Audio Engineer/Sound Editor Syllous Mai Inspired by Grammy-Award-winning Igloo Music & Cutting-Edge LSD Studios
“From working with Igloo Music’s Nicholai Baxter, an award-winning film mixer, I absorbed about being humble and professional. Then, I learned from his experience working on some of the biggest Hollywood films like La La Land and A Star is Born. In time, I’d like to bring new things to the table; for example, I love to keep up with new plugins for mixing. And I would love to introduce some new plugins to the team I’m working with if it can increase our efficiency and quality of work.” — Syllous Mai
The goal for Audio Engineer/Sound Editor Syllous Mai, whilst working on short movies and original music to being a sound editor on Netflix and Amazon shows and films, is to “create the best auditory experience” for audiences. Along the way, she has learned about the power of storytelling from her various mentors including Grammy-award-winning Nicholai Baxter and also Grammy-winning engineer/producer DannyBoyStyles, who is well-known for his work with The Weeknd.
Indeed, Syllous suggests, “Sound plays such a vital role in the storytelling process across various forms of visual media, including TV shows, movies, and music recordings. Sound can be experienced as music, sound effects, dialogue and voice acting. Sound enhances the audience’s experience by conveying information, eliciting emotions, and creating a more immersive and engaging narrative.”
Listening to, recording, and bettering “sound” has always been her main area of fascination and endeavor. Growing up in Guangdong, China, Syllous lived in an artistic home as a daughter to a music teacher, and was classically trained. In addition, Syllous’ father would take her from the big city into nature where she took in and appreciated the symphony of sounds — from glorious birdsong, inquisitive and busy insects, whooshing water, whistling winds and the staccato of rain. She admits she found great inspiration through these experiences and has used those raw sounds of nature throughout her productions.
Another major influence for Syllous within her career and music is Disney movies, and the sounds and songs of composer Alan Menken, the multiple Oscar winner, and composer on such favorites as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin:.
“Disney musicals, like Tangled, definitely inspired me as a kid, and has continued to inspire me today. At the time, Disney princesses were my idols, but as a kid, I didn’t know what audio engineering was, and I never thought about how animation characters ‘talk’. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by the dialogs, the sound effects, and Menken’s music in the films. After I studied at Berklee, I had the opportunity to learn more and gain exposure to the post-production process of film. It was then when I truly started to learn about the critical role sound plays in storytelling.”
Indeed, her experience took a step up when she attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music, “During college, I had many opportunities to record and explore other and different sounds — live concerts, orchestra, vocal, or big city sampling. Especially after I specialized in Music Production and Engineering, I obtained more knowledge and valuable experience in understanding how to record a better sound and the sound I or the client wanted.”
Now based in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, Syllous has continued to excel within the industry, working with some of entertainment’s most influential and celebrated organizations, including Light Sonic Division (LSD) and Igloo Music.
Syllous Mai talks to us about her various roles, including: working as an audio engineer and sound editor as well as a producer, composer, and arranger for the likes of Chinese TikTok sensation and violinist Haoran Dong; how these roles have contributed to the expansion of her already varied and exceptional skill-set; and, how this experience has allowed her to contribute in a central and critical way to the storytelling of shows like Sanctuary, Royalteen, Doona!, A Deadly Invitation, Daily Dose of Sunshine, and Romancero, among others.
— Can you explain your early role working in the dubbing department?
— One of the most challenging aspects of working within the dubbing department on my early Netflix projects like Sanctuary and Royalteen, was the preparation of “Pro Tools” sessions for the mixing phase. This involved marking every scene transition, and then categorizing them as interior or exterior, a seemingly simple task that demanded a high degree of specificity. Occasionally, this entailed navigating more complex scenarios, such as scenes set in half-open spaces, which were typically categorized as interior but necessitated additional descriptive context. As my experience grew, I overcame this challenge and excelled within this area. but it was certainly a learning curve in my early days of my career.
— How did you enhance the storytelling as a sound editor for the English dub of Doona!, A Deadly Invitation, Daily Dose of Sunshine, and Romancero?
— Sound played a critical role in each of these productions. For example, in Daily Dose of Sunshine, in a particular scene where a patient exhibited excessive, uncontrollable laughter because of her illness, managing the audio levels was one of the big tasks. It necessitated the adjustment of individual laughter segments by applying clip gain reduction, while simultaneously monitoring the overall volume. In Doona!, the majority of my work was centered on dialog for characters situated in the background of scenes. For scenes where the main characters and background characters engage in simultaneous dialogue, it was crucial to ensure that the background characters’ dialog enhancements did not overshadow or distract from the main characters’ interactions and storyline progression. This required a delicate balance to maintain a seamless and harmonious audio-visual experience for the audience while providing subtle depth to the background character interactions. This endeavor significantly contributed to elevating the production value of these projects, playing a pivotal role in ensuring their success thus far. Without this effort, the projects would undoubtedly suffer a considerable decline in quality and would not have achieved the level of success they currently enjoy.
— So overall, what would you add about this role?
— The most challenging part for me was syncing the English dub to the picture. On the process of doing editing, I had to be very cautious about if the pronunciation of English dub sync to their mouth — English dub sometimes had fewer words or was delivered at a slower pace than the original language dialogue, then I would have to edit the audio clip, and make it look natural to the picture. This task required a high level of skill and precision, something that nobody on the team had apart from myself, and I am happy to say that, through my hard work, the final product was outstanding and very successful.
— Both the music and film/TV world are extremely competitive, so how do you manage to stay confident and not give up?
— In such a competitive industry as entertainment, it’s very easy to ask. “Am I good enough?” Even when I was at Berklee, there were lots of talented musicians surrounding me. I remember thinking “What makes me better than them?” But as I’ve developed, I realized that the only competition I have is myself. Worrying about if I am good enough isn’t going to do anything; instead, I compete with myself — did I learn more today, and am I better than the “me” yesterday? What we need to do is not doubt ourselves, but work on our immediate production. This attitude has allowed me to excel within my career to heights that I didn’t think were possible.
— In terms of the music industry, what are your goals?
— I’m soaking it all up from the extraordinary individuals that I have the privilege to call my mentors, including Grammy-winning Danny (DannyBoyStyles). He is a great supporter of my work and has consistently given me great advice, including: “As much as I can teach, as much as I can mentor, as much as I can give opportunity, I can’t be the opportunity for you. You have to go and show an opportunity.” Being hard-working and taking the initiative on the job is key to success in the music industry, or any industry. I have taken this advice and applied it to all my work, and indeed, I have achieved some great successes. Overall, I want to keep exploring the engineering industry, improving my skills, not only in terms of audio engineering, but also in terms of working with different clients. In the long term, I want to continue to lead projects for exceptional clients, contributing all of my unique skills to each project, and ensuring their wide success. I look forward to continuing to work with award-winning talent and create amazing art! I look forward to continue working with some of the biggest record labels, production companies, and artists from around the world.
Drop in on Syllous Mai’s website and on IMDb. And, check out Home, her collaboration with Jihae, on YouTube, Apple and Spotify.
