Chrono Trigger's soundtrack has been recreated with the original uncompressed samples by musician Mathew Valente (UPDATE 2: MSU-1 and Steam mods!!)

[AuthenticM]

Youtuber and musician Mathew Valente just recently finished restoring the OST of Chrono Trigger. It took him years to track down every sample that the original composers used to create the music that was then compressed and formated to work on the SNES hardware. The result of this restoration is the soundtrack as it would sound like without the SNES compression. This process is what Frank Klepacki did with the soundtrack of the C&C games for the remasters that came out a couple of years ago. You might have also come across some Donkey Kong Country tracks that were restored through the same process, which made the rounds on this forum some years back.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw_4DVI-5Vo

The description of the video has a link to the google drive folder that contains the tracks in .flac!

I encourage you all to give it a listen. It's real good stuff. Check out his other work as well. He's been doing this process for other games as well.

EDIT: the man's google account was hijacked. Fingers crossed that it gets resolved soon. In the meantime, check the threadmark to download the albums from google drive.
EDIT 2: he got his account back!

 

[mrmickfran]

Undersea Palace, Schala's Theme and Battle With Magus sound AMAZING

Black Omen 😩

 

[whiskeyjack-YT]

Pretty sweet, some instruments sound decidedly different, which is interesting.

 

[Not So Ernest Borgnine]

Very cool! I'm guessing there are so little replies in here is because everyone is busy listening to the music.

 

[LiK]

Whoa, thanks for the heads up. Grabbing it now!

 

[SixPointEight]

This is awesome.

 

[Borman]

He was working on the soundtrack for Chrono Trigger Resurrection, for those who may recognize his name. Good dude.

 

[Fuzzy]

MSU-1 patch when?

 

[poptire]

God this is so clean. I want it to loop in the background for forever.

 

[.exe]

This sounds so damn crisp 🤤

 

[antitrop]

Gato's Song an eternally catchy loop.

Battle with Magus... To Far Away Times... Schala's Theme... Frog's Theme, it's all too good.

 

[Psxphile]

Chrono Trigger CD | Squaresoft (Nintendo Playstation) Release: TBA

 

[TeenageFBI]

MSU-1 patch when?

Click to shrink...

Oh man, that's a good use case. I've been kinda down on MSU-1 stuff before since it often feels so out of place.

 

[PurpleMoustache]

I assume someone will make a music replacement patch for these for the PC version... right?

 

[chiller]

Some of the samples sound off to me, like the sax in the intro, but I'm also incredibly picky. Cool effort.

 

[AuthenticM]

Kingdom Trial sounds fantastic! Damn.

I assume someone will make a music replacement patch for these for the PC version... right?

Click to shrink...

They fucking better loool. Goddamn.

 

[Cheesetriangles]

Would love to see this modded into the PC version.

 

[Rask]

Wow what an effort. Amazing result

 

[mrmickfran]

Secret of the Forest oh my gooooood
Memories of Green jeeeeezus

 

[snipe_25]

Wow, these sound incredible

 

[lakhesis]

This is very clean. Holy crap.

I don't know if I can listen to the SNES processed version now.

 

[justjustni]

Incredible work. Must've been hell tracking down those original instruments and samples.

 

[TheDutchSlayer]

Thanks for letting us know amazing :D

 

[Anoregon]

Man I don't think there is any music, video game or otherwise, that immediately sends my brain into nostalgia mode like Chrono Trigger music.

 

[Hattoto]

Oooh, Silent Light still retains that sense of mystic atmosphere and intrigue.

 

[Agni Kai]

Having a blast listening to this. Oh boy.

 

[TimeShinigami]

Awesome! My favorite OST for my GOAT game still shines.

 

[Psxphile]

Oh good, they used the version of The Hidden Truth that has a definite end and doesn't just loop forever.

i.e. the best version.

 

[justjustni]

Check out his whole channel, too! He's been doing the same stuff for the Final Fantasy games also. Listening to FF V right now. Just as impressive!

Thanks, OP, for sharing this.

 

[Lobster Roll]

Last Battle with headphones on 🤤

 

[AuthenticM]

Last Battle with headphones on 🤤

Click to shrink...

duuudde yeah. Undersea Palace is also a banger with headphones on.

 

[julmirakel]

Undersea Palace, oh my god. It's beautiful.

 

[jkk411]

Big fan of these efforts, always fascinating to hear the tracks in this way. There's someone out there that was doing this for DKC and it's great too.

 

[NESpowerhouse]

Big fan of these efforts, always fascinating to hear the tracks in this way. There's someone out there that was doing this for DKC and it's great too.

Click to shrink...

Goldeneye too

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC1qEJiqSnoYVug-BIOF_HCe55CorXYdo

 

[jett]

TSSF is a legend in the remixing space.

This sounds nice overall, but personally I have a nostalgic association with the way the tracks originally sound like. Just like the DKC project from Sam Miller. Some stuff I just prefer how it sounds originally, some changes take away from the vibes. Like I don't really care for how clean the piano sounds in Memories of Green. It has a really haunting vibe on the SNES, kinda lost here.

edit: sounds like he removed the reverb effect all over

 

[HVivi]

There is a github repo for generating a MSU-1 patch for Chrono Trigger using the Chrono Symphony album: Edit: Removing link as I noticed some wav file in repo and don't know if that is pirated/against TOS.

Probably could be modified to use these songs instead but would require some work.

 

[Lobster Roll]

duuudde yeah. Undersea Palace is also a banger with headphones on.

Click to shrink...

Oh damn you're not lying. This entire OST is going to be my focus music for the week.

 

[Gold!e]

Corridors of Time somehow slaps even harder now.

 

[Amibguous Cad]

I wish this had droppped a week before instead of a week after my wedding! Still super cool, though~

 

[APizzaPie]

It's hard to put together a top 5 but I think I'm rolling with:

Brink of Time
Corridors of Time
Schala's Theme
Secret of the Forest
Undersea Palace

 

[MaxAugust]

TSSF is a legend in the remixing space.

This sounds nice, but I have a nostalgic association with the way the tracks originally sound like. Just like the DKC project from Sam Miller. Some stuff I just prefer how it sounds originally, some changes take away from the vibes. Like I don't really care for how clean the piano sounds in Memories of Green. It has a really haunting vibe on the SNES, kinda lost here.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, Memories of Green in particular struck me as benefitting from being slightly less pristine. Adds a bit to the mystery and general shady vibe.

Really incredible stuff in general though.

 

[Astral]

Man I still can't fuck with Gale lol.

 

[TheDutchSlayer]

Listening to World Revolution now its just tooooo goood :D

 

[TheAggroCraig]

Saving to listen to later when I'm not using a crappy headset, very excited!

 

[Vincent Alexander]

I whipped out the nice headphones whole I work on repoets and my god, Wind Scene sounds amazing.

 

[NESpowerhouse]

Holy fuck their FF6 work is amazing too


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P37ofnyzBdw

 

[jett]

Last Battle sounds kinda bad. The panning sample sounds really harsh and unpleasant. lol and because everything is so clear now a sound channel I had never noticed before now takes some serious prominence.

 

[BlueTsunami]

These are crisper than a McDs Sprite

 

[AuthenticM]

Last Battle sounds kinda bad. The panning sample sounds really harsh and unpleasant. lol and because everything is so clear now a sound channel I had never noticed before now takes some serious prominence.

Click to shrink...

Wild. I listened to it earlier with some headphoens on and it just sounds like an upgrade across the board to me. It sounds more sci-fi and otherwordly than ever.

 

[LanceX2]

hell yes.