Cole Cuchna

Now here's that same chord when the part starts over.

Did you notice anything different?

Listen again, this time back to back.

The first time there's a crash cymbal strike, the second time there's not.

The synth is also slightly busier the second time, while in the first it's cleaner.

Don't worry if you're having trouble hearing the differences.

They're very subtle and that's exactly why I'm pointing them out.

Because this is the level of detail Daft Punk is working at.

Identifying those nuances and making deliberate choices between them.

Understanding this, let's now look at how they assembled the song's main loop.

The first chop is a pretty decent chunk, taking the first four chords from take one.

Now if they kept sampling this same take, it would have sounded like this.

Instead, they chopped this same part from the second take.

For whatever reason, they preferred this one, so they glued it together with the first chop.

But again, instead of letting that second chop continue to complete the loop, they switch back to take 1 for this last little bit.

I'm guessing they like this version better because it's cleaner.

The other take has a pretty startling extra bass note and more chord hits.

Again, small details, but Daft Punk were clearly A-B testing every fragment when creating this loop.

Let's now hear it in full as it appears in the song.

Okay, so you might think we're done, but we're not.