I'm curious. Can't find this info online (lost my CD, unfortunately). I keep reading that Liberi Fatali was the first orchestra recording to be used in a video game. First, is this true? Second, which orchestra performed the piece and who conducted it?

No, it wasn't the first in Japan (some examples are Sakura Wars 1 and 2, and Grandia 1), and The Lost World, which had the first fully orchestrated soundtrack, was before it as well.

-Joshua

The first game I know of that used a full orchestra in the game itself was "Return to Zork" which was released in the US for PC in 1993 and then later for PC-FX in japan.

Blessings,
~Andy

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Wasn't Manji Maru on the PC Engine a full orchestra for some of the pieces?

The booklet doesn't mention a certain orchestra (only a list of musicians) but the conductor was Katsuaki Nakatani.

Conductor: Katsuaki Nakatani
Vocals - Soprano: Komaki Miyabe, Matsue Hamauzu
Vocals - Alto: Chie Sasakura, Hitomi Kaga
Vocals - Tenor: Hirokazu Takigushi, Jun Suzuki
Vocals - Bass: Katsuyuki Nakanishi, Takeshi Yamagami
Horn: Otohiko Fujita, Mitso Matsuura, Takahito Saijyo, Megumi Ishitashi
Trumpet: Masahiko Sugasaka, Toshio Araki, Hitoshi Yokoyama
Trombone: Masanori Hirohara, Yuzo Kataoka, Junko Yamashiro
Tuba: Kiyoshi Sato; Flute: Takashi Asahi
Clarinet: Tadashi Hoshino, Ayako Oura
Keyboard: Haruki Mino, Masato Matsuda
Harp: You Saito
Percussion: Teiko Haruna, Tomoko Kusakari, Isao Kanayama
String Ensemble: Masatsugu Shinozaki Group

You sure that actually used one?

-Joshua

"It was the first Final Fantasy to use a full, live orchestra."

Didn't the end of FFVII have a full live orchestra? End credits and all that...

Cuz this poster apparently just sent me an email @rpgfan.com, and I apparently just told him that, among other things.

Ramza

Yes, it was frantic fact-checking. Thanks to all. Maybe it was just some union-organized orchestra or something similar, but the conductor's name is important.

I'm quickly recording a one-hour radio show for WQED in Pittsburgh about vg music, and this helps a lot.

Yeah, I'm sure. I used to listen to it all the time because it was redbook audio. I would just pop it into my cd player. I can upload a sample.

~Andy

Pretty sure it was sequenced.  The entire FF7 OST is in that PSF set.  No left-out tracks at all. :)

The choir was real though, obviously.

Hmmm, well that's kinda odd. I wonder if it was written for the game then? That could explain it...

-Joshua

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Yeah, everything in FF7 was digital and even the choir they combined into the digital music for OWA sounds funky and dated these days, I think.

The choir was never exactly top quality. If I remember correctly, there was only four people credited in it (which isn't even technically a chorus).

That's cool...good luck with that. ^_^

True, it wasn't the greatest quality, but it had Masashi Hamauzu and he is the Sqeenix god.