Initial Project Proposal 
 
September Tenth, Two Thousand and Twenty 
San Marin High School 

Daniel Ford

Emma Rice

Derek Dela Cruz

James Wreden
 Table of Contents  

Background 2
Initial Research

Broader Scope 4

Time Frame 4
Management plan, Deadlines

Predicted Budget 5

Current Solution 5

Moving Forward 5
Tests, Research, and Surveys

Objectives 6
Planned Milestones

Developmental Process 6

Scientific/Engineering Concepts 7

Personnel
Key Personnel 7
Supplementary Personnel 8

Approval 8
Monitoring and Evaluation

Citations and Appendix 10

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Background
Initial Research
Music is a part of everyone’s lives, whether it is noticeable or not. Sound surrounds us when
we’re in stores, when we’re in the car, or when we watch a movie. Now, more than ever, music is making
a comeback. For the first time in decades, the sales of music are rising again. All over the world, people
are reminded of their primal love and appreciation of the arts. The influence of music is long lasting and
is something that allows people to connect to a different part of their mind. Because of this environment,
we believe that creating an accessible and practical product for musicians would be both beneficial and
successful.
There are many problems in the music industry and with audio equipment,such as filters, audio
clarity, accessibility to instruments and equipment, soundproof rooms, progression software, and audio
consistency. These are all valid problems facing the music industry, but we decided to focus on the audio
consistency aspect. ​The problem we’re trying to solve is that live audio during performances is often
unbalanced, and we would like to create a solution for that.
After deciding on our problem to solve, we were faced with the daunting task of deciding on a
product to fix audio consistency. Our product is a XLR cable with a built in pre-amp and limited EQ
functionality. In other words, we are creating an EQ graph wire extension that would go before a speaker
preamp in order to balance audio.
We believe that marketing our product to amauture musicians would be the best move. This is a
large client base that has a wide variety of genders and age, and there is a common interest and need for
this product. By focusing on this client base, we can find unique and specific ways to advertise our
product and make sure that it appeals to the clients. As supporters and participants of the arts, we all can
attest to the needs that these clients have and what kind of problems they want to solve to make their lives
better. This is also a broader term, meaning that, with the exclusion of professional musicians, our product
would apply to a myriad of consumers in terms of age, gender, and financial status.
Amature musicians are an interesting market to research, and we did our best to understand them.
Following our direct guidelines, we worked to empathize and learn more about amature musicians. We
wanted to see what they did with music and what their values, passions, and motivations are. Would or
product apply to them? Here is what we found:

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 ➢ Amature musicians are not paid for most of their work
○ This is something that they do recreationally and for fun
➢ They play music or rehearse until they can get something right
○ They are not all about perfection
○ Professional musicians play until they can get something right every time
➢ What is th​e difference between a professional and amature musician?
○ Ultimately, there is only one thing that defines a professional musician: He or she makes
a self-sustaining amount of income from music
➢ Strong community and resources online
➢ “One who loves, and one who does out of love”
➢ They are active participants in musical culture, who are often willing to throw down tremendous,
sometimes ​senseless​ amounts of money, just to engage
○ They could be in a recreational band, club, or apart of a following of a famous musician
○ Active to make music for fun and because they love it
➢ They appreciate the fine art of professional music
➢ One of the biggest supporting classes of the music industry
➢ Aspiring professionals sometimes
○ Therapeutic for other people

Looking into this market more closely, we found many commonalities amongst the diverse group
of people. We f​ound that the amature musician comm​unity has a common spirit. They want to support
and appreciate music in any way that they can. They appreciate the professional musician’s work, and
have an unexplainable drive that keeps them tied to music and creativity. We also found aspects that
differed; while they have similar spirit, there are different levels of dedication and goals among amature
musicians. Some aspire to become professional musicians, while others simply make music to tap into
their creative side for recreational purposes. In the end, it was surprising to see that the music industry
revenue was declining for so long. Only in the past few years has the amount of money been increasing,
and, thanks to fashion trends, so have vinyl sales. It was shocking to see how sales had dropped so
consistently, but also reassuring to see that now is a promising time for our product to be introduced.

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Broader Scope
Problem Statement: When an amateur musician has rehearsals in spaces where equipment is
sub-par, he or she may want something portable and simple that gives more level and equalization
control.

