Coldplay – Violet Hill

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Keyboards: Urei LA3A, Focusrite 115 HD, Neve Portico 5014

"The piano had my regular piano insert, which is two Urei LA3As going into my prototype Focusrite stereo 115 HD EQ. For some additional width I sent it to a Neve Portico 5014 Sound Field Editor. No reverb. I left the intro ambience as it was given to me. The keys had nothing on them either, not even EQ, jut flat, panned left and right. A lot of the tracks had hardly any EQ on them. Again, they did their homework and got the sounds that they wanted and didn't leave me to reinvent the song. What they wanted from me was to get their vision out there. That's my job."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Keyboards: Urei LA3A, Focusrite 115 HD, Neve Portico 5014

"The piano had my regular piano insert, which is two Urei LA3As going into my prototype Focusrite stereo 115 HD EQ. For some additional width I sent it to a Neve Portico 5014 Sound Field Editor. No reverb. I left the intro ambience as it was given to me. The keys had nothing on them either, not even EQ, jut flat, panned left and right. A lot of the tracks had hardly any EQ on them. Again, they did their homework and got the sounds that they wanted and didn't leave me to reinvent the song. What they wanted from me was to get their vision out there. That's my job."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Keyboards: Urei LA3A, Focusrite 115 HD, Neve Portico 5014

"The piano had my regular piano insert, which is two Urei LA3As going into my prototype Focusrite stereo 115 HD EQ. For some additional width I sent it to a Neve Portico 5014 Sound Field Editor. No reverb. I left the intro ambience as it was given to me. The keys had nothing on them either, not even EQ, jut flat, panned left and right. A lot of the tracks had hardly any EQ on them. Again, they did their homework and got the sounds that they wanted and didn't leave me to reinvent the song. What they wanted from me was to get their vision out there. That's my job."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends, erroneously transcribed as a Neve 1176. The Urei 1176 is mentioned earlier as having been used on Coldplay drummer Will Champion's drums.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

"In addition to all the above effects, all tracks went through my ABCD multi–bus compression system [see 'Brauerize TheMix' box]. 'A' consists of a Neve 33609 going into a Pultec P1A3S EQ; 'B' is is almost always a Distressor going into my Avalon E55 EQ; 'C' is the Pendulum ES8 tube limiter; 'D' at the time was my Inward Connection stereo tube limiter (but currently it's the [TF Pro] Edward The Compressor P8). So the bass and drums went through B, the guitars went through C — sometimes I'll send guitars through A and C, or I'll send them to C and then send them to a mono compressor return, whichever excites them the best — the keyboards went through A, and the backing vocals through A and D. I did not put the lead vocals through my multi–bus system. I stopped doing that three years ago. Instead they went through these five compressors, the Federal, Gates, Fairchild, 1176 and Distressor.

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Vocals: Waves Renaissance & Digidesign de–essers, AMS reverb, Zoom 1202, Lexicon PCM81, Watkins Copicat, Empirical Labs Distressor, Federal, Gates, Fairchild 666, EAR 660, Neve 1176 & Awa G7201 compressors

"I used two Renaissance de–essers on Chris's voice that were doing different things, and then a stock Digidesign de-esser. That was it for the plug–ins I added on this session. The Sonnox Oxford and the Eoisis were not out yet at the time.

"The analogue things I did on the lead vocal are really interesting. As I said, I initially mixed the songs on my own, because the band was in England re–recording some songs, so I knew I might have to recall each song. But on this song I pretty much nailed it, apart from that Chris wanted the vocals to be more exciting and different. In the end the vocal had some AMS non–linear reverb on it, while the main sound came from an old Zoom 1202 reverb and a Watkins Copicat delay, plus a special patch that I created in the PCM81, which is a much bigger reverb. So it's a combination of things, but you don't really notice them, all you notice is that Chris is in a very present, big room. When I had found that combination 'Violet Hill' really became a song, it really came alive, because his voice was able to fight through all the stuff that was going on and make it personable. There's no reverb on the rest of the track, which is another reason why the lead vocal sounds so huge: it's not fighting another bunch of reverbs. If you send everything to reverb, you don't hear it, but if you send only one thing to reverb, it'll be huge.

