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Orchestral Kitchen

6 sessions · Tuesdays, Thursdays · 2hr each

Cheesy strings ends here

Great orchestral libraries won’t save poor programming. The best sample libraries in the world sound terrible when played like a keyboard — because orchestral instruments don’t behave like keyboards. This course teaches you how the orchestra actually works, and how to translate that knowledge into realistic, expressive productions.

12 chapters of ground covered

The orchestral template — setting up a session that mirrors how an orchestra is organized
Reading the orchestra — understanding the score, the sections, and how they interact
Writing for strings — voice leading, articulations, divisi, and the techniques that make string parts sound performed rather than programmed
Programming strings — translating written parts into MIDI that sounds real. Velocity, expression, legato transitions
Writing for woodwinds and brass — range, doubling, section writing, and the characteristics that define each instrument family
Programming woodwinds and brass — articulation keyswitches, dynamics, and expression mapping. The MIDI side of making wind and brass patches respond like instruments
Percussion and the full score — orchestral percussion writing, and assembling a full orchestral arrangement
Orchestral mixing — reverb, spatial positioning, balancing sections, and making sample-based orchestral productions sound like they were recorded in a real space

Prerequisites: DAW Core Skills or equivalent. Music Theory is helpful but not required.

Building This Class

Seats aren't on sale yet. Raise your hand to request enrollment and we'll build the next cohort around your availability.

The more times you select, the more likely we are to build a class that works for you.

What's a residency?

Residency is your Beat Kitchen membership —$85/mo or $700/yr. It includes office hours, gyms, beat challenges, and a community of producers on Discord.

Non-residents can take any class — residency months are bundled into the price. If you're already a resident, check the box above and you'll see the lower class-only price.

Learn more about residency →

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What students say

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Took a class recently with Nathan and he’s a fantastic instructor. His kindness, openness to questions, and knowledge of music is truly phenomenal. I highly recommend this school for anyone who wants to be a great music producer!

—J, Brooklyn, NY

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I loved the class I took on music theory. I am a theory nerd, and a music teacher since 2008. I got new insights in this class about things I had learned before. I also thought Nathan did a great job of establishing basic ideas before using

—Jon, Seattle, WA

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Incredibly knowledge-packed and the teacher has a great, passionate personality.

—Taylor

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Nathan is a great teacher, very knowledgeable, and explains things in a practical way making it easier to understand

—aden, Australia

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Just finished a Workshop about music theory with Nathan, and all I can say is he really opened my eyes and mind about it and makes me want to know more. I will definitely be looking into some of the classes to further my education in this

—Mercedes, Denver, CO

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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Beat Kitchen At-A-Glance

Beat Ktichen Calendar

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Recent Resident Gyms
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered mic selection and placement for acoustic instruments, gain staging and signal flow through a DAW and hardware mixer, the difference between mic/instrument/line/speaker levels and how DI boxes work, and parallel effects routing using sends and aux tracks instead of in-line plugin mix knobs. Also addressed stem vs. track-out terminology and audio-level distortion management at different points in the signal chain.
- OFFICE HOURS: We worked through melody writing — specifically how to get unstuck when chord progressions are in place but melodies aren't coming. Covered approaches including intuitive exploration without theory constraints, patch tweaking for playability, learning other artists' melodies as vocabulary building, and when and how to break outside the scale. Students also discussed studying specific artists — including Django Reinhardt and George Benson — as a way to internalize melodic phrasing and style. We also talked about different kinds of audio interfaces, and explored potential ways to link up more than one audio interface at a time to maximize inputs.
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered mixing workflow in Logic Pro, focusing on why to avoid placing a limiter on the stereo output during the mixing process. Demonstrated how to use Logic's Summing Stack (Track Stack) feature to group and organize instrument buses, and walked through how to create and use a session template — including how to import tracks from an existing session — to save time when mixing multiple songs that share a similar track layout.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: we listened to some 90's hip hop and talked about the different elements
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered top-down vs. bottom-up mixing philosophy and how to find the workflow that fits your process. Walked through a full vocal chain demonstration — EQ, stacked compression, de-essing, saturation, vocal doubling, ping-pong delay, and reverb bussing — with live examples on a vocal-and-guitar arrangement. Discussed automation as the final step that separates a functional mix from a finished one, along with mic selection, plosive control, and the value of low-stakes practice projects.
- THEORY-GYM: We worked on extracting chord progressions from electronic tracks purely by ear — no instruments allowed during the listening phase. The exercise focused on using the voice as an analytical tool: singing bass notes, tracing scale direction, identifying the tonic, and then doing a final instrument check to confirm. We worked through three tracks, identified their key centers and progressions, and connected the process to harmonic series concepts to explain why certain note relationships are so easy to hear.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed beat challenge submissions from multiple students, with feedback centered on percussion choices, rhythmic feel, and the relationship between drum programming and a piece's overall character. Discussed how early placement of a drum loop or plugin shapes compositional decisions in ways that are difficult to reverse, and explored the value of working with unconventional or handmade percussion sources. Also touched on the Beat Kitchen Harmony Wheel app — current store status, scale/mode counting, chord recognition accuracy, and upcoming fixes.
- OFFICE HOURS: We talked about giving yourself grace when learning mixing and production, we hunted down a few reference tracks for Jon, We also talked about saturation and how to achieve a specific sound Jon was going for.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: We explored the songwriting and production craft of Tori Amos through three songs — "Silent All These Years" (1992), the new single "Shush," and "Cornflake Girl" — analyzing lyric writing, arrangement choices, frequency management in piano-driven production, and the relationship between a producer's frequency awareness and the mix engineer's workload.
- OFFICE HOURS: Checked in with students during open office hours, touched on the Beat Challenge leaderboard standings and encouraged continued participation. Discussed the Harmony Wheel app's new Android release and noted that testing on personal devices has been limited. Briefly explored the philosophy of choosing cover songs and the value of crowd-sourced input for that decision.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Office Hours: Cinnamon
  Jul. 05, 2pm (PT) | 5pm (ET) | 10pm (UK)
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  Jul. 06, 6pm (PT) | 9pm (ET) | 2am (UK)
- Office Hours: Scott Hampton
  Jul. 06, 2pm (PT) | 5pm (ET) | 10pm (UK)
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Jul. 06, 5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)
- Production Gym: Scott Hampton
  Jul. 07, 5am (PT) | 8am (ET) | 1pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Jul. 07, 2pm (PT) | 5pm (ET) | 10pm (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
See All Courses
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