 Matsuno approached his longtime friends Sakimoto and Iwata to compose the music soon after the initial release of "Final Fantasy VII" in January 1997.Sakimoto composed 47 tracks for the game, and Iwata was left to compose the other 24.The orchestral timbres of the game's music were synthesized, with performance by Katsutoshi Kashiwabara and sound programming by Hidenori Suzuki.