Hello, this is Mixing Engineer and Music Producer Jooyoung Kim.
Lately I’ve mostly been posting about sound engineering projects, but this time, I finally did something more in line with my role as a music producer.
Last month, I submitted one of my tracks to the DTM Koshien, organized by Movement Production in Japan.
To be honest, I’d been so busy afterward that I almost forgot about it—but out of a total of 431 entries, my track placed in the top 11 and was officially awarded the Gold Prize.
Everything is labeled as a “Gold Prize,” so I suppose it’s more like being recognized as a finalist. (The video thumbnail says “Gold Prize Nominee,” but it really is a Gold Prize…^^)
The song I submitted is called Seiun (星雲, “Seongun”, means “Constellation”).
Originally, it was a full track with two verses, but since the competition required only a one-verse submission, I merged the first and second verses into a single version.
Also, the bass in the song was performed by me and painstakingly edited note by note. As with most of my works, I handled everything on my own—vocals, instruments, arrangement, mixing, and mastering.
I really appreciate that, just like with Sonicwire before, Movement Production judged the entries fairly and still awarded a foreigner like me. I’d like to release the full version with both verses someday, but that’s something I’ll need to discuss further.
The awards ceremony and event, along with the grand prize announcement, will take place in Tokyo next Sunday. I’d really love to attend, but between my limited Japanese and the cost of the flight ticket… it’s not easy.
Money’s been draining fast these days. For instance, I just got my TOEFL results today—and I completely messed up the speaking section, so I’ll need to retake it… another 300 USD gone. This will be my third attempt…
These photos are from last Tuesday’s performance of Practice Piece: Triptych, held at a venue called Seoul National University Power Plant. It featured simultaneous live recording and amplification of saenghwang (Korean mouth organ), drums, processed vocals, piano, and synthesizers. The artist is considering releasing a live album, and I’m currently working on that.
Tomorrow I’m also working as a sound director for a small concert, and next week I’ll be assisting as a lecturer at a place called Arko.
Fortunately, I do have some projects lined up, like live recording for concerts and teaching—but all my earnings immediately go into buying gear like microphones and cables, so I’m broke again. ^^; I suppose that’s just the fate of those of us in music and sound.
If only I had passed the TOEFL this time, I could have worried less for a while…
On top of that, I’ve also submitted a paper with a fairly simple topic. If it gets rejected again, it’s going to hurt, but at least I managed to finish it well enough to submit. Time to start writing the next one.
Anyway, that’s a quick update from me!
See you in the next post. 🙂
Jooyoung's Music Blog 