Author Topic: [FF7PC] ► Soundtrack Options - COMPENDIUM ◄  (Read 6258 times)

Kuraudo.

  • SOLDIER
  • *
  • Posts: 354
  • Maktub
    • View Profile
    • Behemoth Productions
[FF7PC] ► Soundtrack Options - COMPENDIUM ◄
« on: 2022-12-08 02:53:12 »
    FFVII SOUNDTRACK OPTIONS - COMPENDIUM

    For FFVII, Nobuo Uematsu composed the 1997 PS1 OST in just 8 months, using mainly MIDI synthesizers. This was a significant reduction from the usual 2 years that previous Final Fantasy titles took. To minimise the game's load time, Uematsu had to sacrifice advanced audio quality and voice performance. But he was not happy with the loss of quality that was necessary at the time.  FFVII was the first game in the series to feature a track with digitised vocals: "One-Winged Angel" is considered to be Uematsu's most recognizable contribution to the music of the Final Fantasy series. In addition, the 1998 PC port included four sets of MIDI songs (awe, midi, xg and ygm) for Sound Blaster AWE, General MIDI, XG and Yamaha sound cards. It also had four sets of soundfonts (FF7, FF7M, FF7S and lb2), a soundfont manager, and a license for Yamaha Corporation's S-YXG70 software synthesizer. The Yamaha converted the original 100 music tracks into XG format files. Although the quality is obviously high, the final result differs from the original PS1. De gustibus. In the official PC re-release version, the ogg tracks suffer from lower clarity and volume due to higher compression. Additionally, there are looping issues and music bugs. However, thanks to mods, you can change the tracks to your liking and have a bug-free experience. Choose according to your preference based on nostalgia for the first version played in the past.

    • Preservation of FF7 PS1 OST CDs 1997 version: "The Reunion FF7 PSX OST mod" by DLB
      Previously known as Anxious Heart. The music is looping OGG Vorbis files from the official OST. On another hand the SFX are high quality captures using mednafen.
      [Format: .OGG Vorbis, Bit rate: 192 kbps, Sample rate: 44100 kHz, 2ch] (complete) {Mirror}
      Spoiler: show
      [Another work is "OST CDs Maximum quality mod" by FBX. It's based on the OST CDs as they are better in sound quality than the PS1 midi files and or PSF files.] (incomplete) **DISCONTINUED**
    ~
    • Emulation of FF7 PS1 1997 version: "FFNx FF7Music mod" by myst6re {Mirror}
      This plays the original PS1 music files on PC through a BIOS that emulates the 16-bit Sony SPU, PS1's audio processor. Same quality of MIDIs but with the sound of the PS1. Super light alternative.
      [Format: .miniPSF, Bit rate: unknown, Sample rate: 44100 kHz, 2ch] Get it on 7H. (complete)

