Buying Soundtracks

I'm looking to buy a bunch of soundtracks for this game. Only for songs that actually play in the game as part of the content. If it's only a music roll, I don't care about it.

I've noticed there are a LOT of soundtracks available, and many of them seem to have the exact same songs as other soundtracks.

My question to you all is this: Which soundtracks should I buy that contain only music heard in the game itself, to get as many songs as possible with as few repeats as possible?

All of them. The game osts that is.

There are rearrangements and primals albums you can skip.

best would to buy them all as valkyrie said reason is not all the same songs are in the albums at least in arr albums

Next best thing would be buying the last one that came out for the expansion it usually holds the most popular ones in that expansion.

Before Meteor, A Realm Reborn Soundtrack, Heavensward Soundtrack, Stormblood Soundtrack, Shadowbringers Soundtrack, Endwalker Soundtrack (coming soon) are the ones you want.
I think there is another one between ARR and Heavensward but I can't remember. If you buy those specific albums, they only contain game music, with a few Before Meteor tracks being part of some of the later ones since they eventually started repurposing 1.0 music in other expansions.

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Originally Posted by Adeacia

I'm looking to buy a bunch of soundtracks for this game. Only for songs that actually play in the game as part of the content. If it's only a music roll, I don't care about it.

I've noticed there are a LOT of soundtracks available, and many of them seem to have the exact same songs as other soundtracks.

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There's not many orchestrion rolls of music not in the game; the exceptions are the special arrangements you get as an order bonus for certain albums. The piano arrangements or Primals live performances of various songs, or the symphonic arrangements from the Eorzean Symphony albums. But in general, nearly every orchestrion roll of music is content from in the game.

Now, some of the orchestrions were of 1.x tracks or stuff from seasonal events, which didn't show up in game often, but they still were actual game-content music.

It's also worth noting there are actually very few true repeats on the mainline soundtracks; it's why if you want, say, "Steel Reason" (the Garlean 'boss fight' music still used even now) you actually have to get the 1.x soundtrack, 'cause I don't seem to recall it being on any later soundtrack, as it was never re-orchestrated. Similarly, Louisoix's theme, Canticle, is still used a lot in the game, but as it was never re-arranged for later content it's still only on the 1.x soundtrack.

There are places where a given song occurs a second time, mind you, but as implied by the above it's usually a re-orchestration or re-arrangement of the original used in some later bit of content, even if it's under the same title; witness Pitfire -- the amal'jaa theme -- which can be found on two separate albums, but as different arrangements. (The 1.x version and ARR versions are distinct different variations of the same work.)

And, confusingly, there are also a few places where you get different tracks with the same title. One of the bits of music for Titan EX is called Heartless, while the music for Alphascape v4.0 is also called Heartless, but is an entirely different piece. (And one of my favorites, as it works together a whole bunch of past musical themes -- and the franchise 'Prelude' leitmotif -- to evoke the Warrior of Light's entire journey up to that point.)

So, like Valkyrie said, if you want as many songs as possible (of actual in-game music) with as few repeats as possible, the answer is "buy the entire set of main game soundtracks, but skip the Primals albums, the piano albums, the Eorzean Symphony albums, Pulse, etc."

So:

• Before Meteor (1.x music)
• A Realm Reborn (2.0 music)
• Before the Fall (2.1-2.55 music)
• Heavensward (3.0 music)
• The Far Edge of Fate (3.1-3.56 music)
• Stormblood (4.0 music)
• Shadowbringers (4.1-5.0 music, oddly)
• Death Unto Dawn (5.1-5.55 music)
• Endwalker (6.0 music) -- only up for preorder right now.

Any other album you can safely skip as it'll be music not in the game (piano arrangements, Primals performances, the Eorzean Symphony performances), interim releases of a couple of tracks that will be on a later album, etc.

Thank you everyone. :) I have my list and will now proceed to give more money to SE. I'm sure they won't mind :P

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Originally Posted by Packetdancer

There's not many orchestrion rolls of music not in the game; the exceptions are the special arrangements you get as an order bonus for certain albums. The piano arrangements or Primals live performances of various songs, or the symphonic arrangements from the Eorzean Symphony albums. But in general, nearly every orchestrion roll of music is content from in the game.

Now, some of the orchestrions were of 1.x tracks or stuff from seasonal events, which didn't show up in game often, but they still were actual game-content music.

It's also worth noting there are actually very few true repeats on the mainline soundtracks; it's why if you want, say, "Steel Reason" (the Garlean 'boss fight' music still used even now) you actually have to get the 1.x soundtrack, 'cause I don't seem to recall it being on any later soundtrack, as it was never re-orchestrated. Similarly, Louisoix's theme, Canticle, is still used a lot in the game, but as it was never re-arranged for later content it's still only on the 1.x soundtrack.

There are places where a given song occurs a second time, mind you, but as implied by the above it's usually a re-orchestration or re-arrangement of the original used in some later bit of content, even if it's under the same title; witness Pitfire -- the amal'jaa theme -- which can be found on two separate albums, but as different arrangements. (The 1.x version and ARR versions are distinct different variations of the same work.)

And, confusingly, there are also a few places where you get different tracks with the same title. One of the bits of music for Titan EX is called Heartless, while the music for Alphascape v4.0 is also called Heartless, but is an entirely different piece. (And one of my favorites, as it works together a whole bunch of past musical themes -- and the franchise 'Prelude' leitmotif -- to evoke the Warrior of Light's entire journey up to that point.)

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This explains it. Same title on different soundtracks but not the exact same song. That's where my confusion came from.

When I take songs and make a playlist out of them, I like to ignore what they are called, and name them based on where they play. Like the song "Without Shadow" which I believe is the Ascian theme. I'd just name it "Ascian theme" on my own list so I know exactly what the song is. Saves me the trouble of mix-ups.

Yeah, I had some confusion on seeing track lists and being like "Bwuh? But other songs don't end up on here twice..." at first myself, so I figured that (with a little "reusing the title for wholly separate tracks" thrown in) was the source of your confusion as well.

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Originally Posted by Adeacia

When I take songs and make a playlist out of them, I like to ignore what they are called, and name them based on where they play. Like the song "Without Shadow" which I believe is the Ascian theme. I'd just name it "Ascian theme" on my own list so I know exactly what the song is. Saves me the trouble of mix-ups.

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Without Shadow is indeed the Ascian theme. And having never been re-arranged, that one's still back on the 1.x soundtrack album (Before Meteor) rather than any later ones.

Fun fact: the title is a reference to the fact that, technically, when possessing someone, an Ascian casts no shadow. While I seem to recall that bit was sort-of plot-relevant back in 1.x during the Seal Rock story arc, I don't think it's ever been relevant in ARR onwards. (Possibly because this engine is occasionally terrible at character shadows in the first place, so it's not really a lore note you want to hit heavily.) But the song title still reflects that original lore.

I'm dying that I have to wait for the iTunes releases since Square doesn't directly offer a digital version. I have no idea what I'd do with a bluray soundtrack; it would certainly look pretty on my desk, but I abandoned physical media with DVDs. I wouldn't even be able to play it.

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Originally Posted by van_arn

I'm dying that I have to wait for the iTunes releases since Square doesn't directly offer a digital version. I have no idea what I'd do with a bluray soundtrack; it would certainly look pretty on my desk, but I abandoned physical media with DVDs. I wouldn't even be able to play it.

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What's particularly obnoxious is that other than the videos included, inserting it into a computer's Blu-Ray drive shows that the Blu-Ray disc also always has... *drumroll* ...a directory containing a digital copy of the soundtrack. (Which I then just promptly import into my normal media library.)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