That's wild. It must have been pretty ground-breaking in that case.
Of course, the best instrument samples in the world can't make a piece of music sound like it's being played by a real orchestra. I don't know much other than what came up in conversations with Steven, but there's a lot more that goes into it—automation and different things with articulation to make the performance sound less computerized, knowing what can and can't be played on different instruments without them sounding too synthetic, knowing how different combinations of sampled instruments sound together, and on and on. If you just take a midi track and play it through the highest quality virtual orchestra, it's still not going to sound anything like a live orchestra. That's one thing I learned through this whole process, and it just makes me appreciate Steven's artistry—and that of other VST composers—so much more.
Lest you all think that because of all this emphasis on the soundtrack, nothing is happening with the game: don't fear. Our sound designer Drew is on a roll and is getting some great work done, and we're working on setting some hard deadlines in the hopes of announcing a release date soon. Just wanted to let you know that we're in a period of good activity. Sometimes, depending on people's work schedules and other stuff going on, we could go a week or so without seeing much new content/any issues resolved; right now, he's sending me new content and/or fixing some other issue every day or two. It's a good thing, and if we can keep this up, you'll be hearing a lot more about the game before you know it.