FMP Proposal

Client Kruze Beatz Project Name The first 48 Genre Soul Hip Hop/Pop R&B Release Date August

Social Media Links: Twitter - @kruzebeatz Soundcloud - /kruzebeatz Youtube - /kruzebeatz Facebook - /kruzebeatz Instagram - /kruzebeatz

This project is to be marketed to an audience of age between 18 - 35yrs (Mostly Singers/Rappers/Musicians) My aim/goal is to have a fully mixed and mastered 7 track LP. In-order for this to be accomplished in a space of 6 weeks, I will have to complete at least one or two tracks per week.

I will arrange my days in this order. Monday Begin the production and writing process, Lay down ideas/Find Samples. Tuesday Finalise the production and Writing, Record the vocals. Wednesday Mixing and Mastering. Thursday Play back the mix to professionals/Close friends and adjust the track/mix taking points from the criticism given. Friday Help classmates with their tracks etc. Sunday Doing the write up/business aspect of the music. This includes editing the viral videos, noting down session musicians/engineers/writers/artists/A&Rs and samples used for the legal process.

The viral for the promotion of this project will be a video log of a series of studio sessions conducted in-order to make this project happen. The artwork of this project will be a picture of a studio that will have a sofa bed and blankets, a kitchen like set up and a shower and this will all be manipulated in Photoshop. The aim of this manipulation is to portray the hard work put in on the project and this is indicated by the studio close to looking like a home within the work environment.

If this process is conducted with a good level of professionalism and respect as well as time and dedication, when all the dots are connected and everything comes together the project will do well as a whole.

Marketing and Demographics

For my FMP project I have chosen to sample and produce records by manipulating genres and creating a fusion of futuristic tones and sounds. In-order for me to undertake and accomplish this, my endeavours are to produce a high end record as a whole. I was inspired to create this project by listening to a wide range of the Motown era records and the early 90s hip hop. This consists of records from 3 decades and from the early 60s to early 90s from the likes of Otis Redding, The Ahoys, Al Green, Sam and Bill, Bad boy bill, Run DMC, Miss Elliot and many other greats from that era.

Precedents and Demographics: The demographics for the music i will be creating consist of an audience consisting of both men and women between the ages of 18 35 years old. Although this music will be presented to a particular age group, it is also available to all age groups. The reason I have chosen to present the music to that particular age range is because they will understand and enjoy the feel of the tracks as theyre the generation thats more familiar with sample records. In which for the majority of this record I will fuse soul music with the 21st century hip hop sound to create a groove the target audience will enjoy compared to the more younger or older than generation.

Marketing: As I feel the material is very fitting to the chosen age range within the demographics. I have chosen to release a series of well presented behind the scene video blogs consisting of studio sessions conducted in-order to make this project happen. Each episode will be a basic taster of how, who and where the music was created and put together. The aim of these blogs is to allow the audience to see the process from start to finish of making the record without giving them too much. There for they will connect with the project almost making them feel like they were a part of it and hopefully this will enable them to buy the finished product of the project. The blogs will be released on Youtube and presented and promoted to the public through Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler and Instagram.

Distribution:

In this day and age not many CDs sell anymore, therefore I have chosen to distribute 30 second snippets of the project in CD form as well as hand out flyers to help promote the music to those who are not exposed to the online promotion. The CD cover will be presented like an album and given out for free. This will help expose the product to the audiences and fool them to listen to the content hoping to be full tracks. Since the CD will only consist of snippets but will have the contact information such as, urls to online platforms to where the gravitated audience that like the snippets can find the full products. This is the stage where both the audience will meet and can buy the full product on platforms such as Soundcloud, Youtube or Myspace to name a few.

Social Network: Advertising though social networking platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram or Myspace is a great of exposing a project to a wide audience. This usually works as a spiral to which those that like the project as a whole or a track can repost to their friends, family or work colleagues. As the cycle carrys on the music is exposed and heard by people you couldnt have reached before, eventually getting project/tracks going virus all over the web. A great example to where this method has worked on has to be Justin Beiber or Chief Keef.

Radio and Magazines: Once the tracks are spreading and have been exposed to a wide range of audiences. The next step is to get them trending, and for this to happen effectively theyre to be introduced to radio and magazines to which the target audience pay attention to. In this case for the first places I would advertise and is best for radio are: Kiss, Choice FM, Rinse FM and Radio 1. As for magazines it would be: Pappzd, RWD, Candy and UKHH only to name a few. The audience to these radio stations and magazines would be interested to the product I have to offer. I believe radio is one of the best ways to market a product but in this day and age visuals are one of the most important aspects of promotion because the customer/audience want to know or have a feel of what their buying into there for having the single music video from youtube posted on blogs such as: GRM Daily, SBTV, LinkUpTV etc.

