like you'd expect. I offered the rights to Neumann, but they acted as if they couldn't see the use of a lung-shaped microphone pattern. No one understands a genius. Ah, well, we old pioneers don't get any respect anyways--why, I remember the glory days of classic 16-bit PCM, just the way Sony intended digital audio to be; you'll never convince me that this newfangled 24-bit stuff will ever sound as good as that. This music these kids listen to nowadays, it ain't nothing but noise." And so on.

It's sad, I tell you.

--best regards

[sygdwm]

mr satz,

just so i an sleep tonite and justify owning part of (3) 24 bit recorders, tell me there still a benefit for recording at higher bit depth if you want to edit the filesets before dithering to 16 bit?

[John Willett]

What's a cottage loaf?

It's an old English loaf (bread) which is basically one lump on top of another. 

[dean]

What's a cottage loaf?

It's an old English loaf (bread) which is basically one lump on top of another. 

With a distinct Hypercardiod pattern shape to the dual loaf, too!!

[Gutbucket]

Someone should bake-up all the 1st order polar patterns.

Or, just imagine a whole display case full of high order ambisonic bakery treats.

[DSatz]

John W., many thanks for that picture of a cottage loaf. I'd seen the term in Angus MacKenzie's microphone reviews in "Studio Sound" back in the 1970s, and wondered what it was. You've solved a mystery that's been knocking about in my head all these years.

Gutbucket, the problem with baking up anything on the figure-8 side of cardioid is that the rear lobe would have to be made of antimatter since it has inverse polarity. Any of the Star Trek fans on this board can tell you why that canna be allowed near the "positive matter" side of the pattern.

--best regards

[rowjimmy]

Don't worry about the anti-matter containment. Scotty's having a look at it.

[Gutbucket]

You think the metaphor can be stretched far enough with just pumpernickle vs refined white flour? Now that IS most likely a silly question.

..off to lunch on some Blumlein cheese bread-

[dean]

^ ROTFLMAO!!!   

[Jimna]

ok!  both informative and humerus.  +T for the great explanation.