FF8 - The Landing [reimagined/remastered] release (with .ogg file)

[Vaake]

First time poster, long time lurker. I see many great modders on here tirelessly working on providing amazing mods for us to enjoy, so I figured I'd lend a hand with something I enjoy doing in my spare time.

I do music production as a part time hobby when I'm not busy with school, and have been wanting to do this theme for years. There were several limitations that held me back though. For starters, the .midi files on the MIDI shrine and other game midi sites are just not faithful representations of Nobuo's original work. There's always something wrong or missing, and I do not want to butcher his compositions trying to fix errors in the midi files provided by those sites. So, I did some digging. I noticed that the MIDI music in the steam version just isn't up to snuff. However, those .sgt files contained all of the composition nuances that Nobuo wanted, which made his work so great. So I found a way to use those .sgt files to convert them to .mid files so I can use the MIDI files to reimagine the FF8 themes with modern instrumentation, while still keeping the original feel that Mr. Uematsu intended. I'll probably make a separate post with a guide on how to do it if any other music production hobbyists want to get their hands on Nobuo's true compositions.

You can listen to the track here.

(Also, I reworked a version of Man With A Machine Gun (Laguna's battle theme) that you can listen to if you scroll down on my Soundcloud page.)

For those that use Roses and Wine, I made an .ogg version that you can mod your game files here.

edit: The song has been tested and works perfectly with smooth transitions between loops. Just download the file, backup the song to be replaced in your Steam folder in FFVIII/Data/OGG, move the OST version out and move the new version into the folder. No additional steps are needed.

 I'm also thinking about doing the entire FF8 soundtrack, but that will take quite a long time. Perhaps reworking the entire soundtrack could be used in conjunction with a new version of Roses and Wine? I'm a CS student, so maybe I can write my own installer when the time comes, but if it's not broke, why fix it?

Enough rambling. Enjoy the music! Constructive criticism is appreciated.

[DLPB_]

It's not bad.  Better than most changes people make to music.  Still, it isn't something I feel is superior to the OST version (I did like the drum in this version) and so not something I would personally use.  That goes for about 99% of the fan music out there tho   At least I listened to it to the end.  Most of them last 5 seconds.

[Vaake]

Thanks DL 

[DLPB_]

Well, it is certainly listenable and has replay value. And that's a big plus.

Here's how not to do it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyzNJ6mWMZs

[Vaake]

Yeah, not my style. If I'm going to rework a theme, I at least try to be as faithful to the original work as possible.

[Shard]

I agree with DLPB. Your remix is better than what most people do, certainly a good track overall, but it's missing some pieces that made the original stand out. For me, your violins/strings sounded too fake mixed in with the good sounding everything else.

[Vaake]

Thanks for the words, Shard. I agree that the strings do sound a bit fake, I just can't afford any top end libraries at the moment. I'll make another version with better strings  later on. Mixing VST strings is a pain in itself, but I'm sure having better samples would make it easier. Thanks for listening.