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Electronic Music Kitchen

The production techniques behind electronic music

Kitchens are where producers get their hands dirty — building tracks from scratch in a genre-focused environment. This one covers the compositional and production techniques that define electronic music across styles: house, bass music, techno, trance, and everything adjacent.

10 chapters of ground covered

The genre landscape — what distinguishes different electronic styles and how production choices define them
Drum design and programming — building kits from scratch, programming grooves, and the rhythmic patterns that drive each genre
Bass design and the low end — synthesis techniques for bass, sub management, and making low frequencies translate across systems
Sampling — chopping, processing, and integrating samples into electronic productions
Sound selection and layering — combining elements so they reinforce each other instead of fighting for space
Arrangement and energy management — the arc of an electronic track, builds, drops, breakdowns, and how to sustain interest over 5+ minutes
Automation and mixing for electronic music — sidechain processing, filtering, and the movement that keeps a track alive
From loop to track — getting past the 8-bar loop and finishing songs

Prerequisites: DAW Core Skills or equivalent proficiency in your platform.

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What students say

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One of a kind. Precious and deeply conscious teaching and learning exchange. Recommended to all who wonder about the mysteries of the universe <3

—Alix, Berlin, Germany

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I recently took a music theory workshop with Nathan. He is super knowledgeable and also a great teacher. Music theory is often confusing and intimidating for me but he used a lot of great analogies to make the concepts more digestible.

—Devynn, Seattle, WA

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Nathan is one of the great few teachers that care. As a graduate of a prestigious music school, I was whisked through a massive amount of knowledge, with many teachers. None of them stood up to parr as Nathan does, simply due to the quality and dedication he takes into account when explaining even the simplest of concepts. Amazing.

—Maxwell, Reno, NV

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One of the greatest, most fun classes I have taken. They open my mind to the possibilities of music

—Alex, San Marcos, CA

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This was an awesome music theory fundamentals class. Nathan was a very thoughtful, thorough teacher who offered up time and energy outside of class to help his students in a myriad of ways from answering questions to providing feedback on

—Lizzie, New York, NY

Explore Classes

Office Hours Weekly. Ask questions, get help, and connect. Included with residency. Production Gym Weekly. Production breakdown of your favorite songs. Included with residency. Theory Gym Weekly. Morning music theory workout. Included with residency. Ear Training Weekly. Test your ears and discuss — music, mixing, and more. Included with residency. Instrument Gym Weekly. Practice and workout on instruments. Included with residency. Weekly Beat Review Weekly. Listen to Beat Challenge song ideas together. Included with residency.

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Music Theory Learn fundamental musician skills including music theory, performance basics, and foundational concepts essential for … Mixing and Synthesis Tools Live course covering EQ, compression, reverb, delay, subtractive synthesis, gain staging, signal chain, and mastering — … Hardware & Recording Live recording course: microphones, audio interfaces, studio acoustics, stereo technique, and session workflow — …

Logic Pro 1-Day Intensive Full-day Logic Pro workshop for producers. Master navigation, recording workflow, editing, signal flow, and session … Ableton 1-Day Intensive THE TEN CHORDS WORKSHOP Master chord function and write instantly better music in one day. Unlock advanced harmony using the 10-Chord Toolkit … Orchestral 1-Day Intensive

Electronic Music Kitchen Master electronic music production fundamentals. Learn trance, bass music, EDM composition techniques, MIDI programming, …

Hip Hop Kitchen Learn to create unique hip hop beats with professional structure, sound design, and mixing techniques. Master looping, … Orchestral Kitchen Master orchestral production techniques including articulation, arrangement, and realistic programming for brass, … Session Player Kitchen Learn professional session player techniques and realistic instrument programming. Master drums, guitars, bass … Soundtrack Kitchen Learn film scoring and soundtrack composition techniques. Master orchestral production, sound design, and music for … Vocal Kitchen Learn professional vocal recording, production, and processing techniques. Master microphone placement, vocal chains, …

Beat Building Jam Workshop ideas into songs. Peer feedback. Instructor support. Prep for production Mix & Production Incubator Workshop ideas into songs. Peer feedback. Instructor support. Prep for production Recording Incubator Songwriting Incubator Workshop ideas into songs. Peer feedback. Instructor support. Prep for production

Mixing & Mixcraft Advanced live mixing course: parallel compression, sidechain, vocal chains, drum mixing, stereo imaging, automation, and … Recording Studio Masterclass Hands-on recording studio masterclass with professional equipment. Learn large format consoles, studio etiquette, and … Songwriter Masterclass Master songwriting techniques with professional composers. Learn melody writing, chord progressions, song structure, … Synthesist Masterclass Advanced synthesis masterclass covering wavetable, granular, FM synthesis, and sound design. Learn professional …