"For the main part of the song I had a Distressor on the insert of the lead vocal, and I sent this to another five compressors: the Federal, the Gates, the Fairchild 666, the Neve 1176 and another Distressor in Nuke mode. They're all coming back individually on the board, and it was a matter of blending those compressors. As usual in my way of working, the compressors are there to give attitude and tone, and don't necessarily compress. For the end bit of the song, where it's just Chris and the piano, I used the Awa G7201 limiter/compressor. It's an Australian compressor and it has an incredible air and presence. It's a unique sound that you can clearly hear at the end, as it's the only effect on the vocal on that point. Finally, the church group background vocals are sent to the same combination of reverbs as the main vocals. No other effects, no EQ. It means that all the vocals in the main section blend together."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Bass: EAR 660, Altec 436B, Dbx 160, Akai S612, Moog MKPE

"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Bass: EAR 660, Altec 436B, Dbx 160, Akai S612, Moog MKPE

"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Bass: EAR 660, Altec 436B, Dbx 160, Akai S612, Moog MKPE

"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Bass: EAR 660, Altec 436B, Dbx 160, Akai S612, Moog MKPE

"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

Bass: EAR 660, Altec 436B, Dbx 160, Akai S612, Moog MKPE

"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

Bass: EAR 660, Altec 436B, Dbx 160, Akai S612, Moog MKPE

"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Bass: EAR 660, Altec 436B, Dbx 160, Akai S612, Moog MKPE

"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Bass: EAR 660, Altec 436B, Dbx 160, Akai S612, Moog MKPE

"The bass was interesting. I had the same bass track coming back on two channels, and on one of them I had the EAR 660 compressor, going into an Altec 436B compressor, going into my Moog MKPE three–band parametric EQ, all going via the inserts. That channel was for the low end, giving the sound its fullness. On the other channel I had a Dbx 160, crushing heavily, with the bottom end taken out. That gave the bass its punch and mid-range. I also sent the basses to an Akai S612 sampler. A friend of mine turned me on to doing this. I don't use it as a sampler, but as a distortion device. If you put the Akai in microphone mode and you overload it, you get really nice warm distortion that you don't really notice, but it sounds good. If I want something more vicious than the Akai, I'll use the [Thermionic Culture] Culture Vulture instead, which I feel is one of the best pieces of equipment for adding some attitude. It's great for when tracks are recorded too cleanly. Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

The item can be seen in this photo from the same interview.

Five towering racks of outboard gear dominate Michael Brauer's mix room, and contain far too much equipment to list. Notable items used on the mix of Violet Hill include (first rack) Pye compressor, Empirical Labs Distressors, ADR Compex limiter, Chandler EMI TG12413 limiter, EAR 660 compressors and Fairchild 666 compressor; (second rack) Lexicon PCM81, Sony DRE S777, Akai S612, Bricasti M7, Zoom 1202, Rupert Neve Portico 5014; (third rack) Neve 33609, API modules, Moog EQ and Pendulum ES8 compressor; (fifth rack) Chandler EMI TG12345 Curver Bender, Shadow Hills compressor and ADL 670.

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Guitars: EMI Chandler TG1, Lexicon PCM42, API 525, API 5502, Roland Dimension D SDD320, Watkins Copicat

"Normally I send each side of a stereo guitar to my EMI Chandler TG1 panned left and right and coming back on the console, but I didn't in this case, so I must have felt that it sounded bad. It might have taken away from the tightness of the guitars. They had already recorded it very tightly. So instead I didn't add anything to their stereo chorus verse guitar. I also had a mono verse guitar, which I sent to a PCM42 delay set at 224ms and panned to the opposite side, and every time the guitar strums it goes over to the right. On the acoustic guitar I did what I normally do, which is to send it through my acoustic patch, an API 525 going into an API 5502. That's a great combo and I have been using that for years. It makes the acoustic guitar very natural and full and gives it great presence without it sounding processed. In this song it's not very evident, because the acoustic guitar isn't very important, but, for example, on Parachutes the acoustic is very important, and I used the patch back then. There was no insert on the solo guitar. I did have a Dimension D SDD320 chorus on it, which spreads the sound naturally, and which went to a Watkins Copicat Echo unit with a fairly short delay. Otherwise it's totally dry, no reverb, hardly any EQ. Again, it was so well recorded that it didn't need a lot of work."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

"In addition to all the above effects, all tracks went through my ABCD multi–bus compression system [see 'Brauerize TheMix' box]. 'A' consists of a Neve 33609 going into a Pultec P1A3S EQ; 'B' is is almost always a Distressor going into my Avalon E55 EQ; 'C' is the Pendulum ES8 tube limiter; 'D' at the time was my Inward Connection stereo tube limiter (but currently it's the [TF Pro] Edward The Compressor P8). So the bass and drums went through B, the guitars went through C — sometimes I'll send guitars through A and C, or I'll send them to C and then send them to a mono compressor return, whichever excites them the best — the keyboards went through A, and the backing vocals through A and D. I did not put the lead vocals through my multi–bus system. I stopped doing that three years ago. Instead they went through these five compressors, the Federal, Gates, Fairchild, 1176 and Distressor.

