- i love big atmospheric shit like the grimey synth thing? (not sure what it is) in kill all rats - conway the machine
- another example of that deep atmospheric sound is in deltron 3030 - time keeps on slipping (happens at 2:33 as well)
- this sound is a little cursed but sort of oddly satisfying, sounds almost like a whale or smt lol funki porcini - moog river
- the guitar layering/editing in the beginning of Madvillain - Great Day (Four Tet Remix) sounds like boards of canada and is super satisfying, then i love the long slow build up until it picks up with the drums after the 'booze' line (1:39 and again at the end 2:23
- another thing i really like is hearing oldschool southern three six mafia type samples in current songs, isaiah rashad did it in lay with ya 0:13 which did the original song justice and made it sound better imo, also love the triple repeated snare (i believe thats what it is idk im not a producer) at 1:35
- juicy j also samples three six in a lot of his songs which i feel like is a nice way to get the current generation of people to appreciate older stuff and the roots of current stuff, i really like the sample in the beginning of killa and then he does a super fast repeated snares thing before the verses which i love 2:06
- another of my fav things is an 808 slide, done a lot in UK drill, popularized by pop smoke - dior (link to breakdown by 808 melo, song legit gives me goosebumps when i hear the beat), something similar was also done in a more trap setting by london/metro on gucci mane - both eyes closed 0:39 1:05 and done a lot in drill beats by melo
- in terms of my favorite techniques though id probably say either mike deans guitar solos (hold my liquor and devil in a new dress are some of my favs) or his outros and use of synths, dude is actually so talented it literally does not make sense he can make kanye/travis sound so good (his outros for don toliver are great too def makes the songs better than they would be, think he worked on most of them)
- another fav of things by mike dean is the transition in 90210, really everything about that track is so well produced, then effects on the sample after the transtion (before the chorus) and then the synths have such a cool electronic vibe that contrasts nicely with the oldschool sounding drums (which sound way better than they did in kanye - last call where they were sampled from tbh)
- one of my fav moments in any song is the outro to kanye - new slaves, love it when everything comes together in a crescendo (dunno how much of this was mike dean vs the other producers tho)