Recording ECLIPSE's "Sudden Shower" in Seoul: Kaoru's First Korean Song
A traveler from the Netherlands chose ECLIPSE's "Sudden Shower" (Lovely Runner OST) for her first Korean-song recording — here's how her DIAMOND session at KING STUDIO turned a Seoul Trip into a take-home track.
International visitors really can record a real K-pop song in a Seoul studio — and Kaoru, a traveler from the Netherlands, did exactly that, choosing ECLIPSE's "Sudden Shower" (소나기) from Lovely Runner for her DIAMOND session at KING STUDIO. She usually sings in Japanese, so a Korean OST was new territory. If recording the song you love is on your Seoul Trip bucket list, here's exactly how her two hours went — and what made it work.
Why Kaoru chose "Sudden Shower"
Some people walk in with a song they've sung a hundred times. Kaoru did the opposite. In her own words:
"I usually enjoy singing Japanese songs, but this is my first time recording Korean songs to leave a special experience on my trip to Seoul."
That single decision shaped the whole session. "Sudden Shower" is the first OST from the fictional band ECLIPSE in the 2024 tvN drama Lovely Runner — the time-slip romance that became one of the year's biggest K-dramas worldwide, with the song peaking at number four on Korea's Circle Digital Chart and later winning Best OST at the Melon Music Awards. For millions of international fans, it's the sound of that show. For Kaoru, picking it was a way to bring a piece of Korea home in a form nothing else on the trip could match — not a fridge magnet, but her own voice on a track she'll actually keep.
Here's the catch she signed up for without fully realizing it: "Sudden Shower" was written for ECLIPSE's male vocalist (Ryu Sun-jae, played by Byeon Woo-seok). It sits in a male key. Kaoru wasn't just recording in a second language for the first time — she was taking on a song built for a different vocal range, in Korean, with Korean pronunciation she'd never trained. That's three challenges stacked on top of each other. The nerves were real, and honest. What turned them into something she walked out proud of wasn't talent alone — it was the way the session was run. That part is worth walking through step by step.
- Inside the booth: Kaoru's DIAMOND session, step by step
- For Lovely Runner fans: where to go in Korea
- In Kaoru's words
- KING STUDIO services: which one fits your Seoul Trip?
- Ready to record your song in Seoul?
Inside the booth: Kaoru's DIAMOND session, step by step
The DIAMOND package is two hours, one chosen song, and a finished track that's recorded, mixed, and mastered for you to take home. On paper that's a line item. In the booth it looked like this.
STEP 1 Warm-up and meeting the team.
Kaoru was working with vocal director Lucia, plus a bilingual manager who speaks both English and Japanese. That second detail mattered more than it sounds — when you're nervous and reaching for an unfamiliar Korean phrase, being able to drop back into Japanese to ask "wait, what does this line mean?" removes the panic. The language barrier never got a chance to become the thing that derailed the take.
STEP 2 Finding Kaoru's key — the part that took real work.
Because "Sudden Shower" lives in a male key, the first job wasn't recording at all; it was finding where the song actually sits for Kaoru's voice. This took time. Lucia ran several rehearsal passes, moving the key up and testing each one, until she landed on the setting that fit Kaoru best instead of forcing Kaoru to fight the original.
This is the difference between a karaoke room and a studio: nobody adjusts the key to you at noraebang. Here, the song got rebuilt around the singer.
STEP 3 Re-learning a song she only knew in the original key.
Then came the twist. Kaoru had absorbed "Sudden Shower" in its original male key — that's the version living in her head. Singing it raised into her own range meant un-learning the melody she'd memorized and trusting a new one.
Every time she drifted back toward the familiar pitch, Lucia caught it in real time and corrected both the note and the timing, line by line. The Korean pronunciation got the closest attention: Lucia walked her through the consonants and vowels precisely, take after take, until the words landed cleanly rather than approximately.
STEP 4 Recording like a K-pop artist.
Once the key and the pronunciation were locked, Kaoru recorded the way idols actually track — parts captured in focused sections and comped together, not one nervous single-pass run-through.
The same professional booth and equipment used by working Korean artists carried her voice, and the difference in how a trained vocal sounds through that signal chain is the moment most visitors say something clicks.
STEP 5 The two hours that passed like a storm.
Kaoru's own framing was that the vocal training and directing flew by "like a storm" — fitting, for a song called "Sudden Shower." The finished mix and master become a later step KING STUDIO completes after the session, so the take-home track arrives as a properly produced recording, not a rough room capture. She left with the hard part done and a result on the way.
