Just out of curiosity what would be a typical use for a microphone with the "figure-of-8" response pattern?

Stereo recording of real instruments in an acoustically good room - so a pair at 90 degrees to each other mounted one above the other over an orchestra give a really good stereo image, plus the rear pick up make the room sound even bigger. Have a Google for Blumlein. They are also rather good when you need to record say an interview with two people. One in themiddle of the able picks up two people facing each other, but the side nulls are where maybe a producer or assistant could sit with papers and notes etc - they are in the null and pretty well able to shuffle papers and breath without being heard. If you dare trust them near a drummer, they can pick up two toms quite nicely. Loads of uses really, but the stereo one is the common one. Condensor types are still the most common, although ribbons are creeping back in again, as they are fig 8 by design - they are of course, fragile devils and don't respond well to wind!

Paulears sums it up well, but I'll just add a variation on his radio interview scenario: a few years back I did a set of recordings for a male/female singing duo. The figure of 8 worked well, both acoustically but also because they tended to give their best performances when they had eye contact.

Bob

One other use not mentioned so far is as the side mic in a mid/side array. This technique uses a cardioid or omni directional mic facing forward with a figure of 8 facing sideways. The audio is then passed through a circuit that adds and subtracts the side signal to/from the mid signal to give left and right signals. This is often used when recording TV or video sound as it is fairly easy to vary the stereo width of the sound by changing the side level relative to the mid level. It also means that, when capturing speech, the speaker is usually on the axis of the mid mic which usually gives more natural results.

Cheers

James.

They can be useful when recording singing guitarists because of their very deep nulls. Aim the vocal mic's null at the guitar & vice versa and you can get a more useful degree of separation than other polar patterns can offer.

Fig8s also have their applications in a live context for exactly the same reasons as described above, in that they can be very good at removing unwanted spill from the rest of the stage.

One of the biggest names in ribbons, Royer, has recently released 'live' versions some of their flagship models for this very purpose, utilising stronger ribbon components with (they claim) almost zero effect on the sound.

I've yet to use one myself, but the standard 121 is a particular favourite of mine in the studio for guitar cabs so it would be wonderful to be able to transfer that sonic quality onto the stage.

Royer Live series

If anybody is feeling generous and would like to treat me to one of the SF-24s please PM me for a shipping address... Ta.

Another example is when you have a pair of something along the lines of kettle drums - in-between them so that either side of the mic points to a different drum. I use a U87 about 6 inches above the drum.