I know what you mean. The only part live in midnight is the drum beat, the piano chords and half of Chris' singing. I remember in the RAH, he came in a bit late on the last chorus and you could hear a bit of the vocoder, he only sings the falsetto parts.

There's that stuff about the laser harp but I'm not sure..

 

Yeah, the laser harp isn't live either. The one Chris pretends to play synth sounds on. He'd have to be much more accurate to play it live, since it's very high tempo.

 

 

[smoke is rising from the houses]

hmm, I never have even though about Coldplay touring with more musicians but looking at this thread it makes total sense for them to do so. Pretty much every other big band will do it if their songs require extra instrumentation, look at Arcade Fire's latest tour for example. There must be 20 people on stage at some points and it sounds amazing.

 

I like having just the four boys though, and I know sacrifices have to be made for the sake of some of the most layered songs, but I totally agree that it is frustrating. MX didn't bother me much because they were playing A TON on that tour, but with Midnight, Magic, and ASFOS performed live, it looks like they are faking more than ever. But whose to say really. I actually bet in Midnight that Guy does do something with those bass notes, he certainly looks super focused if not nervous the first time they performed it.

Well, Midnight is very extreme example. Will seems to play with the Reactable in live actually and drumbeat is played live indeed. I think that Guy might be playing bassline in live with laser harp, it's quite simple. But what Chris intends to do, I don't really understand... Seems like just a show element. But yes, Midnight is full electronic track, so i'm not complaining about it really. Although I think they really should think about having some additional musicians on stage. Why not invite Jon Hopkins to band for live shows? That guy would fit in so perfectly.

I actually bet in Midnight that Guy does do something with those bass notes, he certainly looks super focused if not nervous the first time they performed it.

 

Agree. I definitely think Guy plays the laser harp for real, and Chris definitely does not play the laser harp for real.

 

 

[smoke is rising from the houses]

I've watched a few videos of Lost being played live and I can understand why Guy's drum playing might seem to be off (and hence faked), but it actually isn't. If you look closely, he is hitting the downbeats and a few quarter or 16th notes. He is playing the bass drum, yes and it does continue after he has stopped, but when bands rehearse for the live shows they fix on the moments where, in this example, guy is going to stop playing the drum and start playing the bass. They might decide that he'll stop playing the bass drum two bars before he comes in with the bass (guitar), so they'll trigger that same bass drum sound to take over from guy as a backing track from that moment on. OR, will might start playing his bass drum on the kit from that moment (he might have not been playing it so far). I dunno what approach they would've taken, but it could any one of these or even other methods to make sure that there's is sonic consistency throughout the song. If there wasn't a backing track (or will) to take over from guy when he stopped, it would've sounded incredibly empty all of a sudden; and thats why they would use a backing track at that moment. In the end, there's a huge audience dying to listen to them play, and if it doesn't sound complete, they wouldn't like it. I do agree that they could get other people to fill in those parts instead of using backing tracks, but that's a question of perspective as the band might want to keep its 4 member identity very strong.

I think somebody has already pointed out the deal with the midi triggered bell and Chris playing the keyboard in viva, which I agree with. I remember watching a live version of viva where you can notice a pickup hidden inside the bell. I don't know if it looked like a midi pickup or a normal pickup/mic, but it was definitely a device to capture sound/vibrations. If will was actually fake playing it, I don't know why they'd go through all the trouble of attaching a pickup to the bell.

 

Having said that, I do agree that Chris could play the keyboard parts for songs like lost instead of running around. I remember he didn't play the guitar for yellow during the live 2003 concerts as well. But then, these are big songs and I think he wants to really jump around and interact with the audience, and once again, that's the band's choice.

He even stops playing the organ (on the piano) during Fix You when the guitar riff starts so that he can run around and perform, and you can notice, albeit in only a very few concerts, how there's a sudden sonic emptiness despite Jonny's riff. It doesn't sound as full or lush as it is supposed to. I'm thinking that the organ backing track might have failed to start for some reason or something, because it doesn't happen all the time.

So mistakes like this also show that the band is actually playing live and not faking it. :D I think they're genuine and they play all their parts live, and they have a lot of measures like backing tracks in place to fill in for the parts that they can't play, so that the audience gets what they paid for (or even more).

 

Chris with the laser harp is definitely not trying to play anything for sure. It looks more like he's a curious kid playing with lasers and getting his hand burnt each time he touches it, but wanting to touch it again nevertheless :P

The laser harp Chris is playing to definitely for show but the one Guy is playing really does work. If you listen to the album version of Midnight and the live version, you can hear that the bass sounds different. Its more vibrant in the live version. Plus the Oracle said this a while back.

I know this is an old thread - but hopefully my .02 will help someone. If you see a "live" concert on the telly, or even if you're watching it live at the event on the bigscreens, there is a very good chance the video will not be totally synched with the audio, which makes it appear like things are being lip-synched or tracked/looped or whatever. While that stuff could be happening, the out-of-sync audio-video is not a good way to tell. Anything being recorded for distribution later will be recorded to a master "clock" - that way all camera locations will sync with the audio track - however real-world delays between where the sound originates and where it is recorded can be long enough to make it look out-of-whack. Similarly - front-of-house sound engineers in a huge venue will put delay on the main speakers so that the sound coming from the stage will be in sync with the PA system. This can be as much as 15-20 milliseconds, which doesn't sound like much, but it's enough to make singers look like they'e lip-syncing and musicians look like they're playing along with a track and not generating the noise themselves. In theory - if all you wanted was close-shots of the performers and sound from the stage only - there would be no problem -- but video producers often take their chances and sync the audio tracks (which are recorded directly from the front-of-house feeds) with pictures of the big-screens (delayed) mixed with close-up shots of the artists (not delayed). This again will make things look slightly out-of-sync. So they have to pick and choose the worst of the evils and go with it. Some shots will look good , others will look out-of-whack, etc. And yeah - the onstage "bell" in Viva La Vida most likely is triggering a bell sample - trying to mic a real bell, keep a real bell in-tune, etc etc would be a nightmare. Using it as a trigger for a sound they can control is a much better solution - i'ts going to sound great every night. That's it - thanks for listening to me.