Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Playlist with all my other Golden Sun restored tracks: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmKzt4avW8iLpm1sXSsT7OKnohNo5V6cg
Lossless FLAC files can be downloaded here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q2MWzb_uSvXp0Z3vWthvErnzM3xyL6Em
~~ Jupiter Lighthouse ~~
Here is my humble attempt at restoring some of the music tracks from Golden Sun: The Lost Age, which is one of my favorite games of all times!
While it is now common knowledge that Motoi Sakuraba primarily used a Roland SC-88 Pro to compose the soundtrack, most people don't know that on The Lost Age he also used a Roland JV-1080 and an extension card, the SR-JV80-05 World.
I extracted the MIDI sequences from the game using GBA Mus Riper (massive thanks to Bregalad, the sappy engine wizard!), in parallel I did some research to find the instruments that Sakuraba sampled. The VGM Sound Sources google sheet was a huge help but it is incomplete! It took me a bit of time to locate the Bonang, Gender and Balaphone from the World card.
The MIDI sequences are heavily modified so they can be played smoothly on the SC-88 and JV-1080. That includes Bank/instrument changes, pitch/octave correction, effects, mixing, etc. I took the liberty to add extra reverb here and there, to make the tracks more interesting.
Please note that some instruments sound very different from the GBA version that you know, this is because there was only ONE sample per instrument on the GBA, but here we have access to the full range of samples on the original machines, on highest possible quality!
~~ Thanks ~~
Mega thanks to Bregalad (GBA Mus Ripper) and ipatix (agbplay). I would never have been able to do those versions without their incredible work.
Massive thanks to the VGM Instrument Sources community, and especially FreeJusticeHere for his invaluable advice and help!
Special thanks to Coaltergeist and Cyanne for inspiring me!
Original song composed by Motoi Sakuraba. #GoldenSun #RestoredOST
Playlist with all my other Golden Sun restored tracks: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmKzt4avW8iLpm1sXSsT7OKnohNo5V6cg
Lossless FLAC files can be downloaded here: drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q2MWzb_uSvXp0Z3vWthvErnzM3xyL6Em
~~ Jupiter Lighthouse ~~
Here is my humble attempt at restoring some of the music tracks from Golden Sun: The Lost Age, which is one of my favorite games of all times!
While it is now common knowledge that Motoi Sakuraba primarily used a Roland SC-88 Pro to compose the soundtrack, most people don't know that on The Lost Age he also used a Roland JV-1080 and an extension card, the SR-JV80-05 World.
I extracted the MIDI sequences from the game using GBA Mus Riper (massive thanks to Bregalad, the sappy engine wizard!), in parallel I did some research to find the instruments that Sakuraba sampled. The VGM Sound Sources google sheet was a huge help but it is incomplete! It took me a bit of time to locate the Bonang, Gender and Balaphone from the World card.
The MIDI sequences are heavily modified so they can be played smoothly on the SC-88 and JV-1080. That includes Bank/instrument changes, pitch/octave correction, effects, mixing, etc. I took the liberty to add extra reverb here and there, to make the tracks more interesting.
Please note that some instruments sound very different from the GBA version that you know, this is because there was only ONE sample per instrument on the GBA, but here we have access to the full range of samples on the original machines, on highest possible quality!
~~ Thanks ~~
Mega thanks to Bregalad (GBA Mus Ripper) and ipatix (agbplay). I would never have been able to do those versions without their incredible work.
Massive thanks to the VGM Instrument Sources community, and especially FreeJusticeHere for his invaluable advice and help!
Special thanks to Coaltergeist and Cyanne for inspiring me!
Original song composed by Motoi Sakuraba. #GoldenSun #RestoredOST
![A Full Moon in Garoh [with howls] (Restored - Roland SC-88) - Golden Sun The Lost Age](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/d7hfTLBQuc4/mqdefault.jpg "A Full Moon in Garoh [with howls] (Restored - Roland SC-88) - Golden Sun The Lost Age
Playlist with all my other Golden Sun restored tracks: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmKzt4avW8iLpm1sXSsT7OKnohNo5V6cg
Lossless FLAC files can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q2MWzb_uSvXp0Z3vWthvErnzM3xyL6Em
~~ A Full Moon in Garoh [with howls] ~~
You can find the regular restored version (no howls) here: https://youtu.be/brDQmcvSwMg.
For this version, I extracted the howl sample from the game like any other instrument, with GBA Mus Ripper. The extracted sample is already at a higher quality than what the GBA normally outputs. Then I cleaned it further with Izotope RX10 De-noise, added proper reverb and panning. Thanks again to @jdoghere for his general advice on mixing! :)
~~ Details about the restoration process ~~
Tools used: GBA Mus Riper (midi and samples extraction), agbplay (synth restoration) and Reaper.
Hardware: Roland SC-88 Pro, Roland JV-1080, expansion card SR-JV80-05 World, and Alesis DM5.
Midi files: the sequences are extracted directly from the game but need to be heavily modified in order to play them on the physical modules.
Sounds: most samples have been identified over the years, but some sounds come from my own research.
Synths: in Golden Sun, synths are specific to the internal audio engine, they are completely separate from the other instruments. ipatix managed to reverse-engineer those synths and made the code available on github. Im using his tool, agbplay, to export them from the game in high quality (at a higher sample rate than what the GBA is capable of)
Drums: Golden Sun 1 uses samples from the SC-88 but on Golden Sun 2, Motoi Sakuraba changed all the samples. While some of them have been identified and come from the Alesis DM5, most samples still havent been found to this day. Ive extracted the samples from the game, denoised, re-panned and cleaned them.
~~ Thanks ~~
Mega thanks to Bregalad (GBA Mus Ripper) and ipatix (agbplay). I would never have been able to do those versions without their incredible work.
Massive thanks to the VGM Instrument Sources community, and especially FreeJusticeHere for his invaluable advice and help!
Special thanks to Coaltergeist and Cyanne for inspiring me!
Original song composed by Motoi Sakuraba. #GoldenSun #RestoredOST")
