🪐 Coldplay: Music of the Spheres 🪐 | Out Now! | Discussion

[Gideon_Mx]

35 minutes ago, CP-EST said:

There has been no Higher Power actual live performance yet, guys. Although it's a bit interesting how these performances were done technically. I wrote my opinion about it on this thread.

 

Exactly!!!! The American Idol and BRITs performances of Higher Power (both mixed + pre-recorded) are definitely great but they are (promo)performances only to promote the new single, after all. To be honest, I'm more excited and looking forward to the real live performances of Higher Power, with actually live guitars (bass+electric) and live drums + Will's backing vocals (hopefully the Live at Worthy Farm show) instead of these post produced, almost ''perfect sounding'' (as CP-EST said), live versions. We shouldn't expect them to have live synths or so, it would be great if they had at least some of the members of the Love Choir for to backup Will and Chris for the vocals as well!

Edited May 12, 2021 by Gideon_Mx

[stepstr]

2 minutes ago, Gideon_Mx said:

Exactly!!!! The American Idol and BRITs performances of Higher Power (both mixed + pre-recorded) are definitely great but they are (promo)performances to just promote the new single, after all. To be honest, I'm more looking forward to the real live performances of Higher Power, with actually live guitars (bass+electric) and live drums (hopefully the Live at Worthy Farm show) instead of these post remixed, and almost ''perfect sounding'' (as CP-EST said) live versions.

That's a silly question but how do we check what's real and what's not regarding of 'live' performances? Live at Worthy Farm could also be pre-recorded, pre-mixed, beautifully edited etc.

[LelieJens]

Also, is it me or are the performances also heavily auto tuned? Not that it's a very big deal, but it's def the first time I notice an auto tune on Chris' voice.

https://youtu.be/kiqEEr7CK2g?t=100 (timestamped)

[LelieJens]

38 minutes ago, CP-EST said:

There has been no Higher Power actual live performance yet, guys. Although it's a bit interesting how these performances were done technically. I wrote my opinion about it on this thread.

 

Okay but now we're mixing things up

What I was talking about was the voice track of Chris that was not "live". It's obvious that the Idols and Brits performances were not a live broadcast, and that they were pre-recorded videos. That's fairly logical I think.  

EDIT: Nevermind I just read the original message in the Brits thread and we're in the same boat haha 

Edited May 12, 2021 by LelieJens

[Gideon_Mx]

34 minutes ago, stepstr said:

That's a silly question but how do we check what's real and what's not regarding of 'live' performances? Live at Worthy Farm could also be pre-recorded, pre-mixed, beautifully edited etc.

If you're deep into this thing + if you have good ears, you'll notice it for sure. Listen to the American Idol and the BRITs performance, they are identical in the mix. Except for Chris's vocals.

Edited May 12, 2021 by Gideon_Mx

[Gideon_Mx]

35 minutes ago, LelieJens said:

Also, is it me or are the performances also heavily auto tuned? Not that it's a very big deal, but it's def the first time I notice an auto tune on Chris' voice.

https://youtu.be/kiqEEr7CK2g?t=100 (timestamped)

It's not just you! You can clearly hear it at the ''happy that I'm [[ALIVE]]'' part!

[CP-EST]

4 minutes ago, stepstr said:

That's a silly question but how do we check what's real and what's not regarding of 'live' performances? Live at Worthy Farm could also be pre-recorded, pre-mixed, beautifully edited etc.

One thing is having some backing tracks already, but scary thing is that it sometimes impossible to tell, how much the pre-recorded playing/singing was edited. You need really good ear to be able to notice it. Sometimes there is just some little post production, some fixes in mix, which aren't so noticeable. These two Higher Power performances sound way too perfect, perfectly mixed with some vocal editing.

Although when you know it's live broadcast, it's different story. Then you might wonder about different things, for example how much there are some subtle backing tracks for fuller sound/vocals in addition to some obvious backing tracks.

3 minutes ago, LelieJens said:

Okay but now we're mixing things up

What I was talking about was the voice track of Chris that was not "live". It's obvious that the Idols and Brits performances were not a live broadcast, and that they were pre-recorded videos. That's fairly logical I think.  

Oh sorry, that's what I was mostly talking about, how the audio of these performances was done. Obviously there was no live broadcast, but it's not that easy to understand what was done in recording process - that's what we are talking about.

[Gideon_Mx]

4 minutes ago, CP-EST said:

You need really good ear to be able to notice it. Sometimes there is just some little post production, some fixes in mix, which aren't so noticeable. These two Higher Power performances sound way too perfect, perfectly mixed with some vocal editing.

