Voices of the Lifestream
Encyclopedia
Voices of the Lifestream is an unofficial tribute album
released by OverClocked ReMix
in honor of Nobuo Uematsu's
score for the popular video game, Final Fantasy VII
. The album was released on September 14, 2007, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII. Since its release, the collection has received praise from numerous video game sites and professional composers.
Judge and ReMixer Andrew "zircon" Aversa to recreate the soundtrack
of Final Fantasy VII. In a director’s note, Aversa credits his nostalgic experiences with the game as his motivation towards the project. A private forum was created to house development on the project and many community members were contacted to aid in developing a track list. Development of the project lasted over 20 months encompassing over 40 remixers credited with creating 45 tracks. The compilation was released on September 14, 2007, in correlation with Final Fantasy VII's 10th anniversary. Few physical copies of the compilation were made. The tracks were instead made available through digital distribution in lossless
WAV
and MP3
formats. Voices of the Lifestream is OC ReMix's ninth project to be released.
and eStarland, regarding the creation of a music video set to a track from Voices of the Lifestream. There were three different categories to enter including Final Fantasy VII, anime, and original. The winners were awarded a signed limited edition of Voices of the Lifestream among other prizes, as well as having their video presented at anime and gaming conventions that OC ReMix attends. The contest ended on December 14, 2007. The winners were announced on the OverClocked ReMix forums two months later:
Final Fantasy VII Category
Anime Category
Original Category
to date according to a BitTorrent tracker on OC ReMix’s
website. The success of the project can partially be attributed to the video game community’s efforts to “spread the word” about the album’s release on sites like digg
, as well as Final Fantasy VII's long standing popularity among gamers.
Editors of video game music websites, and video game websites in general, have been typically positive in their reviews. Kotaku
has referred to the project as being “a massive labor of love…truly amazing.” Game Tabs has called the compilation a “masterpiece,” expressing surprise at the quality of the compilation, but criticizing the vocals in some of the tracks. SquareSound gave the project a 90%, praising the musicianship exhibited by the OC ReMix community and recommending immediate download. SquareSound also criticized some of the tracks, feeling that they got “lost” attempting to reinterpret the source material. In an advance review, Jayson Napolitano of Music4Games
called Voices of the Lifestream “one of the most impressive and encompassing listening experiences in the world of video game music.”
News of the album is not limited to the U.S. Finnish
video game magazine Pelit
gave the album a score of 5 out of 5 stars, lauding its diverse content but also pointing out a few unnecessary tracks which should have been excluded from the album while it was still in development. Voices of the Lifestream was nonetheless described as “the most interesting event on the Internet music scene in a long time.”
Two professional video game composers have also given their approval of the compilation. Tommy Tallarico
, video game composer and co-creator of Video Games Live
, praised the album, stating “OC ReMix has done it again! I'm always impressed with the amazing talent that comes from the OCR community.” Michael Gluck, better known as Piano Squall
, has also voiced approval of the compilation, stating “…this is without a doubt the most fantastic project to ever hit the videogame music scene."
: Crisis Core; Dirge of Cerberus; Advent Children; and Last Order
.
Tribute album
A tribute album is a recorded collection of cover versions of songs or instrumental compositions. Its concept may be either various artists making a tribute to a single artist, a single artist making a tribute to various artists, or a single artist making a tribute to another single artist.There...
released by OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
in honor of Nobuo Uematsu's
Nobuo Uematsu
is a Japanese video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series. He is considered as one of the most famous and respected composers in the video game community...
score for the popular video game, Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
. The album was released on September 14, 2007, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII. Since its release, the collection has received praise from numerous video game sites and professional composers.
Development
Production of Voices of the Lifestream began in January 2006 as a personal endeavor by OverClocked ReMixOverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
Judge and ReMixer Andrew "zircon" Aversa to recreate the soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
of Final Fantasy VII. In a director’s note, Aversa credits his nostalgic experiences with the game as his motivation towards the project. A private forum was created to house development on the project and many community members were contacted to aid in developing a track list. Development of the project lasted over 20 months encompassing over 40 remixers credited with creating 45 tracks. The compilation was released on September 14, 2007, in correlation with Final Fantasy VII's 10th anniversary. Few physical copies of the compilation were made. The tracks were instead made available through digital distribution in lossless
Lossless data compression
Lossless data compression is a class of data compression algorithms that allows the exact original data to be reconstructed from the compressed data. The term lossless is in contrast to lossy data compression, which only allows an approximation of the original data to be reconstructed, in exchange...
WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
and MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
formats. Voices of the Lifestream is OC ReMix's ninth project to be released.
