Early Exit
TRACK DATA（Original）
Composition tool: MuseScore 2
Recording tool (DAW): MuseScore2
Number of tracks: 17part (Musescore)
Sound source: MuseScore 3 (Timbares Of Heaven),
Composition and Recording period: 2015
TRACK DATA
（2026, Watching The Game, Signal Intrusion）
Composition tool: Studio Pro7,Suno (Rap Part)
Recording tool (DAW): Studio Pro7
Number of tracks: 12（2026）、4（Watching The Game, Signal Intrusion）
Sound source: Suno, EarlyExit's Original WAV file
Composition and Recording period: Feb 11 - Feb 27
1. A Beginning Without a Concept
Early Exit was not originally conceived as a particularly conceptual work.
After Refrexion (2015), the first piece TM and I created using MuseScore turned out well, and I felt we should continue in that direction. I began adding harmonies in MuseScore without any grand intention, and as I developed them further, this track emerged.
At the time, I had not yet introduced Studio One. The entire production was completed within MuseScore. The mix was also done inside MuseScore, and the export was an MP3 at 128 kbps. It was not what would normally be considered a full mix. I simply adjusted the balance of the sounds that were generated.
The only place it was released was YouTube. There was no SoundCloud account.
After I completed the initial version on my own, TM later revisited the track.
He added rhythmic elements, introduced guitar phrases, and partially restructured the arrangement.
That is why the title carries the suffix “m” — referring to TM’s M.
An “i” version (for TI) also exists. That version remains closer to my original structure and is available only on YouTube.
FMT had not yet systematized its activities on the web as it does now, and the concept of a Production Note did not exist.
FMT had not yet systematized its activities on the web as it does now, and the concept of a Production Note did not exist. That is why the early works do not have Production Notes.
The title was not deeply considered. When (most likely) Brazil was eliminated early from the World Cup, TM jokingly said, “Why not call it Early Exit?” There was no further meaning behind it.
Looking back at the original score files, I noticed that the working title had simply been “M2.”
It stood for “Music 2” — meaning it was just the second piece we made.
At that stage, numbering was enough. Meaning came later.
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2. Time Gives Words Meaning
As time passed, the framework of FMT became clearer and the production environment changed.
The starting point this time was a purely technical curiosity: what would happen if I reconstructed a past work using my current setup?
I chose this piece because, even at the time, I had a relatively clear image of its finished form. There were specific elements I had wanted to change but could not realize back then.
The accidental title “Early Exit” also began to resonate with my present state.
Originally it simply meant early elimination. Now it feels slightly different. It is closer to being “the first to step away.” It means stepping back from a competitive structure. By “Game,” I am referring to the broader system of the market and evaluation cycles, where continued output and measurable results are constantly expected. The phrase “an elegant retreat,” as described by Uchida Tatsuru, also comes to mind.
The point is not about winning or losing. I have participated in that Game long enough, and there were moments I felt satisfied with. However, continuing to produce results within the same structure indefinitely is not realistic. So I decided to step away before deterioration sets in.
I choose to use my time and resources not to sustain competition, but for myself, my family, and those closest to me. That condition is what “Early Exit” means to me now.
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3. The Sound Came First
I reconstructed the track in Studio One.
The original composition itself remains unchanged. I broke it down into patterns, fragmented them further, rearranged them in a mosaic-like structure, replaced certain sounds, and remixed the instrumental structure as a whole.
The result felt closer to the sound I had originally imagined.
The original Early Exit pursued ambiguous tonality and the stacking of “impossible” sounds. The phrases were simple, but their movement was intentionally unnatural. The sonic image was influenced by 808 State’s “Pacific State.” I loved that track, but its structure is relatively simple and can become repetitive. I think I wanted to amplify and complicate the aspects I liked, updating it into a form I personally wanted to hear.
At that time, within the limitations of MuseScore, I was enjoying that sense of “impossibility.”
So this reconstruction did not begin from an abstract concept. The sound came first.
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About the Production Process
The 2015 version was created entirely using MuseScore’s internal sound engine. No external instruments or DAW were used. The sound existed only inside notation software.
For the 2026 version, I imported the original MIDI and WAV data into Studio One and began by dismantling the track. Rather than polishing it, I chose to break it apart and rebuild it.
The instrumental version was completed first. On top of that reconstructed instrumental, I generated the rap sections using AI through Suno. The exported result from Suno was then brought back into Studio One for further structural editing.
Because the rap version relies on Suno’s rendered 2-mix, individual channel mixing was not possible at that stage. The work therefore focused primarily on structural decisions — arrangement, timing, sectional balance — rather than detailed multitrack mixing. For this reason, the number of tracks in Studio One did not need to be large.
Even the instrumental version itself did not require an extensive track count, since it was built mainly by editing existing WAV files and MIDI data rather than recording large multitrack sessions.
The complexity of the sound does not come from the number of channels. It comes from processing. The harmonic structure was redesigned using Coder, and timing and phrasing were reshaped through arpeggiators and gate processing. TM’s original rhythmic foundation was preserved, but the surface behavior of the sound was transformed through these devices.
The process can be summarized as follows:
Reconstruction in Studio One
→ Rap generation with AI and Suno
→ Structural dismantling and re-editing in Studio One
The meaning originates on my side. The shaping of form passes through AI. The final structural decisions return to me.
AI does not deliver a finished product. It functions as part of the material-generation process.
Meaning → Medium → Restructuring
I use it only within this loop.
