The success of this track is indisputable. This track has been the Number 1 on the UK Official Trending Chart, and has topped the Spotify’s „Hit Dancefloor” Chart. Today I’m going to take a deeper look at it to find out what makes this remix so catchy and popular.
The original track
The original title of the track is L’Amour Tojours and you know it for sure. It’s one of these 2000s „guilty pleasure” tracks everyone secretly listens to. It’s a track with an iconic synth line in the chorus and a „not so interesting” melody in the verse. That’s exactly what Dynoro capitalized on. He removed the verse melody entirely and swapped the main synth line for a simple vocal hook. Combining it with a fresh future house production, he gave new life to the track and created a massive hit.
The arrangement
It’s so simple that I decided to make a basic outline in Live.
Click here to enlarge the image
There’s the vocal, 3 harmonic elements and 5 drum tracks. Arrangement-wise, we have an extremely basic intro with the vocal and a „brass-like” bass sound, a buildup, then a drop with an A and B section, and the arrangement repeats with just one more repeat of the drop’s B section.
The harmony
Dynoro gave new life to the track not only by changing the sounds - he also tweaked the harmony of the track. Let’s compare the harmony to the original.
Dynoro's track
The chord progression is a simple 1-3-7-4 in F# Major - the progression is lower in the register than the original one. The only trick used here is that the second chord (the minor 3) is major (playing D instead of C#). By using that borrowed chord, the chord progression sounds fresh and exciting.
Gigi D'Agostino's track
In L’Amour Tojours the character of the chords isn’t clearly defined. The bassline is also a 1-3-7-4 (in D# Major this time), but the second chord doesn’t have the major 3 playing, so the progression doesn’t isn’t that „spicy”. You can easily achieve this effect by playing fifths and skipping the thirds, which determine the chords’ major or minor quality.
The melody
The melody is also different. You can see that Dynoro made it simpler. In the first half, Dynoro’s melody simply descends, while in the second half mostly the rhythm is simplified. By using these tricks the melody is even more catchy and can be easily sung or hummed. The synth line also uses some glide notes which make it extra modern.
Let’s talk about some specific elements of the track now.
Let’s focus on the track’s main element, which is the future house bass, playing alongside a ”4 to the floor” kickdrum.
The drop bass
It is the element that gives the drop its bounce, so both sound design and MIDI notes are very important. It feels like it’s not layered, but comes from one great-sounding preset - we explain making future house patches for example here.
The magic lies mostly in the swing. Some notes are simply delayed by a bit and left unquantized. To make it easier you may disable the grid in Clip View by right clicking and selecting ”Off” under „Fixed Grid”.
The drop’s structure
The drop is structured very simply. In its „A section we have the bass and kick, then there’s a clap and percussion sound, and in the „B” section we also have the main lead and a hihat pattern.
The buildup may have come from a sample pack loop. It may also have been made with a single drum rack with samples - for that I always use the trick with global pitch bend. In Clip View I use the Envelopes section and automate the „Pitch bend” upwards as the buildup progesses.
Thinking about remixing a track? See this article for 8 essential things to consider while remixing.
The intro / verse
These sections are extremely minimalistic and consist of just two elements - the vocal and a sawwave brass bass playing the root notes. After the drop we have exactly the same structure, but we also have the thirds - that makes it more interesting and highlights the borrowed second chord.
The second drop
In the second drop some variations are introduced too. The bass pattern changes - some ”stutters” are added here and there. We also have a different clap - this time a stereo clap - probably two claps layered and panned differently. There’s a completely different hihat loop and between the second and third repeat of the section we have an experimental bit - probably made with four bass samples cut to fit this short bit. The section repeats once again and ends with a vocal chop with lots of delay.
Template
You can download this track’s ”arrangement project” in our freebies section. If you’re making EDM, starting from a template like this is very useful, as it prevents you from getting stuck in a loop. The tempate includes empty MIDI clips, you need to write the MIDI and choose the sounds yourself.
Thanks for checking out this article!
k-pizza
I’m a music maker who likes to share his experiences with other producers. I regularly show up with tutorials, articles & project files at PML.
Skype lessons with me: http://bit.ly/pml_s_one2one
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