Electro-Voice - RE50B

Are you interested in "one source" in general (e.g. maybe a bird, or a train), or specifically for interviews? You may get somewhat different answers. The choice somewhat depends whether you'll do your interviews in a relatively quiet and acoustically good space, or whether it you'll be working in an uncontrolled and possibly noisy environment. A cardioid mic will \*somewhat\* reduce unwanted sound pickup from other directions, but it is \*not\* at all like a zoom lens or spotlight. It still picks up from (almost) all directions, it's just somewhat stronger directly in the desired direction. In a quiet, acoustically good room, you can use a cardioid from a foot or two distance, and get good results. However, cardioid mics tend to boost the bass as they get closer to a person's mouth, which can be a drawback for interviews. Some people actually prefer omnidirectional for interviews, because you can use them very close to a person's mouth without the audio becoming "muddy" or "boomy" whereas a cardioid mic might do so. When you get close, you can turn down the microphone gain, which results in lower level of background noise. For example, a very popular interview mic, which you'll often see used by TV news reporters, is the Electro Voice RE-50, which is omnidirectional. The Rode "Reporter" is similar, but a bit less expensive. Either one of these should produce recordings good enough for broadcast.