N/A: Final Fantasy: Origins of Darkness

[Secret Squirrel]

So what is the music on this album? Is it actually music from the FF games, or is it a set of original compositions in the style of FF music?

[atenzor]

Originally Posted by Secret Squirrel

So what is the music on this album? Is it actually music from the FF games, or is it a set of original compositions in the style of FF music?

A set of original compositions in the style of FF music.

[Ramza]

Has anyone listened to track 3, "Attack on Midgar," to determine whether or not this has any direct relation to music from FFVII?

[atenzor]

You can listen to tracks here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5TYMO7MJ

I hope that helps.

[Myrkul]

Bringing back this post...

It's a long story and i have personally followed it since the start, but the music source of this "album" have been analysed and it appears the lossless files were transcoded from their original MP3 form.
MP3 that were originally released were encoded in 3 very different codecs and bitrates.

That and the ugly covers (photoshop?), this entry is very suspicious.
I am for deleting it.

[atenzor]

Originally Posted by Myrkul

Bringing back this post...

It's a long story and i have personally followed it since the start, but the music source of this "album" have been analysed and it appears the lossless files were transcoded from their original MP3 form.
MP3 that were originally released were encoded in 3 very different codecs and bitrates.

That and the ugly covers (photoshop?), this entry is very suspicious.
I am for deleting it.

The way I see it, you can delete it if you wish, but you are not
giving the chance to people to at least know it exists...

[Kaleb.G]

Originally Posted by Myrkul

photoshop?

More like MS Paint. This looks totally fake to me.

[Secret Squirrel]

It really comes down to the question of just what is "Music From Japan Festival 2000," and was this some kind of sanctioned release even if it was botched. If not, then where did these original pieces from Uematsu and Hirayami come from?

[Myrkul]

There's a whole site consacred to this event.

But "Hiruyami" name is nowhere to be seen.
Complete list of composers for these events

[Kaleb.G]

Also of importance, Uematsu isn't on there at all. Nor is he listed on this page.

[Secret Squirrel]

So this thing is looking more and more like a fake. Did anyone listen to it to find out if it even sounded like Uematsu?

[Myrkul]

Ok, so here's the final and only truth about this "album".

I personally found Atsuhisa Hiruyami's email, and i asked a friend to email him with a few questions..

Here's a copy paste of the whole mail log:
(this is his answer)

Hi, thanks for contacting me

Let`s go through each question:

1) Q: You mean THE Nobuo Uematsu, the huge Final Fantasy game's composer ?
A: How many Nobuo Uematsu`s do you know... haha, YES, "him"!

2) Q: Could you tell more about your collaboration and your
compositions with Nobuo ?
A: Actually, that "little album" is the only collaboration I had with
him. I learned some
composition skills with him too.

3) Q: Did you meet him ?
A: Yes, in a way. I went to a local music studio, can`t remember now,
that was like 10
years ago and I saw him, I was like: OMG, is that HIM??? Then, I said
I was a huge fan
and that I compose music myself, however I am not even close to be
good as him. So,
he somewhat agreed that we worked on a private little album.

4) Q: How did you work with him?
A: It was based in that music studio I mentioned above. He wanted to
compose 8 pieces
of music, where I just provided additional music, since he actually
wrote all 8 pieces.
We worked on 2 synthesizers and one real piano and that`s about it.

5) Q: Could you tell me more about the 8 tracks with him?
A: Hmm, well, he wrote all 8 first, then asked me to "add" or "modify"
some elements
from them. At first, I liked how they were and they didn`t need much
change. However,
since he wanted to see what I can do, I worked on some tracks, like
"Calm before the
Storm`" where I added the piano part, while tracks like "Battle of
Fate", I just added a little
bit of action in there. It`s nothing complex.

6) Q: Did you release a CD with these titles ?
A: No, as far as I am concerned, NOTHING was released for this, it was just
a private album that was recorded (I don`t know how or by who), but I
don`t think
it was released as a public thing. I was the only one to have a copy,
maybe Nobuo too.

7) Q: Was it published ?
A: It was composed in 1999 and never published, it just was under a
private record label,
nothing more.

8) Q: Can we buy it ?
A: That would be nice, but I think they didn`t release it, so it`s
impossible to buy it.
Sorry.

NOTE: I saw a few days ago a strange case on Internet, regarding this album.
Here is how to solve it:
It seems, there are 3 problems to this album. First, how was it
published on the Internet?
To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I gave my copy to a fan of
Nobuo, and perhaps
he released it??? Not sure. Then, it seems the info says that the
publisher is "Music From
Japan Festival 2000", this is not true, I am not affiliated with them
and I would have known
if they did release, besides they are not the ones who recorded it. By
the way, the album
was published on VGMdb, however, it has NOTHING to do with Video Games...
Finally, it seems the album was recorded under different bitrates and
seems fake? Well,
first, it`s not fake. The reason why it has different bitrates and an
ugly photoshop album art,
which doesn`t even exist, is beyond me... perhaps that same person
released it that way
to confuse people... no idea, really! I hope this answers lot of
questions about this release.

Thanks, and reply if you need more answers.

I'll let the staff decide what to do with this entry.

[Ramza]

That's really interesting information!

I don't think it should be listed on the site. It was a private work among acquaintances, it never had any real "publication." But yeah, very neat story.

[atenzor]

Yea, after reading that mail thing, I don't think it's good for VGMdb...

[Gigablah]

Yeah, definitely should be removed.

But I'll preserve the information here for the benefit of the curious:



And the mspaint covers:

[atenzor]

Ahaha, omg, the ART IS SOOO BAD!

[Metroid]

I don't see anything wrong with this entry as far as the music names and working of the composers are concerned, the cover was the only thing that was self-made by who wanted to share it. I don't see any malicious intention by the sharer and if Nobuo or Atsuhisa had not complained about the entry, so I do not see any problem at keeping it listed on VGMDB.

Myrkul would be nice if you could get more info about the album, ask Atsuhisa if all the submitted details are real or if he could add something else.

[Gigablah]

You can refer to the discussion here:
http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1693

This album was certainly self-published by an "official" source, but it does not pass the distribution criteria.

[Metroid]

Thanks I was certain that we had a topic discussed about this issue.