Beat Kitchen School

The weekly sessions are the heart of residency at Beat Kitchen ($85/mo) — live (virtual) classes go deeper when you are ready.

Don’t forget to EQ in context. Unless an instrument is meant to be heard on its own, its frequencies are there to combine with others.

Using an equalizer well is a two-step move. First is targeting — search and rescue. Find the frequency you want to subdue or accentuate; a big temporary boost while you sweep makes it easier to hear. Second is where you actually make the adjustment, and that’s where you ask whether you can get away with a cut instead of a boost. Most EQs introduce some phase shift, usually less severe on a cut than a boost — so attenuating the masking frequencies around your target often beats reaching for a boost.

THIS WEEK AT BEAT KITCHEN

Sun May 31 — OFFICE HOURS with .mickelsen
1pm (pacific) | 4pm (eastern) | 9pm (UK)

Mon Jun 1 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE with
7am (pacific) | 10am (eastern) | 3pm (UK)

Mon Jun 1 — OFFICE HOURS with
9am (pacific) | 12pm (eastern) | 5pm (UK)

Mon Jun 1 — EAR TRAINING with
9pm (pacific) | 12am (eastern) | 5am (UK)

Tue Jun 2 — THEORY GYM with
7am (pacific) | 10am (eastern) | 3pm (UK)

Tue Jun 2 — OFFICE HOURS with
10am (pacific) | 1pm (eastern) | 6pm (UK)

Tue Jun 2 — PRODUCTION GYM with
5pm (pacific) | 8pm (eastern) | 1am (UK)

Wed Jun 3 — INSTRUMENT GYM with
8am (pacific) | 11am (eastern) | 4pm (UK)

Wed Jun 3 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE with
6pm (pacific) | 9pm (eastern) | 2am (UK)

Wed Jun 3 — OFFICE HOURS with
8pm (pacific) | 11pm (eastern) | 4am (UK)

Thu Jun 4 — EAR TRAINING with .mickelsen
5am (pacific) | 8am (eastern) | 1pm (UK)

Thu Jun 4 — OFFICE HOURS with
2pm (pacific) | 5pm (eastern) | 10pm (UK)

Here’s a three minute video teaching three concepts for anyone who comes to Instagram to actually learn stuff. I’m not sure how many people actually fit that description but you know who you are. This is for you! Feedback, acoustic resonance, ringing out a room… Three important concepts that touch each other. I’m holding off on taking enrollment for classes right now because I’m focusing on our existing resident community and meeting existing students in office hours. I’ll get some new stuff on the calendar soon but in the meantime, just come ask me questions in office hours and I’m sure we can help. Also have some new apps on the way. Check the website. Have a great holiday weekend everyone

I didn’t have time to make you a GOOD video, so I’m going with this one. I think this tool is a little revolutionary. It’s undercooked, but it’s still squarely under $10 (started at $1). It’s going to be priced much higher when it’s done so if you’re the adventurous type and want to lock in the early bird price and willing to be patient while we smooth some of the kinks, I think this tool is pretty sick.

If you’re a Beat Kitchen resident, your version is already authorized and you don’t need to buy it. Just use your discord ID.

It’s a version of our Harmony Wheel that knows how to listen to chords. It works 100% on device — nothing gets uploaded to the cloud. It analyzes audio to detect chords and show you how to play them. But most of all, it’s trying to show you what those chords are doing by mapping their relationship on the wheel within a key.

This is not your grandpa’s Camelot DJ wheel — though the key tracking probably gives it an advantage in that space, too. It’s also not a substitute for a Beat Kitchen class. But this is the tool I’ll be using and the lens I use to explain harmony in my lessons.

Give it a spin and let me know how it goes. It definitely has some bugs and quirks, but there’s also a lot of opportunity to tune it and add features — and I’m hopeful my community will step up and help support it because I think this is gonna be pretty sick when it’s done. Actually, it already is.

Musician basics is the class will talk about this formally. But even if you are not enrolled in a class, my door is always open in weekly office hours or music theory gym and a BKS residency gets you a seat at the table.

Is there a difference between a Bb and an A #? Yeah. What we’re talking about is called accidentals.

