John Summit takes us through the production of his 2024 smash 'Shiver' featuring HAYLA and talks plugins, layering and what his technique is for mastering.
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00:00I think when you have a vocalist as powerful as HALA, having the vocal carry the melody,
00:03and then all my melodies that I've been adding in all complement the vocal.
00:15What's up? This is Jon Summit and I'm going to take you behind the song Shiver with HALA.
00:19Can you feel it now?
00:27So this song is basically the sequel or the follow-up to Where You Are with HALA,
00:34of course Shiver is with HALA. Where You Are was really the song that kind of put us
00:38on the map internationally and we knew we wanted to do something kind of similar but different and
00:42kind of take it to the next level. It started with just piano chords and then from there kind
00:46of produced it into a full-on festival hit. This was the opening to my Madison Square Garden set.
00:51It was the first time I teased the record was when I announced MSG, which was like kind of
00:56the biggest show of my career to date really. It's the most effort I've ever put into anything.
01:00It was something that I never thought would have been absolutely possible. So I think the lyrics
01:04in this song are very inspirational and hopeful that I thought really set the tone of the whole
01:08set and showcasing the comfort and chaos show, which is my new album.
01:19When I first started making music I usually just started with the drop. That was before I was
01:22working with any vocalists. I would actually make the demos and then send out to vocalists for them
01:26to like hear and see if I could get a vocal on a record. But now because I've already been writing
01:30with HALA for a couple years now we could actually just start from the studio, start from scratch.
01:34This is just a super simple chord progression pattern I have here.
01:39And so this is what I'll come to the studio with. It's just like an idea, a loop like this,
01:43maybe some pads or something on top. But then HALA can simply sing over this. Usually it'll be
01:49just humming along and then writing lyrics to it. Here's the vocal.
01:59So this is the initial song idea.
02:01But then you just add this vocal rack on, which is the EQ, multiband, delay and reverb.
02:12In typical HALA fashion she's completely belting it out. So when she has that much energy and
02:16belting that much, you know, I feel like the crowd's received with that much energy too.
02:20And I think that's why my shows have been getting so crazy.
02:24One of the things that I really like about HALA is that it's not just a song.
02:28My shows have been getting so crazy. What makes HALA so amazing is that she really
02:35knows how to do a verse into a chorus into a really like drop hook. So the original recording
02:41it was just like, you make me shiver. And then it was just the drop with no vocal. I think when you
02:47have a vocalist as powerful as HALA having the vocal carry the melody and then all my melodies
02:51that I've been adding in all complement the vocal.
03:02And then from there I'll start adding additional melodies on top.
03:05What I normally do is I'll have like a big re-space come in, which this is like
03:10what really grabs the audience and crowd because there's so much thick low into it.
03:15So this just follows the same exact pattern as the chord. It's just the root note.
03:20So I pretty much have a re-space in all of my songs, whether it's the breakdown or intro.
03:26So this is how it originally sounds. There's a bunch of reverb and delay on it. So all you
03:31got to do is take off the reverb delay, lower the cutoff, and you pretty much have a full-on
03:36re-space. It's sick. But also the low end gets very wide, which you don't want.
03:41So I usually just do bass mono, which makes everything below 120 hertz mono. You can put
03:45that up to 200 hertz. My music with HALA is very trance-influenced because when I think of like
03:51festival anthems, like that got me into music, I think of like DJ Tiesto, Delirium, and Silence.
03:56And like I think it's super euphoric, especially for big crowds, and it really evokes emotion.
04:01So here I have this simple two, three-note pattern that follows the same exact pattern
04:09that we began with. I had to incorporate one element that I used from Where You Are because
04:14I do think it was like a kind of a proper sequel track where I don't want to ditch old sounds.
04:20So here is it by itself.
04:22It's basically this big horn synth that was made in Diva. Diva is my favorite VST synthesizer
04:29because it's the most analog sounding and you have the most control. I have this stutter lead
04:32that goes throughout.
04:42And then I have this one that's kind of like a more like a more like a more
04:46I have this stutter lead that goes throughout.
04:52And additionally, I have this art.
04:57All these melodies go together, so that's how I know it's not too much.
05:07So for the drums, this is a kick I've been using on basically
05:10every song since Deep End besides like my more techno records.
05:14But the way I differentiate them, it doesn't have too much of a top here.
05:21It gives it a little bit of character. I, of course, add a clap.
05:28Add a shaker on top. This is the shaker loop I have. Add a couple top loops.
05:35And then I got some big splashy 909 hats.
05:39I add some rides on top to really fill up the highs.
05:45If it was literally just the vocal and the drums, it would be like this.
05:55I'll go into the bass line. I have a low layer of bass right here
05:59and you can see that through that in span here. I have a more kind of higher mid-layer.
06:08And then this one kind of fills up this frequency a little bit more. All together like this.
06:14The rolling bass line is more of a mid-bass line. It needed this kind of pumping sub to it.
06:23So technically that could just go with the kick by itself.
06:29Then I have another mid-bass here.
06:33These are just three different Diva patches. It's pretty much just straight up
06:36called rolling bass for each single one. So all the basses together go something like this.
06:45And then that one epic lead that we made earlier.
06:54Something I've been getting really cinematic with my music lately is I've been doing a lot
06:57of strings and this is through Nexus which I've really been loving lately.
07:01And this is just literally one of the presets of like the strings. It's called Hollywood Violins.
07:07Yeah but if you notice that nothing's perfectly on the grid,
07:11especially when ending, it gives it just that little live touch.
07:14This basically more or less is the final mix down. What I'll do from here is I'll export
07:21everything and like really clean it up and then put it in groups. So like drums, bass,
07:25and then kind of get really detailed with like the EQ and stuff. Because then from here you
07:28got to listen to multiple different sound sources like in the studio, at a club, inside a car,
07:35and all of that. So it's all tinkering. And then I've been using this same master chain
07:39since I did YouTube tutorials back in 2020. It's simple EQ. I'll bring down the low end
07:46because I think the low end's a little hard on this. But I saturate, add a little bit of
07:50compression, and then the limiter. I'll make sure it just doesn't go past negative six.
07:55Why is that my rule? I don't know. I got told that when I was younger and I've been going with it
07:59since and it's been working. I don't know if I'm the right guy to ask about mixing and mastering
08:03because my whole thought process with that is just keep tinkering until it sounds right.
08:08All mastering is is making things louder. I don't know. It's another situation. You can't
08:12put lipstick on a pig. So if you add a masking chain and it sounds like shit, your mix sounds
08:16like shit. So I guess rule number one is make sure it sounds good on a crappy speaker. And
08:21then eventually I think you finish on like a nice sound treated room. I was an accountant
08:28while DJing on the side and never imagined that I would be a full-time DJ producer traveling the
08:33world playing all these big parties and festivals. The lyrics really reflect that too because they
08:37really do want this forever. It's a crazy fucking lifestyle and I really do thrive in it.