Cahit Asova [Cahit Asova/The Blues Of Cahit Asova.]JUNE 2015

Overview

[YOUR INTRODUCTION; 1. The client is my self, while also using some other musicians that I know and that I have worked with before in previous projects. But due to limited avalability of some musicians I had to program the sounds a lot more than I planned to.2. The genre that I decided to go with is the Blues/Rock & Roll genre. I have chosen this genre because It a genre that I extremely enjoy performing while also having lots of experience in this genre with performing and composing. I have been playing the blues for about 6 years and have been composing my own songs in that genre for about 3. 3. Before the recording process began I had to plan on who I were planning to aim my music to. After lots of thinking of who thought It was better to aim my music at, I have decided that I am aiming to deliever this product to both a young and older audience between the ages of 15-55 By using social media sites such as, YouTube & Soundcloud while sharing those links on my facebook page. I believe that is possible because the genre of the blues has become a bit more popular with the younger audience over the last couple of years with artists like Seasick Steve while youngsters also still listen to bands Bands such as The Beatles & The Rolling Stones while obviously and older audicence will of listened to have listened to artists such asJerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley & Little Richard so I believe I have a chance of having younger listeners while also reaching out to a older audience. 4. https://soundcloud.com/cahitasovamusic 5. During the first couple of recording sessions I would record guide tracks and knowing that the genre I was working with and the styles of songs I planned to compose I was hoping on the composotions to be very melodic so I always started with the piano on each track experimenting with different melodies and different EQ & Compression techniques. Below I explain to those techniques. I also used programmed drums using a program called Abbey Road Drummer & Studio Drummer by Native Instruments, By doing that I programmed the drums at my home and would bring the drums in and record the guitars and bass etc at the college. Also the sound I was hoping to emulate was the 50s Slapbacksound used by artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis. By that I used a decent amount of reverb, echo & delay. I would also record the acoustic guitars with the same techinique on each track, I explain that technique below. While composing these songs I listened to artists such as Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B King & Little Richard for inspiration and I tried to emulate the sound used by those artists in my own tracks while also using panning techniques on some of my songs on certain instruments6. For this project I planned to release 6 tracks & I managed to release all 6 tracks that were planned.7.

RECORDING/PRODUCTION PROCESSTRACK 1 - For The King https://soundcloud.com/cahitasovamusic/for-the-king-instrumental

1. INSTRUMENTATION; The instruments I used and recorded in this song are Drums which were programmed, Piano, Electric Piano, Electric Guitar, Wah Trumpet & Bass.2. INSPIRATION TRACK; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ9G1_FyHso

3. TARGET SOUND; Like mentioned before I Listened to a lot of artists around the 50s and early 60s era and decided to try use similar techniques used by the producers at Sun Records (Jerry Lee Lewis & Elvis Presleys record label) Below I explain in regards to EQ and Reverb.

4. RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES; The instruments which are key in the song is the Wah Trumpet sound I used while also Piano, Electric Guitar, Drums, Electric Piano & Bass where also key in the track. This song at first had a different title, I changed the title to For The King In tribute to one of my favourite blues performers B.B King I believe the composition was great as a tribute to B.B King. The song is in the Key Of C and I used 3 chords G7 F7 & C. For the solos they are all improvised around the scale whereas the bass just repeats the same 4 notes. Those notes are G Eb Bb & C. The drums where programmed by a program called Abbey Road Drummer I chose a category and then chose the 6/8 time signature section and I had several choices with fills different variations of this time signature.

5. YOUR MIX; Like mentioned before I wanted a echo similar to the slapback echo technique used by Sun Records on the records they released so on the instruments I recorded I managed to achieve this with the PlatinumVerb plugin in Logic. I brought up the Room Size on individual instruments giving them each a different room size while also changing the inital delay.

6. EVALUATION; I think the composition is perfect for this style. and I think the Production techniques are fairly successful. The guitar in this track wasnt great since I could not find a guitarist at the time of recording so I had to record the guitar from a keyboard which made the track sound less bluesy since guitars are mostly recorded live in this genre.

Track 2 - Great Balls Of Firehttps://soundcloud.com/cahitasovamusic/great-balls-of-fire-instrumental RECORDING/PRODUCTION PROCESS

