A steerable and variable first-order differential microphone array

An embodiment of a first-order differential microphone array with a fully steerable and variable responsive pattern comprises 6 small pressure-sensitive omnidirectional microphones (222-224) flush-mounted on the surface of a 3/4" diameter rigid nylon sphere (220). The microphones are advantageously located on the surface at points where included octahedron vertices contact the spherical surface. By selectively combining the three Cartesian orthogonal pairs with scalar weightings, a general first-order differential microphone beam (or a plurality of beams) is realized which can be directed to any angle (or angles) in three-dimensional space. The microphone array may find use in surround sound recording/playback applications and in virtual reality audio applications.