A recent (published a couple of weeks back) double bass and sax/clarinet duo, recorded with a single Josephson C700S mic, via DSD256, played back on Linkwitz LX521 dipole speakers.

They refer to it as ‘the One Mic Technique’ with no additional elaboration: mono…stereo…XY….M-S…Blumlein ? It’s an audiophile magazine, so perhaps such concerns are trivial? Could anything possibly go wrong ?

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/art...an-experiment/

Remarkable, that the depth, width and immersion of such an array seems to be far surperior to anything else, even if there are no time difference localisation cues at all.

Well, I must admit I have been more inspired by John Cuniberti's 'OneMic' recording sessions, which he has been doing for some years. He also gives lots of practical advice, which I have found useful. http://www.johncuniberti.com/onemic/

Cheers,

Roland

That would lead me to suspect they were doing it Blumlein; it's the only coincident technique I've heard that can lend that impression.

The C700S is, of course, a truly great (and nearly coincident) 3-in-1 microphone. Unless the mix pushes all capsules down into a single mono channel, I don’t particularly like the phrase ‘One Mic Technique’. We have three distinct signals—two of which, one might argue, are orthogonal—and the ability to combine the three of them into an infinite number of channels.

Mathematically, I’ve not at all bought into any DSD spatial superiority argument. Such assertions as I have heard landed near the antipode of disciplined reason.

Someone else will have to pimp the Linkwitz LX521 dipole speakers. Nothing is Memorex; just give me high-end horns (with real compression drivers : High-end JBL, Strauss Elektroakustik, etc.).

That said, I believe I’ve heard several recordings from the studio and like their work very much.

Starting with a great arrangement, great players, a great tracking space, and a C700S. . .well that’s a nice starting point.


Spooky superstition needn’t necessarily keep one from creating great art, no?

Ray H.

Dave Spearritt is your man for that. It seems likely that it’s a Blumlein pickup, as the studio seems neither particularly reverberant nor large, so the rear out of phase components will be contributing to any sense of space ?

Did anyone notice (in the upper photograph) a pickup or mic cable emerging from the tailpiece of the double bass…the article doesn’t state whether that was contributing to the mix ?

OK, but what preamp and what recorder?
“ The signal chain was kept as simple as possible, with the microphone feeding directly into a high-quality preamp and then into the DSD256 recorder”.

It looks like the bass is being amplified. Pickup into the preamp on the floor to the active speaker behind the bass player. I also sounds like the bass could be amplified slightly. Who knows.
Honestly, listening with headphones, I would have bet, they recorded it with close mics and added a really nice reverb. No criticism. It just sounds so polished, clear and big.

One only has to listen to a pair of good dipole loudspeakers to understand how unsatisfactory box loudspeakers are. Everyone needs to do it.

The same publication source (TAS) as the original recording description above also reviewed the (latest ?) Linkwitz dipole speakers:

https://youtu.be/7vF2r9PQ28o?si=h-LE-d6_mN8AJxKW

https://www.theabsolutesound.com/art...peaker-review/

I used to build and sell dipole speakers back in the 70s. After the first Bose 901s came out, I built a duplicate set of those using my own electronics (they worked but were a bit unsatisfactory in the end). Then the electro voice interface A speakers came out (a true dipole design), and I started making numerous variations of that system using altec and Jbl 8” and 10” woofers and 1” soft dome tweeters front and rear, some with midrange drivers but most without - I used my own set for over 30 years. However, the single most impressive speakers I ever heard were a set of magneplanar Tympani A trifold panels tri-amped with SAE units - oh my lord they were simply delicious! When I first heard them in a specialty audio place in New Orleans, they were set up in a dedicated room, and playing a string quartet - standing there, I at first thought there was a real quartet playing behind the folding panels…I was blown away in a manner I have never experienced since. Dipole rules!

Wow, this is really great.

I wonder now what's the mixing/mastering process here...

For example - this sounds like a really nice studio recording with multiple mics... really... how? Just a balance in the room, and mono mic... Wow. But all the details of acoustic guitar, fat bass, perfect balance of the pedal steel in the mix, etc. Perfect balance in mono, but with a sense of space - stereo reverb... but still... This seems impossible or is that AEA R44 such a magic mic?



I guess there must be quite some nice EQing and other "mastering" processing going on, because - R44 sounds like any other ribbon - natural, but a bit muffled without EQ... dry... In that "one mic" video the whole band sounds like a record (and the guitar is even below the mic... yet all the picking details) - here - one guitar sounds like a somewhat natural sounding, yet muffled guitar recording:



I checked several videos and another thought crossed my mind - you can pull that off only with really good musicians and singers...