For the final stage, I applied limiters more aggressively than in previous FMT works. Even when working with a rendered 2-mix, dynamic control remains possible at the mastering level. The sound is intentionally more compressed, creating a slightly more immediate impact. I felt that a certain degree of direct clarity suited this track.
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4. The Emergence of Dual TI
Watching The Game emerged from a simple musical curiosity: what would happen if I placed my current state of mind as rap on this track?
The content being expressed is my own thinking. However, I used AI to shape it into natural English that would function properly as rap.
What occurs here is not outsourcing. My thoughts pass once through the medium of AI and return in another form. In that round trip, a slight distance emerges between myself and my own thinking.
At first, I considered that distance merely a side effect of formatting.
However, as the production progressed, that distance appeared in the form of deviation.
After completing Watching The Game, I recalled that hip-hop traditionally includes a self-introduction section by the rapper. I decided to add such a section. At that stage, there was no concept of what would later be called the Signal Intrusion Version.
During this additional production process, Suno unintentionally merged the existing lyrics with the newly written lines and generated a mashup.
Under normal circumstances, such output would be discarded as an error. However, when I transcribed and examined the merged lyrics, I realized they corresponded to another layer of thought that already existed within me.
The important point here is that AI did not “create something on its own.”
By passing through a medium, my thinking separated into multiple layers that had already been present within me but had not yet been visible.
What I had assumed to be a single line of thought turned out to be layered. Passing through the medium exposed the misalignment between those layers. That misalignment surfaced as another inner voice.
Through this experience, I began to understand the output not as a malfunction, but as structure. Only at that point did it become what would later be named the Signal Intrusion Version.
At that moment, I realized that this was structurally identical to what had been depicted in Max Headroom.
However, the sequence is the reverse.
I did not construct this concept because I was influenced by science fiction. Rather, after experiencing the duplication of thought in the production process, I later recognized that such a structure had once been represented in fiction.
Fiction did not imitate reality. Fiction had already articulated the structure, and I encountered it as lived experience.
Dual TI is not a narrative device. It is not a character.
It is the name for a real cognitive structure in which thought passes through a medium, distance emerges, and within that distance thinking becomes layered.
It functions as a production device. It is also a model of thinking. It is a structural concept that can be applied in future works. Yet it is not something newly invented. It is simply the visible state of a multiplicity that had already existed within my own thinking.
AI is neither a substitute nor an amplifier. It is a device that externalizes thought, generates distance, and makes structure observable within that distance.
Dual TI is the confirmation of that structure as an actual phenomenon.
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5. Four Layers
The following four versions are being released:
• Early Exit (Original Version)
• Watching The Game
• Signal Intrusion Version
• Instrumental
Watching The Game takes the present state described in Chapter 2, writes it out as text, and passes it through AI to shape it into English rap.
The Signal Intrusion Version emerged afterward. After completing Watching The Game, I returned to the structural conventions of hip-hop and decided to add a self-introduction section. In that process, Suno unintentionally generated a mashup of the lyrics. I reconstructed that unexpected output.
As for the Early Exit (Original Version), I remastered it myself in order to align its texture with the other tracks.
This release is less a new work than a rereading of an FMT classic. It overlays a present structural awareness onto a piece created before Production Notes existed.
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6. Coincidence and Reinterpretation
The phrase Early Exit was originally accidental. Over time, it began to acquire structure.
Meaning did not exist from the beginning. It was observed afterward.
This re-presentation is neither a declaration nor an accusation. It is an attempt to record the overlap of time and structure.
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7. AI as a “Device for Re-Observation”
To explain why this process feels real to me, I need to clarify what “real” means in my framework.
For me, “real” means that my will acts upon the world and I can confirm the resulting change.
Emotional reaction alone is not real. Realness occurs when intention is input, a response returns, and structure changes.
Dialogue with AI follows the same structure. Writing a prompt is an act of intention. The output is the response. Through revision and re-input, I can confirm that my will has influenced the structure.
AI is virtual, yet it alters the structure of my thinking. It is not “fiction disguised as reality,” but an interaction whose structural effect can be confirmed. That is why creating with AI is a form of real experience for me.
AI is not a direction. It is not a tool for efficiency. It is a device for externalizing, re-observing, and reconstructing thought.
My shift from performance and improvisation toward post-production and structural editing comes from the same place. I am less interested in igniting emotion than in reconstructing it into a form that can be re-experienced.
AI lies along that extension. I do not intend to turn every piece into Dual TI. I use it only when it structurally fits.
Early Exit and Dual TI were not designed concepts. They emerged from the process of making.
Meaning did not exist at the beginning. It was observed afterward.
AI is one of the methods of that observation.
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8. Afterword — On the Structural Shift in Production
With the introduction of AI, the production process has changed again in a significant way.
This shift is not about efficiency — not speed, automation, or convenience.
It concerns the structure of production, and by extension, the structure of thinking itself.
Until now, my process had been essentially linear: compose, edit, refine, finalize.
Even when dismantling and reconstructing material, the direction of thought remained single-threaded.
When AI enters the process, that direction begins to branch.
When I input intention and receive output, I am not merely receiving assistance. I am encountering my own thinking after it has passed through another structure and returned in altered form.
What comes back is neither entirely mine nor entirely external. It exists somewhere in between.
That “in-between” space did not exist in my earlier workflow.
In the past, revision meant making something better. Now revision increasingly means observing.
As a result, production is no longer only about realization. It becomes a field in which thought shifts, reflects, layers, and sometimes branches.
Dual TI is one visible manifestation of this shift. It is not a conclusion, but an initial appearance.
What has changed is not only the music, but the structure of thinking within the act of making.
This change will likely continue to unfold in future works.
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