Cole Cuchna

Now there's a number of elements working together to create this feeling, starting with the clear star of this groove, that incredibly funky bassline.

When talking to The Face magazine at the time of Discovery's release, Tomá revealed that Voyager is meant to honor the bass guitar the same way Aerodynamic honors the electric guitar, saying quote, the bass is the lead instrument in the track,

and usually bass is not the lead instrument."

Now, it's debatable whether the bass on Voyager is an actual bass guitar or a synthesizer modeled to sound like a bass guitar.

Personally, I'd guess the latter, but the fact that it's even a question is a testament to Thomas and Guimond's ability to not only design synth patches that closely emulate guitars, but also their talent at composing parts that sound native to the instruments they're emulating.

Indeed, the bassline they composed for Voyager is incredibly idiosyncratic, oscillating as it does between deep, supporting root notes, quick octave leaps, and busy, funky staccato fills.

Here it is recreated by Dan Carr of Reverb Machine, who used a software replication of the Juno-106, one of Daft Punk's most used synthesizers.

Like their bassline for Around the World, Daft Punk here were clearly channeling their favorite bass player Bernard Edwards from the disco band Chic.

Here's Edwards on My Forbidden Lover, playing the same kind of groovy root notes, octave jumps, and funky fills.

Daft Punk also do their best impression of Sheik's guitarist Nile Rodgers, who's known for his tight, percussive chord stabs.

Let's listen to that same Forbidden Lover excerpt, but this time focus on the rhythmic guitar chucks.

Compare this now with the guitars that run throughout Voyager.

While they're clearly not Nile Rodgers quality, they are functionally using the guitar in the same way.

Now, as great as they are on their own, isolating the synth, guitar, and bass parts only tell half their story.

Because a big reason why Voyager's groove is so endlessly addictive is the way these instruments interact with the drum beat, which in terms of its rhythm is pretty straightforward, a standard four-on-the-floor house beat.

Why I describe this drum beat as straightforward is the fact that the kick and snare are placed directly on the downbeats, the strong beats we naturally count along with.

Now the typical way to play Voyager's chords over this beat would be to place them directly on the strong beats, like this.

Now there's not anything wrong with this, but when too many of the song's elements only accent the downbeats, it can start to feel flat and uninteresting, especially in a dance song.

And so what Daft Punk do instead is syncopate these chords.

Syncopation simply means to play or accent the spaces in between the strong beats.