Synthetic Origins: Final Fantasy V / Synthetic Origins: Final Fantasy V / Synthetic Origins: Final Fantasy V

Released as a free download on Mathew Valente's Youtube channel.

"I've always wondered what Final Fantasy music would have sounded like if they used their original instrumentation before they were edited down to Super Nintendo-edited samples. I saw a video once where FF6 was doing this, playing back from a Roland Sound Canvas player, and it blew me away. So, about 5 years ago I went on a rompler hunt and started learning the sources of a lot of games' samples. I found out that there was a community on Discord for people like me named the 'VGM & Other Instrument Sources' where people would post not only the sources of some games' instruments, but where to find those samples as well.

"And thus, Synthetic Origins was born.

"The first edition came out a few years ago for Final Fantasy IV. I had always thought about making one for FF5 and FF6, and more, but the process took SO long and you would not believe how difficult and time consuming it is to create this kind of a project. That being said, I was remastering FF music on YouTube lately mid-2021, and then Square Enix goes and announces a new version of FF 1 to FF6 called Pixel Remaster. I decided to get way more serious and focus on FF5. I will be doing FF6's right after this release!

"Unlike Synthetic Origins: FF4, where the intention was to sound like Final Fantasy Mix / FF4 Minimum's "arrangement" tracks, this is literally a remaster of FF5 using the original samples before they were edited for SNES (with a few liberties). Unlike some people who do "restorations", my definition of it is that I sometimes use the one sample instead of the entire bank for that instrument (the Trumpet), or sometimes I will use the entire sample set within that instrument that FF5 sampled from. It depends on the aesthetic of the song. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!!"
-Mathew Valente

Synthesizers/ROMplers Used:
-Roland S-760 with SCSI2SD emulating the Roland CD-5
-LCD-1 Disc
-Universe of Sounds Roland CD
-Universe of Sounds E-MU CD (Essentially the same as the Roland, except containing some samples seemingly missing from it)
-W30 Library (The same as LCD-1 except filling in the gap of some missing sounds like the Percussive Organ)
-Club 50 Foundations Roland CD (For the Distortion Guitar)
-E-MU Proteus 1 (For the low trumpet sample, EQ'd to sound more like its SNES counter-part)
-Roland L-CDP-13 String Sections (For FF5's unique Round Rosin strings)

A Roland S-760 was used due to an inability to obtain the S-550 in time for production of the album, despite the S-550 being referenced in the sources of the discs sampled as well as the album cover.