Monday Morning is this the day I start on a new album of live backing tracks??? (Rhetorical).
See you have to be in the correct frame of mind to start a project or you sit in the studio day dreaming. But i went to see them in concert last night and yeh ...Hell yeh im ready to get started. So they opened with the ET Theme and then kicked into Higher Power so thats where we will start. Powerful drums required so im going to play them with real kit today with drum triggers so i can manipulate the sounds later. I downloaded an M1 Sound band as all the sounds i'll get here for this album. The sounds that Coldplay always use give a sense of hi energy club sounds that take you on a high from the start to finish of their concert. So i need to create the same energy, Yeh I'm going to need some fibre breakfast :)
GUITARS
Guitars im going to be using a mixture of me playing the keys using some amazing guitar sounds in Session Guitarist by Native Instruments and my amazing guitarist Connor who i have booked for 2 days next week (should be plenty time for his.. he's amazing). The guitars again in Coldplay are rhythmic rather than your Slash style solos which again helps to create that sense of space, high energy and the Coldplay sound we've all come to love.
SYNTHS
So im gonna make a list of all the synths i need to use to create all the keys parts for the tracks. With Coldplay they use a load of nice synth pads to give that sparkle feel to the tracks.
They are also using a variety of arppegiators to give that Club feel to get everyone dancing along. Im gonna use my new M1 sound bank
which will have most sounds I need.
PIANO
Piano sounds are going to have to be right as it sits at the heart of some of Coldplays greatest hits. Im using my M Audio Oxygen-88 which gives me the feel of playing a piano which is so important to get that sound right. I'll be using for my piano sounds as its just incredible to give me the Chris Martin Piano Vibe. I have loads of piano sounds as i feel they sound different in a few of the songs.
BASS
Bass with be played on Keys but with amazing samples to give that real bass sound that the talented Guy Berryman has and being a fellow Scot i wanna get his sound right for each track we do. Im using Session Bassist - Prime Base and this sound bank has everything I'll need to create warm, punchy bass tracks for the Music Of The Spheres Backing Tracks.
BACKING VOCALS
BV's are always last to go down, but ive noticed that coldplay have now developed an almost chant like vibe in a lot of their songs in order to get their fans singing with them and boy do they. As we left the concert last night people were still chanting the "Wooo oohh ohhh ohhhohhhh" from Viva La Vida. So i will use 4 tracks for harmonies, double tracked BVs etc and the nice lexicon Reverb that i can hear in their live concerts which give that beautiful airy resonance on the vocals. Let the fun begin.
PREPERATION
Ive got my coffee and a bowl of All Bran, its now 7am Pro Tools is switched on i have the original concert on a track and time to gather all info like, Keys, Tempos of the live tracks as they are often slightly faster than originals to give energy. So im ready to start the Coldplay Music Of The Spheres Live Backing Tracks which will be ready to upload to the site for the start of November 2022 for all Coldplay / Chris Martin tributes and fans to download and sing a long with. My fellow producers and technicians, please don't stress out I did not eat my cereal of my C24 Desk.