Exactly this, no other explanation needed

Edited May 12, 2021 by Gideon_Mx

[42Escapist]

Who else remembers what they did with Clocks during the AHFOD tour? I remember someone here finding audio of a bunch of performances in 2016 and coming to the conclusion that the individual band members were playing live but Chris was lip-syncing to a pre-recorded vocal track. Clocks was in the middle of each concert so Chris was probably just trying to conserve his voice. But it's a different situation here. I'm sure they have their reasons.

And it's not like Coldplay live performances don't include a lot of pre-recorded elements... they just don't seem to like the thought of having extra musicians onstage.

Edited May 13, 2021 by 42Escapist

[Sonny]

Chris: "Some of the new songs that have been coming our way, we've recorded as if we were different bands and acts"

I have a feeling this album will not be following one specific genre or style. Feels like these planets have been created to give the band some creative freedom, each song could sound very different.

Just a theory, would be an interesting approach to take.

[LisaFeehily]

"live" is getting a whole new meaning then - a performance that was recorded on another day using prerecorded vocals/instrumentals that have additionally been edited prior to broadcast.

Let's be honest, we'll never hear HP entirely live, it is what it is. but there's a difference between using some recorded elements and this. it should not be called "live" in this case.

Worthy Farm is supposed to be a live performance too but I have my doubts now honestly.

[auroraa_4]

Ok so here's what I end up thinking:

I guess these 2 performances were actually recorded live (regarding the audio), with just a bit of video editing just to include some additional shots from other takes.

I don't really get why they would take time to edit the audio, obviously the band's been rehearsing the song a lot and Chris' consistency throughout every performance tends to points out how professional his voice control can be !

[Coeurli]

56 minutes ago, LisaFeehily said:

"live" is getting a whole new meaning then - a performance that was recorded on another day using prerecorded vocals/instrumentals that have additionally been edited prior to broadcast.

Let's be honest, we'll never hear HP entirely live, it is what it is. but there's a difference between using some recorded elements and this. it should not be called "live" in this case.

Worthy Farm is supposed to be a live performance too but I have my doubts now honestly.

Worthy Farm performance was already recorded. So it is not live. Anything that is pre-recorded should not be called Live, for sure. I think it's just used nowadays to say that it's a performance. That being said, we can't expect Worthy Farm to be a real live event when they explicitly say that it's a 5 hour event that runs smoothly to integrate all the performers.....That's not something that's possible at all for an actual Live event  

But yeah i think we have to wait for performances that are on a stage with an actual audience in front of them and broadcast while it's being filmed, to have a real live performance.....so definitely not something we can see short term!

[CP-EST]

4 minutes ago, Coeurli said:

Worthy Farm performance was already recorded. So it is not live. Anything that is pre-recorded should not be called Live, for sure. I think it's just used nowadays to say that it's a performance. That being said, we can't expect Worthy Farm to be a real live event when they explicitly say that it's a 5 hour event that runs smoothly to integrate all the performers.....That's not something that's possible at all for an actual Live event  

But yeah i think we have to wait for performances that are on a stage with an actual audience in front of them and broadcast while it's being filmed, to have a real live performance.....so definitely not something we can see short term!

Wow, is Worthy Farm really recorded already? Didn't expect that, kind of disappointing, if it's true. Although, in my opinion it is very possible to plan such event to run smoothly in proper live broadcast, there is just some good preparation and planning needed.

About the terminology, it's definitely confusing when they use "live" in the YouTube video title. In this case American Idol's video has more proper title indeed "Coldplay Performs Higher Power".  And even this not 100% true, these truly are almost just music videos of a "live sounding version".

[LelieJens]

I really don't care if Worthy Farm is pre-recorded and not "realtime live", but I just hope the pre-recorded video is the band playing live, not any pre-recorded tracks (and of course there are instruments in the background not being played live so they are pre-recorded).

I think there was a quote from Anchorman that everything you see being played is 100% live, but all the other things aren't. (That super logical haha). But that isn't true sadly -> Clocks on AHFOD, Church in EL, HP, ...

[LisaFeehily]

Same, since it's all digital these days anyway the time of performance isn't that big a deal. but playing live whilst recording should be a given if it's advertised as live everywhere.

[Captain Crieff]

11 hours ago, Gideon_Mx said:

If you're deep into this thing + if you have good ears, you'll notice it for sure. Listen to the American Idol and the BRITs performance, they are identical in the mix. Except for Chris's vocals.

 

1 hour ago, auroraa_4 said:

Ok so here's what I end up thinking:

I guess these 2 performances were actually recorded live (regarding the audio), with just a bit of video editing just to include some additional shots from other takes.

I don't really get why they would take time to edit the audio, obviously the band's been rehearsing the song a lot and Chris' consistency throughout every performance tends to points out how professional his voice control can be !

