How to Recreate Hot To Go! by Chappell Roan (Song Breakdown)

This Hot To Go! breakdown and tutorial shows you how to make the sounds behind Chappell Roan's cheerleader-style synth-pop hit, step by step in Serum.

The song came out in 2023 on her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and it turned into a queer pop anthem that mixes disco, hyperpop and synth-pop with a lot of personality. It was inspired by her childhood dream of being a cheerleader, and the "HOT TO GO!" hook is a chant made to be shouted back on dance floors, at drag shows and in festival crowds. Right from the intro you get bright synth stabs, a driving bass and bubbly pop drums under Chappell's vocal. On first listen the production sounds retro, with punchy snares, gated reverb and shimmering synth chords. Under that, though, it's mixed like a modern pop record, with a wide stereo image and a tight low end. We'll rebuild each of those layers one at a time, so by the end you'll know how to get that campy, polished Chappell Roan sound in your own tracks. Let's take a listen to the remake.

See also our Pink Pony Club breakdown and our Good Luck Babe breakdown.

The bass in Hot To Go! is built from two layers that each do a different job. The sub bass holds the deep, round low end, and the synth bass sits on top with the bright buzz and punch that cut through the mix. Both use a 1/8 LFO that makes them pump on every eighth note, so they bounce together like one big, driving bass. First, let's break down the sub bass, the foundation of the whole bassline.

Bass, Layer 1: The Sub Bass

The sub layer gives the "HOT TO GO!" bass its weight and its bounce. Oscillator A uses Basic Shapes with 8 unison voices and Bend +/- on the warp, and oscillator B plays Basic_Mdc with 6 voices. Together they give you a warm, round low end, and a triangle on the sub oscillator adds more depth underneath. Both run through an MG Low 18 filter that cuts the top end, so this layer stays down low and leaves room for the upper bass layer to cut through. You get the bounce from LFO 1. It's a downward ramp synced to 1/8, and it controls the volume of oscillators A and B plus the sub level, so each eighth note hits hard and then ducks, like a sidechain pump built into the patch. Envelope 1 has a 20 ms attack to soften the start of each note, a 763 ms decay, sustain around 68% and a 350 ms release, which keeps the notes full but stops them from bleeding into the next one.

Bass, Layer 2: The Synth Bass

On top of the sub sits the bright layer, the one that cuts through the mix. Oscillator A plays ICanHasKick and oscillator B plays a saw from Basic Shapes one octave down, each with 9 unison voices. The saw gives you the buzz and the brightness, and ICanHasKick puts a punchy thump at the start of each note. A square on the sub oscillator, also an octave down, holds the low end, and the noise adds a bit of air and texture on top. All of it runs through an MG Low 18 filter. The pumping comes from LFO 1, a downward ramp synced to 1/8 with Trig mode on so it restarts with each note. It controls oscillator A's wavetable position, the volume of A and B, the noise and sub levels and the filter cutoff, so each eighth note hits bright and loud, then darkens and ducks right away. Envelope 1 has a 20 ms attack, a 1.06 s decay, sustain at -1.6 dB and a short 15 ms release, so the notes stop clean and the rhythm stays tight. Over in the FX tab, Hyper/Dimension widens it with 4 extra voices, Diode 1 distortion adds grit and harmonics for a brighter edge, and the chorus gives it some movement and width. At the end, a multiband compressor keeps the lows, mids and highs in balance.

The Pluck

At the start of the song, and again in the chorus, you hear this pluck playing along with the bass. Oscillator A plays FM_Freak with 7 unison voices, and its warp is set to FM (from B), so oscillator B is frequency-modulating it, and that gives it the gritty, bell-like bite. Oscillator B plays FFT_Add_2nds one octave up, also with 7 voices, and adds bright overtones. A square on the sub oscillator gives it some body underneath. All of it runs through a Band 12 band-pass filter, which cuts the lows and the very top so the pluck sits in the mids and stays out of the bass's way. Envelope 1 controls the volume and pushes the filter cutoff at the same time. The attack is at zero, the decay is 1.15 s, the sustain sits at -7.9 dB and the release is 1.11 s, so each note snaps in, gets darker as it settles, and leaves a soft tail when you let go. Polyphony is set to 9 voices with Mono off, so the notes can overlap and ring into each other.

The Pad

The pad shows up at the pre-chorus and sticks around through the chorus, filling in the space behind everything else. Oscillator A plays Harmonic Subtle and oscillator B plays ICanHasKick, each with 8 unison voices, plus a square on the sub for some weight underneath. Harmonic Subtle gives it that soft, airy tone, and ICanHasKick fills it out with more body and harmonics. Both run through an MG Low 24 filter, a warm Moog-style low-pass that keeps the pad smooth. Most of the magic is in Envelope 1. It controls the volume, but it's also moving the wavetable position and the unison detune on both oscillators, along with the filter cutoff and resonance. You've got a 1 s attack, a 3.36 s decay, sustain at -6.1 dB and an 833 ms release, so when you hit a chord the pad swells in, opens up, and the tone and stereo width drift for a few seconds before they settle. I also routed velocity to three destinations, so the harder you play, the more the sound changes. And with 16 voices of polyphony, you can play big chords without any notes cutting off.

The Palm-Muted Guitar

We know that getting a real guitar sound out of a synth is hard, if not impossible, and on Hot To Go! that short, chunky palm-muted part is a big piece of the song's bouncy, cheerleader energy. That's why for this tutorial we're bringing in our own wavetable made from a palm-muted guitar recording, so the synth starts from a real guitar tone instead of trying to fake one. To build it, click the pencil icon on the oscillator to open the wavetable editor, then import your one-shot using the Fixed Frame Size option. Next, assign LFO 1 to the wavetable position so it scrolls through the frames on every note, as shown in the image below. This gives each hit the movement of a picked string, and that keeps the guitar part tight and punchy under the vocal.

The Arp

In the bridge, "HOT TO GO!" drops into a rolling arp that lifts the energy right before the last chorus. For this one I'm using a Basic Shapes wave on oscillator A with 5 unison voices, which gives the arp a smooth, round body that sits under the vocal. On oscillator B there's the FFT_Add_2nds wavetable with 3 voices, adding harmonics on top so the arp sounds brighter and cuts through the mix. Both oscillators run through an MG Low 24 filter, a warm Moog-style low-pass that keeps the top end smooth. Envelope 1 has a 10 ms attack, a 2.58 s decay, sustain at -8.6 dB and a short release. It's also routed to the filter cutoff and the FX filter mix, so each note opens up and then settles. LFO 2 is a triangle synced to one bar, and its slow rise and fall keeps the part moving forward. Mono and Legato are on with a little portamento, so the notes glide into each other, and you get that rolling, sing-along feel in the bridge.

FAQ

What key and BPM is Hot To Go! by Chappell Roan? Hot To Go! is in F# major and runs at 140 BPM, in 4/4.

Who wrote and produced Hot To Go!? Chappell Roan wrote it with Dan Nigro, and Nigro produced it. It is on her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.

What sounds do I need to remake Hot To Go!? In this tutorial we build six: a two-layer bass (a sub bass and a synth bass), a pluck, a pad, a palm-muted guitar and an arp, all in Serum.

Want to learn the techniques behind it? Check out our Courses.

RELATED BREAKDOWNS

• How to Make Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan: Breakdown & Tutorial
• Chappell Roan "Good Luck, Babe!" Breakdown: Synths in Serum
• Sabrina Carpenter "Espresso" Serum Tutorial & Breakdown