I apologise for the lack of new videos those past 9 months. I've been quite busy with other things (life, work...). But I still plan to restore more music in the future.
In the meantime, I have good news! In November 2024 I had the chance to give a 18-min talk at ADC (the Audio Developer Conference) in Bristol. And the recording is finally online for free! In this talk, I explain the overall process for restoring Golden Sun 1&2 music: the research process, challenges, technical stuff... I talk a little bit about python, C++, VSTs and binary files, but it's quite beginner-friendly.
If you liked my restored music, I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing more about the technical process. Enjoy!
Several people reached out to me to ask my thoughts on the recent release of the Golden Sun 1 soundtrack on the Nintendo Music app. Honestly I'm very happy that the game finally has an "official" soundtrack, after all those years.
Initially I was a bit sceptical about the song titles, some of them seemed a bit uninspired, but on second thought, I quite like most of them. For instance, it makes absolute sense that Saturos and Menardi's theme is called "Chance meeting with sworn enemies" and Saturos Battle is called "Sworn enemies stand in your way". Since that battle theme is first heard during the introduction, and those tracks play literally back to back. It would actually have made more sense that they are placed next to each other in the tracklist. "Felix's Resolve" is another great example. A lot of people forgot that "Frozen in Prox" in The Lost Age was actually from the first game, playing very briefly just before Sheba falls off Venus Lighthouse. Perfect title for a very powerful song. I don't fully understand why they added the "jingles" though. Most of them are fine, but "Super Lucky!" feels like it was converted from a bad youtube video. Which makes me wonder if Motoi Sakuraba was involved at all for that official release. For a soundtrack that he composed more than 20 years ago, I imagine that he wrote some song titles back then, probably in a notebook somewhere. And that Nintendo got access to those titles at some point.
About the audio quality, I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed. In songs like "Dungeon Theme" ("On that night 3 years ago"), you can hear the sound "muffle" typical to the GBA, very clearly. The bass sound especially, has its sample super-compressed, which became very obvious to me when I restored it. That said, I don't think they could have done a better job, it's not meant to be a remaster or a remix of the soundtrack. It was probably ripped straight from the game, using Nintendo's official emulator, and the quality is better than most raw rips that you could find on Youtube before.
Part of me just wishes that Nintendo could show any interest in collaborating with people who remaster their soundtracks for free. And I'm not just talking about myself. People like Jammin Sam Miller or Mathew Valente do an incredible job with their remasters. In Sam Miller's case, he is able to publish vinyls of his restored work, but he's doing it without Nintendo's approval (it's a legal grey area, he can do it, it's just not official). I have no idea how much Nintendo cares about those things, and what kind of ambitions they have for Nintendo Music. I'm always a bit worried about their aggressiveness towards fan-made projects.
But yeah, in all cases, it's great that the first game from our beloved series finally got an official soundtrack! Can't wait for GS2 to be published!
This is it.. the soundtrack from the first two Golden Sun games, has now been entirely restored!!! And I've noticed that we've reached 1k followers.. when did that happen!!
This whole project started in early 2023, when I discovered the "VGM Sound Sources" google doc that mentioned that Motoi Sakuraba used a Roland JV-1080 and the SR-JV80-05 expansion card on the soundtrack for The Lost Age. I managed to get my hands on that module and I was blown away by how clear the instruments sounded. I really wanted to restore a few tracks! I focused on 6 tracks that were heavily relying on "ethnic" instruments like the Daila tracks, Gabomba, Jupiter... and I didn't have any intentions of doing more tracks, especially since Cyanne had already started covering the soundtrack 8 years ago and I really hoped she would come back eventually. But the more I was learning about the GBA sound engine and Golden Sun music, the more excited I got. Everything clicked in my brain when I discovered that the synths were custom-made, and that the drum samples were different in The Lost Age (and all the other things I discovered along the way). This is where I realized that my restored tracks could coexist with Cyanne's channel, since Cyanne was focusing on using the Roland SC-88 for everything, even for instruments that weren't meant to be restored with that device.
I have been blown away by the fan response from the very beginning, so I'd like to thank every single one of you who's been following my channel. Thank you so much for your constant support and kind words.
What am I going to do now? Here are my plans: - there are a few Golden Sun tracks that I want to improve. I was always learning new things along the way, so some tracks that I did at the very beginning have a few "mistakes" because I wasn't entirely familiar with the samples. Also, my process and mixing techniques have greatly improved since then. For instance, in Tundarian Tower, I used the wrong drumkit (that was before I found out that GS2 was using a different drum kit) and I've also changed my "JV Music Box" sample a few months after uploading that track. This does not apply to all my early tracks, not at all! It's just a few of them I'd like to revisit a little bit and reupload. - I'll clean up the google drive and put track numbers so the files are in the correct order. Maybe I'll even do a proper unofficial "release" package eventually. - there are some tracks from Mario Golf and Mario Tennis that I really want to do :) Mario Tennis has a different drum set (not the same as Mario Golf and GS2) so I need to do a bit of preliminary work first. - next, there are other GBA games I really want to try and restore. No spoilers yet, each new game requires a LOT of preliminary work before I can start producing any sound. There are a lot of GBA games which samples haven't been identified yet. I'm working on it :)
All my restored tracks (so far) are now available as downloadable FLAC files! Enjoy! ;) drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OiPtUuToPE6oCHN_Ok… (I'll add that link to the description in upcoming and previous videos)
I just wanted to say that I'm blown away by the reception I got for my Golden Sun restored tracks. Thank you so much!
