What does Jonny do during Viva la Vida?

[Curlygerman.de]

Hi guys,

I‘ve asked myself that for years, and now I remember again after seeing the new video from Buenos Aires: what does Jonny actually contribute to the song when they Play VLV live on stage? In the beginning he plays the keyboard, but then he switches to guitar and I can’t hear any keyboard missing and, most importantly, i don’t hear anything from his guitar. Is he just acting along on the stage, so he’s not bored?

[I ran away]

I think the guitar can be heard quite low in the mix (the brighter, chiming sounds - compare this video where you can hear them after 15:50 for example

Mobile Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aEAAIm-oz8)

But the keys in the beginning which are supposed to be the strings are imho just faked :D

[aaronm360]

 

You can hear in some live performances (like above at the start) when he gets out of time with the string backing track that he is actually playing a tack piano sample on that keyboard behind the playback strings.

 

During the later verses and ‘oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh’ chorus, he plays a few chords with a reverb effect which are noticeable in some live performances depending on the mix. Most soundboard performances don’t feature the guitar or bass prominently since Viva is based so heavily around the strings, percussion and Chris.

[I ran away]

that he is actually playing a tack piano sample on that keyboard behind the playback strings.

wow, I had never noticed that !

[coldplaykb]

wow, I had never noticed that !

If you go to 21 minutes in this video, Chris asks everyone to run through their instruments and you can hear both Jonny and Chris play the tack piano:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smpE3gHVMWY

Mobile Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smpE3gHVMWY

 

 

Sounds really cool!

[coldplaykb]

Here is what Jonny is playing:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_PT2dt0uqfhQ29YVlBjQzZYdm8

 

I think this was cut from the final studio mix or just turned down a lot.

[MosesTheMarshmallow]

Here is what Jonny is playing:

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_PT2dt0uqfhQ29YVlBjQzZYdm8

 

I think this was cut from the final studio mix or just turned down a lot.

 

WOW THIS IS SO INTERESTING AND NEW TO ME! (I'm almost as surprised as I was when I first heard all the guitar parts to Army of One in the first half) The little thing around 2:00 is in the studio version for sure but I don't think he exactly plays it that way live, but he plays something similar in texture with that cool chimy effect - which I believe is delay (echo) but it's so pitch shifted that it just sounds like chimes. I love the howly bending guitar part and I too wonder if it's in the studio mix. I feel like I hear it both on the studio and live versions - on the 3rd line of the chorus when the strings rise in volume! Listen with headphones and you'll hear it in the right ear! Jonny doesn't play that live of course though. The thing at 2:43 is 100% in the studio version at 2:56, and I always assumed it was a funny violin line but it must be Jonny!

 

Also note at 21:00 of the 2008 Amsterdam video above, Guy plays his bass for a second, and it sounds really high! That's because he is using an effect that duplicates the signal of his bass and shifts the pitch of his bass up (Rage Against the Machine uses this a lot; White Stripes uses the same but in the reverse direction to get the bassline in Seven Nation Army). And he uses that to duplicate the violin line after the first chunklet of singing!! If you listen closely You can also see in the Glastonbury video and many others he plays this in nearly all live version of the song.

 

Also you can hear Guy NOT using the pitch shift effect for whatever reason in this video and you can hear just bass and no sounds-like-guitar-bass:

 

 

Edit - another interesting discovery after listening to 2008 versions of the song is that you can hear Guy PLAYING SOME OF THE STRING PARTS just before the 1st chorus (+hear the tack pianos in action, since both Chris and Jonny play simultaneously at the beginning)

 

 

[coldplaykb]

Great finds with all of those! And I think the reason why we have a studio recording of Jonny's guitar is because at one point they had a more rockier version loaded with guitars. I read that last night in Deb's new book. And I think it may be in the studio version as you said but only in the third chorus and turned down quite a bit.

 

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[Martín Correa]

I've asked the same thing about the guitars in this song, anyway did someone hear this early version of VLV?

[MickCas]

Great discussion, Viva's structure is great!

This is definitely not the right place to post it but since I can't find the right thread...

In the Viva stems, if you isolate the bell part, you can hear some birds in the background...or it is just me? And, if it really was, does it mean that the bell was recorded in the open air and not replicated in studio?

[I ran away]

Great discussion, Viva's structure is great!

This is definitely not the right place to post it but since I can't find the right thread...

In the Viva stems, if you isolate the bell part, you can hear some birds in the background...or it is just me? And, if it really was, does it mean that the bell was recorded in the open air and not replicated in studio?

