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First Day: Mastering 101

April 7, 2024 · Beat Kitchen · Mixing

Mixing and Synthesis Tools

Welcome to your first day of mastering 101 at Beat Kitchen and I want you to look at the person on your left and look at the person on your right. Because two of those people are probably not hitting their mixing targets.

Tags: mixing

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The Guidebook

Free course notes covering theory, mixing, synthesis, recording, and more.

Setting Up Your Home Studio 2 chapters

Theory: Musician Basics 14 chapters

Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools 27 chapters

Hardware & Recording Primer 21 chapters

Mixcraft 19 chapters

Synthesist 16 chapters · class notes

Orchestral Kitchen 13 chapters · class notes

Electronic Music Kitchen 11 chapters · class notes

Ableton Core 27 chapters · class notes

Logic Core 25 chapters

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Beat Kitchen At-A-Glance

Beat Ktichen Calendar

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Recent Resident Gyms
- PRODUCTION-GYM: Lateralus by tool
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: Bass - the importance of the right notes, different rhythms, and the different timbres that you can get from the instrument - and how they all can influence how it works with the song.
- OFFICE HOURS: Dewi had an issue with creating AI stems in Logic and we were able to troubleshoot the issue with the file format. Talked with Alee about video editing in DaVinci
- PRODUCTION-GYM: David Bowie - Space oddity: Production, songwriting, and recording. We compared three different versions. The original and Demo from the late 60's, and the remade version from 1979.
- OFFICE HOURS: Worked through a one-on-one FL Studio session focused on chord voicings, register, and arrangement fundamentals. We diagnosed why the student's chords were sitting too low and muddy in the mix, corrected it through manual note transposition and chord inversion principles, and then built out a basic bass layer to fill the harmonic space we opened up. Along the way we covered the four core arrangement zones — rhythm, harmony, bass, and lead — and talked through how they function together in a beat.
- OFFICE HOURS: Went through a mix of Alee's and talked about arrangement, distribution of frequencies and lumping in mixes
- THEORY-GYM: We dug into Al Jarreau's "We're in This Love Together" as a live analysis vehicle, unpacking its deceptively simple harmonic language — predominantly plagal motion, super sus chords, and bass-line-driven pseudo-chord changes. From there we traced a sophisticated turnaround section that flirts with a Giant Steps-style modulation before resolving differently, and closed with a brief but rich look at vocal formant production and how great singers physically shape tone without needing the engineer to fix it.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: Breakdown of "Time Moves Slow" by BADBADNOTGOOD, production style, tempo push/pull, song structure, drum texture and keyboard sound
- OFFICE HOURS: We talked about picking monitors and acoustic treatment
- THEORY-GYM: We used Nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" as a masterclass in arrangement, mix balance, and harmonic construction. Explored how a song with minimal formal structure can build enormous intensity through restraint, dynamic layering, and the deliberate elevation of a single voice above the ensemble. Worked through the chord progression in B-flat, covering secondary dominants, the plagal cadence, sus chords, and invertional analysis (6-3 and 6-4 voicings) in relation to the harmonic series.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Office Hours: Kallie
  Mar. 22, 1pm (PT) | 4pm (ET) | 9pm (UK)
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Mar. 23, 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Mar. 23, 9am (PT) | 12pm (ET) | 5pm (UK)
- Ear Training: Jon Mattox
  Mar. 23, 9pm (PT) | 12am (ET) | 5am (UK)
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Mar. 24, 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Mar. 24, 10am (PT) | 1pm (ET) | 6pm (UK)
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Courses
- Apr 18, 2026 Harmony 1-Day Intensive
- Apr 19, 2026 Theory: Musician Basics
- Apr 22, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
- May 11, 2026 Vocal Kitchen
- May 23, 2026 Logic Pro 1-Day Intensive
- Jun 10, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Jun 29, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Jul 12, 2026 DAW Core Skills
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