Re: omni-directional lavs

I only buy omni lavaliers. You get some degree of directionality from lav placement, usually a person's body. Close placement is the only reason lav mics exist. An omni mic worked close always beats a shotgun worked too far away. In other words, hyper cardiods exist only for situations where close mic placement is not possible.

The physics of sound dictate that every time you double the distance from sound source to mic, the level is not half as much, but one fourth. Conversely, if you can halve the distance between mic and source, you quadruple the signal.

This is the exact reason why mics used in high ambient noise environments such as aviation use boom mics to place the mic directly in front of the mouth. Up close, small distances dramatically change the ratio of wanted vs. unwanted sound.

All this means, that at close distances such as lavalier mic placement, directionality becomes much less important, because you are by definition working with a much higher signal-to-noise ratio from the get-go.

Whenever circumstances permit, omni mics almost always sound better than directional mics. Since most production audio takes place in the real world, usually not on sound stages and the studio, cardiod mics tend to be the workhorse in most sound guy's kit. But don't take this to mean they are the best mic in all situations and applications. Lavaliers are the exception, where an omni pattern is almost always better than cardiod.

Some manufacturers make directional lavaliers, and there may be special applications where they are useful. But a quality omni lav is certainly your first choice. I've never tried a directional lavalier, but I have read that they are problematic for use with body packs and talent. They are small, hard to keep positioned correctly, and vulnerable to wide swings in sound quality as talent moves, turns their head, etc.

BTW - You've seen the TV commercials with Vince selling ShamWow towels. His boom mic is totally unnecessary, a practical prop. It does create the trade show floor ambiance of a barker working his demo. Boom mics can be useful in sound reinforcement applications and concerts, where high volume levels would otherwise lead to feedback amplification.