Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week 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
~~ Kandorean Temple Entrance ~~
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
~~ Kandorean Temple Entrance ~~
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
![Fallen Heroes / Game over [The Lost Age version] (Restored - Roland SC-88)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RNrk8vreTV8/mqdefault.jpg "Fallen Heroes / Game over [The Lost Age version] (Restored - Roland SC-88)
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
~~ Fallen Heroes [GS2] ~~
While I was working on restoring the game over tune, I discovered that the sequence was modified between the first game and the second! In Golden Sun 2, the Music Box notes are 1 octave lower, and the ChoirAahs instrument plays single notes (while those are chords in GS1).
I find it very interesting because all the other songs from GS1 that were kept in GS2, have the exact same sequences (with a few minor exceptions). But the game over from GS1 is not present in the GS2 game data at all!
You can find my restored version of Fallen Heroes [GS1] here: https://youtu.be/OUbTZ-PxVuE
~~ 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")
