Adam Corn Feb 10, 2008
Not to be a troll, but am I the only one not really excited about this being an orchestral album? Sometimes I feel people think having something orchestrated or performed by an orchestra automatically makes it "good" or better than what it's based on.
Well if you have a synth OST that's mostly trying to mimic an orchestra, and then a true orchestral performance of that OST - even with the arrangement being identical - I would say that as a rule the true orchestral version is indeed better. Provided it's an even marginally competent performance there's an added subtlety that comes with live instrumentation that improves on mock-orchestral synth.
If the original synth material isn't orchestral in nature and/or the performance sucks ("Bombing Mission" from FF Dear Friends comes to mind) then sometimes the OST comes out on top.