AIR’s Big Comeback with DPA Microphones

For the Moon Safari anniversary tour, AIR opened the doors to their backstage. Just a few hours before the Paris concert, DPA met with two key figures of the technical team: Julien Vouillon and Florentin Convert, specialists in immersive in-ear mixing.

Julien, a sound engineer, began his career on monitors with Lee Scratch Perry before joining Saint-Germain’s Tourist tour at the dawn of the French Touch. Since then, he has honed a precise and immersive style, designed to feel like a studio production. Florentin, originally a musician, first met Julien during a Johnny Hallyday tour when he was just 18. Trained at INA and involved in numerous independent projects, he gradually turned to large-scale productions, always seeking the right balance between technical mastery and artistry.

Their collaboration truly took off with Lomepal, built on a rare complementarity and a shared sense of listening. “Together, we go faster and further—especially when it comes to innovating and breaking the routine,” Florentin sums up.

For Julien, this high standard reflects the evolution of live music: “Since the rise of in-ears, a concert has to sound like the record—both at front of house and in the monitors.” It’s this approach that now brings them to support AIR on an immersive tour, blending fidelity to the album with sonic innovation.

AIR’s anniversary tour

For the Moon Safari anniversary tour, Julien Vouillon and Florentin Convert set out to recapture the sound and spirit of the album—down to the finest details of the drums.

Stage design

Julien:  The stage design definitely made things more complicated for us. The musicians are enclosed in a kind of box with parallel walls—which is exactly what you’re not supposed to do acoustically (laughs). We had to work on mic placement and selection to minimize the impact of the room.

At first, we feared it would be a sonic nightmare, but in fact it turned out to be a huge advantage: we get exactly the same drum sound every night, no matter the venue. That’s an incredible comfort in live situations. And aesthetically, it’s beautiful—you really feel like you’re stepping into their bedroom, as if AIR’s studio were traveling with them.

Drum setup

Julien: The in-ear mix, like the front-of-house mix, is highly produced and very close to the album. We just make a few balance adjustments to help the musicians play precisely, while always respecting the tones and textures. To achieve that level of detail, we worked in a very methodical way. On the drums, the idea was to recreate something faithful to the world of the record. We tested different mic/instrument combinations, and for the toms we ended up choosing the DPA 2012 and 4055.

Louis, the drummer, had never played with these mics before. As soon as he put his in-ears on, he said: ‘This is the first time I’ve heard my toms exactly as they sound without microphones!’ He was amazed.

He completely forgot about the miking—he was blown away by the sensation!

But the real shock for me was the kick drum with the DPA 4055. I had just discovered it, and honestly… ‘once you’ve tried it, it’s hard to go back!’ In live situations, we’re forced to rely on close-miking, but with this microphone the result stays natural—almost like in the studio—without heavy EQ or processing. Before, our close captures often felt too tight and lacking in life. Now, we correct much less, and get much closer to the sound we imagine."

Florentin: What struck me with the 4055 is its ability to reproduce the sound exactly as it is—without coloration or exaggeration. You really hear the kick drum as it sounds, not some interpretation of it. It’s a bit like a beautiful guitar: when you plug it into a great amp, you want to hear its true voice in the in-ears. With the 4055, you get that same feeling. And above all, it gives the impression of a studio recording made two or three meters away, even though we’re close-miking. It’s astonishing. You get back some air, some natural space, and it brings real breathing room to the mix. That’s exactly what we were aiming for to stay faithful to the Moon Safari aesthetic, where every sonic detail matters.

The immersive sound experience

Julien: Doing immersive mixing for monitors was an idea I’d had in mind for a long time. I first tested the Klang system: interesting for spatializing ambiences or widening effects, but unusable because of the latency and the fixed HRTF. Then I tried L-Acoustics’ L-ISA, which was more convincing technically but too heavy and costly for in-ears. The real breakthrough came from my meeting with Julien Pagnier at Novelty AURA, who introduced me to SPAT. For the first time, I had a tool that was perfectly suited: extremely low latency (1 ms), customizable HRTF, and very high-quality audio rendering. That’s what finally allowed me to develop a reliable and musical immersive binaural mix. The challenge after that was to integrate it with the same level of precision as the musical mix—without falling into gimmicks.

