About Ingo Schmidt-Lucas
Sound as a path, technology as responsibility
Ingo Schmidt-Lucas is the mind behind Cybele – a Tonmeister who does not merely record sound but explores it in all its dimensions and makes it tangible. Since the early 1990s he has devoted himself to audiophile productions that unite technical excellence with artistic conviction.
He originally wanted to become an archaeologist – captivated by the idea of uncovering hidden structures and making history audible. That passion for discovery has stayed with him: as a Tonmeister he excavates sonic depth, lifting out nuances and layers that often lie beneath the surface.
While studying audio and video engineering at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf and the former Fachhochschule Düsseldorf, he founded the Cybele Records label in 1994. It swiftly became a platform for exceptional productions in classical and contemporary music – with the aim of making the highest sonic authenticity audible.
His technical instinct and artistic curiosity led him to immersive formats early on: 3D binaural stereo, Ambisonics and Dolby Atmos are as much a part of his repertoire today as high-resolution productions in native DSD. He has broken new ground in video as well – with elaborately realised VR productions in the form of 360° videos and immersive audio formats.
His aim is not the mere documentation of a performance, but the shaping of an authentic experience that preserves the emotional, spatial and artistic dimension of music.
Numerous internationally acclaimed productions with artists, ensembles and orchestras from many countries have been created under his direction.
His work has been honoured many times over: productions under his direction have received several ECHO Klassik prizes and German Record Critics’ Awards (Bestenliste), two MIDEM Classical Awards, the Diapason d’Or, the Annual Award of the German Record Critics’ Award and a Grammy nomination.
Since 2012 Ingo Schmidt-Lucas has taught at the Institute for Music and Media of the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf, guiding students through subjects such as microphone technique, recording methods, acoustics and music production – hands-on, rigorous and with great dedication.
The place where he lives and works is largely self-sufficient in energy: photovoltaics, solar thermal panels and a heat pump cover most of what the studio and the household consume.
What drives Ingo Schmidt-Lucas is a rare combination of technical command, artistic sensitivity and visionary openness. For him every production is a new space waiting to be made audible and visible – and an invitation to discover a rich world with an alert ear.
Career in detail
Ingo Schmidt-Lucas
A detailed look at my professional path, my teaching and research, and the development of Cybele and of my work on new recording and playback methods.
Training and musical formation
Ingo Schmidt-Lucas is a Tonmeister, producer, developer and lecturer with a particular focus on joining musical interpretation, recording technique and immersive audio playback.
After leaving school he began his training as an audio and video engineer at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf / Fachhochschule Düsseldorf, with piano as his principal subject. Even then, the link between musical practice and technical craft became a central part of his work. In 1994 he founded the label Cybele Records, devoted from the outset above all to classical and contemporary music. He completed his studies in 1999.
From surround to immersive audio
As early as the late 1990s Schmidt-Lucas was working intensively on multichannel and surround recording technique. In 2000 he set up his first own surround studio in Düsseldorf. From 2004 to 2024, the productions of Cybele Records were consistently released in surround sound on hybrid SACD. In 2004 the Wort&Musik audiobook series also became one of the early SACD series for radio plays and audiobooks in surround sound.
In parallel, Schmidt-Lucas worked continuously with high-resolution recording and production formats. DSD recordings as well as PCM and DXD workflows have been part of his work since 2004.
In 2011, together with hd-klassik he founded a second label for audiophile productions. From 2013 his focus shifted increasingly towards immersive 3D recording methods, in particular binaural dummy-head stereophony (3D binaural stereo) and Ambisonics. For him this was never merely a technically new form of playback, but the question of how musical perspective, space and immediate perception can be conveyed as authentically as possible.
Research and development
An essential part of his work is the link between practical production, research and technical development.
In 2013 research into 3D recording technique began in cooperation with HEADacoustics. Out of it grew his own approaches to spatial perception and to optimising playback over headphones.
In 2015 Schmidt-Lucas developed the hd-klassik Headphone Optimizer, presented at the HighEnd trade fair in Munich. The development was continued together with rd analog audio and received the German Design Award in 2016. Later this gave rise to the Headphone Optimizer Pro in cooperation with Otztronics.
This research and development work is typical of his approach: technical innovation is never considered apart from musical practice. For him, new methods arise where they add something tangible to how music is perceived and conveyed.
Teaching, universities and knowledge transfer
For many years Schmidt-Lucas has passed on his knowledge in academic teaching and at international specialist events.
He has taught at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf since 2012, at first with the foundation module Recording Technique and the Music Production elective. Since 2026 he has additionally taught Score Reading.
From 2015 to 2022 he taught at the Musikhochschule Köln, Abteilung Wuppertal. In 2026, in recognition of his long-standing and outstanding teaching and artistic work as a lecturer, he was made a member of the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule Düsseldorf.
He has also given seminars, workshops and lectures at institutions including the Folkwang Hochschule Essen, the Fachhochschule Düsseldorf (MKI), the Conservatory Rotterdam and the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. Further specialist lectures and events have taken place in the context of Audio Engineering Society (AES), HighEnd, CanJam, klangBilder and the Tonmeistertagung.
Radio, television and international productions
Alongside his own label productions, Ingo Schmidt-Lucas also works for radio and television. Clients and partners include arte, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Deutschlandfunk, Deutschlandradio Kultur, NDR, SWR, WDR, KRO Radio 4, VPRO, Czech Radio and Unitel Classica. From 2003 to 2013 he worked regularly as a Tonmeister for Deutschlandfunk.
All told, several hundred SACD and CD productions have been made with his involvement, among them well over 100 surround productions, more than 50 binaural 3D productions and some 300 further productions and live recordings in Europe, Mexico and the USA.
In doing so he has collaborated not only with many figures from music, but also from literature and acting, among them Martin Baltscheit, Ralph Caspers, Elke Heidenreich, Lutz Lansemann, Michael Rotschopf, Ernst-August Schepmann, Bastian Trost and Ulrich Tukur.
From 3D audio to VR and Dolby Atmos
Since 2020 Schmidt-Lucas has extended his work to audiovisual VR productions, combining 360° video with Ambisonics, Dolby Atmos and binaural 3D audio. Among the early projects was a production with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker at the Tonhalle Düsseldorf under Adam Fischer.
In 2025 the studio was comprehensively rebuilt into a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos control room. The result is a production environment in which loudspeaker and headphone playback can be judged and related to one another through a consistently referenced monitoring system.
Awards (selection)
- Gramophone Magazine – “250 Greatest Recordings of All Time”
- 7 ECHO Klassik awards
- Grammy nomination
- Annual Award of the German Record Critics’ Award
- 2 MIDEM Classical Awards
- Diapason d’Or
- 7 German Record Critics’ Awards (Bestenliste)
- OPUS KLASSIK – Editorial Achievement of the Year
- Diapason d’Or
- German Audiobook Award
- LEOPOLD Media Prize
- German Design Award
- Excellentia Award
- 2× IRR Outstanding Award (International Record Review)
- 3× Opus d’Or Award
- 8× Diapason of the Month
- 5× ICMA nomination (International Classical Music Award)