Rick Slater

Rick Slater is a NYC based producer with 30+ years of audio recording experience. He is also an educator, and writes about the art and science of recording music. He can also serve clients remotely now, performing mixing and mastering to clients anywhere in the world.

Coming up through the large studio scene of Manhattan was a schooling like no other and those lessons have come in handy while helping artists realize their visions. In conversation, many artists have expressed the need to find someone who can help them tie it all together in the studio. Rick uses his his experience to help artists do just that. 

His earliest sessions were for Sesame Street at Mediasound Studios. What a great way to learn recording! He has recorded large groups in multiple live settings many times since then, but always using the knowledge he learned from those great engineers. He has also assisted on a lot of mix sessions for many very talented mixing engineers on major label projects, but the years assisting Michael Brauer at Quad NYC formed how he combined his own ideas with those expressed to him by the artist, into a cohesive mix. With this strong background he began providing additional production services as well. Working with more and more independent artists, he formed a production partnership with Mr. Shelly Yakus, which found Rick handling the bulk of the mixing duties. This is not to say that Rick didn’t learn plenty from Shelly, as he certainly had a world of experience to give. 

Rick witnessed the birth of Hip Hop as well, and so that is added to Rock, Pop, Gospel, Classical, and Jazz on the list of genres he has worked in.

Today, thanks to technology, Rick is able to provide clients with remote mixing and mastering in addition to the live session work he has traditionally done. Utilizing an analog summing amp, he is able to introduce choice analog gear into the signal chain in addition to a large selection of computer plugins. Much of today’s commercially released music uses this same hybrid approach to mixing bringing the best of both platforms together to create the best mix possible.

Rick looks forward to sharing his knowledge with members who are venturing into engineering and providing his services to those in need.