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Contemporary pop music can take just about any form these days, from House and UK Garage to Synthwave and Electro. The Weeknd’s 2019 track Blinding Lights takes influence from the latter two styles, and combines it with the sheen and polish of modern pop music.

 

 

 

 

In this edition of the Loopcloud Unpacked series, we’ll be dissecting Blinding Lights, unpacking what made it such a hit and how you can recreate the track yourself using a Loopcloud subscription. If you’re not a Loopcloud member yet, no matter. You can download a free 14-day trial now for immediate access to the diverse library of over four million samples and loops.

 

 

Track History

 

Seasoned producers Max Martin and Oscar Holter joined The Weeknd in MXM and Jungle City Studios to assist with the production Blinding Lights. The track was released in late 2019 as the second single from his fourth studio album, After Hours.

 

Having peaked at number one in thirty-four countries, it was an instant hit by all metrics. The track was praised for its nostalgic vibe and ability to conjure up an authentic 80s sound, all the while appealing to today’s vast commercial audience. Below is our final Loopcloud version.

 

 

 

Breaking down Blinding Lights

 

Let’s take a look at some of the core elements that make up the composition of The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights.

 

The drums

One of the first elements that stands out as being 80s-esque is the drums. The kick and snare follow a simple Electro-inspired pattern, and are reminiscent of the Roland TR-707’s kick and snare sounds. Of course this is no coincidence, the 707 was released in the early 80s and helped to shape the sound of that era. Part of the reason the drums are so simple is because there is plenty going on in the vocal and melodic elements of the track, but more on that shortly.

 

The lead

It’s not just the drums that hark back to that vintage sound. The piercing lead sound in Blinding Lights screams 80s Synthpop and sounds suspiciously Yamaha DX7-like.

 

 

 

 

The chords

In addition to the lead synth, there is a sustained chord part that provides an ethereal bed of sound that gels the entire mix together.

 

The bass

As already discussed, the entire track does an effective job of straddling the line between the 80s and the present day, but this is perhaps most true of the bass sound. The bass takes the form of a soaring lead bass during the choruses, but morphs into a pseudo-808 bass sound during the verses, giving it a modern edge.

 

The vocals

A key ingredient to Blinding Lights’ success is undoubtedly the vocal. The hook in the main chorus is a guaranteed earworm, no matter your musical preferences. In terms of the mix, the Canadian artist’s vocal is mixed extremely wet with plenty of time-based effects. The arrangement of the track also means that the vocal is given space to shine through at all times, and never clashes with that all-important lead synth.

 

 

How to build a track like Blinding Lights

 

Now that we’ve established the main components of the track, let’s get into recreating it using Loopcloud samples and instruments. We’ll be using Ableton Live for this remake, but you can use whichever DAW you prefer.

 

 

1. Project tempo and key

First up, let’s set our DAW’s project tempo to a speedy 171 BPM to match that of Blinding Lights. If your DAW has a global scale feature, you can also set your project key to C Minor.

 

 

2. Recreating the drums

As we’ve already established, the drums are a simple but fundamental component of this track. There are only a few components including a kick, snare, clap and closed hi-hat. Loopcloud’s proprietary DRUM plugin is the perfect tool for recreating the drums from Blinding Lights.

 

Place Loopcloud DRUM on a new MIDI channel, open the Store then search for and download the Planes, Trains & Automobiles pack from Loopmasters. The kick and snare in the Another World Kit fit the track perfectly.

 

 

The hi-hat in Blinding Lights is extremely short and subtle. While there isn’t a suitable sound already set up in this kit, we can achieve the right sound by reducing the Decay and Volume of the Tambourine sound. We’ve also reduced the Coarse tuning by five semitones.

 

 

Finally, we need to use the Kit Generator window to load a clap sound into an unused drum slot. In this case, we’re pitching up the ANT_Clap_08 sample by three semitones, and then programming it on the off beats at the end of each fourth bar.

 

 

 

 

3. Constructing the lead

Next up, let’s recreate Blinding Lights’ signature lead sound, this time using Loopcloud PLAY, a versatile sample player instrument that can be as simple or as advanced as you need it to be.

 

Once gain, Loopcloud makes this easy for us; the Core Synth preset within the Intro II Synths pack gives us a great starting point for the lead synth in this recreation. After opening the Advanced view, we’ve adjusted the filter and amp envelope to give the lead the right kind of contour and tone. We’ve also added some Dark reverb using Loopcloud PLAY’s inbuilt reverb effect.

 

 

The lead synth follows the same simple pattern throughout the track, with a pause at the end of every four bars. This helps to give the track a sense of progression, and leaves room for the claps.

 

 

4. Building the bass

For the bass sound in our Blinding Lights recreation, we’ve also opted to use Loopcloud PLAY. The Intro II Bass preset pack contains a range of highly familiar and usable bass sounds. In this case, the Form Bass preset fits the bill thanks to its sawtooth waveform. Using the filter envelope controls within PLAY’s Advanced tab, we can adjust the preset so that the filter opens up and then decays into a deep warm bass sound.

 

 

The sustained bass notes reinforce the track’s low end, while the staccato motifs at the end of certain bars add some rhythmic complexity to the track.

 

 

5. The chords

As well as the main lead sound, Blinding Lights contains some synth chords which provide some more melodic content. The Dance Lead preset from the Intro II Synths pack contains just the right amount of movement and brightness for this element.

 

 

One thing the chords are missing when compared to the original, is noise. To remedy this, we’ve layered our Intro II Synths pack with the Raw Waves pack’s 07_Noise_J6 preset. By giving the noise the same amp and filter envelope as the synth, and mixing it in subtly, we can give our chords more of an authentic 80s vibe. We also added some chorus to give the noise some width.

 

 

The chords vaguely follow the legato notes of the bass, and also contain plenty of filter envelope which makes the start of each bar a real moment.

 

 

6. Additional elements

In addition to the core melodic elements, Blinding Lights contains some risers that help to give the track a sense of space and indicate when there is a change of section. We’ve layered the ISR_WR_FX_Riser_147_multitrack and SPT_Uplifter_25_multitrack samples throughout the arrangement to achieve the appropriate sound.

 

 

At the end of the intro’s second bar of Blinding Lights, The Weeknd delivers an abrupt ‘Yeah’. Of course, we don’t have access to The Weeknd to say ‘Yeah’ for us, but using Loopcloud and its handy Audio Filters, we can find an appropriate sample for the job.

 

 

We’ve searched for ‘Yeah’ and then applied the Male, Vocal and One Shot filters. The original vocal has a short, light delivery, so we’ve further refined our search using the Tone and Length filters. We pitched the PH_male_vox_one_shot_yeah_03 sample down by two semitones and warped it to the correct length to get the right sound.

 

 

FAQs

 

Why does Blinding Lights sound like an 80s song?

The use of drum and synth sounds and patterns that were popular in the 1980s helps to instil a sense of nostalgia in its listeners. Two examples of tracks that seem to influence Blinding Lights are Michael Sembello’s Maniac and a-ha’s Take On Me.

 

What is The Weeknd’s biggest song?

Canadian popstar The Weeknd has a number of hugely commercial successes. His 2019 track Blinding Lights has amassed the most streams, with over four million on Spotify alone.

 

Why was Blinding Lights by The Weeknd so popular?

Blinding Lights was a hugely popular song and peaked at the number one spot in 34 countries. It was popular thanks to a combination of nostalgic drums and synths, a modern aesthetic and a catchy vocal hook. It was also released during TikTok’s rise to prominence, and featured heavily on the social media platform in various trends and challenges.