REFLEXion
Short Notes on REFLEXion
TRACK DATA
RFLEXion & on & on
Composition tool: MuseScore 2, Studio One 5 Professional
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 5 Professional
Number of tracks: 48 (1st), 8 (2nd)
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One)
Composition and Recording period: -
RFX
Composition tool: MuseScore 2, Studio One 5 Professional
Recording tool (DAW): Studio One 5 Professional
Number of tracks: 13
Sound source: Presence XT, Impact XT, Mai-Tai, Mojito (All built-in sound sources of Studio One)
Composition and Recording period: -
Production Background: First Work as FMT
(TM writes on 20 October 2022:)
The piece titled "Reflexion" (including the versions with similar titles) is the track we created and released for the first time as FMT. That is, in particular, an alternative version of what I re-arranged from Duran Duran's "Reflex" for a particular band, which was rejected possibly because my arrangement was too weird. (I might have put too much contemporary flavour into it.) Out of my re-arrangement, TI took out impressive harmonies and rhythm and released it on SoundCloud, also for the first time.
(TI writes on 20 October 2022:)
This track is the song that led to the formation of FMT and was the first song we created as FMT.
As TM writes, the production background of this song is based on an appropriated score of an arrangement of Duran Duran's Reflex to play in a band I played in as a student.
I had arranged various other Western hit pop songs from the 80s, but as I was repeating the refrain of this song, I thought, 'I could do this song like the songs in the Artificial Intelligence series on WARP Records in the 90s', so I arranged it.
I think the tracks in WARP's A.I. series were strongly influenced by Detroit techno, and Detroit techno was also influenced by the 'New Romantics' bands of the 80s, such as Duran Duran, and I actually felt this trend strongly when I was arranging them.
At that time, I wasn't thinking about using a DAW to create music at all, and I just started using Musescore, which I started using after researching for an easy music notation software for arranging for the band.
This is really the first REFLEXion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgN9BRpKfyY
This is MuseScore just sounding. I ported this MIDI data to Studio One and made a version titled "RFX" on Soundcloud.
However, when I first started using Studio One, I didn't really understand how to play the rhythm instrument in Studio One and couldn't get the sound I wanted, so I omitted the rhythm part and instead applied Rhythmic Gate to the instrumental parts.
Later, after I had mastered Studio One to a certain extent, I worked on this song and created "Relexion & On & On", which is featured on Soundcloud.
This track was completely my hobby, and the concept of FMT had not yet been decided, so I created it purely out of a desire to "re-create the music I liked in the 90s in the way I liked it more."
Therefore, musically, the tracks are simple and imitative (or plagiarised from other people's songs), and may not sound like FMT nowadays.
However, I think it's genuinely what I wanted to hear, and what I wanted to hear in the clubs at the time.
Arrangement: Inspired by Carl Claig
(TI continues:)
Arrangements are not as elaborate as the current FMT.
I created it simply as a side show, or as a way of asking TM, "What do you think of this song I've arranged for the band?
The tone and atmosphere was inspired by Carl Claig's early music when he was releasing under the name "Phyche", especially "Clackdown".
The original song is 'Reflex', so I just used a lot of canon, as if the phrases were about reflections.
As an aside, Carl Claig also said somewhere that when he first started making music he didn't have a rhythm machine and only released ambient songs, and that our 'RFX' version also has something in common in that we "didn't want to make an ambient version, we just didn't know how to make the rhythm parts sound".
Mixing: Two Versions in the Past
(TI continues:)
There have been three major model changes leading up to the current version. If you've been listening to FMT songs since the really early days, you might have perchance noticed that the mix changed one day.
The first version we released on Soundcloud was a version of the first MuseScore-only version we released on YouTube to follow the MuseScore vibe, reinforced with just the rhythm machine and bass over the top.
The second version was a port of MuseScore's MIDI data and was rebuilt from the beginning using only Studio One, without any YouTube sources, and is much closer to the latest version.
For this third version, some parts of the rhythm have been muted and switched in and out, the bass drum tone has been replaced, the attack has been reinforced, an acid house-style bassline has been added, a house music-style piano cutting has been added before the ending, and the song's flow has been made more The song has stronger ups and downs.
Not only this track, but also other early FMT tracks may possibly be reworked or new versions created from this point onwards.
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