Compressed OSTs

[Dissidia]

I started thinking about this when listening to the Bravely Default soundtrack. If a soundtrack has compressed music (in terms of size) for the cartridge/etc will the soundtrack be compressed when sold separately or will they use a different version?

[The Damned]

Either. Or both. It depends. (I'm assuming you aren't talking about orchestrations, like the Final Fantasy music collections.)

Some collections will have just straight-up rips from the game. Some will go back and touch them up a bit for the sake of quality. Some will even go so far as to completely redo them with newer equipment.

[The Coop]

It's a crap shoot, really.

Some soundtracks that w\ere midi-based (especially older PC games), have wound up having better midi instruments used for their OST (like the Doom OST releases), while others have the exact same instruments, but they can sound clearer thanks to the composers having better recording equipment to capture the sound chip's output (like some of Tecno Soft's and Konami's releases). Of course these days, since so much music already is CD quality, an OST can have absolutely no changes done over what you hear in the game. So it can differ from album to album.

That said, a general rule of thumb is that if it's an official/original sound track release, you're going to be getting what you heard in the game. It might sound a bit clearer, or a little better, but it'll basically be what you heard overall.

Edited October 15, 2013 by The Coop

[Dissidia]

I see, cool. Thanks for the answers.