Chart-Topping Producer Belly of The Weeknd Fame is a Mentor for Sound Editor/Audio Engineer Syllous Mai

“Jay-Z advised me to keep being myself—he told me the thing that makes me stand out is that I’m not trying to be someone else or sound like someone else.”—rapper/producer Belly, founder of Light Sonic Division

Syllous Mai is an in-demand sound editor/audio engineer, who has worked on successful Netflix shows (like Doona! and Daily Dose of Sunshine) in addition to top studios like Igloo Music and Light Sonic Division (LSD), the latter of which was founded by award-winning rapper/producer Belly. Consequently, Syllous is all about taking her opportunities and standing out from the crowd within the entertainment industry, like Belly was counselled by Jay-Z.

For example, one of Belly’s associates at LSD, rapper DannyBoyStyles has advised Syllous that as much as they can mentor and guide fellow professionals, they must create their own opportunity. Syllous, who studied Contemporary Writing and Production, Film Scoring and Music Production and Engineeringat the prestigious Berklee College of Music, says of working with the likes of Belly, DannyBoyStyles and DaHeala: “The associates at Light Sonic are all very hard working and passionate people. DaHeala is always there before I arrive at the studio, and he always leaves after I leave the facility. And I think being hard working is one of the keys to success.”

Overall, as an audio engineer and sound editor, Syllous feels her job is to “make audio sounds better” and, she learns daily about the professionalism and humility, that these leading entertainment giants reveal. She explains, “Belly is a gentleman. He might sound like a star that we can never get close to, but he is the quite the opposite and I feel very honored to have worked closely alongside him and numerous other amazing artists. There is always something that I can learn from them, they are the most influential people who are in the center of the industry, and they are always very willing to share their experience and mentor me”.

Now based in LA, Guangdong, China-born Syllous grew up surrounded by music and natural sounds, explaining, “Growing up, my mother was a music teacher who always advised me to ‘live in the present,’ and I was classically trained. Additionally, my father also used to take us to explore nature where I heard sounds that were so different from the city—bird song, the chirp of insects, running streams, the whistling of wind, the patter of rain. Even today I still love to go hiking in the woods and listen to nature.”

Now, with her expanding experience in the entertainment industry, she says of her different “sound” roles today: when it comes to recording, she really enjoys the process of being in the studio and seeing great live performances in front of her; mixing for her is the process of making the recording sound better and eventually help translate the song; and, for her, engineering includes recording, mixing, and mastering. She sometimes gets to combine many of those roles together, and says, “I record, mix, and master fun and cool social media content for a Chinese TikTok violinist Haoran Dong, who has over 1.4 million followers. So, I get to use a lot of my skills in combination.”

Moreover, she sees her role as a sound editor as cleaning out noises, balancing audio, synchronize audio content with video content, as she did for the Amazon Prime shows that she worked on. As a result, she’s learned invaluable lessons and has established herself as a force within the industry as a result of her experience at places like Igloo Music.

“To get the sound right, you have to start thinking about it before you even shoot. You have to know what you’re doing in each scene, how you’re going to film it, and make sure everyone prepared. So, you need to be collaborating with the sound team and have a good game plan ready, going into production before you can do anything else.”—Nicholai Baxter, mixer/producer, Grammy & also C.A.S. award winner on La La Land

Whilst at Igloo Music, she says of working with Baxter’s Grammy-winning sound recording facility, which specializes in multi-channel film mixes, ADR, voice-over, sound design and live music production: “It was there that I had the opportunity to play the crucial role of overseeing the sound of film—even a single unsynchronized dialog line has the potential to detrimentally impact the integrity of a film's audio. It happened during the process of editing English dub for A Deadly Invitation—the first film project I worked. In a laughing scene, the laughter audio clip of the voice actor didn’t align with the picture—the timing of the laughter didn't match the actor's lip movements and facial expressions on screen. This created a visual and auditory mismatch that affected the overall quality of the scene, and the laughter was out of sync. It would make the scene feel less genuine or comical. I had to adjust the timing of each laughter, frame by frame, and put fades in and out in order for the best effect. It was a very inspiring journey for me, and I look forward to continuing to work with more incredibly talented individuals, like Nick Baxter, in the near future.”

Additionally, Syllous brings something unique to the table in sound editing, explaining, “My Asian culture background has helped me a lot like when I worked on the English dub for Netflix Asian shows—it’s easier for me to understand the meaning of the dialog, which can lead to a better edit.”

As for what recent Oscar nominated films have stood out for her for their sound editing, and where her skills would’ve come in handy, she enthuses, “The multiple Oscar winning film, Everything Everywhere All At Once impressed me a lot. It’s a multi-language film that has Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. As a multi-language speaker, I know it can be challenging to edit dialog when it comes to a foreign language that you are not familiar with. What’s more, the sound editing process for something like fighting scenes in the film can be hard because the timing has to be very accurate in order for a more immersive experience for audiences.”

Moreover, Syllous has also been a sound editor for several other distinguished projects including the English dub of Doona!, A Deadly Invitation, Daily Dose of Sunshine, and Romancero. And she offers, “Most of my editorial work in Doona! was focused on characters’ dialog in the background of scenes. For scenes where the main characters and background characters engage in simultaneous dialog, it was key to make sure that the background characters' dialog enhancements did not overshadow the main characters' interactions, and did not distract from the 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.”

As for what’s upcoming for this sound editor/audio engineer, this facilitator of “sound” adds, “Among other things, there is a short film. is about an Asian mom and daughter, that I participated in that will be released soon. We’re applying to be in various film festivals including Clermont-Ferrand, Berlinale, SXSW, Palm Spring Shortfest, Tribeca, Maryland Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, Short shorts Film Festival & Asia.”

Drop in on Syllous Mai’s website and on IMDb. And, check out Home, her collaboration with Jihae, on YouTube, Apple and Spotify.