    ~
    • Emulation of FF7 PC 1998 version: "Deet's XG Music mod" by Dte102 {Mirror}
      These XG MIDIs run through the Yamaha S-YXG50 SoftSynthesizer which is similar if not the same as the Yamaha S-YXG70 SoftSynth included in the original 1998 Eidos release.
      [Format: .OGG Vorbis, Bit rate: 256 kbps, Sample rate: 48000 kHz, 2ch] Get it on 7th. (complete)
      Spoiler: show
      [Another solution is "FF7 Yamaha MU80 XG Sountrack mod" by Raymond.] (complete) {Mirror}
    ~
    • Remake of FF7 PS4 2020 version: "ReMusic mod" by Fewtch
      Richer orchestration and more realistic instrument samples. More complex and have a grander, cinematic feel. All Remake music. Feature Dynamic Music: game music is interactive, music flows seamlessly from exploration-to-battle. Not compatible with Echo-S yet.
      [Format: .OGG Vorbis, Bit rate: 128 kbps, Sample rate: 48000 kHz, 2ch] Get it on Nexus. (complete)
    ~
    • Remaster of FF7 2023 version: "FF7 EVER CRISIS mod" mod not available yet
      Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster's treatment? Here we go. Praised by many, this upgraded official soundtrack is extremely loyal to OG, a true remaster and a great option for your music if you are a nostalgic. - The music is being ripped as of 17th Nov 2023.
      [Format: .WAV (PCM), CRI HCA, Bit rate: 176 kbps, Sample rate: 44100 kHz, 2ch]
      Spoiler: show
      [Another work is "Synthetic Origins: FF7" by Mathew Valente / TSSF. A tedious work and appreciated attempt executed with painstaking accuracy. This is basically taking the sequences and utilizing samples from the original synthesizers and samplers with much less editing that was required to have the PS1 play it back at that time. Mathew, the sound engineer (owner of original samplers/romplers/sample libraries) adds a bit of flavor showing what the music would have sounded like if full patch instead of single samples were used... when it does not sound bad. FF7 has something like 60 to 70 samples, an educated guess is that we know 80% of the sources. These samples were identified from many people, see for example G-boy's spreadsheet as a good reference. Long story short: a much crisper sound and high quality samples bring us basically a remastered version. Also plugins, reverb released around the same year, many other stuffs, are all taken in consideration... and much more is happening behind the scenes.] (incomplete) **DISCONTINUED**

    ~

    -------

    For Complete Sound Mod: Cosmo Memory mod is your friend.
    For Full Voice-Over Mod: Echo-S 7 mod is your friend.

    -------

    Nobuo Uematsu - Interview & Info
    Spoiler: show
    FFVII OG Music General Info - Wikipedia's page - 2002
    Nobuo Uematsu's Wikipedia - 2002
    Possible Music Gear
    Polygon: How Nobuo Uematsu Composed FF7's "One-Winged Angel"- Jan 2017
    EDAMAME Arcade Channel: FFVII Legends Reunion || Hironobu Sakaguchi, Nobuo Uematsu, Yoshinori Kitase - 2019
    FFVII Music – Yamaha XG MIDI PC Version - April 2020
    TheLineOfBestFit: Final Fantasy Music with Uematsu - July 2020
    Fantasian - Official Nobuo Uematsu Behind the Scenes Clip - Mar 2021
    Fantasian could be last Uematsu's fully worked OST - Mar 2021
    Fantasian Soundtrack out now - Aug 2021
    SE MUSIC Channel: Nobuo Uematsu & Masayoshi Soken: The New "True Uematsu Sound" - September 2022
    After 35 years of Final Fantasy, what’s next - Dec 2022
    How Nobuo Uematsu’s 35 Years at ‘Final Fantasy’ Changed the Gaming World Forever - Apr 2023

    The Role of Role Play | Diggin' in the Carts | Red Bull Music
    Nobuo Uematsu (final fantasy composer) Beep interview
    Nobuo Uematsu Discusses The Final Fantasy Main Theme
    FANTASIAN | Nobuo Uematsu Short Interview
    1up/James Mielke Interviews Nobuo Uematsu
    Talking with Nobuo Uematsu & Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy's Creator)
    Final Symphony - Interview with Nobuo Uematsu
    Diggin' In The Carts - Nobuo Uematsu (Hidden Levels) - Red Bull Music Academy Presents
    Geauxtv: Interview at the Boston Symphony Hall
    FFVII REMAKE Theme Song - Feb 2020

    Other compers:
    SEM Talk: Shotaro Shima #1 - October 2023
    SEM Talk: Shotaro Shima #2 - October 2023
    Soken
    Soken 2
    https://composer.spitfireaudio.com/en/articles/behind-the-music-of-final-fantasy-vii-remake
    https://blog.audiokinetic.com/en/square-enix-final-fantasy-vii-remake/
    https://www.square-enix-games.com/en_GB/news/interview-making-music-masashi-hamauzu
    https://blog.native-instruments.com/behind-the-scenes-of-final-fantasy-vii-remake/