1. INSTRUMENTATION; Piano, Brass, Walking Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar & Drums (Programmed)2. INSPIRIATION TRACK ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt0mg8Z09SY3. TARGET SOUND; Well for this paticular sound I was trying to get the song to sound similar to the work of artists such as Little Richard & Of course Jerry Lee Lewis. So I first started by recording the walking bass in with my keyboard, which was all on EQd & Compressed on my keyboard. With the Acoustic Guitar I set up the microphone so that it was facing the hole directly while also doing another take where the microphone was facing the frets. With the electric I used a DI and used the amp settings avaliable to me in Logic using a simple clean sound.4. RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES; The Key instrument in this track is definietly the piano and also the walking bass and the acoustic guitar are key since they are pretty much the backbone of the track. Again the Chords used in this song was C, F & G7 again following the C Blues Scale. I learnt the melody of this cover song a couple of years ago and thought it was a perfect idea to record this song as a cover for my E.P5. YOUR MIX; I used slight reverb and delay on the acoustic. With the Piano I compressed it the same as track 1. I tried my best to not mess up the timbre of the piano and tried to make it as natural as possible. I also used a fast attack and a medium release with a ratio of 4:1 since I was mostly playing solo stuff on the piano. 6. EVALUATION: The melody of this song and the general production of this song is successful and I believe I did a good job of replicating a song of that genre. Whereas the Walking bass does not sound that great, but its not that noticeable since it is relatively low down in the mix. Track 3 - I Just Want Youhttps://soundcloud.com/cahitasovamusic/i-just-want-you RECORDING/PRODUCTION PROCESS1. INSTRUMENTATION; Piano, Electric Piano, Electric Guitar, Bass, Drums, Glockenspiel, Strings, Mute Trumpet, Tenor Trombone & Organ2. INSPIRATION TRACK; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRb1-SAAIzs3. TARGET SOUND; while recording this song I knew that I wanted it to sound somewhat similar to Doo-Wop recorded around the late 50s while also adding generaly modern sounding techniques, for instance on the Glockenspiel at the intro of the track I went to the pedalboard and added a delay pedal and reversed it while also panning the electric piano to the right. 4. RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES; The key instruments in the song are Electric Piano, Mute Trumpet, Trombone, Strings & Glockenspiel. The is in the key of G Major and I used 5 chords in the song G, Em, C, D & Am 5. YOUR MIX; The Reverb with the track I used the platinumverb Plugin, I took down the predelay while also changing the room shape and room size while changing the initial delay and spread. I used all these effects on the tracks different instruments but changing them depending on the instrument that I was adding reverb to, I also used similar techiniques of using reverb for all my tracks. With the Bass EQ I went a little below 70hz so it didnt sound to flabby I then boosted around 200hz for that little Punch. With the Piano I cut around 350hz to lessen the muddiness while also boosting above 1Khz for clarity. With the Tenor Trombone I cut all the frequencies below 50khz to get rid of muddiness, While I boosted between 100hz and 2khz while also cutting between 5khz and 20khz.6. EVALUATION; I think this song in terms of melody is the strongest out of all my tracks, I believe that the chords and melody I used Were similar to the ones released in the 50s while I believe I added a moderness with my effects used on the glockenspiel.

Track 4 - Boogie Woogie https://soundcloud.com/cahitasovamusic/boogie-woogie RECORDING/PRODUCTION PROCESS1. INSTRUMENTATION; Piano, Bass, Electric Guitar,Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Drums, & Brass2. INSPIRATION TRACK; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHlM2Qr9TZQ3. TARGET SOUND; while recording this song I knew that I wanted it to sound somewhat similar to my inspiration track, so with that I repeated all the recording techniques used before with the acoustic guitar recording with the mic placement the same. I also used the same Compression techniques and EP techniques. 4. RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES; The key instruments in the song is the Piano, The is in the key of C Major and follows the 12 bar blues structure I used 3 chords in the song C F & G while the melody was various blues tricks and variations in that key.5. YOUR MIX; With the EQ of the drums I Individually EQd all the unwanted resonance and over powering high end from the hi-hats , I used this EQ techinique for drums on every track. 6. EVALUATION; I think this song is a very good composition of mine, I used very common blues tricks used by famous Boogie Woogie & Blues pianists. I actually believe that this track is the most successful and barely has any problems with it.

Track 5 - Good Golly Miss Molly https://soundcloud.com/cahitasovamusic/i-just-want-you RECORDING/PRODUCTION PROCESS1. INSTRUMENTATION; Piano, Bass,Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin, Bass, Vocals & Drums, 2. INSPIRATION TRACK; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ6akiGRcL83. TARGET SOUND; while recording this song I decided that I wanted this to be a full cover rather than a instrumental cover, so I managed to get a friend of mine to record drums and vocals for me while I got Old band members of mine to record Acoustic Guitar and Bass for me. I recorded the vocals at my home using Blue Yeti Microphone right near the corner of my recording room while using a portable vocal booth. Since the recording space we used at the time had a natural reverb in the room I decided to use the omnidirectional setting on my microphone in a sepearte take get a little natural reverb on the vocals. I recorded the drums at my friends recording studio. With the microphone set up I thought I used the techniques I learnt previously at the college. So I positioned the kick drum mic just inside the sound hole, the snare microphone just a little to the side of the snare and the bottom snare microphone right under. With the floor and rack tom we positioned the microphones a little to the side of the toms again and pointed on of the microphones to the center. With the Hi-Hat Microphones we positioned them about 5 to 6 inches from the Hi-Hats with it pointing as close to the middle of them as possible & with the overheads we positioned them directly over the kit while also making sure they were the same height by using a XLR lead to meausre from the snare to the overheads while also getting them as close to each other as possible to avoid any latency during the recording. We used these techiniques and Microphone placements for track 6 also.4. RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES; The key instruments in the song is the Piano & Vocals, The majority of the melody is played with the piano while it also has 2 solos The song is in the key of G Major and again follows the 12 bar blues structure I used 3 chords in the song G C & D. Wheras the vocals are slightly difficult to sing since its in a relatively high key but the vocalist managed to pull it off even though they was a little ill.5. YOUR MIX; I used the same EQ Techniques on the drum as the one before. With the vocals I used the slightest echo and reverb on them. I also melodyned the vocals a lot since the vocalist had a cold that day and struggled a little with the singing and screeching which was needed for the song. 6. EVALUATION; I think this song is a very good cover version the only criticsm I would have is that the vocals sound to Robotic and Auto-Tuned which dont give it that 50s Rock And Roll Vocal sound. But other than that I believe it is a relatievly successful cover.

