Do You Need A Cardioid Condenser Microphone For Your Project?

Cardioid Condenser Microphone

Cardioid condenser microphone technology can help to reduce ambient noise on your recordings, giving you a better result than you would get with the standard omni-directional microphone most commonly used. There are some disadvantages to cardioid microphones, so it is always a balancing act to decide which is the best system to use for any given recording. They are not so good at coping with wind noise, as the swirling wind can sometimes appear to be coming straight at the microphone, meaning that the unwanted noise actually gets emphasized.

When you are trying to decide whether to use a cardioid microphone you need to look first and foremost at the distance you will be away from the sound you will be recording, and how many other competing noises there will be in the immediate environment. As a general principle to follow, the further away the sound is the more directional your microphone needs to be, so take this as the primary determining factor. There are actually microphones which are even more directional than standard cardioid microphones. These are often known as shotgun microphones, although the official name is super-cardioid.

If you need to record sound at a variety of distances, you can still get a very good overall result with a cardioid microphone, probably better than you would get with an omni-directional microphone of the same standard. The great advantage of these microphones is that they are always aimed toward the target sound, no matter how near or far you may be. The only time you will lose quality is when you are right in the middle of the sound that you are trying to record. Here, because the microphone only points in one direction, you will inevitably lose sound quality.

This is the one situation in which you really need an omni-directional microphone, although there may be other situations where one would work slightly better. This is nearly always when you are relatively close to the sound you are trying to record. The only noise which an omni-directional microphone can cope with better is wind noise. This is because when the wind is blowing from the direction that the microphone is facing, it gets picked up prominently as you would expect.

Whether you are looking at omni-directional or cardioid condenser microphones, there is no harm remembering that you can always rent a microphone and try it out before you need to buy it. If you have an unusual situation and need to record from an unusual distance you can also benefit from a one time rental. Even if you are renting, take time to study the reviews of the experts on the Internet, and the experiences of previous buyers. If you like the rental model and it gets good reviews, you can always make it your chosen cardioid condenser microphone.