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Gear: What to Buy and When

Home studio gear guide: what to buy first, what can wait, why mic placement beats mic cost, and when upgrading your interface or monitors actually makes a difference.

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Recent Resident Gyms
- PRODUCTION-GYM: PRODUCTION GYM — 862 words across 2 speakers (14 wpm). Insufficient instructional content for a summary.
- OFFICE HOURS: Worked through the phase rotation control on the custom additive synthesizer plugin — traced its origin in the commit history, diagnosed why it behaves differently on the left half of its bipolar range, and discussed whether to keep or remove it. Also covered automation and MIDI mapping of plugin parameters in Logic Pro, and talked through strategies for organizing a sync-licensing music website, including keyword taxonomy, slider-based filtering UIs, and using AI mastering for catalog preparation.
- OFFICE HOURS: Covered music distribution strategy, with a focus on artist-friendly and cooperative streaming platforms as alternatives to major streaming services. Discussed physical vs. digital releasing, Bandcamp Friday scheduling, and platforms including AmpWall and Resonate. Also touched on unconventional microphone techniques drawn from the book *Recording Unhinged* by Sylvia Massey.
- WEEKLY-BEAT-CHALLENGE: Reviewed beat submissions from the Weekly Beat Challenge queue, including work from John and Paul, with extended discussion around first-listen perception, pattern recognition, and how the brain constructs rhythmic meaning from ambiguous audio. Covered practical techniques for writing to picture, including the concept of "Mickey Mousing," and discussed how asymmetric loop lengths can reduce predictability in ambient and loop-based music. Paul was confirmed as the current Beat Challenge winner; the points reset policy was addressed and resolved.
- OFFICE HOURS: We discussed staying motivated, thoughts about creativity and how to not be too constrictive in our work ethos- allowing for staying on task, but also room to reflect on life and be creative. Later Alee shared a work in progress with the group, and we also talked briefly about mastering, and how to think of digital signal processing order/structure.
- OFFICE HOURS: We covered mic technique and placement. John was struggling with how to get rid of plosives in his recordings. So we did a mic placement exercise, pop filter up, and talked about the de-esser in the mix down.
- OFFICE HOURS: panning, automation, imaging plugins, etc
- THEORY-GYM: We talked about hearing and singing bVIIs. We identified how they sound when approaching them from different notes within the major scale. And also how to lead into them with chord progressions. A big part of the class was also focused on talking about key signatures and how they function. I shared how key signatures are just guides for a certain scenarios but they aren't the rules of a chord progression we choose. They help inform the progressions.
- EAR-TRAINING-GYM: "The Rose," open 5ths, Pedal tone scale degree 5 becomes 3rd of iii, becomes 9 of IV, becomes 1 of V, etc. iii - IV progression in "The Rose" and James Horner's "If We Hold on Together." Listening to inner voices— Am is one note away from FM7—7th in inner voice in "The Rose."
- PRODUCTION-GYM: We covered Leonard Cohen's classic song Hallelujah. We looked at the arrangement, the production, the instrumentation, and the structure. We discussed ideas around what kinds of production sounded dated to some of our ears, and how it sounds different against covers of the song. Participants had the option of listening to Jeff Buckley's cover or Rufus Wainwright's cover to compare and contrast how production can change a song along with instrumentation and performance.
Learn more about Residency
Upcoming Resident Events
- Production Gym: Jon Mattox
  May. 12, 7am (PT) | 10am (ET) | 3pm (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  May. 12, 10am (PT) | 1pm (ET) | 6pm (UK)
- Instrument Gym: Jon Mattox
  May. 12, 5pm (PT) | 8pm (ET) | 1am (UK)
- Ear Training: Jam Phelps
  May. 13, 8am (PT) | 11am (ET) | 4pm (UK)
- Weekly Beat Challenge: Nathan
  May. 13, 6pm (PT) | 9pm (ET) | 2am (UK)
- Office Hours: Nathan
  May. 13, 8pm (PT) | 11pm (ET) | 4am (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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Home Studio

Gear: What to Buy and When

Beat Kitchen At-A-Glance

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