Germany - YouTube star Naomi Jon’s first major headline tour has sold out music halls and concert venues across Germany and there are more dates being added, with international venues promised.
Naomi’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 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 says. “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 setup, 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.”
Naomi 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 says. “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.”
“There is a lot of interaction between Naomi and the fans, so the ambient mics are important,” continues 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.”
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.