Accidentals don’t just refer to the black notes on the piano. An accidental is any note that falls outside of the scale for a given key. In a scale, every letter note gets represented once and only once. In the key of C, that happens to fall on all the white notes.

When we play in other keys, we don’t litter the page with sharps and flats — we stick them all in the key signature so we can see right away if a note has been altered. Take the key of D: D, E, F #, G, A, B, C #. Every letter represented once.

A D augmented chord has a raised fifth. So that’s not a Bb, it’s an A #. Naming that note correctly helps us understand its function. And giving every letter a home in the key of A? You end up with A, B, C double sharp, D, E, F double sharp, G double sharp. Oof. We usually just call it Bb.

THIS WEEK AT BEAT KITCHEN

Mon May 11 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE with
7am (pacific) | 10am (eastern) | 3pm (UK)

Mon May 11 — OFFICE HOURS with
9am (pacific) | 12pm (eastern) | 5pm (UK)

Tue May 12 — PRODUCTION GYM with
7am (pacific) | 10am (eastern) | 3pm (UK)

Tue May 12 — OFFICE HOURS with
10am (pacific) | 1pm (eastern) | 6pm (UK)

Tue May 12 — INSTRUMENT GYM with
5pm (pacific) | 8pm (eastern) | 1am (UK)

Wed May 13 — EAR TRAINING with
8am (pacific) | 11am (eastern) | 4pm (UK)

Wed May 13 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE with
6pm (pacific) | 9pm (eastern) | 2am (UK)

Wed May 13 — OFFICE HOURS with
8pm (pacific) | 11pm (eastern) | 4am (UK)

Thu May 14 — THEORY GYM with
5am (pacific) | 8am (eastern) | 1pm (UK)

Thu May 14 — OFFICE HOURS with
2pm (pacific) | 5pm (eastern) | 10pm (UK)

Thu May 14 — OFFICE HOURS with
5pm (pacific) | 8pm (easter

Almost no one hears those imperfections except for you. Some people may even learn to cherish them.

There was a fun post the other day from on this topic, and instead of resolving to four places, I really wanted to bring that number up to 12. I’m calling this the ninth resolution mostly because it’s a catchier title.

A diminished chord functions as a dominant. Because it’s symmetrical, that means it functions as four dominant chords. Each of those dominants comfortably resolves to both major and minor. But the real kicker is that a dominant chord can also resolve to… itself. It’s called a common tone diminished. You hear it a lot in gospel music, particularly when it lands on a cadential 6/4.

This kind of thing comes up all the time in office hours and Theory Gym. Residency ($85/mo) gets you into all the weekly sessions below.

THIS WEEK AT BEAT KITCHEN

Thu, May 7 — OFFICE HOURS —
2pm (PT) | 5pm (ET) | 10pm (UK)

Thu, May 7 — OFFICE HOURS —
5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)

Sun, May 10 — OFFICE HOURS —
1pm (PT) | 4pm (ET) | 9pm (UK)

Mon, May 11 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE —
7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)

Mon, May 11 — OFFICE HOURS —
9am (PT) | 12pm (ET) | 5pm (UK)

Tue, May 12 — PRODUCTION GYM —
7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)

Tue, May 12 — OFFICE HOURS —
10am (PT) | 1pm (ET) | 6pm (UK)

Tue, May 12 — INSTRUMENT GYM —
5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)

Wed, May 13 — EAR TRAINING —
8am (PT) | 11am (ET) | 4pm (UK)

Wed, May 13 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE —
6pm (PT) | 9pm (ET) | 2am (UK)

Wed, May 13 — OFFICE HOURS —
8pm (PT) | 11pm (ET) | 4am (UK)

Thu, May 14 — THEORY GYM —
5am (PT) | 8am (ET) | 1pm (UK)

This kind of thing comes up in office hours all the time. The weekly sessions are the heart of residency at Beat Kitchen ($85/mo) — live (virtual) classes go deeper when you are ready.