In this screenshot from Coldplay’s old Q&A feed, Jonny’s head guitar tech Matt McGuinn describes using a 1978 Roland GR500 the recording setup for Violet Hill:

“A lot of the recorded version was done with a Roland GR500 Guitar Synth from about 1978 which was so temperamental it only worked about twice; we both refused to take it on the road as a result, and at gigs we just turned the Rat up really loud and used an Electro Harmonix Micro Pog pedal for the solo.”

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Drums: Neve 1083, Urei 1176, ADR Compex, Pye & Chandler EMI compressors

"I put some samples behind the kick and snare. I have built up a collection of a few hundred kicks and snares, so I can try many different types. This is where I spend a lot of time searching for the right sound. I may spend two hours trying to get the drum sound right. This is not to say that the original drum sounds in this track were bad, in fact they were great. So I'm building on top of them, I'm not replacing them. I can't remember the last time I actually replaced a drum sound. I just added a little bit to the kick and snare to enhance them. The snare sound is very important for a song and sometimes I vary it throughout the song, maybe downplaying one of the chorus snares in the verse, but in this particular case the snare sound doesn't change.

"The main drum sound is coming from their snare, which I had up really loud. They had a nice overhead snare sound that already had reverb and stuff on it that was also very important to the sound. The kick and snare both went through my Neve 1083 EQs. I put the room sounds through my great, very vicious, old British Compex compressors. I also put the cymbal room sound through the Compex. The Compex compression makes the sound grainier and more aggressive. The toms, which were really well recorded, went through my stereo Pye compressors to make them more explosive, and were also sent to my stereo 1176 compressors and my Chandler EMI compressors. The 1176 and the Chandler are also explosive, so basically the tom sound was f[***]ing explosive. I maybe added a bit of compression on the hi–hats, and did very little with the mono overheads."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

Drums: Neve 1083, Urei 1176, ADR Compex, Pye & Chandler EMI compressors

"I put some samples behind the kick and snare. I have built up a collection of a few hundred kicks and snares, so I can try many different types. This is where I spend a lot of time searching for the right sound. I may spend two hours trying to get the drum sound right. This is not to say that the original drum sounds in this track were bad, in fact they were great. So I'm building on top of them, I'm not replacing them. I can't remember the last time I actually replaced a drum sound. I just added a little bit to the kick and snare to enhance them. The snare sound is very important for a song and sometimes I vary it throughout the song, maybe downplaying one of the chorus snares in the verse, but in this particular case the snare sound doesn't change.

"The main drum sound is coming from their snare, which I had up really loud. They had a nice overhead snare sound that already had reverb and stuff on it that was also very important to the sound. The kick and snare both went through my Neve 1083 EQs. I put the room sounds through my great, very vicious, old British Compex compressors. I also put the cymbal room sound through the Compex. The Compex compression makes the sound grainier and more aggressive. The toms, which were really well recorded, went through my stereo Pye compressors to make them more explosive, and were also sent to my stereo 1176 compressors and my Chandler EMI compressors. The 1176 and the Chandler are also explosive, so basically the tom sound was f[***]ing explosive. I maybe added a bit of compression on the hi–hats, and did very little with the mono overheads."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

Drums: Neve 1083, Urei 1176, ADR Compex, Pye & Chandler EMI compressors

"I put some samples behind the kick and snare. I have built up a collection of a few hundred kicks and snares, so I can try many different types. This is where I spend a lot of time searching for the right sound. I may spend two hours trying to get the drum sound right. This is not to say that the original drum sounds in this track were bad, in fact they were great. So I'm building on top of them, I'm not replacing them. I can't remember the last time I actually replaced a drum sound. I just added a little bit to the kick and snare to enhance them. The snare sound is very important for a song and sometimes I vary it throughout the song, maybe downplaying one of the chorus snares in the verse, but in this particular case the snare sound doesn't change.

