Particles Behaving Like Waves
Notes On "Particles Behaving Like Waves"
TRACK DATA
Composition tool: MuseScore, Studio One 4 Professional
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 4 Professional
Number of tracks: 46 (1st), 29 (2nd)
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One), TAL-NOIZEMAKER
Composition and Recording period: Aug 30 2020 - May 20 2021
(Also, the concert version of this work was released in January 2022. For further details please refer to "Leaked Live FMT".)
[Concept: "Minimal but not repeated"]
(TM writes:)
I like this title. I have taken this from the quantum mechanics, which interests me a lot, as much as the relativity theory. Yet, it was named just before its release, or after we finished it up, meaning it was not the concept from the beginning.
Before that the working title was "Minimal But Not Repeated 2". (Yes, it follows version one titled as "Minimal But Not Repetition", which was put into our track "Far From The Way".) This title has the only musical meaning but none of the quantum mechanics. The quantum title, however, well represents the way of being minimal but not repeated, I think.
Thus, the central concept of this track lies in, as it says, being minimal but not repeated. The motif sounding first is a symbol or code for the minimal and that continues almost throughout this track, whereas it continuously (or maybe continually) changes throughout. It is like sounding repeatedly but it's actually not.
(In addition, the track was made nearly to a complete package by the autumn of 2020, the year when we were very interested in "no repeating".)
Changes are reinforced by such other parts as the strings, bass and drums, as described below.
One listener indicated the piece reminded her of John Cage and Steve Reich. That is great because I love their music a lot actually. Especially Reich has had great influence on me for sure.
[Composition: "Changes and something common"]
(TI writes:)
Like "Mood Of Three", we stopped working on this track when it was nearing completion, and our thoughts about it changed from time to time.
At first I was thinking of a series of minimal phrases, as in the title "Minimal But Not Repeated", but not repeating. It's a kind of "acoustic version" of Acid House, where we both build on the motif that TM started with.
Also, the rhythm of the piece was initially created by TI, and TM made some technical changes to it. Because the phrases are minimal, the ear is looking for a common rhythm, so to speak, so we tried to create a different rhythm that doesn't mesh with it.
Therefore, the phrases in the instrumental part are also minimal phrases with different tones and different timing. I also chose harmonically incompatible intervals and layered them.
(TM writes:)
I love listening to old FMT tracks, reading the notes at the same time, but there is one problem with that - reading tends to take longer than the track plays. 😁
So, in terms of the composition, in short, I created the minimal motif and developed it and that's it. 😆
I did not use obvious modes or tonalities here, even though the signature looks indicating Bb major and later C major. I just wanted to use the sounds of Bb and Eb, not any more than that.
In contrast with the continuously changing minimal motif, the strings and rhythms are relatively based upon repetitions... just to some extent.
As for the quantum mechanics, by the way, I think the big dilemma of this domain is caused by the fact that scientific experiments (obviously including thought experiments) are all dependent on human recognitions, which basically structured with illusion. The more the scientific domain reaches an extreme, the more dilemma happens to appear. In other words, the notions of the time, dimension, particle, light, etc are all artificial. They are just words.
Oops, I must not delay your reading!
[Sound creation and mixing]
(TI writes:)
For this track, after a break in the work, I think it was time to try something new in the mix.
It may sound as if this piece has a different sound (pitch) than the MuseScore (MS), but I did not change the MS data (MIDI). We kept the original MS data, but built a different sound from it.
In concrete terms, the mix was done in two stages. In the first stage, I focused on creating the sound, and exported the Studio One file in 29 parts. I then created a file for the mix, and at the same time as mixing, I made various changes to the reverb, delay and other effect components that I had applied.
For example, I added further effects (mainly filters and gates) to the effects, and programmed the numerical values of the filters and gates to make them work. The effects are connected to a so-called analogue-style step sequencer, on which information such as On Off Note Env is written (and it's not looped). The effects can be connected in parallel as well as in series, so the mixer part of the track to the sound source is almost like patching a modular synth.
The number of tracks is therefore particularly low compared to the other tracks, with 26 tracks in the second stage, but with 13 separate sub-channels for effects.
Acoustically, at the beginning of the song, the reverb and other (mainly reverberant) effects are playing normally, but gradually the effects start to move separately from the main phrase, and at the end they almost replace the main (timbre), but just before they do, the song ends.
I imagine that the mirror image or shadow moves separately from the main body, or that it separates from the main body and performs its own movement.
However, mirror images and shadows do not exist independently. I've tried leaving the effect components alone and using MIDI to move them, but it's just noise.
The phrases of the effects come into play only when the phrases of the main unit are present. That's what's interesting to discover. The idea came from my experience* that in a mix, the balance and equalisation of the effects should not be overlooked.
*No matter how well balanced and perfectly equalised a good sound is, it won`t sound good unless the same care and attention is given to the effects. In other words, there were several occasions when a stalemate could be quickly resolved by working on the effects component.
For example, the high frequencies were interfering with each other, so I did some equalisation and panning, and I thought it was perfect, but it just didn't sound right, so I did the same with the reverb component, and it sounded better.
It's not a joke, but it has to be done acoustically and logically to make the music sound cool.
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