Final Fantasy XIII

Film, Game Music, Music Production

VGO Expands Operations With Announcement of SoundtRec

April 23, 2014 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on VGO Expands Operations With Announcement of SoundtRec Share this

The Video Game Orchestra (or VGO, for short) has been putting on stellar shows in either rock band or full symphonic orchestra formats for many years now. They’ve played many venues within Boston and have also traveled across the US to bring their unique musical stylings to other conventions, concerts, and events.

The group, led by Shota Nakama, has expanded its scope in the last year. Alongside the task of mixing down their first album (Live at Symphony Hall … review coming soon!), the VGO has also participated in the performance, recording, and mixing of some great game soundtracks. Most recently, and perhaps most notably, was their work on Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. They’ve also worked on God Eater 2, Ace Combat 3D: Cross Rumble, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2. They’ve also done strings work for IMERUAT’s second album, Propelled Life.

To let the world know that Boston’s premier orchestra now has studio capabilities, they’ve launched SoundtRec. What is SoundtRec? To quote directly from the site:

SoundtRec Boston Offer:
– ANY INSTRUMENTATION & ANY GENRE
We will coordinate from vocalists, string quartet to full orchestra, choir, rhythm section to big band in various styles of music – Any instrumentation and any genre that meets your projects’ demand.

– REMOTE RECORDING
No time to fly over to Boston? It is not a problem because we offer remote recording! You can be at any place with internet, even at your comfortable home studio to monitor the sessions and give us feedback.

– COMPLETE BUYOUT & AFFORDABLE RATE
We offer an affordable rate and complete buyout. Please contact us for the details!

– PROVIDING EXTRA SUPPORT
Not only musicians, but we do also have world-class arrangers, orchestrators, copyists, lyricist and engineers available for you to support your musical creativity!

This is certainly great news for both independent game studios that want high quality audio, as well as traditional studios that are looking for a new venue to record their work.

The site offers examples of SoundtRec’s recordings, including their work on LR:FFXIII and the Live at Symphony Hall album that was published just last week. Be sure to check it out!
Featured, Game Music

OSVchannel: Final Fantasy XIII-2 Regular Vs. Limited Edition Unboxing Video

December 27, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

You’ve already read our review, but now it’s time to take an in-depth looking at the packaging for the standard and limited editions for what’s looking to be one of the best soundtracks of 2011. I didn’t dig into the packaging much in the review because I had planned on putting this video together, so without further ado, here it is!

Let us know what you think of the packaging differences. Is the limited edition innovative or simply furstrating? Is it worth the 1000 Yen price difference? Both versions are still available from CD Japan (standard, LE) and Play-Asia (standard, LE) if you’re interested.
Featured, Game Music, Reviews

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Original Soundtrack: A Palace of Pleasure (Review)

December 23, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 17 Comments Share this

Square Enix has been really good lately about throwing convention out the window. Actually, I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not as people would argue that the Final Fantasy VII spin-offs hurt the series more than helped it, and after watching a trailer for Final Fantasy X-2 where Yuna jumped in slow motion while firing dual pistols, I didn’t come within 10 feet of the game. Despite these things, I’m kind of excited about Final Fantasy XIII-2, in part because they’re ignoring convention.

Featuring music by Masashi Hamauzu, Naoshi Mizuta, Mitsuto Suzuki, and a few others, is the Final Fantasy XIII-2 soundtrack diluted and unmemorable or a successful experiment?

Find out in our review after the jump. (more…)
Featured, Game Music

E3 2011: Final Fantasy XIII-2 Has Lots of Battle Themes

June 13, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 9 Comments Share this

During our separate hands-on and hands-off demos of Final Fantasy XIII-2 at E3 2011 last week, there was a lot of music to hear. While the game pretty much controlled the same way as Final Fantasy XIII, it sounds like Masashi Hamauzu (confirmed to be working on the title) has a number of tricks up his sleeve to make sure the game’s soundtrack provides something familiar yet refreshing.

We heard a number of pieces throughout the demos, but what stood out most were the battle themes. We heard four in all, and I think you’ll be surprised by what you’ll be hearing. Hit the jump for more! (more…)
Game Music

GDC 2011: Mitsuto Suzuki Talks Freedom of Expression (Photo Gallery)

March 5, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on GDC 2011: Mitsuto Suzuki Talks Freedom of Expression (Photo Gallery) Share this

Square Enix composer and synthesizer operator Mitsuto Suzuki was on hand at GDC this week to talk about the differences in approach to two Final Fantasy titles, Four Warriors of Light and Final Fantasy XIII, both of which featured Suzuki as an arranger. While the technical content of the talk was light, Suzuki expressed his philosophy on music, asking the audience, “Is music bound by fixed concepts? Theory?,” and telling us that his goal is to be free of these kinds of limitations. It was interesting to see from the opening slide above, too, that Suzuki is really his own brand.

One of the best parts of the lecture was a live demonstration of Cyan, a Japanese live performance software that Suzuki tinkered around with for a good 15 minutes on stage, giving us a cool live performance of sorts. It contained bits of “Recall” from Neurovision among other original works.

We have a small gallery of some of the introductory slides after the jump. (more…)
Game Music, Reviews

Returning Home to Your Home: Distant Worlds Japan Concert DVD/CD (Review)

January 17, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | 3 Comments Share this

Wow, Square Enix had an incredible turn around on this one. You may remember our concert coverage of the Distant Worlds music from FINAL FANTASY Returning Home concert that took place in November 2010, but here we are in January with a full concert DVD and double CD release containing all the music from both evenings’ performances.

Having read Kai’s write-up, I was greatly looking forward to checking this out, and I think you’ll find a lot of surprises in the track list. In addition to world premiere arrangements, there are a slew of guest performers, all of whom perform wonderfully.

Check out our review of the Distant Worlds Returning Home concert DVD and CD after the jump. (more…)
Featured, Game Music

Masashi Hamauzu Talks Final Fantasy XIII and MONOMUSIK

September 28, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 10 Comments Share this

It’s old news that Final Fantasy XIII composer Masashi Hamauzu has left Square Enix, but he hasn’t been in any hurry to tell the world about his new studio, MONOMUSIK. We still have no idea what Hamauzu has been up to since his departure aside from the Donkey Kong Country arrangement he created for Symphonic Legends, but we thought we would ask him what he was up to and talk about his amazing work on Final Fantasy XIII at some length. In fact, quite a great length.

While I normally wouldn’t bother going into this kind of detail, I do need to explain something before you read this, as some of the questions will sound very odd if I don’t. We wrote the majority of these questions back in November of 2009 before Hamauzu had left Square Enix. After his departure, we got in touch and added more questions. While he was busily working on our massive list of questions, the PLUS soundtrack and Piano Collections albums were released and announced, respectively, so we had to add even more questions. That’s why we ask him about the music heard in the game’s demo and the limited edition version of the original sound as neither were released at the time!

But enough my rambling! Hit the jump for the interview. (more…)