"The main drum sound is coming from their snare, which I had up really loud. They had a nice overhead snare sound that already had reverb and stuff on it that was also very important to the sound. The kick and snare both went through my Neve 1083 EQs. I put the room sounds through my great, very vicious, old British Compex compressors. I also put the cymbal room sound through the Compex. The Compex compression makes the sound grainier and more aggressive. The toms, which were really well recorded, went through my stereo Pye compressors to make them more explosive, and were also sent to my stereo 1176 compressors and my Chandler EMI compressors. The 1176 and the Chandler are also explosive, so basically the tom sound was f[***]ing explosive. I maybe added a bit of compression on the hi–hats, and did very little with the mono overheads."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

Drums: Neve 1083, Urei 1176, ADR Compex, Pye & Chandler EMI compressors

"I put some samples behind the kick and snare. I have built up a collection of a few hundred kicks and snares, so I can try many different types. This is where I spend a lot of time searching for the right sound. I may spend two hours trying to get the drum sound right. This is not to say that the original drum sounds in this track were bad, in fact they were great. So I'm building on top of them, I'm not replacing them. I can't remember the last time I actually replaced a drum sound. I just added a little bit to the kick and snare to enhance them. The snare sound is very important for a song and sometimes I vary it throughout the song, maybe downplaying one of the chorus snares in the verse, but in this particular case the snare sound doesn't change.

"The main drum sound is coming from their snare, which I had up really loud. They had a nice overhead snare sound that already had reverb and stuff on it that was also very important to the sound. The kick and snare both went through my Neve 1083 EQs. I put the room sounds through my great, very vicious, old British Compex compressors. I also put the cymbal room sound through the Compex. The Compex compression makes the sound grainier and more aggressive. The toms, which were really well recorded, went through my stereo Pye compressors to make them more explosive, and were also sent to my stereo 1176 compressors and my Chandler EMI compressors. The 1176 and the Chandler are also explosive, so basically the tom sound was f[***]ing explosive. I maybe added a bit of compression on the hi–hats, and did very little with the mono overheads."

(...) Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends. It is visible in this photo from the same interview.

Drums: Neve 1083, Urei 1176, ADR Compex, Pye & Chandler EMI compressors

"I put some samples behind the kick and snare. I have built up a collection of a few hundred kicks and snares, so I can try many different types. This is where I spend a lot of time searching for the right sound. I may spend two hours trying to get the drum sound right. This is not to say that the original drum sounds in this track were bad, in fact they were great. So I'm building on top of them, I'm not replacing them. I can't remember the last time I actually replaced a drum sound. I just added a little bit to the kick and snare to enhance them. The snare sound is very important for a song and sometimes I vary it throughout the song, maybe downplaying one of the chorus snares in the verse, but in this particular case the snare sound doesn't change.

"The main drum sound is coming from their snare, which I had up really loud. They had a nice overhead snare sound that already had reverb and stuff on it that was also very important to the sound. The kick and snare both went through my Neve 1083 EQs. I put the room sounds through my great, very vicious, old British Compex compressors. I also put the cymbal room sound through the Compex. The Compex compression makes the sound grainier and more aggressive. The toms, which were really well recorded, went through my stereo Pye compressors to make them more explosive, and were also sent to my stereo 1176 compressors and my Chandler EMI compressors. The 1176 and the Chandler are also explosive, so basically the tom sound was f[***]ing explosive. I maybe added a bit of compression on the hi–hats, and did very little with the mono overheads."

(...) Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."

Mentioned by mixing engineer Michael Brauer as being used on "Violet Hill" in this Sound on Sound interview about the production of Viva la Vida & Death and All of His Friends.

Drums: Neve 1083, Urei 1176, ADR Compex, Pye & Chandler EMI compressors

"I put some samples behind the kick and snare. I have built up a collection of a few hundred kicks and snares, so I can try many different types. This is where I spend a lot of time searching for the right sound. I may spend two hours trying to get the drum sound right. This is not to say that the original drum sounds in this track were bad, in fact they were great. So I'm building on top of them, I'm not replacing them. I can't remember the last time I actually replaced a drum sound. I just added a little bit to the kick and snare to enhance them. The snare sound is very important for a song and sometimes I vary it throughout the song, maybe downplaying one of the chorus snares in the verse, but in this particular case the snare sound doesn't change.

"The main drum sound is coming from their snare, which I had up really loud. They had a nice overhead snare sound that already had reverb and stuff on it that was also very important to the sound. The kick and snare both went through my Neve 1083 EQs. I put the room sounds through my great, very vicious, old British Compex compressors. I also put the cymbal room sound through the Compex. The Compex compression makes the sound grainier and more aggressive. The toms, which were really well recorded, went through my stereo Pye compressors to make them more explosive, and were also sent to my stereo 1176 compressors and my Chandler EMI compressors. The 1176 and the Chandler are also explosive, so basically the tom sound was f[***]ing explosive. I maybe added a bit of compression on the hi–hats, and did very little with the mono overheads."

(...) Finally the basses, like the drums, went through Bus B in my multi–bus compression setup, which consists of Distressors going into my Avalon E55 EQ."