LINKWITZ Minimal Microphoning Medal Contest

When presenting two takes of the very same performance at audio shows, our audience consistently preferred minimal mic´ed version over the conventional multi-mike take. This blind test underlined the importance of microphoning in this whole recording-replay chain. So, we want to encourage (young) sound engineers to look into this exciting topic and -hopefully- supply us in the future with more sensibly microphoned music, to be enjoyed on the LINKWITZ dipole systems.

The peak time for these recordings used to be in the 1960s. Even with the advent of multi-miking, multitrack recording, some companies, like Denon, still recognized and valued the inherent quality of minimal microphone recordings. They released a series of ‘One Point Recordings’ more than three decades ago.
Today, minimal microphone recordings are a niche. Only a few experienced ‘connoisseur’ engineers go the extra mile to create this superior sound experience. When musician are playing togther “now”, without multiple re-takes, “magic moments” can be captured. 

Because both, minimal microphoning and LINKWITZ dipoles allow to reduce spatial distortion:
Just as minimal microphoning techniques have their advantages over multi-mic techniques in naturally capturing 3D sound stages, full range dipole loudspeakers likewise have their advantages in rendering natural 3D sound stages compared to conventional box speakers:

Jack Vad, Producer, Engineer, San Francisco Symphony,
GRAMMY-WINNER ” Best Classical Album “, about LX521 full range dipoles:

“ I didn’t have any other speakers that could reveal as accurate a sound stage,
do so with tonal & timbral neutrality, and seemingly bypass the room.”

 

1. 1. Eligibility: The competition is open to all student sound engineers / recording engineers and postgraduates (up to five years after final exam) worldwide at the time of entry.
   2. Entry Mechanism: All communication is in English. Participants must submit:
   • a document of the student’s institute, showing the participants’ status as student or as a postgraduate, with maximum five years between final exam and begin of competition.
   • a statement by the applicant, that he/she has all relevant permission from copyright owners (e.g. artists, composers) to freely use the recording during the competition as well as for using it after the competition for demoing LINKWITZ loudspeakers. A commercial distribution of the recording may be offered to the engineer and artist(s).
   • one minimally mic’d musical recording per applicant, created by him-/herself. Length of the file between 2 min and 8 min. The recording must be submitted in digital stereo format: .wav 16bit/44,1kHz up to 24bit/192kHz, optional additionally .DSF 11.2896Mhz.
     Pure DSD post-processing is graciously offered to the participants by sound engineer Tom Caulfield, who processes DSD files according to competitors´ specifications with HQPlayerPro (No PCM/DXD involved). This is a free service to participants of this contest. A big ‘thank you’ goes to Tom Caulfield!
   • documents in which the participant describes in detail the recording venue, material and methods (including detailed post-processing steps) used for that recording, complemented by a detailed and scaled sketch with the positioning of microphone(s) and musicians. Please provide a list of recording gear used, including microphone type(s) , their capturing pattern and their spatial placement/direction. Minimum 3 photos of the recording venue with gear and musicians in place.  Videos are optional (mp4 format).
   3. Prize Details: The winner will receive the “LINKWITZ Minimal Microphoning Medal”. Total prize money is 1000 USD plus professional audio equipment, details TBA). The prize will be delivered within 60 days of the winner announcement.
   4. Judging Criteria: Entries will be judged based on the quality of the minimalistic mic recording, anonymously. Most Jury members judge on playback systems with excellent spatial resolution and depth separation (full-range dipole speakers, e.g. LINKWITZ LX521). The jury will consist of experienced sound engineers, audio professionals
   5. Duration: The competition begins on Sept 1^st, 2024, and ends on January 31^st, 2025. All entries must be received by January 31^st, 2025, 23:59 GMT. Max 20 participants accepted in chronological order. With more than 20 participants, we reserve the right to limit the number of participants to two per school/university/studio. Relevant time stamp is created when all documents and files have been submitted.
   6. Privacy and Data Protection: All personal data collected for the competition will be used solely for the purpose of the competition and will not be shared with any third parties. All data will be stored securely.

