Welcome to Pocket-Sized Podcasting, brought to you by Alitu: The Podcast Maker. And on this episode, we’re going to answer the question “what are polar patterns?” These are also sometimes called “pickup patterns”, and they’re essentially the settings that determine the area a mic will focus on when recording sound. To think about this visually, imagine your mic as a torch or laser. The area it shines light on is the area it’s “hearing” your voice. Most microphones you’ll come across - including the Samson Q2U - have a ‘Cardioid’ polar pattern which means they’re designed to record one person at one time. Other polar patterns include: Omnidirectional - for recording multiple people. Bi-directional, or, Stereo - for recording 2 people. And Shotgun - for a laser-focused pickup of an audio source that blocks out everything else around it. Think of a news reporter, chatting away in a busy street, but you can still hear them clear as day. Polar patterns are represented by easy to understand diagrams. For example, Cardioid is heart-shaped, whilst Omnidirectional is a circle. These are like birds-eye views of where the pattern is picking up sound. To get a look at these diagrams, and to learn more about polar patterns in general, head on over to http://thepodcasthost.com/patterns