Needs to be Met:

➢ Portability
○ We plan on making this a built in connection to an XLR cable, this would be light and
coilable making it very portable.
➢ Adaptability
○ XLRs are very versatile and if one had a XLR to quarter inch adapter they could connect
this cable to almost any speaker/amp that they could find.
➢ Flexibility of Control
○ The addition of another adjustment point (Our EQ/Level Faders) only gives the musician
more versatility in the sound they can create.
➢ Affordability
○ Our hope is that this can be easily manufactured and obtainable for even the most
amatuer musician to get their hands on.

Time Frame
Management plan, Deadlines
Keeping track of our time management, dead lines, meeting schedules, and more is very
important and very difficult to keep track of and to coordinate with members and mentors. This is why we
use the GANTT Chart System to full capacity.

➢ Here is a link to our teams GANTT Chart on plan.toggl.com

○ Link: ​https://plan.toggl.com/#pg/Be2X2G57_Te62zzApKPtWWZaCwYzZsVh

Basic Outline So Far:

➢ Design Step One:

○ Various Parts Due September 4-10
○ Includes Proposal, D&W, and Survey Results
➢ Design Step Two:
○ Due September 18
○ Includes Design Concepts and Basic Sketching

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Predicted Budget
For our prototype, this project should be fairly inexpensive. We may need a lot of electronic tools
to make this prototype, but the tools can most likely be found in the maker space. As for the electronic
components, most of the circuit materials are fairly inexpensive. It should cost around $10 or less to
purchase the materials. However, it may take a little more money in order to get some materials for the
preamp. I was unable to find an estimate for the materials, but to my understanding it will be fairly
inexpensive.

Current Solution
Currently, equalization can be found as either hardware or software. Most of the software is a
paid subscription service that you can download on your computer and edit audio with, such as ProTools.
However, this software is mostly compatible with pre-recorded audio, meaning this cannot be done in real
time. However, there is equalization and leveling software that does work in real time. An example of this
is software created by NCH, which is a free software that allows the equalization of audio passing through
speakers and headphones. While this is an excellent equalizer, this can only be hooked up to a speaker
that is attached to the computer. Additionally, it is not universally applicable, since certain speakers are
non-compatible. Most live equalization software like this has similar issues; only applying to speakers
that can be attached to the computer and not being applicable to a microphone or external speaker. There
is software that is compatible with speakers to work in real time, such as Behringer. However, this
software is only compatible with a specific speaker. Our device will be portable and allow simple
connections between most types of speakers.
The hardware can be bought either separately or can be found with some speakers. The separate
hardware can be attached to the speakers in the form of soundboards. However, they are fairly large and
bulky. This size is because of all of the options available for the equalization of the audio. Additionally,
with more options, bands, and channels, the price of the equalization hardware can become very
expensive. Something similar to the current idea we have is a small box you can attach to your
headphones to slightly alter the pitch of sounds that comes through it, as well as amplify the sound for
your headphones. However, for its simplicity, it costs up to $225. It also does not have nearly the range
that equalization has, as it is simply a pitch shifter and amplifier. With our design, we will add more
options to make music leveled and sounding smoother. It will also be applicable to a wide variety of
speakers rather than only to headphones.

Moving Forward
Tests, Research, and Surveys
Going forward with this project, there are still many moving components in collecting our data.
We plan on leaving our initial survey open for the remainder of the project, to allow more data to come in
and it gives us an opportunity to adjust our design. Additionally, we will be administering more surveys
as the situation arises to assess the validity of our project or if we find important information. It is
important to us that we stay flexible and work with the needs of the consumers so our product is ideal.

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 It is still unknown if we will have the ability to physically construct our product, or if it will be
rendered online. Nonetheless, we will be continuously testing different components of our project. It may
be more hypothetical, theoretical, in person, or with our prototypes but there will be some form of testing
happening. We need to make sure that this is a realistic product to build and that it works.

Research is also another moving part of this project. Many challenges, setbacks, and questions
will appear to us as we inevitably run into them. Some research we can predict to encounter includes:

➢ How to test music equipment?

➢ What 3D rendering software is the best.
➢ The consumer/market we are entering (how things may change)
➢ How to improve our product

We can expect that we will need to be asking these kinds of questions to ourselves, and seeing how to
keep up with the changing times. This is an unpredictable, and unusual circumstance to develop a product
so we will need to keep adapting the whole time.

