Sephiroth1999AD, I'm not sure I can totally agree with you. Granted, I've only played the PC version of FFVII, and never with a great MIDI card, but it just doesn't do it for me. The lack of the choir is too big a hole for me to get over - and even if the choir was there, the digital instruments just can't capture the same effect as the live instruments, even if the arrangement is better (and I'm speaking as a 4th-year college-level music student who's taken instrumentation courses).

Take the intro, for example - where the violins in the Reunion version have that "Psycho" part with the screeching high notes. In the digital version you just get violins playing little upward runs. There's no expression - half of the effect of that sound is the actual bow scraping against the strings, which you don't get in MIDI.

I agree they should have done a more powerful arrangement of the "Sors immanis et inanis" part, but what's actually happening there is that the orchestra is playing almost the exact same thing that the digital instruments play in the soundtrack version. It's just that MIDI cards seem to think that trumpets and French horns are much louder and more piercing than they are in real life. To get that same effect in a live performance you'd need to bring that part out on the lower brass (especially trombones) much more, and throw in some woodwinds (my vote is on the alto flute) to accent it.

I think the interlude in the Reunion version is amazing. I know it's really subtle compared to the rest of the piece, but that's some tough stuff for some of the instruments (especially the ornamentations for the flutes). I think they could have filled the sound out some more with additional wind instruments (bass clarinet, piccolo, alto flute), but having the cellos take the melody at the first part is a real Romantic-era Italian operatic touch that is totally fitting for such an epic piece. And seeing as though the rhythm of this piece is actually a tango, the percussion is just right in this part.

I think the "Veni, veni, venias" builds up really well in the Reunion version. I might have laid off on the timpani and bass drum a little bit towards the end of the "Gloriosa, generosa" bit, but if you listen with a good set of speakers/earphones, there's this amazing counterpoint between the upper woodwinds and violins that you just don't hear in the in-game version - pure genius on Nobuo's part!!!

I heard the KH mix once, and not enough for an in-depth analysis, but I seem to remember it almost having a bit of a Middle Eastern flavor at certain points - which I thought was really cool considering you fight the battle against Sephiroth in a Greek amphitheater (okay okay, I know Greece isn't in the Middle East, but hey, it's a nice touch any way).