Music video competition
On October 4, 2007, OverClocked ReMix announced a competition, in conjunction with Piano SquallPiano Squall
Piano Squall is the stage name of Michael Gluck, a concert pianist who performs music from video games and anime to fundraise for charity.- Background :...
and eStarland, regarding the creation of a music video set to a track from Voices of the Lifestream. There were three different categories to enter including Final Fantasy VII, anime, and original. The winners were awarded a signed limited edition of Voices of the Lifestream among other prizes, as well as having their video presented at anime and gaming conventions that OC ReMix attends. The contest ended on December 14, 2007. The winners were announced on the OverClocked ReMix forums two months later:
Final Fantasy VII Category
- Winner: "Compiled Memories" by sayde (David Lee)
- Runner-up: "Black-Winged Angel" by slkdragon (Chris Cook)
- Honorable Mention: "Wheels of Lifestream" by Big Paul (Paulo Augusto)
Anime Category
- Winner: "Final Moments of Clarity" by Mindeffects (Saša Tarbuk)
- Runner-up: "Sweetest Embrace" by Phantasmagoriat (Chris Studer)
Original Category
- Winner: "Stone Eyes" by Zethzen (Ian Cofino)
- Runner-up: "Lunatic Hero" by backseatstuff (Matt Furbush)
Reception
Public reception has been generally positive, with Voices of the Lifestream being the most downloaded project created by OverClocked ReMixOverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
to date according to a BitTorrent tracker on OC ReMix’s
OverClocked ReMix
OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs with new technology and software, as well as by various traditional means...
website. The success of the project can partially be attributed to the video game community’s efforts to “spread the word” about the album’s release on sites like digg
Digg
Digg is a social news website. Prior to Digg v4, its cornerstone function consisted of letting people vote stories up or down, called digging and burying, respectively. Digg's popularity prompted the creation of copycat social networking sites with story submission and voting systems...
, as well as Final Fantasy VII's long standing popularity among gamers.
Editors of video game music websites, and video game websites in general, have been typically positive in their reviews. Kotaku
Kotaku
Kotaku is a video games-focused blog. It is part of Gawker Media's "Gawker" network of sites, which also includes Gizmodo, Deadspin, Lifehacker, io9 and Jezebel. Named to CNET News' Blog 100, Kotaku is consistently listed in the top 40 of Technorati's Top 100...
has referred to the project as being “a massive labor of love…truly amazing.” Game Tabs has called the compilation a “masterpiece,” expressing surprise at the quality of the compilation, but criticizing the vocals in some of the tracks. SquareSound gave the project a 90%, praising the musicianship exhibited by the OC ReMix community and recommending immediate download. SquareSound also criticized some of the tracks, feeling that they got “lost” attempting to reinterpret the source material. In an advance review, Jayson Napolitano of Music4Games
Music4Games
Music4Games was a video game music information site originally launched in 1999. It focused on the video game soundtrack industry and claimed to target dedicated gamers, game music fans, audiophiles, students, composers, developers, publishers, producers, audio directors and music executives as a...
called Voices of the Lifestream “one of the most impressive and encompassing listening experiences in the world of video game music.”
News of the album is not limited to the U.S. Finnish
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
video game magazine Pelit
Pelit
Pelit is a Finnish video games magazine published 11 times a year by Sanoma Magazines, a division of the Sanoma Group. Being by far the largest of its kind in Finland and covering both PCs and consoles, it has for a long time lacked serious competition and is thought by many to be the magazine of...
gave the album a score of 5 out of 5 stars, lauding its diverse content but also pointing out a few unnecessary tracks which should have been excluded from the album while it was still in development. Voices of the Lifestream was nonetheless described as “the most interesting event on the Internet music scene in a long time.”
Two professional video game composers have also given their approval of the compilation. Tommy Tallarico
Tommy Tallarico
Tommy Tallarico is an American video game music composer and musician. He is best known as the co-creator of the concert series Video Games Live...
, video game composer and co-creator of Video Games Live
Video Games Live
Video Games Live is a concert series created and produced by industry veterans and video game composers Tommy Tallarico and Jack Wall. The concerts consist of segments of video game music performed by a live orchestra with video footage and synchronized lighting and effects, as well as several...
, praised the album, stating “OC ReMix has done it again! I'm always impressed with the amazing talent that comes from the OCR community.” Michael Gluck, better known as Piano Squall
Piano Squall
Piano Squall is the stage name of Michael Gluck, a concert pianist who performs music from video games and anime to fundraise for charity.- Background :...
, has also voiced approval of the compilation, stating “…this is without a doubt the most fantastic project to ever hit the videogame music scene."
Track listing
The project is spread out over four discs although few physical copies of the album are available. Most of the content was distributed via download links and torrents. The names of the discs coincide with the titles of releases made for the Compilation of Final Fantasy VIICompilation of Final Fantasy VII
Compilation of Final Fantasy VII is a series of games and animated features developed by Square Enix based in the world and continuity of Final Fantasy VII...
: Crisis Core; Dirge of Cerberus; Advent Children; and Last Order
Last Order: Final Fantasy VII
, also abbreviated as Last Order or LO, is a 2005 Japanese anime original video animation produced by Madhouse and released by Square Enix. It was directed by Morio Asaka and produced by Masao Maruyama, Jungo Maruta, and Akio Ofuji. Tetsuya Nomura acted as the supervising director...
.