Integration on AIR’s tour

The surround mic 5100

Julien: We kicked off all the immersive development with AIR. I wanted to integrate SPAT for the ambiences, but the challenge was finding the right microphone. It was Flo who told me about the DPA 5100. Thanks to the DPA team, I was able to test one right at the start of the tour. After several placements, the one that really worked was just in front of the stage, fairly low—the room sound was stunning. Our goal was to get the musicians to listen to their own album live. The first time I heard what the DPA 5100 delivered, it was incredible. Already mind-blowing. The respect for timbre is such that it offers total transparency. To my ears, it has no intrinsic flaw: it reproduces faithfully what it captures, exactly as it is, exactly where you are. So there’s nothing to “fix” at that level.

Florentin: I was already using the DPA 4060 everywhere, so I immediately thought the 5100 would be perfect. It’s discreet, easy to use, and reproduces the natural 3D of the room. With SPAT, it adds the air and space that are always missing in classic in-ears.

Julien: Over 80 shows, we refined placement and bus methods until we found an approach that works everywhere. The only point to watch is the balance with the FOH mix: when front of house and monitors are aligned, everything clicks perfectly.

Pencil mics 2015

Julien: A crucial point was minimizing the delay between the front-of-house and the ambience. If the system is too offset, the musicians feel it immediately. So we added a pair of DPA 2015s in ORTF, aimed at the stage. They complemented the sound image and gave the musicians the natural sensation of being immersed in the room, while still perceiving the drums and the stage behind them.

Pencil mics 2017 & 2012 

Florentin: With the 5100 and the 2015s, we were able to reproduce the ‘room’ well, but there was still a lack of impact on the applause. So we added an XY pair of DPA 2012s in the center, complementing the DPA 2017s placed on stage. This combination made the sound image more precise, more natural, and brought the applause forward without compromising the tonal balance.

Bus management 

Julien: At first, we started our tests with Panoramix (IRCAM), but controlling it with a mouse was too restrictive. So with Florentin and Émile, we designed a small MIDI ‘sidecar’ to make handling easier. Then we connected with the SPAT team. Their manager, Hugo Larin, immediately embraced our idea: repurposing SPAT—originally designed for multichannel immersion—to produce a high-quality binaural downmix for in-ears.” Thanks to SPAT, they were able to create three independent “rooms,” each fed back into the DiGiCo console:

• Main room with the DPA 5100 
• Stage room with a pair of DPA 2015s 
• Applause room with 4 × DPA 2017s and an XY pair of DPA 2012s 
  
  

Julien: All the microphones first go through the DiGiCo, then via MADI into SPAT, where each source is placed in a virtual space. Each room then generates a stereo-binaural bus that’s sent back into the console for the overall mix. We apply a bit of targeted compression to keep the result lively and natural, without constant tweaking.”

Florentin: With this dedicated applause bus, we bring back the classic approach, but with far superior sonic quality thanks to the DPA 2012, 2015, and 2017.

Applause bus management 

Florentin: “At first, we were opening and closing the applause bus manually, like in a classic approach, but spatialized with SPAT and the DPA 2012/2017. Then we automated it with sidechain compression triggered by the music: as soon as the band plays, the bus compresses; when the music stops, it naturally opens back up.” Julien: “The real refinement came when we added pink noise into the sidechain. On softer tracks, this keeps the compression active until the right moment, preventing the ambience from coming in too early. It’s a simple, musical, and seamless solution that makes the audience reactions feel natural and alive in the in-ears.”

The arrival of the MKH in live

Julien: At the beginning of in-ears, nobody had the budget for high-quality ambience mics. I was endorsed by Sennheiser and started using the MKH series, which had originally been designed for classical music. On tour with Jean-Michel Jarre, I discovered their potential for capturing applause and ambience—it was a real qualitative leap. Today, ironically enough, that use has become one of their main markets. But after Flo introduced me to the DPA 2012, 2015, and 2017, I was blown away: perfect transients, depth, zero artifacts. I’ve replaced all my MKH habits with the DPA range.

A huge thank you to the entire AIR team for their trust. And to MPM Audiolight for their daily support on this project.

Stay connected with Julien and Florentin on social media: Instagram Julien | Instagram Florentin