464373066_HPLivePerformancesComparisonPerformances.mov

ok so are we concluding the band (including Chris) did perform the song twice (with some backing tracks as always, and that's def not a big deal) and they recorded the audio twice, but it ended up sounding almost exactly the same because of the post-production?

10 hours ago, Gideon_Mx said:

It's not just you! You can clearly hear it at the ''happy that I'm [[ALIVE]]'' part!

seriously how do you guys discover this  I had to listen to that part 3 times after I saw your posts before I could sort of hear it, but only because I know it's there. But how do you know he's not just, you know, singing well?

24 minutes ago, LelieJens said:

I really don't care if Worthy Farm is pre-recorded and not "realtime live", but I just hope the pre-recorded video is the band playing live, not any pre-recorded tracks (and of course there are instruments in the background not being played live so they are pre-recorded).

I think there was a quote from Anchorman that everything you see being played is 100% live, but all the other things aren't. (That super logical haha). But that isn't true sadly -> Clocks on AHFOD, Church in EL, HP, ...

this!! as long as it was played live, as in, what you see being played/sung is live, it counts as a live performance for me. Doesn't matter if we're watching it two weeks later. But if within those 2 weeks the whole thing goes through heavy post-production that is more than just getting the right mix and adding some reverb here and there or so, it just takes away almost all of the magic for me. 

But ever since the Clocks & Church thing I can't really trust them on that anymore sadly.

[LelieJens]

13 minutes ago, Captain Crieff said:

seriously how do you guys discover this  I had to listen to that part 3 times after I saw your posts before I could sort of hear it, but only because I know it's there. But how do you know he's not just, you know, singing well?

You can hear his voice snapping to the right notes, he's def singing good as well, but the snapping (and not gliding to those notes) give away that it's autotuned.

15 minutes ago, Captain Crieff said:

this!! as long as it was played live, as in, what you see being played/sung is live, it counts as a live performance for me. Doesn't matter if we're watching it two weeks later. But if within those 2 weeks the whole thing goes through heavy post-production that is more than just getting the right mix and adding some reverb here and there or so, it just takes away almost all of the magic for me. 

But ever since the Clocks & Church thing I can't really trust them on that anymore sadly.

Yeah it's so disappointing, I guess we'll have to wait at least a year to experience the 'real' live Coldplay. 

 

[Coeurli]

It's also worth considering that maybe Coldplay's set will be about more than just a regular set though.... Like what if they consider this as a special launching event with more than just 1 new song? What if they try to make it as much as possible about MOTS? Then it's not really about the live performance but more about the upcoming album...

[Gideon_Mx]

3 hours ago, Captain Crieff said:

this!! as long as it was played live, as in, what you see being played/sung is live, it counts as a live performance for me. Doesn't matter if we're watching it two weeks later. But if within those 2 weeks the whole thing goes through heavy post-production that is more than just getting the right mix and adding some reverb here and there or so, it just takes away almost all of the magic for me. 

Exactly, same here! It's just that there is no need for them to sound "perfect" you know. That's why those live performances are always so pure and special, magical if you like. They don't need that heavy post production. I really dislike it, to be honest. Otherwise, every performance (Higher Power in this case) would sound exactly the same. 

Imagine having 10 more of these pre-recorded or heavy post produced "live performances" of Higher Power this year, that would just be so boring because everything you see wouldn't be played live by the band! Coldplay do NOT need it, they are already PERFECT........

Edited May 13, 2021 by Gideon_Mx

[Famous_Old_Painter]

Just heard a good qualitt version of The Race. Pretty cool he sings Koleidoscope and the song is pretty good. Not sure about if it's the kind of Coldplay song I'd like to be on the album though. ?

[TheBigBadBono]

8 minutes ago, Famous_Old_Painter said:

Just heard a good qualitt version of The Race. Pretty cool he sings Koleidoscope and the song is pretty good. Not sure about if it's the kind of Coldplay song I'd like to be on the album though. ?

the AHFOD version of The Race sounds better - at least what we've heard from the snippet.

[Famous_Old_Painter]

16 minutes ago, TheBigBadBono said:

the AHFOD version of The Race sounds better - at least what we've heard from the snippet.

Ok is that snippet still up somewhere?

[IslandToDiscover]

3 hours ago, Captain Crieff said:

But ever since the Clocks & Church thing I can't really trust them on that anymore sadly.

I know Church was lip synced, but what is this about Clocks?

[Famous_Old_Painter]

11 minutes ago, IslandToDiscover said:

I know Church was lip synced, but what is this about Clocks?

Was it is the live in Jordan performance that was lip synced?