Where to find a violin projection acoustics map?

December 29, 2025, 5:51 PM · I am interested in knowing how to aim my violin to project the maximum amount of sound. So, if I turn my body left and right, I expect that I will be aiming my sound towards a certain direction. I would like to know exactly where and how to aim my body and violin to send my sound like an arrow to a particular person in the audience.

If there's a scientific map that you know of that explains which 3D direction has what amplitude at a certain distance, that would be helpful as well.

Replies (8)

Paul Carlson

December 29, 2025, 6:56 PM · The violin does not radiate sound in a compact direction, it diffuses in a more uni-directional manner.

Ben Furman

December 29, 2025, 7:02 PM · Omni?

Marco Brancalion

Edited: December 29, 2025, 8:15 PM · Who said the violin radiates in an omnidirectional pattern maybe have never tried to record themselves through a microphone in relative proximity :)

EDIT: I realized I didn't reply to the OP: :)
Thinking in "sonic ranges": the low frequencies of the violin are the most omnidirectional, if not totally; the highs tend to come out in a "slice of cake": considering as if you're playing in the middle of a clock quadrant, with your violin pointing at 12:00, your highs and high mid freqs spread better within 12:00 through 4:00, also in vertical.
I saw that the mids can have a strange behaviour.

But in general, the frequencies that make violin more audible and the sound travel more are, in my experience and general knowledge in the sound tech guys, are those that spread 12 - 4.

So, playing while having the listeners to your right, like first violins in an orchestra, is always a good move.

Nickie McNichols

Edited: December 29, 2025, 8:20 PM · Most violinists hold the fiddle body right under the mic. My mic is a cheap uni directional one. One still needs a room with good acoustics. Even a good system can’t overcome bad acoustics.
If you’re playing acoustically, I think I agree with Marco.
Soloists tend to stand with the right side of their violin aimed at the audience, because the left arm might be in the way, otherwise. Right?
Of course, YMMV.

Marco Brancalion

December 29, 2025, 9:58 PM · Look at the polar diagrams

Cotton Mather

December 30, 2025, 12:03 AM · General rules of thumb. The more directly the microphone sees the bridge area, the brighter the sound.
The closer the microphone is to the F hole, the crappier it sounds.

Gene Wie

Edited: December 30, 2025, 2:01 AM · There are many different kinds of microphones, and placement is very dependent on the type of microphone, the kind of space one is recording in, and they desired use of the recorded sound.

Lots of folks put their microphone(s) way too close to the instrument, so all we hear are the scrapes and squeaks which the audience never hears after the sound has developed in the performance space.

The amount of high frequency (HF) that the microphone picks up depends on the angle relative to the tone holes, and also the height of the microphone--the higher up you go above the level of the instrument, the more HF it picks up (as Cotton describes above).

While I love ribbon mics and was very fortunate to have a pair of Coles 4038 to use for awhile, good results are more a function of mic placement rather than getting the most expensive pieces of hardware out there. You can get very good results with basic cardioid condensers like a pair of Audio Technica AT2020 or a pair of sE7. Lots of my students recording for summer festivals and pre-screening auditions find a lot of success even with the very inexpensive Blue Yeti mic!

Andrew Fryer

December 30, 2025, 3:33 AM · The hall acoustics will have a bigger effect, Raymond. Give them a box of chocolates instead.