The pad on a microphone is not just an emergency stopgap for extraordinarily loud sounds. The sound of your recording is the aggregate of the source, the mic, and the preamp. There is no such thing as a straight wire with gain. Every component adds coloration to the sound, and sometimes that’s precisely what we want. So when you finally go out and buy a fancy mic pre, you may decide you really want to hear what it’s doing. Reducing the sensitivity of the microphone may allow you to give the preamp a little gas and find the sweet spot. A -10 or -20 dB pad is sort of like the OG tone control — use it to balance the gain structure and see if it adds new flavors to your signal chain.

The next cohort that takes this whole topic apart starts soon:

HARDWARE & RECORDING PRIMER
mics, preamps, cables, signal chain
Mondays + Wednesdays · Jun 10 – Jul 13
$450 plus residency ($85/mo)
10am (pacific) | 1pm (eastern) | 6pm (UK)

THIS WEEK AT BEAT KITCHEN

Wed May 6 — INSTRUMENT GYM with
8am (pacific) | 11am (eastern) | 4pm (UK)

Wed May 6 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE with
6pm (pacific) | 9pm (eastern) | 2am (UK)

Wed May 6 — OFFICE HOURS with
8pm (pacific) | 11pm (eastern) | 4am (UK)

Thu May 7 — EAR TRAINING with .mickelsen
5am (pacific) | 8am (eastern) | 1pm (UK)

Thu May 7 — OFFICE HOURS with
2pm (pacific) | 5pm (eastern) | 10pm (UK)

Thu May 7 — OFFICE HOURS with
5pm (pacific) | 8pm (eastern) | 1am (UK)

Sun May 10 — OFFICE HOURS with
1pm (pacific) | 4pm (eastern) | 9pm (UK)

Mon May 11 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE with
7am (pacific) | 10am (eastern) | 3pm (UK)

Mon May 11 — OFFICE HOURS with
9am (pacific) | 12pm (eastern) | 5pm (UK)

This kind of thing comes up in office hours all the time. The weekly sessions are the heart of residency at Beat Kitchen ($85/mo) — live (virtual) classes go deeper when you are ready.

The pad on a microphone is not just an emergency stopgap for extraordinarily loud sounds. The sound of your recording is the aggregate of the source, the mic, and the preamp. There is no such thing as a straight wire with gain. Every component adds coloration to the sound, and sometimes that’s precisely what we want. So when you finally go out and buy a fancy mic pre, you may decide you really want to hear what it’s doing. Reducing the sensitivity of the microphone may allow you to give the preamp a little gas and find the sweet spot. A -10 or -20 dB pad is sort of like the OG tone control — use it to balance the gain structure and see if it adds new flavors to your signal chain.

The next cohort that takes this whole topic apart starts soon:

HARDWARE & RECORDING PRIMER
mics, preamps, cables, signal chain
Mondays + Wednesdays · Jun 10 – Jul 13
$450 plus residency ($85/mo)
10am (pacific) | 1pm (eastern) | 6pm (UK)

THIS WEEK AT BEAT KITCHEN

Wed May 6 — INSTRUMENT GYM with
8am (pacific) | 11am (eastern) | 4pm (UK)

Wed May 6 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE with
6pm (pacific) | 9pm (eastern) | 2am (UK)

Wed May 6 — OFFICE HOURS with
8pm (pacific) | 11pm (eastern) | 4am (UK)

Thu May 7 — EAR TRAINING with .mickelsen
5am (pacific) | 8am (eastern) | 1pm (UK)

Thu May 7 — OFFICE HOURS with
2pm (pacific) | 5pm (eastern) | 10pm (UK)

Thu May 7 — OFFICE HOURS with
5pm (pacific) | 8pm (eastern) | 1am (UK)

Sun May 10 — OFFICE HOURS with
1pm (pacific) | 4pm (eastern) | 9pm (UK)

Mon May 11 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE with
7am (pacific) | 10am (eastern) | 3pm (UK)

Mon May 11 — OFFICE HOURS with
9am (pacific) | 12pm (eastern) | 5pm (UK)

Last time, I asked what would happen if you boosted every fader by 1 dB on a mix peaking at -10. Some of you nailed it. A few of you got tangled up in summing physics and there’s a good reason for that. It’s genuinely confusing. This might be my weakest topic, but let me do my best to untangle it in under three minutes. And yeah, we are definitely glossing over some stuff.