The well balanced and "polished" main and back vocals here - usually people work hard for that in the mix... and here - just one mic... wow...




btw - to the OP - call me stupid, but I couldn't find any sound example from that session in the article?

Well John Cuniberti does have a lot of videos that show what he is doing, so is not hiding behind any mystique. I found these really useful when having an inevitably very inferior go myself with a Blumlein pair for a band (https://drbadphil.com/a-little-bit-of-blumlein) then likewise with an MS pair (https://drbadphil.com/sennheiser-mkh...side-recording). The Blumlein pair was more fun and, with drums, took a lot of work, and it is clear that John Cuniberti is taking even greater pains (and, of course, is blessed with greater skill and experience, better musicians and better spaces!).

Cheers,

Roland

The dog, birds and farm animals were a particularly nice touch, I thought. . .psychoacoustically lending emotional credibility to the sense of space.

That aside, I absolutely love my AEA A440 — it truly is a magic mic. A frequency response curve that looks like the roughest path possible through the Canadian Rockies; but delivering sonically attractive results akin to splashing in the smooth gentle surf of a remote sandy beach along the Florida Keys.


Ray H.

The downloads (e.g., My Funny Valentine v1_Pure DSD_11.2M.dsf) were available from another page linked in the article, which then provided a WeTransfer Link:

https://soundliaison.com/blogs/nieuws/pure-dsd256

You will have to head over to David Spearritt‘s house, I’m guessing, to hear it proper like through Linkwitz dipole speakers.

The guitar has a pickup and is going to an amp somewhere; you can see the cable coming out of the guitar. John Cuniberti makes good use of amps in these one-mic recordings to achieve volume balances among the instruments while allowing the musicians to stay relatively close together, physically.

I've tried a few of these one-mic recordings (using a stereo ribbon mic from Samar) and you have to spend a lot of time up front getting the mix just right through positioning because you won't be able to adjust it in post. If you're dealing with more than a couple of musicians you'd probably want to schedule several hours for perfecting the mix in rehearsals, give the musicians a break, and have them start fresh later in the day or come back the next day.

Thanks for all the replies, I'll check more of his work... it is indeed fascinating... the closest to "black art", I've seen in audio. ������

Also inspires me to try Blumlein with my two MKH30s...

Thanks for the link, checked the clip... listened on headphones, though... HD600... nice tone, but I hear the recorded amplifier/speaker of double bass in the room that is not so nice to me and there seems to be a sort of slight "phasing" in the high end - especially obvious on the sax breath?

And double bass "jumps" a bit in stereo field...

Nice tone, but some distractions...

Really nice try, too. I've checked your video.

What I noticed in John Cuniberti's recordings is - the very "magical" spatial balance and the centered bass - there is no weird low end all over the picture as I noticed in the Linkwitz clip and also in your video (the blumlein one) - you got really nice sound but more as what I would expect from a single pair and the natural balance in the room...

Some of those Cuniberti's recordings really sound like black art from one mic...

I guess - the room, experience, the musicians, but I guess also the mics... the big and lush midrange and bottom... those ribbons can be indeed nice... hmmmm... and I don't hear high end phasing in his recordings...

So, must check what he does to achieve a more focused-centered low end and no high end phasing with blumlein... For centered bass - I guess he was using MS or really well placed blumlein?

Ok, here he also has bass all over the place - but it works nicely and considering the volume of the band and all - what an achievement for one mic recording! Still no distracting high end phasing to my senses.

Hi end phasing sounds can occur, when the player moves while breathing. Might not be related to the micing technique.

Is this through a mixing board, or just live through the Josephson C700S

Thanks. There's plenty different I would do if doing this again (not least a bigger and better space!), but just had a listen through the wav file again on headphones and decent (Vivid) monitors, and, though evidently not in the same league as the OneMic sessions, the bass sounds as it should to me (sitting on a chair in front of the kick drum). Anyway John Cuniberti liked it, warts and all, and posted it on his FB page: he's a thoroughly nice chap.

No need to guess: John is very explicit in what he is using (i.e. mostly Blumlein, with some later mono - i.e. truly one mic - tracks too).

Cheers,

Roland

It is a fine recording, very nice.

I guess what I am describing is that low mids seem to come from different angles, that is probably due to the room size... like in some louder recordings of Cuniberti, too. But nothing really bad...

I always felt there is something "magical" in recordings that can capture "sound as it is", but in a nice way, not some rough "documentary".

