Hello, I’m Jooyoung Kim, a sound engineer and music producer.
Following my previous role as sound director for pianist Yeonjun Yoon’s performance, I had the opportunity to handle live sound and simultaneous recording at the Kim Heesoo Art Center last Friday.
The venue’s facilities were top-notch, so I only brought two Peluso P87 mics for ambience and my headphones.
The setup included a Yamaha QL5 console and a Tio1608-D stage box. I configured Dante to record directly to my computer from the Tio1608-D, ensuring the stage speakers, controlled by the console, didn’t affect the recorded sound.
Dante was a bit tricky to set up since my only experience was with Focusrite Red series in college… haha.
There was an issue with the main speaker on the right side of the stage—either a power supply or grounding problem causing a ticking noise. We swapped it out with a 12-inch monitor speaker at the bottom and a 10-inch on top for both sides. For a makeshift solution, the sound came out surprisingly well, and I was pretty satisfied.
Miking was planned not just for live sound but also with mixing in mind:
- Piano (Pianist Yeonjun Yoon): Standard AB stereo setup.
- Drums (Artist Haimi Klemencewicz): Overhead mics in the Recorderman configuration, one on the kick, two on the snare.
- Vocals and personal effects mixer (Artist Haimi Klemencewicz): XLR stereo.
- Gayageum (Musician Kyungso Park): Mono.
- Speaker installation (Artist Jun Kim): The toughest part—three different sounds coming from various spots, each miked in mono.
- Ambience: Omnidirectional mics spread widely toward the audience.
- MC at the start and end (K-Arts Creative Team Leader Namwoo Bae): Mono.
Mics 5 and 6 were used primarily for recording and barely for the live mix.
During the performance, the gayageum’s dynamic range was quite narrow, so it got buried under the piano and drums when they hit their peaks, no matter how much we boosted it. I adjusted the instrument levels in real-time while also tweaking the monitor mix for the artists. Thankfully, they seemed pretty happy with the result.
After the show, two audience members came up to say they loved the sound, which was really heartwarming. Thank you! 😊
The recorded mix turned out so well that it feels like it could be released as an album. With a bit of personal bias, I sent the team leader not only the version with their commentary for video use but also a separate album-ready version… haha. The finale, just before the end, was especially thrilling. If it gets released as an album or video, I’ll share it here.
Live sound work is tough with all the heavy gear to lug around, but it’s honestly a lot of fun. Studio work keeps me glued to a chair, which isn’t great for my health, but live gigs get me moving, so it almost feels like a workout! 😄
I promised to blog more regularly, but things have gotten a bit hectic again… 😅 I’ll keep at it, even if it’s a bit delayed.
See you in the next post!
Jooyoung's Music Blog 