Track Teardown

I am currently in the process of producing a modern pop song for my AUD210 Project with 2 other students.

To achieve the right sound we are looking for, I think it is essential to analyse another song, in which we can then take information from as inspiration for our own scratch track.

I will be dissecting the song “Hey” by Fais featuring Afrojack, as I feel like our scratch track shares similar qualities to the production techniques that are used within it. I am more specifically focusing on Afrojack’s production in the track, and how I can use this information to better my own scratch track.

Before delving too deep into the track teardown, I would first like to establish the general information of Hey.

Song Title: Hey

Artist: Fais, Afrojack

Release Date: April 8, 2016

Genre: Electronic / Pop

Tempo: 128BPM

Key: A Major

The full structure of Hey is as follows:

INTRO, VERSE, CHORUS, BUILD, DROP, VERSE, BUILD, DROP, BRIDGE, BUILD, DROP

I have used Ableton Live 9 to separate the different sections of the song to find the structure.

Background on artists:

Fais, Born september 20th, 1990, is a singer songwriter from Rotterdam, Netherlands, currently signed to WALL Recordings. He had met producer Afrojack in High school, and began working closely with him. ("Fais | Ace Agency", n.d.)

Afrojack (Nick van de Wall) is a dutch dj and producer from Spijkenisse, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. He first started making big waves as an artist when he released his song “Take over control” with Eva Simmons (2010), which was his first UK top 40 hit. From then on he has continued to grow as a popular artist in the Electronic Dance Music Scene.

The song “Hey” was a collaboration between Fais and Afrojack released in 2016 and peaked at #2 in the Dutch Music Charts. The song has been produced by Afrojack. (O'Brien, n.d.)

When deconstructing a track, I like to look at each section, and listen to what sounds are used and how they are used. I look at each section in the order in which they appear in the song, and start to build an understanding of what sounds are being used and how these fit sonically in the mix. Without further ado, i’d like to go through each section of the song and talk a bit about the things I noticed in the mix.

INTRO:

The intro of Hey is very atmospheric sounding compared to the rest of the the song. The first thing that I notice in the mix is the vocal chopping, Vocal chopping is an effect that is commonly used in modern pop music, it is described by Media company Genius as “vocal recordings that have been chopped and pitched to create a melody”.

It also sounds like there is some sort of formant pitch effects done on the vocal chops in this case.

There is a Synth a pad in the background playing the chords of the song, this sounds as though it is layered with some kind of white noise over the top of it. Off the top of my head I have noticed this type of pad sound can be heard in a lot of deep house music, for instance there is a similar sound in the 2012 song, Latch by Disclosure.

After looking at some tutorials on Youtube on Disclosures sound design I came across this:

This sound seems to share a lot of similarities to the Pad in Hey except that Hey’s Pad has more of the higher frequencies cut by a low pass filter, as well as the additional noise oscillator on top of the sound.

The last sound in the intro is the percussion, which is some sort of hat combination containing a filter with a strong resonance that sweeps around the high end. This could potentially be a flanger with the resonance or feedback turned up. The percussion also fades in and out in volume which I believe adds some movement to the intro instead of it sounding still and sustained.

VERSE 1:

-The pad from the intro continues through to the verse where the vocals come in, however this time a sub bass has been added, which copies the bassline notes of the chords. At this point the percussions are still fading in and out.

-The vocals start and sound as though they have been processed / recorded to have alot of high end, this captures the raspiness of Fais’s voice. There is a quite a bit of reverb on the vocal and a delay which runs for about 1.5 Seconds. When there is a break in the vocal melody, like where Fais says “You don’t have to be alone” the final word (alone) has a ping pong delay which pans from left to right in the stereo field. This seems to drift off for about 3 seconds.

-In the 8th bar of the verse, the atmospheric feeling starts to change in order to transition into the chorus and drop. The chord progression changes, and a piano is introduced, the piano is more on the dull rather than bright side. It may have also been filtered out like a lot of other sounds in the intro.

-A kick and snare are now introduced and both of which are low passed. From what I can make out, these drums samples seem to be acoustic samples rather than electronic ones, they may have however been layered with other electronic drums to give them more punch however the kick in this section sounds as though it is from a real drum kit. There is also about a 2 second tail on the kick

-The snare on the other hand, has a huge reverb on it, to me it sounds like it is mostly wet reverb signal with a 2 second decay. On the last bar a short cymbal (with a fade in from a reverse cymbal) is played and the rest of the instruments break leaving only the vocal. There is then a reverse cymbal transition into the chorus.

CHORUS:

-The chorus begins with a kick impact, ride and white noise sweep.

-It is now only just the Piano (with more layers for thicker chords).

