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Ini ti
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Proposal
September 10th, 2020

San Marin High School

Daniel Bazikian
Ethan Fonarev
Mateo Eusebio
Diego Gutierrez

Table of Contents
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Background and Objectives Pg. 3

-Background
-Objectives

Market Pg. 5
-Current Problems
-Current Solutions
-Appeal of our Product

Process Pg. 6
-Budget
-Development Process
-Scientific/Engineering Concepts

Marketing Pg. 7
-EP
-Music Video

Those Involved Pg. 8

-Project Staff
-Mentors
-Signatures

Appendix Pg. 9

Background and Objectives

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Background:

In this day and age, the production of music has shifted away from a reliance
on physical instruments and more towards a reliance on digital, computer generated
sounds. The recording of music used to rely heavily on physical alteration of materials
such as wax and vinyl. In 1877, Edison had created one of the first methods of music
and sound recording in his invention of the Phonograph. This device would amplify the
sounds made from a wax cylinder that would have grooves dug into its surface. These
grooves would create frequencies that would come through into the cone of the
Phonograph allowing for a louder version of the sound. Only 71 years later, the vinyl
disc or long-play (LP) disc would be invented by Columbia Records in a new,
innovative way of distributing multiple songs onto one disc while still keeping the
same form of the phonograph with its main function being the needle amplifying
frequencies. This form of physical music distribution would remain popular for most of
the 20th century, that is until the invention of the RCA magnetic tape or, better
known as, the cassette.
This new device allowed for easier portability and made its way into many
everyday items, most famously cars. Soon, music became easy to access on the road
and later, in 1981, in your pocket with the invention of the SONY Walkman. Only a
year later in 1982, the CD or compact disc was invented and permanently changed the
music industry, opening the gates to the new “digital era”. The days of buying
physical music are gone. Now it’s all about streaming, where applications like Spotify
and Apple Music dominate the music industry and make the physical ownership of
music unnecessary. During the 60’s when music production really began to be
popularly practiced, everything was recorded on 2-track tapes. Soon this technology
expanded to 8 track tape recordings and the sound on these tracks could be
manipulated, allowing for more detailed and experimental music. When music
production shifted to digital around the late 70’s and early 80’s, new possibilities that
were never before thought possible arose. Now, you could record 8 tracks, 20 tracks,
hundreds of tracks, if you’d like. It led to the creation of new genres of music, most
notably hip-hop music. Producers would pinpoint a small section of a song, transfer
the section from vinyl/cassette to digital, and “chop it”. This means they would be
able to get even 1 second sections and modify it into a whole new melody, almost like
musical recycling. This practice can be seen in almost all genres of music today.
Because of the popularity of digital production, as can be seen in the results of
our survey, our team decided to focus on this aspect of sound production. The
popularity of computers goes hand-in-hand with modern production, which means
that it would be the most effective and easy to learn way of production for beginners.
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We will deliver a product that delves into the key concepts of modern music
production and will offer an easy to follow guide, given that almost all our surveyors
have access to and are comfortable with the equipment for this style of production.

An overwhelming majority of those who answered the survey said that they
owned a computer at home. A solid majority of approximately seventy-percent said
that they have an instrument at home, though a minority of thirty-percent said that
they have a microphone at home. Despite there being a healthy majority of
instrument owners, a lack of a microphone restricts them from properly recording
their sounds, and thus, most technically do not have access to that instrument during
the music production process.

Objectives:

We aim to create a digital service that sells premium sounds for a cheap price.
These sounds will be engineered by us through the use of physical and digital means,
and will come with easy-to-read guides on how to produce music. Consequently, our
product is digital sound that will be monetized.
Market
Current Problems

Current problems to music production climate include music being intimidating

to those who are not greatly musically inclined, but have some sort of interest in a
musical hobby or appreciate music as an art, whether it be an instrument or making
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simple beats. There also aren’t many places where you can get desired sounds to
create music all in one place, which would be the aim of our digital kit. But we see
one of the biggest problems being the decline in quality of life without a musical
hobby (or any hobby) to balance out work and fun and the lack of good beginner
sound kits out there.

