Microphone arrays providing improved horizontal directivity

A sound capture device comprising two nonconcentric rings of directional microphone capsules, each ring defining a plane that is oriented at an angle of at least 70 degrees relative to a notional reference axis passing through the centres of the two nonconcentric rings, and each location that is off the reference axis having an azimuthal angle around the reference axis,

• wherein the device has a notional equatorial plane that lies symmetrically between the two rings of capsules, and the equatorial plane intersects the reference axis at a central point;
• wherein the centre-to-centre distance of each microphone capsule to its nearest neighbour capsule within the same ring is less than one wavelength at an audio frequency of 4 kHz;
• wherein each of the two rings contains n directional microphone capsules, with n≥3;
• wherein each microphone capsule is intrinsically responsive to both pressure and velocity and has an axis of maximum intrinsic sensitivity that forms a nonzero angle with a line from the central point to that capsule;
• and
• wherein each directional microphone capsule is tilted such that its axis of maximum intrinsic sensitivity intersects the equatorial plane.