Slice (Young Thug, NBA Youngboy, Gunna, Cardi B)
Atlanta-based producer, songwriter, and mix engineer Slice has racked up credits that include Young Thug, NBA Youngboy, Gunna, Lil Baby, Cardi B, Future, Ski Mask the Slump God, Lil Durk, and Coi Leray. Working in FL Studio and Ableton, Slice has recent writing and production collaborations with Lil Mexico, Ski Mask The Slump God, Svnty6, Beleaf, and Coi Leray.
Tell us about your studio setup these days.
I produce in FL Studio and Ableton, but mostly use Pro Tools for tracking and mixing. My home setup is a pair of Amphion two18s, Lynx Aurora n converter, Neve 5057 for summing, and a Burl B2 ADC.
Having worked on so many songs over the past few years, how do you stay fresh and excited about making music these days?
Every day is a new day, and every song is a new song. I try to stay in the moment with every record and just listen to what the music tells me. Lately, I've also been forcing myself to go out and do things outside the studio. New life experiences always end up coming back to color the music.
How do you typically approach the mixing of a song?
The first thing always is to open up the session, and listen from top to bottom a few times. I'm not moving faders or messing with plugins, I just write down all of my first observations and thoughts. Like ‘oh the vocal gets a little harsh in a few lines of the pre-chorus’ or "‘this bar in the second verse feels like it could be a cool moment, what can I do to bring that out more?’
After that, I'm immediately hitting up producers to get beat stems if the session was recorded over a 2 track. It can be annoying having to chase down trackouts for days or even weeks, but the way I look at it that's what they're paying me for. Why play a game of telephone thru an A&R to get what you need when you can reach out directly, get what you need faster, and be building a relationship with a producer who you will probably end up working with more in the future.
While I'm waiting on trackouts I go back in on Pro Tools, mute the beat, and do a bit of vocal clean up. Not changing any plugin settings, just listening back on every audio track, cleaning up fades, getting rid of any clicks or pops, tightening up any loud breaths, and getting rid of any background noise. Most of the time I tracked the song that I'm mixing, so it's already in a good starting place, but I like to take a few minutes so that I don't end up with any surprises later in the mix like ‘why do I hear a door slamming closed in the middle of the verse?’
Once I’ve got the beat trackouts in the session and matched all the edits from the two track in the recording session, everything else is just fun and creative. Sometimes the vocal needs to get a bit brighter and more expensive-sounding so that it cuts through more. Other times I'm adding dirt and punch to the drums so it sounds like they're trying to jump out the speakers. I'm just following my ears and the song kinda tends to tell you what it needs.
Unless the artist gives me a specific reference for how they want something to feel, I don't really use reference mixes. I do tend to A/B with the rough mix often, just to make sure I'm going in the right direction and staying true to the feeling of the song.
I have a close relationship with all the artists I work with, so I'd say 99% of the time I know what they do/don't like and how they hear things.