Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:39 - Proximity-effect bass boost
04:44 - Spotlighting
05:48 - Low-end response at a distance
06:40 - Off-axis tonal coloration
09:06 - Insufficient spill rejection
10:56 - Plosives and handling noise
12:33 - The hand-held LDC trick
14:11 - Summary

If you'd like to listen more critically to the audio examples, you can download a high-resolution 24-bit/44.1kHz WAV of this whole episode from the podcast support page for this show https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/why-not-use-cardioid-mics-mike-senior-podcast

Credits
This month's episode features recordings from David Tyo's 'Long Way Home'. You can check out more of David's great music here:

https://davidtyo.bandcamp.com/

If you'd like to try mixing 'Long Way Home' for yourself, you can download the full raw multitracks here:

https://cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/#DavidTyo

To read more about the low-spill figure-eight guitar-recording method, check out Neil Rogers's January 2014 'Session Notes' column:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/session-notes-thomas-rumbold-reds

For more general advice about microphone polar patterns, try this March 2007 article by Paul White:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/using-microphone-polar-patterns-effectively

Mike Senior Biog

Mike Senior is a professional audio engineer, regular SOS contributor, and author of the best-selling books Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio & Recording Secrets For The Small Studio. He runs the Cambridge-MT educational resources site (including the web's largest free multitrack download library) and hosts two monthly independent podcasts, Project Studio Tea Break and the Cambridge-MT Patrons Podcast.