What started as the tension of singing in an unfamiliar language ended as satisfaction — not because the song was easy, but because the gaps in what she didn't know got filled in real time by someone who does this professionally.
In Kaoru's words
Kaoru from the Netherlands sharing her DIAMOND K-Pop recording experience review
"Lucia gave real-time pronunciation and technical advice that made each part easy to record, and having a manager who speaks both English and Japanese meant the language barrier never got in the way. Filling in what I didn't know through professional guidance made this more than just a recording — it became a genuinely meaningful experience."
— Kaoru, from the Netherlands (paraphrased from her post-session review)
For Lovely Runner fans: where to go in Korea
ECLIPSE is a band that exists inside the drama, so there are no real "ECLIPSE spots" to visit — but Lovely Runner itself was filmed at real, visitable places, most of them clustered in Suwon, about an hour from Seoul (and from KING STUDIO). These are KING STUDIO's picks, not Kaoru's actual route:
Café Mongted (몽테드), Suwon Haenggung-dong
Sol's house in the drama, with Sun-jae's house directly opposite. A working café in a renovated-hanok neighborhood; go on a weekday morning to beat the fan crowd. The single most recognizable spot for the show. · ~2 hr from KING STUDIO
📍Address (Google) : 141, Hwaseomun-ro 48beon-gil, Paldal-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do
📍Address (Naver) : 경기 수원시 팔달구 화서문로48번길 14 1층
Hwahongmun Gate & Hwaseong Fortress, Suwon
The confession scene and the bike-ride scenes (around Yongyeon Pond) happen along this UNESCO-listed fortress wall. Free, open-air, best at cherry-blossom spring or autumn foliage.~2 hr from KING STUDIO
📍Address (Google) : Buksu-dong, Paldal-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do
📍Address (Naver) : 경기 수원시 팔달구 북수동
Yonsei University, Sinchon Campus, Seoul
Sol and Sun-jae's university scenes; the one major location actually in Seoul, easy to fold into a Sinchon/Hongdae day. ~50 min from KING STUDIO
📍Address (Google) : 50, Yonsei-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
📍Address (Naver) : 서울특별시 서대문구 연세로 50
Tip: search 선재 업고 튀어 촬영지 on Naver Map for community-pinned location sets before you go.
KING STUDIO services: which one fits your Seoul Trip?
DIAMOND (what Kaoru did)
You pick any song and record it in a professional booth. The team corrects your pitch and timing, dials in the right key for your voice, then mixes and masters the result into a finished track you take home. This is the tier where a take-home, produced recording begins. Ideal if the goal is "I want my version of this song, for real." See the full breakdown on the DIAMOND experience page.
GOLD / Personal Vocal
A 120-minute session focused on you as a singer: a vocal diagnosis of your range, tone, and habits, personalized coaching, song and genre recommendations, plus a roughly 30-minute hands-on recording experience in the booth. Note the difference from DIAMOND — GOLD's booth time is an experience, not a produced deliverable: the take-home is a PDF Personal Vocal report, not a mastered audio file.
PREMIUM
Everything in DIAMOND plus a full K-pop music video filmed during your session, for visitors who want the on-camera idol moment too.
K-Pop Making Class
A group format (2–15 people) where one song is split into idol-style parts across the group; the best fit for friends or family traveling together.
Not sure which suits your trip? The complete KING STUDIO recording guide lays out all four services side by side.
KING STUDIO
Ready to record your song in Seoul?
Kaoru took on a Korean song, in a new key, in a language she'd never recorded in — and walked out with it handled. Whatever song has been living in your head, it can be the one you actually record in Seoul.
➡️ Book your DIAMOND experience now
Which Lovely Runner OST — or which K-pop song — is on YOUR Seoul bucket list? Lovely Runner fans from the Netherlands and everywhere else, drop it in the comments. 🌧️
Which Hearts2Hearts song would YOU split with your group? S2U fans from Japan and everywhere else — tell us in the comments which track you'd record on your Seoul Trip. 💎🎤
🎙️ Book your own K-Pop session → Book your DIAMOND experience now
🌐 Visit us: https://kingstudio.co.kr/en
💎 Read more about DIAMOND : kingstudio.co.kr/blog/diamond
📍Address (Google) : B1 52, Samseong-ro 75-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
📍Address (Naver) : 서울시 강남구 삼성로 75길 52 B1
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