This really inspires one to experiment with blumlein (and ribbons).

I also liked some minimalist recordings with spaced omnis (especially some releases from MA recordings - interesting music and mostly very special lively sound), but that wouldn't work for such bands I guess... and not in most rooms...

But stuff like that - mmmm:

I'm pretty sure that bass is going through an amp too; it looks like an acoustic bass but the soundholes seem to be plugged up and in other videos I've watched of this band I can see that the bass is plugged in. So I'm not sure how much of that bass sound is acoustic vs. coming through the amp.

The soundholes are definitely not plugged up. It looks and sounds like a regular double bass, that is being amplified.
I can see a David Gage Realist pickup and I am pretty sure, he is using that one, judging by the envelope and amount amount of low end in the recording.
There also seems to be some kind of magnetic pickup at the end of the fingerboard, but I can't see a cable there, so it might just be a fingerboard extension (unlikely).
To me it sounds like a very natural, almost close miced sound in the higher spectrum (articulation), that is being supported in the lows by the amp. I guess, the positioning of the amp is very intentional, so the player and instrument block the "line of sight" between the amp and the mic, so all details from the instrument are not being obscured by the amped signal.

While the recordings noted in this thread are just fine, and reflect some serious capabilities on the part of the engineers involved, I guess I am not seeing the point of all this. Why try to do it like that? That’s where our industry started so many years ago - trying to capture entire groups with a single mic - but as soon as better ways to capture performances were developed, the industry quickly moved in that direction. Since then, the techniques evolved to provide amazingly intimate and balanced recordings. Certainly there are many situations where minimalist techniques - a single stereo pair - are the most appropriate and effective solution. I, personally, am quite dedicated to that type of recording and rarely try to rely on multiple spot mics to build a mix, but I do small ensemble chamber and classical work (like most of us here). However, in a studio situation with a live group trying to record contemporary music, there is no reason not to use as many mics as needed to capture every nuance of every player and maximize opportunities during post.

I guess it's time to introduce this recording...arguably one that pioneered the 'return to simplicity' approach before multitrack digital became accessible to every home studio owner.

At the very least you'll gain much of an understanding of Peter Moore's ethos and background, and why this one-mic Soundfield recording of the classic Cowboy Junkies CD became such a landmark recording....and the hurdles he faced in engineering it !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg6Uw2cGhQE

As a method it may not work for you or I...but it certainly did for him...even with singer Margo Timmins being 'represented in the stereo field'...while singing 30 feet away... by a Klipsch Heresy speaker ! Overcoming such adversities as his is worthy of a medal methinks ?

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniq...ies-sweet-jane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa9nN3G2CSg

Very nice!
Except for the very metallic cymbal and the "panning" of the accordeon. But it also adds something unique, while being quirky.

I liked Moore's description of miking punk/thrash bands back in the day : "To fill his Canadian quota of punk bands, Moore began going to clubs and recording live performances using a Kunstkopf dummy head microphone. “Sennheiser made one, the MKE 2002,” he remembers. “It came with a mannequin which had defined ears, or you could take the mics off and wear them yourself. So for a lot of live shows, I would wear them myself and walk around until I found the best–sounding place in the room and stand there and record. But then later I would gaffer tape a tripod with the dummy head onto a pub table, and that way I could dive in the crowd and keep dancing.”

Quickly, Moore’s radio show, which he presented under the name Simon Less, gained a reputation for his recordings which aurally airlifted listeners directly into the middle of the Canadian punk scene. “‘Cause it was binaural recording,” he says, “we’d tell them, ‘Put your headphones on at home’. That was the most invigorating thing for them. ‘Cause you felt like you were right in the mosh pit.”

Worlds colliding indeed !

I think the point is that the one-mic approach brings everyone together in one space as they would be in their practice sessions or live performances, rather than in isolated booths. Everything bleeds together, there's no safety net. The risk-taking can be energizing and there's less emphasis on perfection, while having everyone together can feel more natural and comfortable to the musicians since that's how they normally play their music.

Why would anyone still shoot photos on film when digital is so much more flexible? Why would anyone still record music to tape? Why would anyone drive a 1950s pickup truck when modern ones are so much safer and comfortable? It's just different, and sometimes doing things differently leads to a more interesting and enjoyable result.

But it is also pretty common, to have everybody together in one room with a multimic setup. At least in classical, jazz, bluegrass.
The only one I know, who is doing a similar thing (all in one room, multi mic approach) with rock bands is Moses Schneider, though mostly with vocal overdubs.