ardnek

No, I don't know Freebird yet. I like the hammond organ in the slow part in the beginning. In a lotta Skynrd songs the keys are pretty much in the background behind the guitars. I like Alman Bros. songs too. The keys are more out front in their songs. Ardnek

Yeah, maybe they did keep the original take on the outta tune piano, heh. These days with digital recording you can speedup or slow down the tempo without changing the key at all. All Stevie Ray Vaughn tunes are played with his guitar tuned down a whole step, but I guess that's to make vocals easier. Ardnek

It seems like it's a tiny bit less than a half of a half-step up. My board has 32 semitones between half-steps. If I tune up 16 semitones (say from F) it is too sharp for the song. I set it at about 10 semitones up from F and it seems pretty true to the CD. I always wonder why (or how) a song gets recorded at such an odd tuning? Surely it is done after the song is recorded - otherwise the guitar and bass would have to somehow match that weird tuning. Ardnek

Thx for the "matt" info. Is there a website that talks about him? What are a couple good sites to read about Coldplay behind the scenes? Thx, Ardnek

The GT20 does have midi, but I don't think that the background pads are coming from "it". I've closely watched a bunch of their vids and I've "never" seen Chris press anything to start a midi track on the piano. Sometimes the background pad will start a song when Chris is walking around with the mic. I'm still leaning towards Kapone's idea that the pads are started by someone (who's Matt???) in the back - and the drummer hears a metronome in his earpiece to sync it up. Ardnek

Thanks Darthhawk. You're right - I couldn't even find the GT20 anywhere on the Yamaha USA website. But I finally found it on their European site: http://tinyurl.com/9q5sp Yikes 220 pounds! You'd need some beefy roadies to travel with one of those, heh. But I don't think it has strings inside - it says it is 100% digital. Never needs tuning. I guess the main draw would be its looks - and its true piano action. The keys and hammers are the same as an actual acoustic piano. But I've gotten so used to the fast, easy touch of spring-action keyboards that when I try to play a real piano my hands cramp up, lol. It must have multiple voices too, because I saw Martin using its organ sound during Clocks on Austin City Limits the other day. Anyway, Yamaha gets my vote for the best, most realistic piano sounds in their digital keyboards over any other manufacturer. Thx, Ardnek

Ok, who's Matt? Thx, Ardnek

The piano parts for "Sweet Home Alabama" Ardnek

I'm a first-time poster and musician. I was wondering if anyone knows the brand/model piano that Chris Martin plays? Also, on a lot of Coldplay's songs they use (I'm guessing) a pre-programmed backing track of synthesizer. I've fiddled a bit with synths, and it's hard to get a full pre-programmed song to sync up with the drummer and rest of the band. Does anyone know (or have any ideas) how they do this? Who starts the synth track? Is that what the the synth near the bass player is used for? Thx if anyone has any ideas. Ardnek