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Session Player Kitchen

What does it take to be a professional musician? First, learn to program like one

In this course you will learn to make your programmed instruments sound like they were played by human hands. To this end, your instructor will show what is expected of a session player, and what tools and techniques you will need to record a perfect take every time. Learn how to communicate with engineers and artists to save yourself unnecessary time and frustration.

In this course you will learn to make your programmed instruments sound like they were played by human hands. To this end, your instructor will show what is expected of a session player, and what tools and techniques you will need to record a perfect take every time. Learn how to communicate with engineers and artists to save yourself unnecessary time and frustration.

Only then can you approach programming these instruments in a realistic manner.

Key Topics

Communication/Vocabulary
Drums
Drum Programming
Fills
Understanding Stringed Instruments
Programming Guitars and Bass
Expression
Rhythm Section
Mixing Considerations

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

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What students say

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I took the “FX, Synthesis, and Mix Primer” class, and it was amazing! This class covers all types of effects, such as EQ, reverb, delay, compression, tremolos, phasers, etc. Not only does the class teach what the effects are and how to use

—Eric, Wisconsin

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Man’s really passionate about teaching music went in with literally 0 knowledge of music and came out with a lot still got a lot to learn but definitely recommend them

—Spyder

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

—Taylor

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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

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Shared a lot of great information about the fundamentals of music. It was very helpful to understand the basics from different perspectives and how they can be applied.

—Matthew, Philadelphia, PA

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

See the full calendar
Recent Resident Gyms
- OFFICE HOURS: Worked through a live demo build of a custom synthesizer instrument, exploring string partial modeling, formant locking, and granular playback modes. Covered the acoustics of formants — how resonant peaks define vowel sounds and how locking formants enables pitch-independent vowel shaping. Also explored routing limitations when combining live audio input, sample playback, and the vocoder-style excitation path, identifying a specific bypass architecture needed to resolve the conflict.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed submitted beats from multiple students, including pieces by Paul and John, and spent extended time on detailed feedback for Josephine's track. Also demonstrated formant shifting using a custom-built plugin called Harmonic, walking through how formant sculpting and spectral shifting work in practice.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Covered bass-line thinking and how to approach bass as an instrument versus emulating it on keys, with a walkthrough of walking bass lines, landing chord tones on strong beats, and directional scale motion. Worked through the caterpillar exercise in depth — shell voicings, third-stacking, and chord substitution — as a framework for building keyboard facility in any key. Also addressed producer perspective: the risks of over-producing familiar material, the limits of metrics-based listening, and how perception shapes what we hear versus what is actually there.
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered a real-world case study in salvaging a poorly recorded garage demo: stem splitting for drum replacement/triggering, cymbal replacement using personal one-shots, re-amping guitars through virtual amps, high-passing for bleed reduction, and heavy vocal processing including noise removal, tuning, saturation, and slap-back delay. Also discussed audio delivery formats (bit depth, streaming platform requirements), Reaper workflow tips for cross-project plugin copying, mastering consistency across singles and albums, drum programming philosophy for producers, and drum fill construction for non-drummers.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed several pieces submitted to the Beat Challenge folder, including works by Christian and Angela, with discussion of chord voicings and song structure. Also heard a work-in-progress song featuring vocals, live instrumentation, and MIDI horn tracks in development. Much of the session involved troubleshooting audio playback issues with uploaded files before pieces could be evaluated.
- PRODUCTION-GYM: Worked through a sim mastering session on one of Josephine's productions ("Endlessness"), covering the full workflow from initial gain staging to click removal, drum bus compression, and kick/bass frequency balancing. Also opened the session with reference track listening — analyzing production choices, arrangement credits, and recording technique on a contemporary track.
- THEORY-GYM: We used "Our House" by Madness as a lens for analyzing a single recurring chord progression — one chord, one minor five, one minor two, one minor four — and examined how the band built an entire multi-section song from it. We also listened to a second track as a comparison piece, tracing similar techniques: modal borrowing, distant modulations, and fragmentary quoting of familiar progressions broken before resolution.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed a full original song submission from Josephine alongside additional pieces in the beat bucket. Feedback centered on restrained mixing philosophy — vocal leveling without heavy compression, minimal effects processing, and how to approach bringing in a live drummer without pre-loading their ear. Also demonstrated new Harmonic plugin functionality using piano sample scrubbing and inharmonicity modeling, and briefly covered sampler round-robin techniques for vocal sample variation.
- OFFICE HOURS: working with clients, mixing vs production
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed beats submitted by Christian and Jon, covering synth architecture, rhythmic analysis, and production technique. Discussed triad pairs, three-two clave, and syncopation as compositional tools applicable to both performance and production. Announced a one-week delay to the upcoming production class, pushing the start date from September 16 to September 23.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Office Hours: Nathan
  Oct. 08,
- Theory Gym: Nathan
  Oct. 11,
- Ear Training: Jon Mattox
  Oct. 13,
- Office Hours: Cato Zane
  Oct. 13,
- Theory Gym: Jon Mattox
  Oct. 13,
- Production Gym: Jam
  Oct. 14,
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Courses
- Apr 27, 2026 DAW Core Skills
- May 23, 2026 Logic Pro 1-Day Intensive
- Jun 8, 2026 Mixing: Effects, Synths & Tools
- Jun 10, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Jul 8, 2026 Hardware & Recording Primer
- Jul 12, 2026 DAW Core Skills
- Jul 12, 2026 Theory: Musician Basics
- Jul 15, 2026 FL Studio
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