SQEX-10353~7: FINAL FANTASY VINYLS

[Phonograph]

not sure that producing vinyls nowadays is a good and profitable idea (with 2500 yens per vinyl, when a cd is cheaper -like 1000 yens per cd)
I wonder why? (for DJs?)

[ilef]

For giving audiophiles some wet dream, I suppose. Vinyl may provide better sound-quality than a regular CD.

[Zanasea]

It's probably for collectors mainly. They have already released two vinyls for FFXIII and one for FFXI. (Also, one for Xenogears Myth)

[VncentValntine]

Novelty/collectability? I'd find it pretty neat to have a vinyl game soundtrack.

[Arcubalis]

They needed to call this Vinyl Fantasy.

[Fearin]

Minecraft mod goes by that name.

[_if]

For anyone thinking they're going to get ultimate sound quality out of this, I'd stake my (admittedly nonexistent) reputation that these records will be made from a CD master, as the vast majority of records for the past 15+ years have been.

[Arcubalis]

_if: Probably true. Still a collector's item. The past vinyl releases they've put out have been pretty cool, if not just for the artwork on the sleeve.

[dancey]

The CDJapan description states it's from analog source, not sure if that means anything or sates any audiophiles worries out there.

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=SQEX-10353

Looks like a decent collectors item, I'm curious to see the tracklist(s).

CDJ only has this as a 1 catalogue release and says 30 tracks, but given the price I'm sure that's just a database error and it really is 5 catalogues (so 5 vinyls)

[Phonograph]

it's not a db error, it's how cdj makes stuff
I always saw 1 catalogue and the tracklist in one block (not divided in discs) when it has tracklists leastwise

ex: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=SQEX-10206 (and this one shows [discs], old tracklists can not have this detail)

[dancey]

Yeah it's always one catalogue and that's how you have to search for it but it will still lists the number of discs in the details section. This doesn't. I'm sure it will be updated at some point.

[Phonograph]

I see "Number of discs 5" now (I didn't click previously), so I guess it has been updated

[GoldfishX]

I love vinyl and I have a nice beginner set-up for it, but all my favorite Final Fantasy albums sound amazing on CD.

The only albums I think would be massively helped would be the three Black Mages albums, as they are compressed and way too loud, but still have some nice underlying music.

[ultimatemilk]

Sold out already?

[_if]

Originally Posted by dancey

The CDJapan description states it's from analog source, not sure if that means anything or sates any audiophiles worries out there.

["30 BGM tracks featuring analog remastering," is what the description says.] Mastering very often includes analog equipment, but then in nearly all cases it gets re-converted back to digital, put on a CD or other digital media and shipped off to get pressed (not a bad thing at all if you're not an analog-is-always-superior partisan). Even if they're doing this to be as purely analog as possible and go so far as to send a tape to the pressing plant –– and the plant doesn't then digitize it to make their master disc –– that hardly means anything when the music begins life as digital synthesis.

I admit though, if they don't rip the OSTs as the starting point to work from with this, then these records may indeed sound better, but only because apparently none of the mastering engineers Square used in the PSX to PS2 era knew what a limiter is. They did such a bad job at times that ridiculous things happen like the "Song of Prayer" tracks from FFX clipping, and even that awful distortion on "'Please Remember'" - just a woman talking! And that poor cello in the second movement of "Symphonic Poem 'Hope'"...

To be clear, because I may sound more negative than I really am, I've got no problem with the idea of this release. But I wanted to warn anyone who may think "gotta have this!" and are bracing themselves to spend about $200 for 30 tracks of music because of the thought of missing some ultimate sound quality experience, you might want to temper expectations on that front. I have little doubt it will be a very nice package to see and touch, and I have some envy in that regard for the people who are going to own this. I don't envy the spending part though.

[Xenofan 29A]

Originally Posted by _if

I admit though, if they don't rip the OSTs as the starting point to work from with this, then these records may indeed sound better, but only because apparently none of the mastering engineers Square used in the PSX to PS2 era knew what a limiter is. They did such a bad job at times that ridiculous things happen like the "Song of Prayer" tracks from FFX clipping, and even that awful distortion on "'Please Remember'" - just a woman talking! And that poor cello in the second movement of "Symphonic Poem 'Hope'"...

I think that all of these problems are caused by substandard microphones, because there isn't any (digital full scale) clipping on any of the Song of Prayer tracks, or the track with Yuna speaking.

[_if]

True, the CD doesn't reach full-scale, but that's because it was turned down after the fact by a little more than .2 dB. Which is odd because it suggests limiting, but clipping was not prevented. I know it's not one I said before, but I figure to give a more representative sample I should go for a non-vocal track. Here is a pretty much random 40 millisecond snapshot of "Seymour Battle" (click to see it really big):



This is what you can expect to see on much of the soundtrack and that's what I mean about not using a limiter properly. I'm sure I could have cherry-picked an even better example if I'd looked around for more than 5 seconds. It's very easy to find this in many Square/Square-Enix CDs from that era. I see no reason to expect the same bad practice wasn't done on the vocal pieces that do have audible distortion ("Ronso Tribe", "Spira", and a little bit on "Bahamut"; the others sometimes have a lot of noise, which I'd blame on the recording, but not really clipping distortion). "'Please Remember'" was turned down by about .7 dB instead of ~.2 like most tracks were, making it appear to have plenty of headroom before clipping, but its peaks are clearly flattened at the offending part. The complete flatness also suggests that it was done digitally, because distortion coming from the mic would likely be analog and not flat, and that it wasn't processed afterward which would have altered the straight line. Instead, it was most likely done in the final step. I singled out the vocal tracks because it seemed particularly egregious since they aren't really meant to be loud in the first place. Distortion is more understandable in "Seymour Battle" than on a choir or Yuna merely speaking alone, though it has always been completely unnecessary and preventable.

I hope everyone will excuse my off-topic tech talk.

[Alcahest]

Uematsu interview & video at JVC Mastering Center here:
http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/news/article/1209190026/ (japanese)

[Carl]

Nice, the photos of their mastering suite are marvelous.

[PerfectZer0]

I pre ordered mine!!!! Can't wait! I friggin love vinyl.

[Phonograph]

^ play vinyls =)

[dancey]

Are these still available for preorder anywhere? CDJ showed sold out.

[PerfectZer0]

Originally Posted by dancey

Are these still available for preorder anywhere? CDJ showed sold out.

You can still pre order at play-asia.com

http://www.play-asia.com/Final_Fanta...n-70-5j89.html

[PerfectZer0]

It's sold out now at play-asia.com

[WouTar]

Originally Posted by dancey

Are these still available for preorder anywhere? CDJ showed sold out.

You can still get them at HMV Japan, if you can navigate the site.

http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/artist_Game-...Vinyls_5166396

[PerfectZer0]

Six more days! =D

[Vert1]

Rip off price. Will be an even greater rip off when people sell them to those who didn't preorder.

[TubeBar]

I just got my set, but I don't plan on opening it just for collector's set. Has anyone here gotten it and actually opened it and played it? If so any better sound quality? What about the downloadable mp3s are they any different or just ripped from the old OST?

[James O]

I've listened to the downloaded mp3's - my ears can't tell the difference. I have yet to try out the actual records. I don't think much should be expected - this set seems purely for collectible purposes to me.

[PerfectZer0]

Play-Asia has more in stock now, if anyone is still interested.

Mine just shipped yesterday finally. Took them a while, oh well. But once I get this set I'll definitely will be spinning these on my turntable, can't wait!