Current Solutions

Current solutions to music production are the distribution of digital sound

packs, built-in stock sounds on popular music programs, and video-to-mp3 websites.
These solutions, although widespread, are not up to snuff. The aforementioned sound
packs often range from $30 to $160, prices that are often daunting for many
beginners. Built-in stock sounds, although cheap, are of a much lower quality, and are
so commonly used that producers would be incapable of refining their own sound.
Lastly, video-to-mp3 websites only provide an uncut, incomplete sample, that the
producer would have to edit.

Appeal of our Product

Many of the current problems are fixed through our product by being easy to
use, easy to apply, very cheap, very good quality, and safe for beginners. Although
our product works great for beginners, it can be used by people of all ages. The ease
of access is the biggest highlight, making our product very user friendly. We will be
creating a simple interface to draw in more people who wouldn’t normally be as
inclined to make music. We are ultimately attempting to provide opportunities for
others to venture into the field of music production whether as a hobby or intro for a
potential career.

Process
Budget:
* Note: We did not spend this much money specifically for the project.
Items in black font are things that one of us already owns and is using for
the project (including these to show what this would cost from scratch).
Items in red font are items we have bought for the project.
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● Weebly Domain - $19.95

● Full drum kit - $500
● Epiphone Les Paul 60’s Standard V3 - $699
● Ferdinand A460 Nylon Guitar - $60
● Fender Stratocaster - $899
● Fender Squier J Bass - $229
● Casio LK-170 Keyboard - $71.99
● Jupiter Alto Sax - $1,099
● CP Bongos - $59.99
● Martin DCPA5 Black Acoustic/Electric Guitar - $999
● Logic Pro X - $199
Total: $4,835

Development Process

Scientific/Engineering Concepts:
- Transverse wave: A moving wave whose oscillations are
perpendicular to the direction of the wave or path of
propagation.
- Longitudinal wave: A wave vibrating in the direction of
propagation. We will be dealing with longitudinal waves more
often throughout development, as sound waves are
longitudinal
- Wavelength: The distance between successive crests of a
wave. Each of the 7 musical notes on the chromatic scale has
a different wavelength. Measured in meters (m)
- Wave Frequency: The number of waves that pass a fixed point
in a given amount of time. Each of the 7 notes on the
chromatic scale has a different frequency. Measured in Hertz
(Hz)
- Wave Amplitude: Maximum amount of displacement of a
particle on a medium from its rest position. Distance from rest
to crest in a sense.
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Marketing

Marketing Goals:

We intend to take full advantage of the sounds that we have made by using
them to create a coherent piece of music. This display would be musically appealing
and convince our audience to buy our sounds because we show them the great
potential of our product.

EP:

The first part of our marketing plan is to create a four to five song EP between
ten to thirty minutes. This EP should be appealing to our audience by being made up
of songs from popular genres. Based on a sizable sample response to the question
“what genre of music are you most interested in?” we identified these genres: (27%
hip hop/rap, 19% rock, 10% jazz). With this in mind, our EP will be developed to
resemble some of these genres.

Music Video:

The second part of our marketing plan is to produce a music video to go along
with at least one song on the EP. This music video will be a visual representation of
the music production process as well as the physics that go behind it. The video
should convey to our audience how fun it is to produce music, as well as an ideal
depiction of one’s satisfaction with their end result.

Those Involved

Project Staff: Role:

Daniel Bazikian Lead Marketing Specialist, Project Head
https://danielbazikian.weebly.com/
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Ethan Fonarev Lead of Visual/Motion Picture Category,

https://ethanfonarevsanmarin.weebly.com/ Project Head

Mateo Eusebio Musician, Project Head

https://mateoeusebiosanmarin.weebly.com/

Diego Gutierrez Musician, Lead of Sound Engineering,

https://diegogutierrezsanmarin.weebly.com/ Project Head

Mentors Area of Expertise Experience

Joshua Newberry Fundamental knowledge of Collaborates with
the sound frequency musicians to produce
system and musical studio grade performance
understanding.

Signatures
Mateo Eusebio Ethan Fonarev

Daniel Bazikian Diego Gutierrez

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Appendix
- Data and Charts from Survey

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