VGMdb
Go Back   VGMdb Forums > Discussion > Video Game Music Discussion > Album Discussions
Register FAQ Calendar Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #91  
Old Mar 22, 2014, 10:48 PM
James O's Avatar
James O James O is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Edmonton
Posts: 249

yes, the disc is exactly the same, there's no difference
Reply With Quote
  #92  
Old Apr 16, 2014, 05:49 AM
Boyblunder Boyblunder is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 242
Default

Seems like I jumped the gun with this and my apologies for doing so. Some great stuff on here and the vast majority is better than the original (although I'm sure some of it identical.)
I am still however, disappointed with the Blu Ray Release @ 5k Yen

*EDIT* Just ordered it =/ I've been hammering the game now and at first I thought why did they change a good thing, but the more you go into it the more you realise that the majority of it is actually better. Especially Seymour battle theme....
Need to buy a blu ray rom now for my PC so I can get the damn MP3s off of it...

Last edited by Boyblunder; Apr 16, 2014 at 06:08 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #93  
Old Jun 10, 2014, 01:50 PM
DanteLectro's Avatar
DanteLectro DanteLectro is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 296
Default

Here's an article about this remaster soundtrack on Polygon, with quotes from the composers and other experts.
The article's writer even links to this very forum when she writes about the public response!
Reply With Quote
  #94  
Old Jan 13, 2015, 03:45 PM
DanteLectro's Avatar
DanteLectro DanteLectro is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 296
Default

added to notes:
aggregated compostion- and arrangement credits
+
Quote:
original 2001 versions: 1, 5, 20, 22,23, 25, 29, 31, 35, 45~47, 52, 56, 59, 67~70, 72~74, 76, 79, 83, 86, 89~94

2013 arrangements: 2~4, 6~19, 21, 24, 26~28, 30, 32~34, 36~44, 48~51, 53~55, 57,58, 60~66, 71, 75, 77,78, 80~82, 84,85, 87,88

original 2003 versions: 95~104
source: blu-ray tags + a little original research

Last edited by DanteLectro; Jan 18, 2015 at 01:03 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #95  
Old Jul 31, 2015, 11:09 AM
dancey's Avatar
dancey dancey is offline
Trusted Editor
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,428
Default

I updated the times for OMAKE 2 and OMAKE 3 as well as 104, while most of the track times were off by +/- 1 second (expected), OMAKE 2 was off by 2 seconds, OMAKE 3 was off by 8 and 104 was off by 2. I also validated the times from the audio I ripped from the Bluray to the times from the mp3s provided on the disc and they matched up, so I don't know where those previous ones came from but my edits should be good.

*edit* reverted track name changes per booklet.

Last edited by dancey; Aug 1, 2015 at 08:52 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #96  
Old Oct 6, 2015, 05:57 PM
dancey's Avatar
dancey dancey is offline
Trusted Editor
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 1,428
Default

Someone pointed out that there is massive clipping on track 12. This is on the bluray source but not on the mp3 versions so it further confirms what _if was saying -- SQEX is just upsampling their 16/44.1 source to 24/96 and doing a very poor job. I don't know what other ones clip but if anyone finds any other tracks that do, feel free to post them here.
Reply With Quote
  #97  
Old May 6, 2017, 05:03 AM
JRokujuushi's Avatar
JRokujuushi JRokujuushi is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 20
Default

Having played the HD version of the game recently, I thought I'd come here to see what people are saying about it. I'm honestly kind of surprised that "Movement In Green" got as much praise as it did because it has a fairly significant technical glitch that I'm surprised nobody caught when they were rearranging it.

The original version of the track has the accordion playing melody and chords. For some reason, the HD remaster version is using a monophonic virtual accordion, so you don't hear those chords. ...mostly. There are occasional rests in the melody, and one of the notes from the underlying chord pokes through when it gets to those rests. It's honestly one of the most irritating things for me, and it baffles me that nobody noticed/fixed it during production, especially since they worked on the track enough to extend it to double the length of the original.

It's not that they couldn't do a polyphonic accordion, either, since they have one come in later in the track (and run back and forth across the stereo spectrum for who knows what reason).

EDIT: Just wanted to come back to say I did some digging into the original music data for the PS2 version of the track. If they did use a monophonic accordion patch in the new version as I theorized, they didn't just use the same MIDI data from the original version. If they used the original as a base, they would have needed to extend certain notes to get those notes to poke through during the rests in the melody.

Last edited by JRokujuushi; May 6, 2017 at 03:45 PM. Reason: New research
Reply With Quote
  #98  
Old May 8, 2017, 01:22 PM
Psychonotes's Avatar
Psychonotes Psychonotes is online now
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 89
Default

I noticed the removal of the accordion chords as well, and it's one of the reasons I don't like the HD version as much either - although for me, it's one of this OST's lesser disappointments (of which there are many).

