YouTube star Noami Jon recently went on her first major headline tour at concert venues across Germany. Jon’s sound engineer is Flo Herkert, who has been working with her since her first ever gig. Herkert is responsible for the front of house mix and also oversees the on-stage monitor mix. A keen advocate of KLANG, Herkert bought Germany’s first KLANG:konduktor immersive in-ear-monitoring system in 2017, followed by a :vokal system and is now using his KLANG:vokal+ system with a DiGiCo SD11i for the Villain of your Dreams Tour.
“I’ve always been interested in new technologies and KLANG immediately caught my attention,” he said. “I attended a presentation and training session where I met Phil Kamp. We quickly became firm friends and have even toured together, using KLANG:fabrik in our set-up, of course! I recently upgraded to the :vokal+ and it worked flawlessly; it’s over the air and very easy to do. It’s great to run 64 channels in a 1U package, and is the perfect fit for our production with Naomi Jon. For me, it’s a no-brainer to offer KLANG to all my clients!”
Jon may be famous for her viral YouTube content, but she was raised in a traditional musical home, beginning her education early in life with music lessons from her father. Thanks to this knowledge, Naomi found it easy to pick up the production side of the industry and, supported by an experienced technical team, she now has just what she needs to wow her audience and perform at her best.
“Naomi has incredible attention to detail, knows exactly what she wants and how to create the best possible experience for the fans,” Herkert explains. “Her very first time on stage was in front of over 800 people! There were never any little gigs in bars, she just had to go out there and perform to a huge crowd every night, her handling of this was very impressive.”
Playing to sold out venues of almost 2,000 people as a solo artist for your first headline tour, just a year after your first ever gig, is a big ask. But Herkert says that the sonic consistency of KLANG is helping to support Naomi on stage as she takes on this exciting new challenge.
“In my opinion, consistency is one of the major aspects of mixing monitors. Of course, there are always minor changes, but mix adjustments are close to zero when using KLANG,” he said. “There is so much more space to place instruments and signals in the mix without the need to carve space by cutting away at frequencies with EQ. We noticed straight away that this helped Naomi relax and her voice relaxed too, helping her to sing through the huge choreographed routines and still have enough voice left for extra recordings at the end of the night!”
KLANG’s characteristic feeling of space comes from the ability to place objects around the listener. Instead of grouping instruments or a click-track into a narrow stereo field and panning left or right, engineers can place objects in 360 degrees in a horizontal plane around the performer and also above or below this field giving them a much more natural listening experience.
“There is a lot of interaction between Naomi and the fans, so the ambient mics are important,” continued Herkert. “While the audience can be unbelievably loud, it is crucial not to allow the mics to overpower her mix. With KLANG, I can lower the ambient mics in volume but place them up-front in the focus zone, raising them a slight touch upwards. This allows her to have her attention on her fans, but when they get loud, she can still focus on the other elements in her mix.”
The listening volume is crucial for the health and wellbeing of performers, especially on tour, when teams are working long hours with very little time to rest their ears. With an immersive in-ear mix from KLANG, intelligibility is improved, so many artists find that they can lower their in-ear-monitor volume while still being able to understand exactly what they are hearing.
“I love the way that KLANG feels so natural. Even in a small setting, it still makes a big audible difference compared to stereo,” Herkert noted. “Nearly all my artists were able to lower the volume on their packs, which is a great thing especially on longer tours and shows. It means they are suffering less listening and ear fatigue, and it’s not limited by genre. KLANG can be beneficial and supportive in any case. It can really make the difference.”
Herkert has chosen to use his DiGiCo SD11i console with KLANG:vokal+ to ensure simplicity of workflow. With this setup he can concentrate on his FOH mix, while KLANG directly integrates with the console. The IEM mixes are not just limited to Naomi; the support act, backline team, choreographers and even the lighting designer are all enjoying the benefit of an immersive KLANG mix.
“I send all the channels, FX returns and talkback direct-out via MADI into the KLANG:vokal+. I then have all the mixes returned via Merge Input on the corresponding AUX Master in the console,” Herkert explains. “I use an iPad to remotely control the KLANG:app and also use it as a ‘KLANG:meterbridge!
Adding KLANG to his audio workflow has simplified and improved Herkert’s experience. Not only in terms of listening, but thanks to the intuitive and simple integration, the user experience is also greatly improved for him and his artists.
“I like that the KLANG interface is so easy to use. It takes a couple of minutes to explain it to musicians and artists,” Herkert continued. “The layout is logical, so you understand it right away and there is no need to read a manual. All the shortcuts like quick positions, meta data copy and paste, plus cloning mixes, mean it’s very fast to set up.”
Herkert works with artists across an impressively wide range of genres. Using KLANG has benefitted them all and it is the flexibility and transferability of his hardware that has made it a wise investment.
“All artists love the space and the transparency of KLANG and my set-ups work for any situation. My largest is a DiGiCo Quantum 225 console plus KLANG:konductor (with 2 MADI BNC DMI ) for when I need more than 64 Inputs. Everything is always clearly audible, so for every artist it has been an ‘ear opener’! They instantly feel comfortable,” he concluded.
“I love the way the new DiGiCo console integration works, it’s super-fast and extremely stable. Besides actually using KLANG, one of the best features is the strong connection to the team. It feels like they’re always listening, are always there to help, paying attention, and requesting honest feedback from us. This makes our life on tour the easiest, because I don’t need to worry. If a problem ever pops up, I know their ears are always listening to solve the case.”