-Very quietly in the mix there is a low passed rim percussion playing a rhythmic pattern.

-When Fais shouts “Hey!” there is a much more noticeable delay on his vocal.

-The same sound effects are used to transition into the build.

BUILD:

-A Synth bass pluck plays the drop bass line, this is likely the same one used in the drop but just quieter and/or filtered out a bit.

-A clap hits on every second beat, and has a short tail of reverb. This has alot of high end, which helps it to cut through the mix.

-Backing vocals harmonising in the background, it seems like there might be a female vocalist in there too?

-Very low in the mix the vocal chops from the beginning can be heard but now have a heavy reverb on them so that it can be used as an ambient background sound.

-In the second half a snare rolls starts and rises in volume with a reverse cymbal and rim shot before the instrumental.

DROP:

-A punchy electronic kick, and same clap from the buildup. In second half, Hat and percussion sound from intro, snare sound from buildup to transition into verse.

-Flute lead sound, sounds to be like a sampled flute layered with a synth or other instrument, sits high on the frequency

-Bass from buildup can now be heard clearly as the main bass sound. This type of bass can usually be made by using a basic square or saw wave, a short decay, and a low pass filter that activated with the same short decay, giving it a pluck sound.

-Drop also has a short uplifter sound which has a delay on it, this is interesting as usually it’s a white noise down sweep in these sections in other similar songs.

-Backing vocal, low passed heavy reverb

-On the last bar of the drop the pad from the intro can be heard with a tape stop effect put onto it and a gated stutter effect

Generally from this point on most of the foundations of the song are established, so i find that it's usually just the same elements repeated with new things added or variations of existing parts.

VERSE 2:

-Bass and drums from drop section, bass lowered in volume to allow space for vocals.

-Backing ad libs

-Riser and downlifter effect to transition into second half of verse

-Low passed piano chords from chorus introduced.

-Intro sweep percussion.

-Bass now playing an offbeat rhythm.

-Kick changed in second to last bar to twice as fast to build into chorus

-Stutter effect from drop makes a return.

BUILD:

-Same as first except now a synth lead melody in the background? Sounds to be a square lead with unison and slight detuning and legato

DROP:

-Same as first however with drums from the second half of the first drop now added from the 1st bar.

-At 2:16 a weird ambient sound appears in the background, sounds like this is the engine of a sports car accelerating, and Afrojack has also been known to love sports cars.

-Elements of vocal chop from intro heard with large reverb and delay.

BRIDGE:

-Same as first chorus with slight chord progression change

BUILD:

-Same as other buildups with Square lead from chorus,

DROP:

-Long white noise down sweep this time on the first beat

-Ad libs from second verse

-Ad libs that seem to be what is the pieced together original version of the vocal chops with a long delay of about 3 seconds.

-Some flute lead melody variations

-Ends with last bar being ad lib solo and cymbal transition echo out.

Overall Feel:

The track is very upbeat and dance-able at 128BPM. This is a common tempo for a lot of Mainstream Electronic dance music. The major scale allows for a happy feeling, I find that this song sounds very summer-ish. This could potentially be because of the common elements it shares with alot of other pop records released in the summer, such as the vocal chops and thick piano chords. think that the music video also compliments this sound and follows the same aesthetic that Fais and Afrojack likely had in mind when creating Hey.

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I have to say I learnt a lot about the small sounds that are deep in the mix, and how these really fill out the empty parts of the song. I feel as though this can improve my practice as I can listen to other successful artists, and can now pick out what sounds they have used, that I can use for inspiration in my own productions.

Thanks for reading!

References

3 Beat. (2014). Sigma - Nobody To Love (Official Video) HD [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD5fLb-WgBU&feature=youtu.be&t=21

Afrojack, Fais - Hey feat. Afrojack (Original Mix). Retrieved from https://beatportcharts.com/track/7855103/

Calvin Harris. (2018). This Is What You Came For [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inCm3ByI17o&feature=youtu.be&t=46

Fais | Ace Agency. Retrieved from http://aceagency.com/images/factsheets/fais/fais.html

Genius. (2017). How Chopped & Pitched Vocals Took Over Pop Music [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U70A5YyHHFU

Greenburg, Z. (2014). A Spin With Afrojack: Inside The Dutch DJ's Car Collection. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/10/20/a-spin-with-afrojack-inside-the-dutch-djs-car-collection/

O'Brien, J. Afrojack | Biography & History | AllMusic. Retrieved from https://www.allmusic.com/artist/afrojack-mn0001582831/biography

Synthhacker. (2015). Massive Tutorial - Deep House Pad (Disclosure / Zhu / Gorgon City) [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MiZrmlcGA