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For the first time in aeons FFMO gets a proper update with a new section added for mp3 remixes, tributes and medleys. Check it out for the first entry, courtesy of a curious chap called 'BEEF!!!' ;)
If you've made any remixes or reviews or anything, send them my way! We could use some updates around here.
The History of “FFMO”
At the time FFMO was conceived, very few music sites existed where the focus was on a particular game series. The love for videogame music, Final Fantasy’s in particular, spurred the desire to spread knowledge of its existence to more people. When FFMO first started it was a very small site hosted on Geocities. The site consisted of very few MIDI files and a few pictures of the famous Square composer Nobuo Uematsu. The very first name given to the site was "The Music of Final Fantasy". As new ideas started forming for the small site's future, a domain name was considered. After several domain names were sketched out, one was finally chosen-- ffmusiconline.com. Along with the new domain name, hosting was given an upgrade as well. It was no longer hosted on Geocities.
With the increase in space from the new hosting, new sections were added to the site. There was a category for each of the main “Final Fantasy” games where MIDI files were available for download. A “News & Updates” area was put on the home page of the site where only news concerning the musical aspect of the “Final Fantasy” series was posted. Japanese sites were scoured and translated on a daily basis in search of fresh news. As content grew on the site, it received more and more visitors. Sheet music and album information was added. A counter was put on the site and the stats monitored. The traffic increased each and every month. After the site became fuller, several minor layout changes were made. After a while, the site was in need of a complete makeover.
The site was given a completely new design. Along with that, the name of the site was changed to match its domain and its was hosting was upgraded again to meet the increasing traffic. Now known as “Final Fantasy Music Online” (FFMO for short), the site was a full force Final Fantasy music site. Forums were added for the first time and a community was quickly established. One of FFMO’s affiliates, AvalancheOnline (AO) had started a chat room, which was pretty successful. Shortly after that, FFMO, X111.com, and AO had formed what was (and still is) known as “Triforce Chat”. The reason behind this was that the three sites had one chat room. These three sites shared many of the same visitors and members, so it was ideal to make one chat room. X111.com and FFMO became “Forum Affiliates”, as well as AO. The new chat was paid for and hosted graciously by X111.com.
The site became pretty popular and thrived successfully for quite a while. This, however, brought on some troubles. Hosting issues arose due to exceeding bandwidth (traffic) limits. After some negotiations and temporary solutions, the cost became a bit too much to handle. FFMO wasn’t receiving enough money through advertisements to pay the demanding server costs. It was a hard decision to make, but FFMO as it was known was going to have to be closed. Not wanting to lose the beloved community it had formed, FFMO was changed to SMN (Square Music Network). SMN was similar to FFMO in that it provided a wealth of information on many of Square’s composers, album information, track lists, and news that extended beyond just Final Fantasy. With this increase in coverage, the downloads were absent (no MIDIs, sheet music, etc). The traffic that the new site was generating was declining quickly. It was obvious that the downloads were the biggest attraction to the late FFMO.
After the fall of SMN, as well as the forums eventually (sadly enough), much time passed. One of FFMO’s friends, X111.com, had an idea to revive the old FFMO somewhat. The idea was to host all of the old FFMO’s content on their server with a slightly new look (one to tailor to X111.com’s current design). Everything but the forums (obviously) was brought back.
Familiar, but still new, FFMO finally has a new home…
An enormous “Thank You” goes out to X111.com for bringing back a treasured memory to many of us. Even though FFMO as it was known will never come back, it will still summon the memories of what FFMO used to be. Plus, you get all the downloads and information it had :P
*takes a final bow*
-Dragon627
The music for Square's new spinoff of Final Fantasy X will not be composed by Nobuo Uematsu nor by the other two who originally worked on the original soundtrack for FFX (Masashi Hamauzu and Junya Nakano). This time the composing duties have been passed on to Noriko Matsueda and Takahito Eguchi.
This isn't the first time Matsueda and Eguchi have teamed up. They've worked together before on the soundtracks to 'Front Mission 2' and 'The Bouncer' (just to name a few). You'll be able to hear a small bit of FFX-2's music by watching the flash movie
here.
For the past
few weeks the forums have been down. This was due to too much
resource usage on my server. For the time being, all
downloadable files are being taken down so that the forums can stay
up. I know this is a great inconvenience to many of you, but
for right now, I have no choice.
The release
dates to the FFI & II OST re-arrange and re-release has
changed. It's now set for release on October 23,
2002.
The games
themselves aren't the only things that are being remade, their
soundtracks are also going to be re-released. Not much
information is known about it yet, but it will supposedly be a
2-disc set. The original release of the FF I & II
soundtracks were both put on 1 disc. The date set for its
release is October 9, 2002. Catalog
#: SSCX-10071
Well, as you
can see, not much has happened in the world of FF music
lately. However, new submissions have been added to the
Remixes section, the Piano section, the Orchestral section, and the
Guitar Tabs section. Thanks go out to Tyles Banana, Kid
Tracker, Iyla G, Nick Werner, and Mark Meissner.
The Final
Fantasy XI music page has been updated with correct track
names. The tracklist to the FFXI OST has also been
correctly revised. And the lyrics to "Memoro de la S^tono"
have been added to the site.
New MIDIs
and tabs has been added to the site. Thanks go out to alxx,
Jonathan Yap, Nick Werner, Kaila Cuddigan, Jowy Atreides, Rikku Nite,
Robert Houle, tony01, and Dustin Nix for submitting media.
Thanks again!
  You
can now preorder the FFXI OST at many import shops online.
Remember that there are two versions of this soundtrack: the regular
version and the limited edition (both of which are pictured on the
right.) The covers are different and the limited edition
version has the extras mentioned in a previous news post (4/4/02).
The regular
version is the one with the black cover and the Limited Edition is
the one with special artwork done by the famous Yoshitaka Amano.
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