However, if you're talking about the monophonic note snapping that can be heard in the accordion lead in the A section, I don't agree that it's an unintended technical glitch - or at least, I don't interpret it as such. I don't think what you're hearing there is the previously existing chords unintentionally "poking through" the rests, but a deliberate attempt to simulate rapid compression and expansion of the accordion bellows as a performance articulation in the line. It's not a very convincing attempt, but I did take it as the effect Nakano was after.
As you observed yourself, that monophonic note snapping action was achieved by specifically extending an underlying pedal tone through the entire duration of the melodic phrase, so that that tone would sound during any breaks in the melody line. If the intent had been to preserve the chords, this would be a very odd, and difficult, mistake to make.

Removing the accordion chords from the melody line does have a noticeable stylistic effect, rendering the line more spare and lonely, and emphasizing its contour against the background harmony. So I can believe that Nakano felt the chords interfered with the particular expression he was seeking, and can understand his rationale in that sense, but I disagree that it was a good choice. The effect makes the piece feel emptier, rather than more elegant. Those chords created a really nice, warm harmonic sheen in the original, and ironically made for a more convincing evocation of how a real accordion would play than the concerted effort to do so in the HD version.

I also preferred the original's peculiar, synthetic woodwind-like tone that takes over in the B section, to the simple erhu that replaced it in the HD version. Just another example of the HD version's tendency to replace ambiguous, exotic synth textures with straightforward live sampled ones, because, I suppose, "more real = more better".
Reply With Quote
  #99  
Old May 8, 2017, 03:55 PM
JRokujuushi's Avatar
JRokujuushi JRokujuushi is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 20
Default

Interesting that you mention the erhu. I took a look at that part when I was digging through the music data in the PS2 version, and when played in isolation it sounds like an erhu there as well, just more obviously sampled and lo-fi due to the sequenced nature of the music. Personally, I always thought the erhu had a weird woodwind-like quality to its sound, and it blew my mind when I discovered it was actually a bowed string instrument.

As for the accordion bit, I'll totally admit I don't know much about the inner workings of an accordion, so that option hadn't even occurred to me. Even so, maybe I'm just not understanding it the way you describe it but I'm not seeing how it would work. I know about overblowing by forcing more air than intended, but that tends to make things play at a higher pitch instead of lower. I know about disonoric accordions where the pitch changes depending on if it's being compressed or expanded, but that would make the lower note change pitch when the higher note does. If there's something else, my ignorance prevents me from seeing it.

Whatever the case, it's either a weird creative decision or a weird oversight of a technical issue, and I don't think it sounds good.
Reply With Quote
  #100  
Old May 10, 2017, 11:54 AM
Psychonotes's Avatar
Psychonotes Psychonotes is online now
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 89
Default

I could be wrong myself, but my reaction was that the use of an accordion vst playing in monophonic mode was unrelated to the removal of the chords. I got the impression Nakano just wanted to remove those chords to focus attention on the melodic line, and also, at the same time, tried to exploit the pitch-snapping effect of monophonic MIDI note overlaps to convey the particular staccato-like interplay between keyboard and buttonboard notes that's often heard in accordion music. That is, it seemed to me that the snapbacks to the lower pitches, in between the melodic notes, were meant to suggest notes played quickly on the bellows buttonboard, possibly in conjunction with a quick change of direction in the pumping of the bellows. I can see how the issue is confusing though, because there's no reason you'd *have* to use monophonic overlaps in order to convey such articulations, and I don't know why Nakano bothered.

It just never occurred to me it could be an error, mainly because of the coherent stylistic change and its technical consistency (we don't hear any sloppiness where, say, an inner or bass chord tone plays instead of the melody). The accordion sequence data from FFX played back through a monophonic patch wouldn't sound quite the same as what we hear in the HD version, so I assumed it was intentional. But I totally agree that it doesn't sound good and Nakano achieved nothing by monkeying with it.

Interesting about that erhu sound. After I heard the HD version, I could see retroactively how the original timbre had a sort of erhu-ish quality too, but I always thought it sounded like a weird cross between a duduk and an ewi. I liked how ambiguous and artificial that timbre was. Putting a straight erhu in the new version killed a little bit of the piece's magic for me.
Reply With Quote
  #101  
Old Jul 25, 2020, 05:18 AM
Mac_Tear's Avatar
Mac_Tear Mac_Tear is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Germany
Posts: 489
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Muzza View Post
Jormungand, you'd best not try to arrange "Djose Temple" - your computer might explode!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twGoeuRV2Eo

I think Troy Strand and his brass quintet did a good job by turning the original bland track into a far more interesting amd quirky piece. Still annoying, but better than the soundtrack's version.

I'm currently playing FFX Remaster and listening to its soundtrack (where I always tend to switch the audio to "Original" instead of "Remastered" lol, because most of the arrangements suck).

God, this is a pure nightmare, especially compared to the magnificent FFXII: The Zodiac Age, which I played before.

