The pattern chart looks like a cartoon heart. What it actually describes is two pieces of physics and every mixture of them — including where the deaf spot is, which is the half of the diagram that decides your recording.
A polar pattern is a map of what a microphone can hear from each direction. It is drawn as a circle with the front of the mic at the top, and the line inside it shows how sensitive the mic is at each angle. Where the line reaches the outer edge, the mic is at full sensitivity. Where it collapses toward the centre, the mic is going deaf.
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