Track 6 -Stand By Me https://soundcloud.com/cahitasovamusic/stand-by-me RECORDING/PRODUCTION PROCESS1. INSTRUMENTATION; Piano, Bass,Acoustic Guitar, Mandolin, Bass, Vocals, Strings & Drums, 2. INSPIRATION TRACK; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vbg7YoXiKn03. TARGET SOUND; I used the same techiniques in the track before. The only difference is instead of using the omnidirectional setting I only did one take with the microphone in the portable recording booth. I felt as if I didnt want the room reverb in this track. 4. RECORDING AND PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES; The key instruments in the song is the Piano, and Strings and vocals The majority of the melody is played with the piano while it also has a strings solo. I used 5 chords in the song G Em C & D. 5. YOUR MIX; I used the same EQ Techniques on the drum as the one before. With compression of the vocals I had a relatively high ratio of 5:1 since the vocalist sang in different levels, I kept the attack under 10ms Which I belive has lowered the louder parts and provide a more consistent level with the vocal performance I also used a little automation when the the vocals became louder and quiter in certain sections.6. EVALUATION: again as a cover i believe it is a good cover version, but again I think the vocals are not great even with a little melodyne some notes were also a little off and some again sounded slightly Robotic but overall it is a good cover track in my opinion. MARKETINGPROVIDE DETAILS OF YOUR MARKETING TOOL;1. My marketing tool is a cover, the cover I have chosen is Stand By Me

2. https://soundcloud.com/cahitasovamusic/stand-by-me

3. It could prove effective because this song is probably one of the most popular songs of all time, Nearly every one knows this song and I believe it can get a lot of listeners on my page. And altough it saddens me to say it but because of the recent death of Ben E.King it would attract a lot more visitors I think because whenever a artist dies sometimes they attract new fans who wonder what their music was like. So I with this in mind I believe this will attract traffic to my Soundcloud page and E.P

4. PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES; Well, I mainly shared my E.P to various groups on soundcloud and different websites while also sharing links on my Google+ Account & YouTube Account.

5. http://www.topix.com/forum/music/rock-n-roll http://www.musicbanter.com/rock-n-roll-classic-rock-60s-rock/ These are 2websites I believe I could share My E.P on. With the 2 websitesthey are forums that I used to go on when I was younger and I remember seeing lots of people share their original music on them sites, they got a decent amount of views just by sharing on that site while also asking people who listened for their feedback. Since my track is a cover I believe when people see what cover track I have done, they will be interested to hear my original tracks. 6. EVALUATION; The Marketing was done decently, not amazing, I got views due to the fact I had already followers on soundcloud from before when I posted in Soundcloud Groups. Lots of things could of been improved, maybe I could of Created a facebook, Page or done a Lyric Video to one of the covers, But I think next time Ill definetly use different marketing strageties

OVERALL EVALUATION

AS A WHOLE, HOW DO YOU THINK YOUR PROJECT RATES AS A VIABLE PRODUCT?

CONSIDER EACH POINT INDIVIDUALLY.

1. MUSICALLY AND TECHNICALLY; I believe Musically on my original tracks I have very good melodies, chord progessions and I believe they sound competetive compared to other songs from this genre. Whereas the production side I believe i have done well with using common recording techniques used, Even though some tracks were not great on some aspects like track 5 and 6 where the vocals are not great. But Overall I believe they do sound competetive

2. MARKETING; I think the artwork is decent, But I dont think I have done enough for this project to be viable, while I also think that my marketing tool was a good idea considering it is a very popular song and has lots of covers versions recorded before, which I believe could attract traffic.

3. HOW COULD YOU MONETISE YOUR PRODUCT? I could print CDs, sell on iTunes, while maybe Putting the EP on spotify, while also doing a couple of solo gigs with my instrumental tracks. I could also put my music on BandCamp which is free to listen to but if the listener feels that I deserve money they give it.

Cahit Asova