Last edited by Mac_Tear; Jul 25, 2020 at 05:20 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #102  
Old Jul 25, 2020, 05:45 AM
Jormungand's Avatar
Jormungand Jormungand is offline
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Wisconsin, USA
Posts: 1,059
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac_Tear View Post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twGoeuRV2Eo

I think Troy Strand and his brass quintet did a good job by turning the original bland track into a far more interesting amd quirky piece. Still annoying, but better than the soundtrack's version.
The worst VGM ever has been made listenable. The world is now in balance, and I can rest easy.

In all seriousness you're right, it's a great arrangement. This kind of transformation is how you rescue broken music.
Reply With Quote
  #103  
Old Dec 31, 2020, 07:04 AM
LightKeyDarkBlade LightKeyDarkBlade is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Posts: 7
Default

I just added this part to the album notes, taken from the booklet (missing from the notes all these years for some reason).

Quote:
Music Directors: Masashi Hamauzu, Keiji Kawamori
Sound Designer: Yuji Isogawa

Synthesizer Programmer: Ryo Yamazaki, Takeharu Ishimoto, Hirosato Noda

Project Manager: Kazuki Hamamoto
Project Assistants: Yuko Sakae, Shihoko Karube

Artist Management: Hiroki Ogawa (Dog Ear Records)
I notice that they either don't match or are missing from the album credits. I can't edit the credits so it would be nice if someone edits the credits for me.
Reply With Quote
  #104  
Old Feb 29, 2024, 05:46 PM
DDubs DDubs is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2023
Posts: 2
Default

Wanted to bring this up: the wiki notes that for the track Zanarkand, the credits differ in the booklet and the official website.
Quote:
The Square Enix soundtrack sample website, and the soundtrack booklet, differ in the credits and the website doesn't list the vocalists. The booklet credits Nobuo Uematsu as the sole composer and arranger. The website credits Hamauzu for rearranging the theme. "Zanarkand" is the only theme with this discrepancy.
When I asked on the wiki about this, someone pointed this out:
Quote:
I decided to go through the booklet and the website. They have exactly the same credits except for Zanarkand. Also the website doesn't list the vocalists. One thing that suggests the booklet may be wrong is that Nobuo Uematsu isn't otherwise credited as the sole arranger on any newly-arranged track--when he is he's credited with Narita. Although Zanarkand is a special track. *shrugs*
So either Uematsu remastered Zanarkand himself without Narita's involvement, or the booklet is wrong and the actual arranger was Hamauzu.
Reply With Quote
  #105  
Old Mar 1, 2024, 06:47 PM
zierts zierts is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 281
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by DDubs View Post
Wanted to bring this up: the wiki notes that for the track Zanarkand, the credits differ in the booklet and the official website.

When I asked on the wiki about this, someone pointed this out:

So either Uematsu remastered Zanarkand himself without Narita's involvement, or the booklet is wrong and the actual arranger was Hamauzu.
Great first post! Welcome to VGMdb.

I guess "Zanarkand" technically has the same arrangement as the PS2 version. The notes are the same, just the volume and the tempo is changed in parts. My guess would be it was "arranged" by Hamauzu and the booklet is wrong.

I think there's only two such piano tracks in the game, one being "Zanarkand" and the other being "Via Purifico". The interesting thing is that Aki Kuroda is credited for performing on piano for both of these tracks. But while "Via Purifico" sounds like it's straight-up lifted from the FF10 Piano Collections, "Zanarkand" isn't and sounds like an entirely new recording. I find it hard to believe they brought Kuroda back just for that.
Reply With Quote
  #106  
Old Yesterday, 05:40 PM
DDubs DDubs is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2023
Posts: 2
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by zierts View Post
The interesting thing is that Aki Kuroda is credited for performing on piano for both of these tracks. But while "Via Purifico" sounds like it's straight-up lifted from the FF10 Piano Collections, "Zanarkand" isn't and sounds like an entirely new recording. I find it hard to believe they brought Kuroda back just for that.
I don't think it's hard to believe at all. Hamauzu brought her back for XIII's Piano Collection, so he clearly enjoys working with her. I can see him bringing her back to work on X HD for even just one song, given he was the leading music director for it. But it's also possible that the version heard on the album is an alternate take recorded for the Piano Collection but never used.

Kuroda being credited for it lends even more evidence to Hamauzu being the one responsible.

Last edited by DDubs; Yesterday at 05:43 PM.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
SQEX-10381~2: FINAL FANTASY V Original Soundtrack Remaster Version Phonograph Album Discussions 29 Jan 8, 2024 09:01 PM
SQEX-10387~9: FINAL FANTASY VI ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK REMASTER VERSION alexbip15 Album Discussions 20 Oct 15, 2023 08:33 AM
SQEX-10373~4: FINAL FANTASY IV Original Soundtrack Remaster Version Phonograph Album Discussions 62 May 11, 2022 04:08 PM
SQEX-10076~7: FINAL FANTASY III Original Soundtrack Xenofan 29A Album Discussions 24 Apr 17, 2022 01:40 PM
H25X-20015: All Sounds of Final Fantasy I ยท II Boyblunder Album Discussions 15 Aug 16, 2016 01:47 AM