Sorry to bump this thread, but has anyone heard the remastered tracks for the re-release? It's not just a reprint, but a complete remastering apparently.

Huh what??? Where did you see this?

If that's the case, I need to buy this right away. That is, after hearing some samples to see if it's good.

Yup. According to my friend Harry, who works on my site and CocoeBiz, it's been completely remastered by a certain Kenzi Nagashima. I'm seriously considering buying the soundtrack myself, but given Valkyrie Profile's remastering wasn't all that impressive, I'm a little hesistant before I see reviews.

The remastered version was released by Square Enix under the catalog number SQEX-10068/9 on March 24, 2006. That was the same day as FFTA and FFT were re-released, though I'm pretty certain they weren't remastered.

Interesting...
I planned to buy it one day because I wanted to own the real OST again (I have only CDRs right now).

I split this from the parent thread due to lack of actual music discussion. If the remastered OST is different enough from the DigiCube version, it can have its own thread created in the Album Comments forum. Otherwise, music discussion can go back into the parent thread.

Anyway, if nobody has this, I'd be willing to buy and rip it FOR SCIENCE. And since I never got around to buying the DigiCube version.

Well, I might buy it, just looking for MP3s to see if I'll like the music first...

Curiosity piqued, but as everyone else has noted, I'd like to hear some samples first. It's surprisingly easy to ruin otherwise good music in the conversion, especially when it's not the original composer doing the remastering.

I've got the re-print and so far I haven't noticed any major sound quality differences between the Digicube version and the re-print, but maybe if I'll compare them both directly (I have the Digicube version in lossless) it'll be more obvious.

Is this it?. The original one is out of print, and this one has a release date of March 24th 2006, so I'd assume it is. Nothing looks very out of the ordinary about it, except that Sakimoto's two remixes from the original release have been removed from the track listing.

The two remixes were done by the two of the three sound engineers (Takeharu Ishimoto (2-30), Hirosato Noda (2-31)

Hidenori Iwasaki Sound Engineered the Opening Movie Music

Thanks for splitting the thread, Kaleb.

Here are some samples:

http://videoff7.free.fr/SSCX_111_Sanctum.mp3 (original version)
http://videoff7.free.fr/SQEX_111_Sanctum.mp3 (remastered version)

Ahhh, very nice. So, it's exactly as the definition of remastered is :) The tone on the remastered version is much warmer, and you can hear the lead line a lot more clearly.

I want to hear what the remastered Wyvern and Tieger and Neesa sound like.

No problem, and thanks for the samples. :)

Anyway, about the remastered version, while it does have a more refined quality, the vocals seem to have taken on a warbling effect as a result. That side-effect has negated the appeal of the remastering for me.

I'd have to hear how other tracks fare.

I've uploaded the OST to sendspace for anyone wishing to listen to it (LAME 3.97a -V 2 --vbr-new).

Disc 1
Disc 2

Thanks! I hear it's good, but wanted to hear the music first. Rented the game at one point, but it wasn't the correct game when I got it home. As a result, I have never played the game or have listened to the music...

If it's good, I'll buy a copy! ;)

Thanks for the upload, Iassic. Just last night I was thinking I should listen to this soundtrack again sometime (last time I tried it was a few years ago, and I hated it, but I've now become so fond of the FF XII OST, I'm thinking I should give the VS OST another chance).

Eh... some of the songs sound better, but a great many of them sound stiff and artificial. There's no reverb and it seems like an attempt was made to make it easier to hear each individual instrument. But to me, this was to the the detriment of the whole. It just doesn't sound natural. It sounds like in-game MIDI.

And what's with the abrupt transition in Truth? It's buttery smooth in the original.

Great; I'm going to download this beauty right now =)

Wow, this is definately a different approach to things. I love some of the subtle intricacies exposed by lifting the reverb a bit and EQing things differently. It's true that some things sound a bit more artificial ... <compnerd> However, you can tell what's going on a lot better in some sections and makes for a more succesful attempt at decyphering what's going on compositionsally ;) </compnerd>

The main thing detrimental that I noticed is that the opening has far too much high end, sounds like it's coming off a cheap TV rather than a professional mix. But I don't usually listen to that track anyways.

Thanks for the upload lassic :)

I never had any trouble deciphering any of the compositions. And the sounds of some of my favorite songs were completely changed. Take Rosencrantz for example. It's almost a completely different song!

Overall, I like the original mix more.

Ugh, always get this message: "no slot available!"

While I'll disagree that it sounds like a different song, I will agree that I like the original mix more on the majority of tracks, if only for the atmosphere/'verb.

Well, that was a little bit of hyperbole on my part, but you know what I mean.