Rik Simposon has been invovled with Coldplay since their 2002 and is still producing for Coldplay to this day. For the 2011 Album, Mylo Xyloto, Rik Simpson was there from the beginning to the end of the album. Thus he is the producer that I want to emulate. My plan for this project is to record a cover of Paramore’s Still Into You in the style of the Mylo Xyloto Albums. There’s one song I’d like to copy, but rather a few songs from that album.
Paramore - Still Into You
Coldplay - Paradise
Paradise is one track for reference, but the whole album would be my reference. The original idea for this project was how the everything sounded. When I think of Coldplay, I can imagine Chris’s very distinct voice standing out, and the sound of the piano he plays. The piano itself has a very soft and warm tone to it and it sits in the mix fairly well. The drums aren’t very forward, but rather they sit fairly back yet still sounds lively a reverberant. These are the things that Rik Simpson has done and I do intend to copy.
In an interview with Sound on Sound, Simpson talks about things they did for a later album, Hymn for the Weekend. As he still continues to produce Coldplay, it should still be applicable to the sound of Coldplay. In a separate interview with Universal Audio, he talks about his role for Mylo Xyloto, and there are some things that overlap into the Sound on Sound article. There’s will be referenced for the song exploder project.
In the articles, it mentions how the four members are great live musicians and they would just all play together in their studio as a live set. They would play pretty much the song together live and when that was done, they would go back re-record individual parts. Simpson has mentioned how he has kept original recordings such as drums and bass while replacing other parts. The piano would be mic with two large diaphragms, ideally, with AKG414EB’s, Simpson has used sE Electronics se4400a’s. The electric guitar cabs would be miced with an SM57 paired with a Royer. The AKG C414 seems to be a favourite of Chris Martin, but he has done recordings with an SM58 only because it felt more comfortable. The vocal mics would have gone through UA 6176 or the 610.
“I do sometimes go overboard with drum and room mics… that’s how you get a real space and stamp… it’s catching one particular moment in time, and one particular place on this earth.”
Simpson has stated that for the majority of the reverb for Mylo Xyloto is real, meaning recorded as is. The drums were recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York, and the space gave a nice reverberant sound, and it was captured.
For this project to succeed, I will need to focus on the natural organic sound. One of the bigger focus for me will be relying on a natural reverb. The performance of the musicians is something I’d like to do. Perhaps do a live recording set with them. I know of a few people I will be contacting that I think would suit not only skill-wise, but perfomance-wise.
###Reference
References 2caudio.com. (2018). 2CAudio - VIP Client Story: Rik Simpson - Coldplay. [online] Available at: https://www.2caudio.com/network/artists/RikSimpson [Accessed 24 Sep. 2018].
Soundonsound.com. (2018). Inside Track: Coldplay ‘Hymn For The Weekend’ | . [online] Available at: https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/inside-track-coldplay-hymn-weekend [Accessed 26 Sep. 2018]. |
Uaudio.com. (2018). Rik Simpson on Producing Coldplay’s Mylo Xyloto | Universal Audio. [online] Available at: https://www.uaudio.com/blog/artist-interview-rik-simpson/ [Accessed 25 Sep. 2018]. |
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