Will Champion

At 0:07 in this video, Will Champion can be seen using a Roland SPD-SX Sampling Pad.

Mentioned by FOH engineer Dan Green in this AudioTechnology magazine article about the Ghost Stories Tour.

AT: Are you able to borrow much from the studio mic cabinet on tour?

DG: A few bits and bobs, but the demands are very, very different on the road. In the studio, your mic choice can be all about character. But in a live context you’re after mics that reproduce transients very clearly — you need that front-end bite on most sounds to cut through. I mean, you’re not going to stick up a Neumann U67 three metres above and behind the drumkit as a ‘room’ mic, for obvious reasons. So I tend to use more dynamic microphones: SM57s on guitars and a Shure Beta52 on the bass drum. And also the Earthworks microphones which are really good for drums. They’re my close mics and from there I get a sense of depth using reverb and other plug-ins.

AT: You clearly like what the Earthworks mics are doing.

DG: They cut through really nicely and they preserve a lot of the front-end attack of the sound, which is something you really need. In stadiums and arenas you can’t really have a sound that has too much decay because the room has so much decay anyway — ‘sharp’ and ‘short’ wins every time.

The drum mics are an Earthworks love-in. Dan Green: “The transient response of these microphones is incredible. Before, I used to rely on transient enhancing plug-ins to get a similar sound, now it’s all from the SR40 overheads. One of the other benefits of the new DP30/C periscope microphones are the rugged flexible arms, this gives me options on placement.”

Mentioned by A Head Full of Dreams co-producer Rik Simpson in this Sound on Sound article.

“My drum-mic setup mostly consisted of the usual contenders, apart from an old STC/Coles 4012 ‘ball and biscuit’ microphone as a mono overhead that I love, and a couple of Telefunken 251s as overheads. But everything else is fairly standard. I play around with different room microphones depending on a) how many band members I am recording at the same time and b) what the song needs. I quite like Coles, which are kind of grimy and dirty, and I quite like B&K microphones which are the opposite end of the sonic spectrum, a lot more hi–fi. I have a Shure 57 on the snare, but I sometimes go for a Neumann KM84 if the song is delicate and the snare needs that tender touch. For the kick I have a Telefunken M82 dynamic microphone that is designed for a kick drum and that sounds really good. It is punchy and big but not too clanky. The AKG kick-drum mics are a little bit ‘knocky’ for my liking.

Mentioned by A Head Full of Dreams co-producer Rik Simpson in this Sound on Sound article.

“My drum-mic setup mostly consisted of the usual contenders, apart from an old STC/Coles 4012 ‘ball and biscuit’ microphone as a mono overhead that I love, and a couple of Telefunken 251s as overheads. But everything else is fairly standard. I play around with different room microphones depending on a) how many band members I am recording at the same time and b) what the song needs. I quite like Coles, which are kind of grimy and dirty, and I quite like B&K microphones which are the opposite end of the sonic spectrum, a lot more hi–fi. I have a Shure 57 on the snare, but I sometimes go for a Neumann KM84 if the song is delicate and the snare needs that tender touch. For the kick I have a Telefunken M82 dynamic microphone that is designed for a kick drum and that sounds really good. It is punchy and big but not too clanky. The AKG kick-drum mics are a little bit ‘knocky’ for my liking.

At 0:43 in this video, Will Champion can be seen playing a Reactable for the song "Midnight".

Will plays this guitar in performances of Death Will Never Conquer on the viva tour, while guy plays a mandolin, chris plays a harmonica and Jonny keeps time with a tambourine

Will Champion uses the ddrum trigger as part of his drum setup, as documented by Ddrum in their Trigger Acoustic Pro KIT.

At the 1:26 mark of this video Chris Martin says Will uses the Maschine

Mentioned in this article from the official Sensaphonics website.

One of the hottest arena/shed tours on the road this summer was Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. With a large stage set-up for sheds and arenas, in-ear monitoring was a critical element to the band’s success. As they have for the past several years, the band members were all on Sensaphonics custom earphones via Sennheiser wireless systems.

However, there were a few key changes for this year’s tour. All four band members have upgraded from the classic ProPhonic 2X-S to the Sensaphonics 2MAX. “Most of the backline crew also have Sensaphonics IEMs,” says [monitor engineer Chris] Wood. “We have found the drivers to be very reliable. I can’t recall having a problem in the eight years we have used them.” A few wedges can still be seen on stage, but are used mainly for backup.

Mentioned in this AudioTechnology magazine article about the Ghost Stories Tour by FOH engineer Dan Green.

AT: Are you able to borrow much from the studio mic cabinet on tour?