I know what you mean. It sounds like a sample of a church bell recorded in open air

[MosesTheMarshmallow]

Another observation about the bell in VLV - when Will tries the bell in the Amsterdam performance above, the sound abruptly stops even though he is NOT using a hand to stabilize/stop the vibrating. I think this is pretty strong evidence that the bell is a sample rather than the sound of the bell through a microphone, though it is also possible that it IS a mic'ed bell and they just set the output volume to the audience to be 0 once the bell is quieter than a certain level. I think others have observed that the bell is a triggered sample but just thought I'd point it out. (triggered as in, a vibration sensor feels when you've hit a drum, bell, or other item, then plays a digital sample of a sound - which is also how Will gets the big fat snare sound he has on Violet Hill, most likely).

 

I've asked the same thing about the guitars in this song, anyway did someone hear this early version of VLV?

 

whaaaaat where is this from

[MickCas]

I don't think it is a real bell. The sound would have been at least a minimum different in the hundreads of performances. Plus, in a concert I went to, the bell wasn't properly fixed and it was oblique so Will had to hit it in a different position. The sound should have been different, I think, but it wasn't

[Gideon_Mx]

 

You can hear in some live performances (like above at the start) when he gets out of time with the string backing track that he is actually playing a tack piano sample on that keyboard behind the playback strings.

I love that tack keyboard sound. I still wonder why it always has to be so overloaded by those playback strings. I honestly really dislike them, sadly.

It makes it less interesting for me to listen to this song these days. In particularly when it is played live.

[Gideon_Mx]

I love the howly bending guitar part and I too wonder if it's in the studio mix. I feel like I hear it both on the studio and live versions - on the 3rd line of the chorus when the strings rise in volume! Listen with headphones and you'll hear it in the right ear! Jonny doesn't play that live of course though.

Ill do this one with pleasure ☺️

 

Edit: It's amazing i can hear it! My tablet has 2 boxes 1 on each side and I noticed as you said; on the right side. And there it is! Holding my ear next to the right side of my tablet I can hear Jonny' screaming guitar. It's so interesting because I am actually hearing it for the very first time!

 

The thing at 2:43 is 100% in the studio version at 2:56, and I always assumed it was a funny violin line but it must be Jonny!

I thought the same about this one for hell of a long time! It's so funny that we found it out after so many years...

And btw, that last note Jonny's hitting during that small riff doesn't even sound that great to me.

I think that it might have been kind of a mistake but is decided to keep it in the song cause it fills in some gaps I suppose. OR it must have been a hell of a minor :worried:

[Gideon_Mx]

I don't think it is a real bell. The sound would have been at least a minimum different in the hundreads of performances. Plus, in a concert I went to, the bell wasn't properly fixed and it was oblique so Will had to hit it in a different position. The sound should have been different, I think, but it wasn't

I don't think it's a real bell either (except for the outside). You can hear that it's obviously the sound of a recorded bell (maybe in open air as it's been said above) because it stops so abruptly which I think is because it is programmed for VLV. Otherwise Will's ringing the same bell at a time, if you know what I mean.

I also noticed there's always this electronic functioning and small box/device hanging inside the bell?

I'm not quite sure how to translate.

It's connected with a cable, as far as i can remember, at least one.

I think that thing, that's what makes the bell 'ring'. I think that it is comparable to a drum pad.

[coldplaykb]

I don't think it's a real bell either (except for the outside). You can hear that it's obviously the sound of a recorded bell (maybe in open air as it's been said above) because it stops so abruptly which I think is because it is programmed for VLV. Otherwise Will's ringing the same bell at a time, if you know what I mean.

I also noticed there's always this electronic functioning and small box/device hanging inside the bell?

I'm not quite sure how to translate.

It's connected with a cable, as far as i can remember, at least one.

I think that thing, that's what makes the bell 'ring'. I think that it is comparable to a drum pad.

Yeah the bell is just being used as a trigger to make the bell sound.

 

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[MickCas]

So, we can say that the live bell is a 'fake' bell. I always thought that the recorded bell was an electronic sample too or at least a studio bell so for me it is a surprise that we can hear birds in that track.

[Gideon_Mx]

So, we can say that the live bell is a 'fake' bell. I always thought that the recorded bell was an electronic sample too or at least a studio bell so for me it is a surprise that we can hear birds in that track.

Where are those 'birds' if I may ask? I agree it might have been recorded in open air but I can't hear any bird. Are you using headphones?

[Gideon_Mx]

Yeah the bell is just being used as a trigger to make the bell sound.

 

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Yeaah. That's the word I was looking for :laughing:

[Nie]

If you want a nice way to discover what instruments are in Viva La Vida, go and check out this OOPS thread.

 

https://coldplaying.com/forum/index.php?threads/oops-mixes-and-hidden-sounds-in-songs.104708/

 

At the last page I have a post with links to all the albums (and this reminds me that Coldplay has released an EP that hasn't been OOPSed yet).