Objectives
Planned Milestones
The following are project objectives and milestones:
1) Determine product market and target audience
2) Determine the problem in the market the product will solve
3) Determine weaknesses in competing or similar products that already solve the issue
4) Research materials and components needed to create the product
5) Begin designing, sketching, and modeling product
6) Prototype the product
7) Modify the product, if necessary
8) Finalize product design
9) Obtain materials, taking note of cost
10) Build product and finalize cost
11) Begin marketing the product

Developmental Process
Our first step is to research the product’s market. In this case, it would be the audio engineering
market that includes speakers, microphones, and cables. In order to build the product, we have to
understand the current issues within the audio market. This also includes researching similar products that
solve the problem and their weaknesses. In addition to the market, we will also research the target
audience that our product would most appeal to. This process consists of research, surveys, and
communication with professionals in the field. A majority of this process has been done at the time of
writing, and we have determined that we are solving the issue of unbalanced audio during live rehearsals
and our target audience is amateur musicians.

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 Our next step is to begin designing the product. We will sketch and 3D model the product using
CAD software. We will pitch our product to our mentors and additional personnel and make any
necessary adjustments to it. In order to create the most efficient product possible, this process will be
repeated multiple times. These pitches, due to the current environment, will be conducted on Zoom.
After finalizing the design, we will then begin prototyping and constructing the product. We will
gather the needed tools to make the product. Since our product is electronic, we will need soldering tools
and other electronics tools. Then, we will research the necessary components and materials needed to
manufacture the product and calculate costs. After finishing the product, we will present it, as well as our
documentation and market research.

Scientific/Engineering Concepts
Many engineering concepts will be used in our project if it goes as planned. It will combine
electrical, sound, mechanical, and other engineering fields and need a lot of studying and prep.

Concepts Needed:

➢ Sound/Compression Waves and Their Behaviors:

○ We must understand the way that sound travels and how changing those waves
affects what we hear.
➢ Equalization of Sound
○ We must study the way that changing the amplitude of certain frequencies affects
a sound wave and what those changes mean.
➢ Signal Flow
○ In order to correctly design a step in the process of
mic->cable->preamp->speaker we must understand the whole process called
signal flow.
➢ Voltage and Level
○ We must come to understand different levels of voltage and how they relate to
different points in the signal flow.

Personnel
Key Personnel

Derek Dela Cruz ​- Senior, San Marin High School Emma Rice​ ​- Senior, San Marin High School
http://derekdelacruzsanmarin.weebly.com https://emmaricesanmarin.weebly.com
dedelacruz@students.nusd.org  ​emrice@students.nusd.org

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Daniel Ford -​ Senior, San Marin High School James Wreden​ - Senior, San Marin High School
https://danielfordsanmarin.weebly.com https://jameswredensanmarin.weebly.com
daford@students.nusd.org jawreden@students.nusd.org

Supplementary Personnel

Emanuel LaCarrubba ​- Audio Engineer, Sausalito Audio

https://www.secretsofthepros.com/mannylacarrubba/
manny@sausolitoaudio.com

Chris Fehring -​ Equipment and Resource Mentor, Novato CA

hirechrisf@gmail.com

Approval
Monitoring and Evaluation
Our official evaluators will be Mr. Tronconi of San Marin High School’s STEM Senior Engineering
program, as well as industry professionals and our mentors. They will monitor and evaluate our product
when we complete our work.

Mentor Approval Signatures

​Emanuel La​Carrubba Chris Fehring

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Evaluator Approval Signature

Claudio Tronconi

Team Member Signatures

​Emma Rice Daniel Ford

​Derek Dela Cruz James Wreden

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Citations
Links to Helpful Websites
https://sites.google.com/students.nusd.org/stemse/home?authuser=0
https://plan.toggl.com/#timeline/614971/projects/2273229?zoom=month
https://plan.toggl.com/#pg/Be2X2G57_Te62zzApKPtWWZaCwYzZsVh
https://blog.sonicbids.com/are-you-an-amateur-or-a-pro
https://sonicscoop.com/2019/11/29/how-to-tell-if-youre-an-amateur-musician/
https://keyboardimprov.com/the-real-difference-between-amateur-and-professional-musicians/
https://amateurmusic.org
https://www.secretsofthepros.com/mannylacarrubba/

Appendix
Tables/Pictures/Graphs/Sketches/3D models

This graph was from our initial survey to students at San Marin High School. We found that the majority
of students knew the terms we were referencing in our project. This is helpful insight as to the viability of
our project and it is important to know that people are aware of these terms.

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This question, from our revised survey was very insightful to our design process and next steps. We can
see that most people use their own equipment when rehearsing, which means creating a personalized
product would be enticing to amature musicians. They want something that is their own.

This is another result graph from our second survey. This is promising data for the field we are entering
and the product that we are creating, as the majority of our survey takers would want this kind of product.

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