Years ago I discovered Coaltergeist's "remaster" project, and then a bit later, Cyanne's channel. It truly inspired me to see what dedicated fans were doing to try and restore the soundtrack to its full potential. In January of this year, I discovered the VGM Instrument Sources google doc, where it was mentioned that Motoi Sakuraba used a Roland JV-1080 and expansion cards to compose the music for The Lost Age. I managed to get my hands on one of those modules, I just wanted to have fun and see if I had the skills to "restore" a few tracks myself! It took me several months of preparation work before I could do anything serious. I explored forums, tried several things on the module, even wrote LUA and python scripts to make MIDI editing easier... And at some point I was able to produce 6 tracks from The Lost Age, chosen specifically because they were using interesting samples from the expansion card. At that point I had no idea I would be encouraged to do more tracks! Fast-forward to October and I've already restored 35 tracks, which is more than a third of the whole soundtrack! Woohoo!
So thanks again to everyone for your words of encouragement. It means the world to me! I'll do my best to continue on this path and restore as many tracks as possible. I'm learning so much while working on those tracks, it's an exciting journey!
Here's a little teaser for my next upload :) I originally didn't want to cover tracks that had already been done by Cyanne, but this has been requested a lot, so here you go!
I also wanted to thank: - ipatix for writing agbplay. That guy is truly awesome, he managed to reverse-engineer the assembly code around the synthesizers and reverb specific to Golden Sun, published everything on github, and no one seems to know about it! - FreeJusticeHere for his precious help. This guy has been searching and investigating GS samples for years now. He's an invaluable source of knowledge!
Vincent Dortel
My ADC 2024 talk is finally online!
Hi friends,
I apologise for the lack of new videos those past 9 months. I've been quite busy with other things (life, work...). But I still plan to restore more music in the future.
In the meantime, I have good news! In November 2024 I had the chance to give a 18-min talk at ADC (the Audio Developer Conference) in Bristol. And the recording is finally online for free!
In this talk, I explain the overall process for restoring Golden Sun 1&2 music: the research process, challenges, technical stuff... I talk a little bit about python, C++, VSTs and binary files, but it's quite beginner-friendly.
If you liked my restored music, I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing more about the technical process. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_An6...
6 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 10
View 3 replies
Vincent Dortel
Hello everyone!
Several people reached out to me to ask my thoughts on the recent release of the Golden Sun 1 soundtrack on the Nintendo Music app.
Honestly I'm very happy that the game finally has an "official" soundtrack, after all those years.
Initially I was a bit sceptical about the song titles, some of them seemed a bit uninspired, but on second thought, I quite like most of them. For instance, it makes absolute sense that Saturos and Menardi's theme is called "Chance meeting with sworn enemies" and Saturos Battle is called "Sworn enemies stand in your way". Since that battle theme is first heard during the introduction, and those tracks play literally back to back. It would actually have made more sense that they are placed next to each other in the tracklist.
"Felix's Resolve" is another great example. A lot of people forgot that "Frozen in Prox" in The Lost Age was actually from the first game, playing very briefly just before Sheba falls off Venus Lighthouse. Perfect title for a very powerful song.
I don't fully understand why they added the "jingles" though. Most of them are fine, but "Super Lucky!" feels like it was converted from a bad youtube video.
Which makes me wonder if Motoi Sakuraba was involved at all for that official release. For a soundtrack that he composed more than 20 years ago, I imagine that he wrote some song titles back then, probably in a notebook somewhere. And that Nintendo got access to those titles at some point.
About the audio quality, I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed. In songs like "Dungeon Theme" ("On that night 3 years ago"), you can hear the sound "muffle" typical to the GBA, very clearly. The bass sound especially, has its sample super-compressed, which became very obvious to me when I restored it.
That said, I don't think they could have done a better job, it's not meant to be a remaster or a remix of the soundtrack. It was probably ripped straight from the game, using Nintendo's official emulator, and the quality is better than most raw rips that you could find on Youtube before.
Part of me just wishes that Nintendo could show any interest in collaborating with people who remaster their soundtracks for free. And I'm not just talking about myself. People like Jammin Sam Miller or Mathew Valente do an incredible job with their remasters. In Sam Miller's case, he is able to publish vinyls of his restored work, but he's doing it without Nintendo's approval (it's a legal grey area, he can do it, it's just not official). I have no idea how much Nintendo cares about those things, and what kind of ambitions they have for Nintendo Music. I'm always a bit worried about their aggressiveness towards fan-made projects.
