Articles | Beat Kitchen

Byte Sized

Articles

Content from our social media — music theory, songwriting, engineering, mixing, synthesis, and more — collected in one place. If you saw something on our page and want to find it again, it's here. Read it, search it, share it.

Featured Bite

Explain Compression and Sidechain in thirty seconds

When the TV is on too loud and you turn it down, you are acting like a compressor.

Negative Space Microphone Null

I try not to think of this microphone as if it is pointed at me.

Video thumbnail: Reverb. I am brimming with things that I want to say about reverb. There’s no way I can put this...

Can't Wait to Talk About Reverb

Reverb. I am brimming with things that I want to say about reverb. There’s no way I can put this into 60 seconds, but effects mixing and synthesis starts next…

Video thumbnail: It doesn’t matter what your jam is, even if you’re in a math rock, what moves you isn’t numbers,...

making sense of numbers in music production

It doesn’t matter what your jam is, even if you’re in a math rock, what moves you isn’t numbers, it’s music.

Scaffolding: extensions and rootless voicings

Not every A minor chord looks like an A minor.

Taking Musical Notes

If you’re like me, you’re always working and you’re always coming up with song ideas.

MPG: Music Production Gym

What makes music tick?

Video thumbnail: This is me watching everyone run around with their pants on fire because their plugin company went...

Music Production: self reliance

This is me watching everyone run around with their pants on fire because their plugin company went to a subscription model knowing full well you can do almost anything you want to with your stock plugins.

Flow: Order of Operations

There’s an order of operations I prefer when announcing a new take.

Video thumbnail: Your instruments and really anything organic, in other words wood, cloth, leather, they like the...

Humidity

Your instruments and really anything organic, in other words wood, cloth, leather, they like the same conditions you do.

Your Mic Comes With Reverb

This is your friendly reminder that your microphone comes with reverb.

Dynamics and EQ: connected

You can try, but you can’t really separate frequency from level.

Video thumbnail: Let’s do away with the notion that all major chords are bright and happy and all minor chords are...

N6: major minor happy sad

Let’s do away with the notion that all major chords are bright and happy and all minor chords are dark and sad.

The Martini Chord

The seventh is the top note of your chord before it reaches the octave.

Video thumbnail: Hey teachers, when you ask your class any questions, it’s a little bit like saying, Does...

Hey Teachers: watch how you ask the question

Hey teachers, when you ask your class any questions, it’s a little bit like saying, "Does everyone understand?" If you don’t hear anything, it doesn’t mean it’s time to move on.

All Bites

Showing 12 of 611 articles (Page 38 of 51)

Video thumbnail: With or without an audio degree, you wouldn’t be the first musician to come to me, never having...

Key Tracking

With or without an audio degree, you wouldn’t be the first musician to come to me, never having been told what key tracking is and what it’s for.

Release the Liner Notes

There is a Japanese visual art in which the artist is forced to be spontaneous.

imitate imitators

There is a story, and I’ve heard it attributed to a saxophone player named Phil Woods.

Modal Interchange: flat side sharp side chords

Take a song in a minor key and end unexpectedly on a major chord.

Beat Kitchen Ear Training Solution

These two passages are indeed different and then stumped my ear training group in gym.

Video thumbnail: You should maybe look towards a really, really quiet mic and a really clean, quiet preamp because...

Interview: Lindy Day

You should maybe look towards a really, really quiet mic and a really clean, quiet preamp because you know that like a lot of this, you know, all of …

Dash Cam: happy accidents

The other day I made a post about how you should always run tape, which you should.

Equal Temperament

I’m gonna try and explain something in 60 seconds that’s taken me about 50 years to understand.

Video thumbnail: One of the important things they won’t teach you at recording school, it’s how to give and receive...

Feedback Guidelines

One of the important things they won’t teach you at recording school, it’s how to give and receive feedback.

Divided

Our community is deeply divided.

Home Run! 2-5-1 edition

What’s a 2-5-1 progression got to do with baseball?

Motorized Faders

This old relic, this is your grandma’s motorized fader.