DG: A few bits and bobs, but the demands are very, very different on the road. In the studio, your mic choice can be all about character. But in a live context you’re after mics that reproduce transients very clearly — you need that front-end bite on most sounds to cut through. I mean, you’re not going to stick up a Neumann U67 three metres above and behind the drumkit as a ‘room’ mic, for obvious reasons. So I tend to use more dynamic microphones: SM57s on guitars and a Shure Beta52 on the bass drum. And also the Earthworks microphones which are really good for drums. They’re my close mics and from there I get a sense of depth using reverb and other plug-ins.

AT: You clearly like what the Earthworks mics are doing.

DG: They cut through really nicely and they preserve a lot of the front-end attack of the sound, which is something you really need. In stadiums and arenas you can’t really have a sound that has too much decay because the room has so much decay anyway — ‘sharp’ and ‘short’ wins every time.

The drum mics are an Earthworks love-in. Dan Green: “The transient response of these microphones is incredible. Before, I used to rely on transient enhancing plug-ins to get a similar sound, now it’s all from the SR40 overheads. One of the other benefits of the new DP30/C periscope microphones are the rugged flexible arms, this gives me options on placement.”

Mentioned by A Head Full of Dreams co-producer Rik Simpson in this Sound on Sound article.

“My drum-mic setup mostly consisted of the usual contenders, apart from an old STC/Coles 4012 ‘ball and biscuit’ microphone as a mono overhead that I love, and a couple of Telefunken 251s as overheads. But everything else is fairly standard. I play around with different room microphones depending on a) how many band members I am recording at the same time and b) what the song needs. I quite like Coles, which are kind of grimy and dirty, and I quite like B&K microphones which are the opposite end of the sonic spectrum, a lot more hi–fi. I have a Shure 57 on the snare, but I sometimes go for a Neumann KM84 if the song is delicate and the snare needs that tender touch. For the kick I have a Telefunken M82 dynamic microphone that is designed for a kick drum and that sounds really good. It is punchy and big but not too clanky. The AKG kick-drum mics are a little bit ‘knocky’ for my liking.

Used for "Hymn for the Weekend", as mentioned by A Head Full of Dreams co-producer Rik Simpson in this Sound on Sound article.

Drums: FabFilter Pro–Q 2 & Pro–G; UA Little Labs VOG; Brainworx BX_refinement; Kush Audio UBK1; UA Maag EQ4; Avid D-Verb; UA SSL E Channel.

Mentioned in this 2010 article from the official Yamaha website.

The British quartet Coldplay-comprised of Chris Martin (vocals/piano), Jon Buckland (guitar), Will Champion (drums), and Guy Berryman (bass)-released a handful of EP's before storming onto the U.S. rock scene after releasing their full-length debut Parachutes (Capitol) in November 2000. Champion can be seen and heard playing a Yamaha Maple Custom Absolute drum kit.

"I've been playing my Yamaha kit for about two years," says Champion of his sparkle finish Yamaha kit. "I like the feel and construction as well as the great response."

At 1:55, you can see Will using this during their live performance of "Everyday Life"

In this photo will Champion (Coldplay) plays Brady 14” x 6.5” Jarrah Ply Snare More details are provided at this blog.

Will Champion's Yamaha SD 455 MK Snare can be seen as Lot 16 in Coldplay's End of Decade Clearout Sale catalogue(http://www.originalprop.com/public_html/coldplay/Coldplay-End-of-Decade-Clearout-Sale-Charity-Auction-eBay-Memorabilia-Catalog-Portal.pdf).

In this blog by Matt Miller, a photo of Will Champion can be seen using Logic Pro X on an Apple MacBook Pro. Coldplay have many times said that they use Macs for nearly everything, from mixing to personal computers.

Throughout this video, Will Champion can be seen playing a Gibson J-200. It can be seen particularly well in the 1:40s.

Will Champion uses the Earthworks QTC50 microphone for drum recording, as noted in the Earthworksaudio press release about Coldplay's world tour.

"It's the only stick that does the trick!" Will Champion is featured in the Promark website

Will is drumstick-endorsed by Promark, as testified on their official website.

It can be seen that in the minute 25:25 Will Champion is using the K Custom Dark Hi Hats.

Used for backing vocals on Coldplay's Viva la Vida Tour.

The band performs two songs on the ramp (stage B) and another two songs out in the audience tiers (stage C). “Our RF tech, Stephanie Thompson, handles stage C duties: cables apart from the IEMs which are the Sennheiser EW300 systems alongside a power amplifier to ensure that the IEMs work, regardless of where the band is performing,” [FOH engineer Daniel] Green explains. “On stage B, the band is once again on Sennheiser EW300 IEMs. We use two radio Neumann KK105s for Will and Guy's backing vocals, plus a radio Shure SM58 for Chris' vocals. Jonny and Chris' guitars are also on Shure wireless systems.”

