# Spent hours trying to fix the VBA emulator... need help lol



## elunesgrace (Aug 29, 2015)

Hey guys!

I figured I'd post here because one of you might actually read it and maybe help figure this out

So I've been trying to run Golden Sun off the VBA emulator, and I had moved to the VBA-M emulator (running version 1.8).

The problem is that that ever since I've run it, I've noticed *the sound is getting cut off at the end of sound-effects during battles*.

I wanted to figure out what was causing this (after playing out for hours trying to modify settings) I decided to try the old VBA emulator. And the sound in that is working just fine!!!

I downloaded the new beta of 2.0 of VBA-M to see if it was something I had done, but it has the same issue!

Any ideas on whats causing this? Is the audio emulation of VBA-M slightly broken?

To show you the difference here are two videos:

*VBA-M (when he clicks the battle start button notice how short the sound is):

@10m 52s*



*VBA (you hear it lasts longer):

@1m 7s*



It plays a bigger effect during summons.

Anyways, any ideas?

Thanks guys!


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## tony_2018 (Sep 2, 2015)

I don't hear any sound clips skipping @10m 52sec and @1m 7sec...... It seems to be rolling into the battle scene music properly to me. I haven't played the game before so do you have a video of how its suppose to sound.


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## The Real Jdbye (Sep 2, 2015)

I notice it's shorter in the top one, but I'm not so sure it's not supposed to be that way. Either way, it sounds fine to me, doesn't really seem like a big deal.


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## tony_2018 (Sep 2, 2015)

The Real Jdbye said:


> I notice it's shorter in the top one, but I'm not so sure it's not supposed to be that way. Either way, it sounds fine to me, doesn't really seem like a big deal.



It might be because I expect it to skip the way ps1 games were skipping on the 3k3y ode.  That skipping was horrible, but these videos show that its flowing to the next track properly, not to mention these are gba games so these 2d sound effects are no where near 3ds sound effects.


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## FAST6191 (Sep 2, 2015)

Golden sun (the whole franchise) is a pig for audio when it comes to emulation, hacking and even some aspects of flash carts -- the games are usually pushing the hardware and software engines they run on to the limits and that can make things shake loose. I believe vba-m inherited kode54's various audio mod builds for it (if not then possibly whatever vba-smooth got) and did a bunch more on top of that. For most things they are an improvement over the baseline but this would probably be an exception.

Equally if vanilla VBA does for you then you have your answer.


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## tony_2018 (Sep 2, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> Golden sun (the whole franchise) is a pig for audio when it comes to emulation, hacking and even some aspects of flash carts -- the games are usually pushing the hardware and software engines they run on to the limits and that can make things shake loose. I believe vba-m inherited kode54's various audio mod builds for it (if not then possibly whatever vba-smooth got) and did a bunch more on top of that. For most things they are an improvement over the baseline but this would probably be an exception.
> 
> Equally if vanilla VBA does for you then you have your answer.



I would definitely be happy with a working vba, it seems fine to me.  Gameplay is where its at...and golden sun looks to be a game that is worth playing.


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## FAST6191 (Sep 2, 2015)

Personally I never got on that well with Golden Sun. It did not turn me off like Monster Hunter, Chrono Trigger and back on the GBA some of the last GBA releases (Riviera and Yggdra Union) and would actually suggest people give them a spin. However if I am sitting there and can play golden sun or some other games, or, better yet, summon night swordcraft story then Golden Sun has no chance.
I might have to go back and have a look at some of the hacks though.

Speaking of hacks I probably should have mentioned the voice acting experiment hack -- http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=4


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## elunesgrace (Sep 3, 2015)

FAST6191 said:


> Golden sun (the whole franchise) is a pig for audio when it comes to emulation, hacking and even some aspects of flash carts -- the games are usually pushing the hardware and software engines they run on to the limits and that can make things shake loose. I believe vba-m inherited kode54's various audio mod builds for it (if not then possibly whatever vba-smooth got) and did a bunch more on top of that. For most things they are an improvement over the baseline but this would probably be an exception.
> 
> Equally if vanilla VBA does for you then you have your answer.





tony_2018 said:


> I would definitely be happy with a working vba, it seems fine to me.  Gameplay is where its at...and golden sun looks to be a game that is worth playing.





FAST6191 said:


> Personally I never got on that well with Golden Sun. It did not turn me off like Monster Hunter, Chrono Trigger and back on the GBA some of the last GBA releases (Riviera and Yggdra Union) and would actually suggest people give them a spin. However if I am sitting there and can play golden sun or some other games, or, better yet, summon night swordcraft story then Golden Sun has no chance.
> I might have to go back and have a look at some of the hacks though.
> 
> Speaking of hacks I probably should have mentioned the voice acting experiment hack -- http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=4



Thanks for replying guys! That voice acting mod look awesome I gotta look at that. Any other hacks?

I know the original would do it, I was wondering if there was a setting that made a way to change it. I know its a small-ish issue, but the music of the gameplay/summons really makes a difference to the experience.

I want to see if its modifyable.


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## tony_2018 (Sep 3, 2015)

Might want to check with the dev.


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## FAST6191 (Sep 3, 2015)

The site I linked is one of the bigger/better golden sun dedicated hacking sites (not many games, much less ones in entirely new franchises from post 2000, get enough of a fanbase to warrant their own hacking site, so I was half surprised Golden Sun managed it), there might be something else out there but I would exhaust their collection first.

I do not think there is a little switch like you might have seen for the newer/3d based consoles, or even the DS stuff like desmume or no$gba has, for vba-m. That said, my hearing/musical talent combined is awful so I tend not to move in the golden ear sporting emulator author/hacker circles ( http://www.hcs64.com/mboard/forum.php being a good jumping off point if you want to find some of those types); I will modify, extract, inject and otherwise fiddle with audio all day long but ask me to help discern too slow decays, improper decay methods, wonky interpolation and even ringing at times and I am useless so I could well have missed something.


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## the_randomizer (Sep 3, 2015)

Might I suggest mGBA instead? VBA is just...outdated and even in the newer revived version...I dunno...


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