Remix: Having a remix is a way of exposing your music to an audience that dont usually listen to the genre of the music you have to offer and this helps draw people in. I have chosen to remix a famous song by Adele by the name home town glory. Since this track is universal which means it has an extremely wide audience and has been heard by millions of people round the world. Doing this remix will help bring attention of a few hundred or thousand people to listen to my record. The reason I chose this track is because it has a soul

feeling and the remix will have my style incorporated but still have the soul feeling to it and hopefully thats enough to convince the hometown glory fans to listen to my original style conveyed on the rest of my project.

Production and Recording techniques

To begin the project I spent several hours in the studio getting inspired listening to some old music from the Motown era. The reason to this was to dig from some chord progressions that have been neglected over the past decade by the music industry executive producers who almost control the sound or trend to music on the radio. The old music samples that I found during the hours I spent listening to soul music. I then sampled some of them to create what I call the futuristic. My aim was to build a bridge by fusing elements of both genre types and creating a sound that is applauded on both sides of the fence that divides the rugged underground and the commercial mainstream.

Track 1 Although the first track is not sampled, I created based around a mixture of jazzy chords and an 808 drum kit surrounded by an arsenal of percussion hits and layered pianos etc. On top of this arrangement is a vocal performance from one of my close friends and class mate by the name of Adneli Kondia(Man Like Nells). The song is written by both me and him. To start with I created the chord progression and while I vibe in the studio with my friend he began writing top lines (Hook Melody). His singing style inspired me to lay some 808 snare over the chords to create a rhythm and then an addition of the 808 drum, layered with a mid range air warming kick to create the bounce on the the track. We then started laying down the vocals and before we realised we had the majority of the track recorded and pumping out the speakers waiting to be filled with some percussion hits.

Track 2 This is an R&B/Soul Hip hop song featuring Kayo. To begin with I came up with the Drum progression but I kept it simple by not adding any percussion. In order to project the bounce I then added a sub kick know as the 808 to the hard hiting low mid range kick layered at the bottom. I wanted the track to have very a simple rhythm so instead of using just a snare for the snap sound: I then added an 808 snare mixed with a snap and added reverb to create an airy sound. This reverb is used on this song to fill the gaps where the rest of the percussion would normal go. As far as the melody goes I didnt want to over produce. Once I played with the string section and found the core melody I was going to use. I then added a dark grand piano to create the emotion on the track without the vocals. The entire track needed some words this is where the laid back vocals come in and since I cant sing calling in kayo Nells protg who laced the chorus before adding a rap to the verses and that is the track finished.

The stereo delay and the space designer I used them mostly on the vocals. With the right setting they create a sweet choppy sound to the layers of adlebs added. I also used the stereo delay over the snares in one of the tracks to create a wide pan sound to the snares reflection.

Track 3 This is a particularly 808 dominated track with some uplifting snares and a very low bouncy bass drum. The idea was created during an intellectual conversation about music and life and I had the top line ready before the music to it was made. Once I got into the studio the first thing I did was pull out my arsenal from the 808 folder and Put them thorough EXS sampler. I then began humming the top line melody while playing some bass drum with snares. It didnt take too long before I had the drums recorded and arranged on the grid. While hearing the drums in a loop on play back, I was playing around with the midi before I found the trumpet sound. The trumpets melody dominates the majority of the track but accompanied by a very subtle pad playing in the background throughout the verses. The next step was to record the top line melody and since I already had Nells and kayo in the studio i gave them the opportunity to record the chorus and the ended up adding verses.

Track 4 This track has a very hip hop influence but with some R&B chord progression in the verses merging the genres together creating a grown up lullaby sound. The chords and sound for this track is influenced by Justin Timberlakes song with Rihanna. So to start with I played a chord progression with a harp and then added a sample sound from one of timberlands drum kit. The sound is a mixture of a beat box synthesiser impression and an open kick. The song is percussion heavy and it futures a range of instruments from congas, tambourines, shakers etc.

To make sure that all the sounds are glued together properly, I used some automation to blend the volume and tuck in the frequencies.

Track 5 This track dominated by choppy rap vocals that create a party anthem over the military anthem drums To begin with I created the drum arrangement with hopes to have an anthem like drum roll. Over the drums I added an arpeggio synthesiser with the melody layered with some staccato strings. This is the track that took the most time to make on the project and the reason being the big vocal ensemble and the live drums added on top of the layered kick.

Conclusion
Most of the project was mixed while I was producing meaning some frequencies the songs where compressed, equalised or had effects added: such as the delay or reverb added while producing. This production of this LP was done over a period of time, with some tracks taking up to 3 days+ to finish. I have to criticise myself on the way I fulfilled my goals based on the schedule as I mentioned in my proposal because of not following my schedule according to my proposal. This disengaged from the allocated dates and times on the time sheet causing me not to finish a song that was supposed to be an outro on this project. If I was given the go ahead to the project again, I would make use of the timetable and focus more when Im in the studio creating because it takes a long time for me to concentrate and a very short moment to be destructed. That is a weakness that will make or break my career in the industry and could cost me placements etc. Below is one of the arrangements of the tracks featured on this project.