1. 1. Sound Quality: This is the most fundamental aspect. The recording should have clear sound, with no distortion or unwanted noise. The room choice should sound good, without flutter echo and a good reverberant tone consonant with the performance and arrangement. The recording should be free of air conditioning rumble, noises that are not organic – not associated with the musicians. The jury appreciates the lack of buzz, hum or hiss.
   2. Balance: The balance between different instruments or voices in the recording is crucial. No single element should overpower the others unless it’s intentional for the artistic effect. It should sound natural, or if it’s a popular or jazz group, appropriate for the group. For example, if the drumset in a jazz group sounds like it’s coming from far away, they would lose points. The recorded group should sound integrated and holistic as well as balanced instrumentally. For example, If one performer sounds like they are way off the location of the rest, the intent should be clear, or the score goes down. If one performer is excessively loud or soft compared with an accepted balance, the score goes down.
   3. Dynamics: The recording should accurately capture and reproduce the dynamics of the performance. The microdynamics, short, momentary transients that give a recording life. These should be clear and present and match the distance of the instrument producing these short transients.
      Transients should sound natural and impacting, if they are meant to be by the performance. If the arrangement is soft and “regular” the judge would still give it a high grade.
   4. Stereo Imaging: The placement of instruments or voices in the stereo field adds sense of depth and space to the recording. The rendered image should mimic the recording situation. If it’s a string quartet and it extends all the way to left and right, it would get a lower score, the idea is that the soundstage width should appear natural for the performance and number of performers. If it’s a soloist and they sound artificially wide, it would get a lower score. Same for soundstage depth illusion: The front to back image of the group should appear natural.
   5. Frequency Response: The recording should represent all frequencies accurately. There should be no noticeable frequency imbalances. Purity and naturalness of tone, lack of artificial hype, lack of artificial sibilance.
      Furthermore, the submitted files will undergo technical analysis for bandwidth and noise spectrum.
   6. Creativity: This is more subjective, but important. The participants choices in mic placement, room selection, and other factors that contribute to the uniqueness of the recording should be considered.
   7. Emotional Impact: The most important thing is how the recording makes the listener feel. The jury should consider the emotional impact of the recording.
   8. Difficulty of the Task: A bonus criterion. The more instruments and voices, the greater the difficulty.

Some artists and engineers insist on an all-analog path. However, quality losses due to copying and aging can be an issue, to varying degrees.

We invite participants to try an alternative and evaluate for themselves:
DSD256 as a recording format. It can be referred to as an “analog format stored on a digital medium”. It allows for lossless copies and transfers.

There are a lot of myths and outdated information about DSD to be found. Today’s high-rate DSD has come of age. It has inherent advantages: “…because then you don’t need any steep antialiasing /decimation filters, and thus you avoid all the filter challenges to begin with.” For playback, DSD-noise is shaped towards ultrasonic frequencies and then attenuated by an analog ultrasonic filter at the end of the D/A conversion. As always, there are pros and cons. Try out for yourself.

Today, DSD is always the very first internal format in analog-to-digital A/D conversion chips. (But may deviate from 1-bit). Some A/D chips support a direct output of the DSD signal for recording`(See Annex 3 for a list of Quad-DSD (256*fs) capable A/ D converters and software).

You can avoid filtering and decimation by avoiding PCM/DXD.
Only few audio professionals are aware, that today, you can do post-processing (equalizing, filtering, convolution reverb by a mono wav file, channel mixing), while remaining in the DSD256 format, no PCM/DXD. (“pure DSD” with HQPlayerPro post-processing). However, its user interface is very basic. Sound engineer Tom Caulfield may assist you.

A/D converters, supporting pure DSD256

• Playbackdesign Pinot ADC
• RME ADI-2 Pro FS R BE
• Ayre QA-9 pro
• (Mytek Brooklyn ADC) vintage
• Merging Anubis Premium, Horus or Hapi + I/O card

 

Recording software, supporting pure DSD256

• Vinyl Studio PRO   US$ 49.95
  Win and Mac. Free PRO version for participants during the contest, excellent for vinyl ripping!
• Playbackdesign Sonoma Recorder  free
  Needs ADCs ASIO drivers on Windows. Does not work on Mac/emulations.
• HQPlayer Pro   €2400 net
  Allows pureDSD postprocessing, no need for PCM/DXD conversion!
• Pyramix , several variants
• Sound it 8 pro  199US$