Decibels are a ratio, not a quantity. You can’t put one in your pocket. When you ask “what does 1 dB do” the only answer is “1 dB more than whatever was there before.” Adding 1 dB to ten faders is the same thing as adding 1 dB to the master. The choir gets 1 dB louder, not 10. In this case, it’s not unlike a percentage.

Where it gets weird is what doubling means. Mult an iDENTICAL signal into two channels and you’ll see +6 dB on the bus, because the waveforms are correlated. They line up perfectly. Add a SECOND singer instead and you’re closer to +3 — same loudness ballpark, different math. Doubling and doubling are not the same and what FEELS like double is closer to +10 dB on top of all that. Phew…

This kind of thing comes up all the time in office hours. It’s also the territory Mix Primer covers from the ground up. Waitlist is open for the next round — in the meantime, your residency ($85/mo) gets you into all the weekly sessions below where questions like this get unpacked in real time.

THIS WEEK AT BKS

Thu, Apr 30 — OFFICE HOURS —
2pm (PT) | 5pm (ET) | 10pm (UK)

Thu, Apr 30 — OFFICE HOURS —
5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)

Sun, May 3 — OFFICE HOURS —
1pm (PT) | 4pm (ET) | 9pm (UK)

Mon, May 4 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE —
7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)

Mon, May 4 — OFFICE HOURS —
9am (PT) | 12pm (ET) | 5pm (UK)

Mon, May 4 — THEORY GYM —
9pm (PT) | 12am (ET) | 5am (UK)

Tue, May 5 — THEORY GYM —
7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)

Tue, May 5 — OFFICE HOURS —
10am (PT) | 1pm (ET) | 6pm (UK)

Wed, May 6 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE —
6pm (PT) | 9pm (ET) | 2am (UK)

Wed, May 6 — OFFICE

If you missed the sign-up for our Mix Primer this time around, you don’t have to wait for the next one. You’ll find me at office hours and the gyms throughout the week, and your Beat Kitchen residency pays for hundreds of face-to-face sessions throughout the year where you can get questions like this answered, even if you’re not in a class.

Of course the Mix Primer is one of the best ways to go through this type of thing systematically — you can always join the waitlist to be called for the next round. But in the meantime, this is one of those questions a lot of people struggle with, and I think you owe it to yourself to get your head around it.

There will probably be some disagreement in the comments. That’s fine — just keep it constructive and I’ll follow up with the answer.

THIS WEEK AT BEAT KITCHEN

Tue, Apr 28 — OFFICE HOURS —
10am (PT) | 1pm (ET) | 6pm (UK)

Tue, Apr 28 — THEORY GYM —
5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)

Wed, Apr 29 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE —
6pm (PT) | 9pm (ET) | 2am (UK)

Wed, Apr 29 — INSTRUMENT GYM —
8am (PT) | 11am (ET) | 4pm (UK)

Wed, Apr 29 — OFFICE HOURS —
8pm (PT) | 11pm (ET) | 4am (UK)

Thu, Apr 30 — OFFICE HOURS —
2pm (PT) | 5pm (ET) | 10pm (UK)

Thu, Apr 30 — THEORY GYM —
5am (PT) | 8am (ET) | 1pm (UK)

Thu, Apr 30 — OFFICE HOURS —
5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)

Sun, May 3 — OFFICE HOURS —
1pm (PT) | 4pm (ET) | 9pm (UK)

Mon, May 4 — WEEKLY BEAT CHALLENGE —
7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)

Mon, May 4 — OFFICE HOURS —
9am (PT) | 12pm (ET) | 5pm (UK)

This particular voicing is also featured in the free guidebook on our site. And it’s covered in our music theory class. I also favor it in instrument gym exercises periodically. It’s a frequent guest, and I encourage you to acquaint yourself with this shape when it comes to chords. Guitar players, this means you as well!

if you missed the last round of sign ups for classes, don’t worry. I’m still available almost every day for office hours and gym, etc. That’s the way Beat Kitchen works. And I’m not the only one here, so if you want a place to come and stay accountable and support your growth as an artist and learn the craft of producing music,, we’d love to have you as a resident.