Beat Kitchen At-A-Glance

Beat Ktichen Calendar

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Recent Resident Gyms
- PRODUCTION-GYM: We used Tom Petty's *Wildflowers* as a production study, comparing the original home demo recordings to the final album to explore what restraint and omission look like as intentional production choices. The central question was: when a song arrives nearly fully formed, what is the producer's job — and why did they choose to leave certain things out? We also touched on the folk and blues traditions of shared musical vocabulary, the placeholder nature of demo sections, and the producer's role in helping an artist gain objectivity on their own work.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: We did a deep-dive breakdown of "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" by Talking Heads, from the 1980 album *Remain in Light*, using Logic Pro's AI stem splitter to pull apart the drums, bass, and "other" elements. The session traced the song's Afrobeat DNA through Fela Kuti and James Brown, examined how the album was recorded (live jamming in the Caribbean, vocals overdubbed separately at Sigma Sound Studios in New York), and used the track as a jumping-off point for discussions about genre, rhythmic feel, copyright, and the creative value of loose, imprecise playing.
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: We worked through a series of ear training exercises covering chord identification (including interval isolation, inversions, and dissonance), tempo recognition, DI vs. amp source identification, LFO waveform recognition by ear, and EQ analysis — specifically distinguishing a high shelf from a high-pass/low-pass cut and estimating its frequency and depth. The through-line across all exercises was the same core skill: isolating individual elements from a complex sound and naming them with increasing precision.
- THEORY-GYM: We took a deep dive into David Bowie's "Ashes to Ashes" (from *Scary Monsters*, 1980), tracing the song's unusual harmonic journey across multiple tonal centers — A-flat, B-flat, D-flat, and beyond. Rather than a single-key analysis, we mapped out the song's distinct vignettes, each with its own harmonic logic, and examined how Bowie's asymmetric phrasing, modal interchange, and tendency to lead with lyric over convention makes the song almost impossible to fake. We also touched on Tony Visconti's production approach and the value of combining active listening with formal harmonic analysis.
- OFFICE HOURS: We talked about how some things work on Dischord, to help Christian get his bearings being new here. We talked about what kinds of things are covered in office hours, and instrument gyms.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: We reviewed a handful of submitted beats this morning, with conversations ranging from the mechanics of guitar string maintenance to some genuinely deep territory around creative process, objectivity, and why the Beat Challenge works the way it does. Central themes included the danger of over-familiarizing yourself with your own work, the liberating power of removing naming pressure from your pieces, and the idea that making music is closer to journaling than to monument-building — a snapshot of who you were, not a permanent statement of who you are.
- THEORY-GYM: Breakdown of the Beatles' She's Leaving Home. Use of B Dorian, implication of different chords and cadences compared to B minor. Use of tension chords- Dominant 7th, Diminished and Sus chords. Analysis of chord and scale tones used in melody.
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: This morning's gym was a keyboard practice exercise that focused on both the drop to voicing and the Barry. Harris diminished bebop scale system. This not only reinforces harmonic thinking within every scale, but cord identification and finger dexterity.
- THEORY-GYM: We explored Strawberry Fields Forever as a deep-dive analysis piece, working through its psychedelic production choices, unusual metric structure, and striking harmonic language — including line clichés, modal interchange, chromatic mediants, chord inversions, and figured bass. I also gave a live walkthrough of the Harmonic Synth tool, demonstrating how it visualizes the harmonic series, partials-based synthesis, and harmonic-aware tuning systems as a companion lens to the theory work.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: Production breakdown of Bjork's Army of Me. History of the the Led Zeppelin "Levee Break" drum sample used, analysis of synth sounds, use of Locrian mode, use of chromatic samples in riff.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Production Gym: Nathan
  Apr. 09, 5am (PT) | 8am (ET) | 1pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Apr. 09, 2pm (PT) | 5pm (ET) | 10pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Apr. 09, 5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)
- Office Hours: Jon Mattox
  Apr. 12, 1pm (PT) | 4pm (ET) | 9pm (UK)
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Apr. 13, 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Apr. 13, 9am (PT) | 12pm (ET) | 5pm (UK)
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Courses
- Apr 19, 2026 Theory: Musician Basics
- Apr 22, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
- Apr 27, 2026 DAW Core Skills
- Apr 27, 2026 FL Studio
- May 23, 2026 Logic Pro 1-Day Intensive
- Jun 10, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Jul 8, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Jul 12, 2026 DAW Core Skills
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