Rik Simpson

There are a couple of tracks of live brass treatment, and they’re all going through the Decapitator and [Virtual Mix Rack] VMR and are edited to make them sound like a sample

Mentioned by A Head Full of Dreams co-producer Rik Simpson as having been used on Coldplay’s “Hymn for the Weekend” in this Sound on Sound interview.

“Another song that came together in an interesting way was ‘Hymn For The Weekend’. The song had been around in a basic form since the beginning of the sessions, and it was quite hard to get the tone of it right. We ended up recording many different versions, and bars or parts of earlier versions found their way in the final version. The song ended up as a hybrid of styles, with strong hip–hop/R&B elements. If you listen to the drums in the verses in particular, they are very swung and sample–based. The main beat is a combination of live drums and programming. I think Stargate used samples in Structure in Pro Tools.

“Mikkel and Tor have an extensive sample library. The great producers that I have worked with in the past generally have had vast palettes of sounds, but often would come back to a handful of their favourites that they knew would work and also constituted part of their signature sound. Even if it is not exactly the same sound, it often shares an ethos. It’s like, ‘Oh, this is a Brian Eno whomp,’ or ‘This is a Stargate kick drum.’ It inspires the people in the room. The beginning of the song ‘Violet Hill’ on Viva La Vida is a big ambient intro with Davide Rossi on strings and Jon Hopkins on electronics. They had been jamming and I put what they had done through an Eventide H3000 and it became this big ambient thing. When the record came out there was a lot of talk about it being classic Eno, even though he had not been in the room. But somehow the energy got tapped, and we did the sort of thing that he would have done.”

"My main monitors here are Barefoot MicroMain 27s and Augspurger Duo 8 Mini Mains. I discovered Augspurgers in the States. My favourite rooms there have them as main monitors, and they have that vintage American sound. There’s nothing over–hyped, no big smiley curve, but a lot of detail in the mid range. I then heard these smaller Augspurgers, and they are amazing."

The main verse vocal has the Avid Channel Strip, which is taking out some low end, an SPL TwinTube, which adds some saturation, the UBK1 compressor adding more crunch, and the UAD Fairchild 670 and SSL E Channel.

So I run my main mix through the Cranesong HEDD 192 converter, and through some outboard from my rack, and then into a Pro Tools session on the second laptop

Mentioned by Simpson as being used on Chris Martin’s piano for Coldplay's A Head Full of Dreams.

“The piano we have at The Beehive is an upright Yamaha Disklavier, which has a very nice sound, and the benefit of MIDI. In general it’s the only time we use MIDI with Coldplay. If the band are recording a live take all together, there’s no way I would be able to use the piano mics, because they would have drums all over them. So I record the MIDI at the same time, and once the takes are done and the band are out of the room, I’ll record the piano on its own, playing Chris’s part back via MIDI. It’s the same performance, with a clean recording. I use two sE Electronics 4400a’s on the piano, which are the closest thing to the old [AKG] C414EBs.

On the "Duet Artists" section found on Apogee's website, Rik Simpson can be seen with an Apogee Duet 2 USB Audio Interface. He says, "I’ve recorded the last 2 Coldplay albums through Apogee converters and always have a ONE and a Duet out on the road with me, enough said…" (source)

“The Eggs not only look cool but sound cool too. They’re crisp, yet also have plenty of ‘oomph’ in the low end. A great non-fatiguing near/mid field set of speakers.” The Monitors appear throughout the video but the quote is from the MunroSonic testimonials section. http://www.munrosonic.com/testimonials/

"The Abbey Road Kits sound truly vintage and authentic. Unlike a lot of drum sample based instruments they don't dominate the mix, instead leave space for the music to breathe."

"Signal’s the best way to get arpeggiated and syncopated ideas down."

“As for the gear racks, I have a whole load of 500–series preamps, and quite a bit of Thermionic Culture stuff like the Earlybird, the Culture Vulture and the Phoenix. I love their stuff: it imparts an analogue character that plug–ins have difficulty emulating."