But yeah, in all cases, it's great that the first game from our beloved series finally got an official soundtrack! Can't wait for GS2 to be published!
Cheers,
Vincent
11 months ago | [YT] | 53
View 7 replies
Vincent Dortel
This is it.. the soundtrack from the first two Golden Sun games, has now been entirely restored!!!
And I've noticed that we've reached 1k followers.. when did that happen!!
This whole project started in early 2023, when I discovered the "VGM Sound Sources" google doc that mentioned that Motoi Sakuraba used a Roland JV-1080 and the SR-JV80-05 expansion card on the soundtrack for The Lost Age. I managed to get my hands on that module and I was blown away by how clear the instruments sounded. I really wanted to restore a few tracks! I focused on 6 tracks that were heavily relying on "ethnic" instruments like the Daila tracks, Gabomba, Jupiter... and I didn't have any intentions of doing more tracks, especially since Cyanne had
already started covering the soundtrack 8 years ago and I really hoped she would come back eventually. But the more I was learning about the GBA sound engine and Golden Sun music, the more excited I got. Everything clicked in my brain when I discovered that the synths were custom-made, and that the drum samples were different in The Lost Age (and all the other things I discovered along the way). This is where I realized that my restored tracks could coexist with Cyanne's channel, since Cyanne was focusing on using the Roland SC-88 for everything, even for instruments that weren't meant to be restored with that device.
I have been blown away by the fan response from the very beginning, so I'd like to thank every single one of you who's been following my channel. Thank you so much for your constant support and kind words.
What am I going to do now? Here are my plans:
- there are a few Golden Sun tracks that I want to improve. I was always learning new things along the way, so some tracks that I did at the very beginning have a few "mistakes" because I wasn't entirely familiar with the samples. Also, my process and mixing techniques have greatly improved since then. For instance, in Tundarian Tower, I used the wrong drumkit (that was before I found out that GS2 was using a different drum kit) and I've also changed my "JV Music Box" sample a few months after uploading that track. This does not apply to all my early tracks, not at all! It's just a few of them I'd like to revisit a little bit and reupload.
- I'll clean up the google drive and put track numbers so the files are in the correct order. Maybe I'll even do a proper unofficial "release" package eventually.
- there are some tracks from Mario Golf and Mario Tennis that I really want to do :) Mario Tennis has a different drum set (not the same as Mario Golf and GS2) so I need to do a bit of preliminary work first.
- next, there are other GBA games I really want to try and restore. No spoilers yet, each new game requires a LOT of preliminary work before I can start producing any sound. There are a lot of GBA games which samples haven't been identified yet. I'm working on it :)
1 year ago | [YT] | 170
View 43 replies
Vincent Dortel
All my restored tracks (so far) are now available as downloadable FLAC files! Enjoy! ;)
drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OiPtUuToPE6oCHN_Ok…
(I'll add that link to the description in upcoming and previous videos)
That's 53 tracks done + 4 alternate versions. Woohoo!
Next track coming soon!
2 years ago | [YT] | 34
View 9 replies
Vincent Dortel
Hi all,
I just wanted to say that I'm blown away by the reception I got for my Golden Sun restored tracks. Thank you so much!
Years ago I discovered Coaltergeist's "remaster" project, and then a bit later, Cyanne's channel. It truly inspired me to see what dedicated fans were doing to try and restore the soundtrack to its full potential. In January of this year, I discovered the VGM Instrument Sources google doc, where it was mentioned that Motoi Sakuraba used a Roland JV-1080 and expansion cards to compose the music for The Lost Age. I managed to get my hands on one of those modules, I just wanted to have fun and see if I had the skills to "restore" a few tracks myself! It took me several months of preparation work before I could do anything serious. I explored forums, tried several things on the module, even wrote LUA and python scripts to make MIDI editing easier... And at some point I was able to produce 6 tracks from The Lost Age, chosen specifically because they were using interesting samples from the expansion card. At that point I had no idea I would be encouraged to do more tracks! Fast-forward to October and I've already restored 35 tracks, which is more than a third of the whole soundtrack! Woohoo!
So thanks again to everyone for your words of encouragement. It means the world to me! I'll do my best to continue on this path and restore as many tracks as possible. I'm learning so much while working on those tracks, it's an exciting journey!
Here's a little teaser for my next upload :) I originally didn't want to cover tracks that had already been done by Cyanne, but this has been requested a lot, so here you go!
I also wanted to thank:
- ipatix for writing agbplay. That guy is truly awesome, he managed to reverse-engineer the assembly code around the synthesizers and reverb specific to Golden Sun, published everything on github, and no one seems to know about it!
- FreeJusticeHere for his precious help. This guy has been searching and investigating GS samples for years now. He's an invaluable source of knowledge!
All the best,
Vincent
2 years ago | [YT] | 49
View 5 replies