Question about the FFXI Opening Theme by TheUltimateKoopa at 10:44 AM EDT on March 24, 2014
So, as you know, the full title of the Opening Theme for Final Fantasy XI is: FFXI Opening Theme ~ Legend-The Crystal Theme, Memory of the People, Memoro de la Stono, Memory of the Wind.
According to FFXIclopedia, it's a medley of four parts, namely: 1. Legend-The Crystal Theme 2. Memory of the People 3. Memoro de la Stono 4. Memory of the Wind
However, I can only see it split up in to three sections. As far as I can tell:
Memoro de la Stono is from 1:35 - 4:45 Memory of the Wind is from 4:48 - end
Legend-The Crystal Theme starts at 0:00, and Memory of the People ends at 1:33.
But when does "Legend-The Crystal Theme" end, and when does "Memory of the People" start?
There is a difference in how the songs are cut between game and soundtrack. Some are obvious, some are edited in a way where the transition is seamless. So you might be out of luck to find a proper point of time for the song change.
So, the version of "FFXI Opening Theme" on the OST is different in length to the stream from the game itself (which is just an MP3 in the otherwise-PSF2 rip)?
Sort of, depending on how they wanted the music to play in the game. If the music was synthesized and programmed in the game, they could easily transition between songs trailing off instruments and starting new ones at the right times. If it was streamed tracks, depending on how complex they wanted it to be, they could have loops or single tracks that cross-fade to another track (in some cases a premixed transition track between).
So depending on how the game plays out, music tracks may have to wait until you continue on to transition to the next part of a song. Seeing this is FFXI, it's an MMO (one I hardly played or even remember) and at the time there is loading for the game and/or network. As well as there maybe text dialogs for the intro. So there are quite possible pauses where the music needs to continue a loop, or at least keep playing until the next part.
The opening theme is not different in the game. If you watch the movie you can see the narrator stops telling the legend of the crystal at about 35 seconds in, the same time the "Prelude" motif (which you probably know has been associated with crystals in previous Final Fantasy games) ends, and then starts talking about the situation the people are facing just as the music transitions into something new. I think that's the best bet as to how the first two parts of the medley are divided.