Mentioned by FOH engineer Dan Green in this AudioTechnology magazine article about the Ghost Stories Tour.

AT: Are you able to borrow much from the studio mic cabinet on tour?

DG: A few bits and bobs, but the demands are very, very different on the road. In the studio, your mic choice can be all about character. But in a live context you’re after mics that reproduce transients very clearly — you need that front-end bite on most sounds to cut through. I mean, you’re not going to stick up a Neumann U67 three metres above and behind the drumkit as a ‘room’ mic, for obvious reasons. So I tend to use more dynamic microphones: SM57s on guitars and a Shure Beta52 on the bass drum. And also the Earthworks microphones which are really good for drums. They’re my close mics and from there I get a sense of depth using reverb and other plug-ins.

AT: You clearly like what the Earthworks mics are doing.

DG: They cut through really nicely and they preserve a lot of the front-end attack of the sound, which is something you really need. In stadiums and arenas you can’t really have a sound that has too much decay because the room has so much decay anyway — ‘sharp’ and ‘short’ wins every time.

Given that the original Beta 52 was discontinued at this point in history, one can assume that it is the reissue 52A.

Mentioned by FOH engineer Dan Green in this AudioTechnology magazine article about the Ghost Stories Tour.

AT: Are you concerned that if you’re using analogue preamps and/or outboard — routing in and out of the SD7 — you’ll get a bit of phase smear?

DG: I had a few concerns on that front with the drums. What I’m doing is using Waves’ MultiRack [live sound plug-in platform] where I’ve made a dummy plug-in group and I can send every drum-related channel to that group. So regardless of whether that drum element is sourced from an analogue mic pre or a digital plug-in, it becomes aligned. I’ve also done that with other groups of instruments that need to be phase-aligned, and I think that sorts out any kind of latency issues.

AT: Can you tell me a little more about the Waves MultiRack setup?

DG: Well, take, for example, my kick drum sound. I’ve got three kick drum channels. I’ll do a bit of basic kick EQ’ing or processing on the SD7’s console channel, I’ll route those to a group and process the three channels together. In the Waves MultiRack, as a group, I’ll apply a filter and then that goes into an API compressor, and then into an H EQ. By doing it that way — grouping and processing those kick channels together — it helps glue the sound together a little more. Which means if I want a bit more click on my bass drum, rather than EQ it I’ll push up the more clicky microphone which then doesn’t affect the way it fits with all the processing. To me this approach sounds nicer than EQ’ing it in isolation. Then I’ll save that clickier kick drum submix as a snapshot for songs where the bass drum needs to cut through some more.

Mentioned by FOH engineer Dan Green in this article from the d&b audiotechnik website about the Viva la Vida tour.

For Green the challenge is delivery. "There's nothing unusual up on stage at all; guitars on Shure SM57s, vocals on radio SM58s, 421s on the Toms." Will Champion on drums is a renowned heavy hitter. "Inevitably there is a lot of spill from the drums into Chris's mic, so I do spend a lot of time riding that up and down. Getting level from Chris can be tricky, but I know the songs well enough to capture what's needed."

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.

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 A Head Full of Dreams co-producer Rik Simpson in this Sound on Sound article.

“My drum-mic setup mostly consisted of the usual contenders, apart from an old STC/Coles 4012 ‘ball and biscuit’ microphone as a mono overhead that I love, and a couple of Telefunken 251s as overheads. But everything else is fairly standard. I play around with different room microphones depending on a) how many band members I am recording at the same time and b) what the song needs. I quite like Coles, which are kind of grimy and dirty, and I quite like B&K microphones which are the opposite end of the sonic spectrum, a lot more hi–fi. I have a Shure 57 on the snare, but I sometimes go for a Neumann KM84 if the song is delicate and the snare needs that tender touch. For the kick I have a Telefunken M82 dynamic microphone that is designed for a kick drum and that sounds really good. It is punchy and big but not too clanky. The AKG kick-drum mics are a little bit ‘knocky’ for my liking.

Used for "Hymn for the Weekend", as mentioned by A Head Full of Dreams co-producer Rik Simpson in this Sound on Sound article.

Drums: FabFilter Pro–Q 2 & Pro–G; UA Little Labs VOG; Brainworx BX_refinement; Kush Audio UBK1; UA Maag EQ4; Avid D-Verb; UA SSL E Channel.