The graphical representation of the directionality of a microphone or speaker. A graph of a microphone's output as a constant level source is moved around the microphone in a single plane or of a speaker's constant level output as a test microphone is moved around it. see (for microphone polar patterns) cardioid; hypercardioid; omnidirectional; supercardioid

A plot of a device's sensitivity or efficiency as a function of the angle around the device. Widely used to characterize the performance of microphones, loudspeakers and antennas.

a graph of a microphone's sensitivity vs

Pickup pattern. The range of sensitivity surrounding a microphone as plotted in a two- or three-dimensional drawing.

A circular, 2-D plot that indicates the directional response of a transducer. While polar patterns are commonly used to show microphone pickup patterns, they can also indicate the dispersion of a speaker. Interpreting polar patterns, even with something as simple as a common cardioid microphone, can be fairly complex. For one, the polar response shown on paper doesn't indicate the fact that a microphone's pickup pattern is actually a 3-D space around the mic. Second, the polar response of any microphone is frequency-dependent. For example, an ultradirectional "shotgun" microphone is extremely directional at high frequencies and much less so at low frequencies.

Areas of response of a microphone graphed in polar (circular) form.