Chris Martin's piano and how do they do that?

[cosmoshmilson]

undefinedMe2 makes a good point, i was just watching video of the may 5th show at the kool haus in toronto, i forget which song but in a shot of guy it looked like he started the pads

[eccentricgal]

i think the same.

[coldplay_97]

matt plays a couple songs. anything johnny cant be playing at the same time is him. some songs have electric and acoustic like the hardest part n white shadows.. not bad though. someone is in the controll piano syning the synth stuff up for songs like square one.

[GazeboflossUK]

I really think guy's no doing too much on that synth. Almost all the synth stuff is on a backing track, if not all of it.

[jonnybucklandhasnicehats]

ok i dont think chris mimes in fix you to a backing synth cos if u listen to the live version at koko then he plays the wrong chord at one point so he is playing it. however he played it on the actual fix you keyboard that day that gwyneth's dad gave him so maybe that was a one off.

[seratone]

I was always intrigued how Coldplay did their backing tracks, as with U2 - both bands have kept it a fairly close guarded secret. U2 has opened up a bit in the past 10 years, even introducing Terry Lawless every night during the 360 tour... I think he was visible onstage with them on Saturday Night Live, prior to having Terry on board they used a complex series of triggers and samples - I imagine the in-ear monitors would be like listening to an Air Traffic controller.... I found out about they're under the stage magic from a German guy who runs their European Fan club.

 

As for CP - I only saw them live during the Rush of Blood to the Head tour (I think?) - they dressed like Run DMC, in black with White Adidas. They played the Air Canada Center in Toronto and the sheer volume of the mostly female crowd was impressive.

 

Here is a link to the guy who does the background stuff - it's a lot more complex than running a CD and playingto it. He can adjust (real time) to various improvisations the band perform, Stops, Mistakes, extended arrangements...crowd interaction etc.

 

http://http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2011/7/2/coldplay-talk-live-rigs-rme-and-pro-tools-1.html

[I ran away]

Do you mean the Twisted Logic tour ?

I can remember hearing or reading somewhere that Will triggers backing tracks, but i have no idea who controls/adjusts them.

Unfortunately the link doesn't work, I tried to find the article by searching but it seems it is no longer there ?

[seratone]

Here's the lost link of 'Miller' explaining what he does.

 

 

 

He says they use Muse Receptors handling some samples - you can clearly see a Korg Triton rack. It sounds as though the lions share of the tracks are on play back from hard disk players/recorders. You can clearly see a 61 key keyboard controller in his rig as well.

[gabry1090]

Ok, I'd like to make things clear once and for all :)

 

PIANO SOUND:

Chris Martin's LIVE piano sound comes from a Kawai MP9000, modified to fit into a rack unit. This unit has been called "Mp9000 rac" (yes, without "k") and is still used today for his live piano sound. The sound from this module is incredible, and you will find the same sound in a Kawai MP9000 Stage Piano, which i bought.

 

Here is the video with the explanation and sound demos, so you can hear it in action:

 

 

 

FIX YOU ORGAN SOUND:

For Fix You organ sound they use Korg Triton racks, 2 of them, one for the first organ sound with rotary and so on, and the other one for the second organ with another full drawbar added. Chris used a Korg Triton keyboard on the record, and after trying a lot of emulations and plugins he found out the only thing that sounded as good as the Triton was the Triton itself :)

I bought a Korg Triton Rack too, and man the sound from this unit is astonishing!

 

Here is the video with Fix You Organ Sound explained and of course demos to hear it:

 

 

 

Consider this as the bible, save it, print it and remember this for the rest of your life! Ahahah of course I'm joking, I really hope that this clarified things and helped you out understanding Chris Martin's setup. If you want to hear the complete story of his off stage setup look for "keyboard magazine coldplay offstage setup" and you will see all of his rack units and hear Miller's explanation.

 

Cheers :D

[fakfak]

matt played at couple of songs on the last tour, i think he still does it on the scientist. so the other ones hear just the instruments, and will only metronome.shouldn't guy have a methronome too as a part of rythm section?

 

They probably all have a click track that helps them keep in time with any prerecorded elements. Guy and Jonny actually do a fair amount of the synths live, for the last couple tours the backing tracks have mostly been relegated to stuff like string parts or doubled up piano parts that they can't easily replicate live. As for how they stay in time, that's mostly a function of them being a group of solid pros who have played together for 20 years.