Same thing with happens with cards, thats where I get confused as to why to get more aggressive in a polar pattern.
I hear you, Moke. But my experiences show me that the more directional the pattern, even shifting from cards to hypers (which is minimal, IMO, relative to shifting from hypers to shotguns), has a HUGE impact on cutting out obnoxious ambient noise. The more aggressive pattern simply moves the chatterers further into the background unless they [1] overpower the desired sound source, and are [2] on-axis - of course, in which case it doesn't matter a hoot whether you're running cards or hypers.
And,... aren't you more prone to opening up the rear of the stereo pattern, with the hyper tails creating thier own little din pattern to the rear?
Theoretically, yes. But IME the rear lobe is so small and relatively unsensitive compared to the front lobes, that I've never experience enough chatter from behind that I consider it a problem. Chuck in the phase issues mentioned by others, and the rear lobe simply doesn't have a negative impact in my experience.
Still, from what I've heard of them,... ain't my cup of tea. I'm not trying to reshape the presented musical experience, just capture what was there sir, including all the bumps and grinds.
I completely understand where you're coming from. But IME there are clear situations where running hypers instead of cards results in a listenable recording - though colored and not strictly representative of what I heard that night (thank goodness!) - instead of a recording that is so marred by blathering fools that it detracts so much from the music as to make the recording unlistenable to me. A perfect example in Chicago is the Abbey Pub - it's one of the single most blathering venues I've ever been in. And the only reason I can walk away with a recording in which I hear more music than crowd is with hypers. The off-axis rejection simply does make that much of a difference for me. Perhaps some of this comes down to differences in playback systems - maybe I'd hear less of a difference if I had a higher quality playback setup, like yours. Hmmmmm...
some of y'all get alot more out of that slight polar pattern change than I could ever conceive of.
Yup, like in the Abbey Pub, as I mentioned above. But I try not to run hypers unless I know I have to - because I do prefer a more open, natural sound. I usually try run sub-cards and figure-8 as much as possible. As long as that open, natural sound allows me re-live the music instead of the blathering crowd.
whenever I ran them, a chatterer was still a chatterer, was still a chatterer,..... pattern didn't seem to amke that big a diff, once I was away from omni and into directional mode.
Methinks it's been a while since you've been in a truly wretched performance space.
I will never run anything but hypers ever again for ambient recordings in the Abbey Pub, because I know my results will suffer significantly if I run cards, and tremendously if I run sub-cards, omnis, or figure-8.