"HalfTime is awesome — another great addition to the team. I’m really enjoying the rhythms and textures I’m getting from it!"

Rik Simpson endorses HalfTime on the official product webpage, giving the above quote.

Additionally, Rik Simpson appears in the "In Use By" section of the product video beginning at 2:03: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y9Tr5f1UCo&feature=youtu.be&t=2m3s

The guitars have the Soundtoys PanMan to give them some movement, and also some corrective EQ from the Pro–Q 2, and the UAD SSL E Channel strip, which is one of my go–to plug–ins, because it sounds so similar to the original SSL,

Together with another bass drum track, is sent to the ‘VOG’ track, which has the Little Labs Voice Of God, which is a great harmonic sub–synth that adds some controlled low end.

The main chorus lead vocal has the FabFilter Pro–Q 2 EQ, the Waves Rennaissance Vox, again the UBK1, two instances of the FabFilter Pro–DS de–esser, two instances of the UAD Pultec EQP–1A, and the FabFilter Pro–MB

"REV was hard to top, Output might’ve just done it tho!"

"My main monitors here are Barefoot MicroMain 27s and Augspurger Duo 8 Mini Mains. I discovered Augspurgers in the States. My favourite rooms there have them as main monitors, and they have that vintage American sound. There’s nothing over–hyped, no big smiley curve, but a lot of detail in the mid range. I then heard these smaller Augspurgers, and they are amazing."

“As for the gear racks, I have a whole load of 500–series preamps, and quite a bit of Thermionic Culture stuff like the Earlybird, the Culture Vulture and the Phoenix. I love their stuff: it imparts an analogue character that plug–ins have difficulty emulating."

“As for the gear racks, I have a whole load of 500–series preamps, and quite a bit of Thermionic Culture stuff like the Earlybird, the Culture Vulture and the Phoenix. I love their stuff: it imparts an analogue character that plug–ins have difficulty emulating."

"I also have gear by Neve and Helios, UA-610 mic pres, API 3124s, the Vertigo VSM2, GML EQ, the Alan Smart C2, an old LA2A, Distressors, an Eventide H8000, and so on."

The guitars have the Soundtoys PanMan to give them some movement, and also some corrective EQ from the Pro–Q 2, and the UAD SSL E Channel strip, which is one of my go–to plug–ins, because it sounds so similar to the original SSL,

The guitars have the Soundtoys PanMan to give them some movement, and also some corrective EQ from the Pro–Q 2, and the UAD SSL E Channel strip, which is one of my go–to plug–ins, because it sounds so similar to the original SSL

There’s also an eBow guitar hook at the end of the song that has the Wavesfactory TrackSpacer plug–in, which side–chains the guitar to the vocal

There are a couple of tracks of live brass treatment, and they’re all going through the Decapitator and [Virtual Mix Rack] VMR and are edited to make them sound like a sample

The ‘KEGuyEndProphet’ track is a Prophet 12 played by Guy [Berryman] and it has an EastWest Quantum Leap Spaces reverb on it, which is one of my favourites.

Rik Simpson utilizes the Mutable Instruments Clouds, a versatile modular synthesizer known for its harmonizing, pitch-changing, and granular capabilities, as detailed in the Soundonsound article "Inside Track: Coldplay ‘Hymn For The Weekend’."

I have the Pro–Q 2 and Waves L2 on the 808, and nothing on the other bass tracks.

The main verse vocal has the Avid Channel Strip, which is taking out some low end, an SPL TwinTube, which adds some saturation, the UBK1 compressor adding more crunch, and the UAD Fairchild 670 and SSL E Channel.

The main verse vocal has the Avid Channel Strip, which is taking out some low end, an SPL TwinTube, which adds some saturation, the UBK1 compressor adding more crunch, and the UAD Fairchild 670 and SSL E Channel.

The sends on chorus lead vocal go to aux tracks with the Waves H–Delay, the FXpansion Bloom with a lush, wide stereo delay, a small chamber from the QL Spaces plug–in, a mono delay from the UAD Echoplex, and several other delays