    -------

    Information & Known Issues
    Spoiler: show

    Info:
    Official Track Titles
    Music file names
    TwilightFantasy's Thread - 2006
    AKAO's music information - 2007
    Hinting at the many PC midi issues - 2006
    Aali's post on lb2_awe - 2008
    Covarr's Thread #1 - 2009
    Covarr's Thread #2 - 2010
    Reunion's Audio Replacement features - #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 - 2011 to 2014 ish
    Not present in the OST: fanfare, cintro, mogu; Not used: Comical, oa, lb2_awe, fin - 2012
    FBX's thread, tidbits - 2013
    sound effects description - 2014
    How does FF7 PSX generate sound effects? - 2016
    ID total of 732 sound effects - 2016
    Audio effect flags - 2016
    Reverse Engineering of FF7 PSX sound effects system - 2018
    Nisto's psfisolate - 2019

    Main PC music sync issues:
    1) "Barret's arm gesture at the start of the game will sync with the music." that's a deliberate choice in Reunion 06.
    Actually Cloud's first jump at the start of the game should sync with the music and not Barret's arm. Like here: PS1 JP.

    2) Cloud and Sephiroth's scene, music sync issue - "The music lock / unlock function does not work correctly in the PC game. The flag is being reset to 0 on field change, when it is supposed to carry over. This broke the music on the following fields (list is likely incomplete):

    blin67_3: "Who are you?" fails to continue playing after Cloud looks into the chamber.
    canon_2: The music will change to "Bombing Mission" during the Hojo cutscene.
    chrin_1b: "Turks' Theme" fails to continue playing.
    mtnvl6b: "Those Chosen by the Planet" fails to continue playing during a Cloud's Past scene.
    nvmkin1: The alternate "Main Theme" fails to continue playing during the Cloud Revealed scene." from The Reunion Database (CTRL+H "music" "SFX" "audio")
     
    Correct Version: here.
    Incorrect Version: here.

    3) Yuffie's Recruit - Theme Song not playing; Kalm Choco dance's music cut short; Kalm flashback when Cloud's running back into reactor plays wrong song

    4) PC Turks Theme issue?

    PC SFX issues:
    0) Phoenix Summon camera goes far away from the Phoenix for one instance (compare with PS1)
    1) Ladder on the ship deck?
    2) PC vanilla SFX inferior to PS1?
    3) Bahamut missing sound after blue flames?
    4) Tifa's Lifestream Sequence - vanilla SFX issue
    5) Cait Sith roulette, Comet2 SFX issues fixed
    6) Leviathan and Omnishlash SFX issues and SFX volume not applied fixed


    -------

    Don't forget to purchase "FF7 Revival OST" official 2019 release by SE -  This is a reprint, its audio is a hi-res 24bit/96kHz quality.[/list]

    Other FF7 related topics:
    « Last Edit: 2024-02-24 15:17:18 by Kuraudo. »

    Kuraudo.

    • SOLDIER
    • *
    • Posts: 354
    • Maktub
      • View Profile
      • Behemoth Productions
    Re: [FF7PC] Soundtrack Options
    « Reply #1 on: 2022-12-08 02:54:56 »
    Reserve this post.

    leatitia

    • *
    • Posts: 29
      • View Profile
    Re: [FF7PC] Soundtrack Options
    « Reply #2 on: 2022-12-29 22:43:43 »
    I could share the SXG2Ogg audio mod of ElNino so we preserve it for the Future since his release was in 2013.

    obesebear

    • *
    • Posts: 1389
      • View Profile
    Re: [FF7PC] ► Soundtrack Options - COMPENDIUM ◄
    « Reply #3 on: 2023-08-30 19:02:26 »
    I grabbed some of the Ever Crisis tracks and might see what I can do about looping them for in-game use.