For recording a single person speaking clearly in a noisy environment, which external microphone pickup pattern is most effective at isolating their voice?

For recording a single person speaking clearly in a noisy environment, the most effective external microphone pickup pattern is a lobar pattern, commonly implemented in shotgun microphones, or a hypercardioid pattern. A pickup pattern, also known as a polar pattern, defines a microphone's sensitivity to sounds arriving from different directions around its central axis. Lobar and hypercardioid patterns are characterized by their extreme directionality. This means they exhibit high sensitivity to sounds originating directly in front of the microphone and possess superior off-axis rejection, which is the ability to significantly reduce the capture of sounds coming from the sides and rear. In a noisy environment, this high degree of off-axis rejection is paramount. It allows the microphone to effectively "focus" its sensitivity on the specific voice of the person speaking, while simultaneously minimizing the recording of unwanted ambient noise from other directions. For instance, a shotgun microphone employs an interference tube to achieve its very narrow frontal pickup lobe, resulting in exceptional isolation of the target sound source against a noisy background. While a supercardioid pattern also offers good directionality, lobar and hypercardioid patterns provide even greater focused pickup and noise attenuation, making them more effective for vocal isolation in challenging acoustic conditions.