Emulator

I went ahead and tested LLE for Dolphin 4.0-1292 and Dolphin 3.5. Music behavior is identical to their HLE counterparts (no music in 4.0, music cuts out in 3.5).

Would you please try Dolphin 3.0 as well in LLE and HLE mode?

Dolphin 3.0, HLE & LLE, music works perfectly.
LLE stutters but that's expected at 45VPS.

Dolphin 4.0-1796: Music still fails to play for both HLE & LLE.

Dolphin 4.0-2556: Music still fails to play for both HLE & LLE.

This issue seems related to issue 7342, https://github.com/dolphin-emu/dolphin/commit/51290fd48221eed8a6a6a113c494045c1c0c4f56 is probably the culprit.

This one is a ARAM DMA timing problem. The following patch will fix the music in Burnout 2, but makes the cut-scene audio break up in Resident Evil 2 and 3. Patch based off Dolphin 4.0-2649

diff --git a/Source/Core/Core/HW/DSP.cpp b/Source/Core/Core/HW/DSP.cpp
index 903c75e..c049598 100644
--- a/Source/Core/Core/HW/DSP.cpp
+++ b/Source/Core/Core/HW/DSP.cpp
@@ -529,12 +529,13 @@ static void Do_ARAM_DMA()
// Force an early exception check on large transfers. Fixes RE2 audio.
// NFS:HP2 (<= 6144)
// Viewtiful Joe (<= 6144)

•   // Burnout 2 (> 4096)
    // Sonic Mega Collection (> 2048)
    // Paper Mario battles (> 32)
    // Mario Super Baseball (> 32)
    // Knockout Kings 2003 loading (> 32)
    // WWE DOR (> 32)
  

•   if (g_arDMA.Cnt.count > 2048 && g_arDMA.Cnt.count <= 6144)
  

•   if (g_arDMA.Cnt.count > 4096 && g_arDMA.Cnt.count <= 6144)
    	CoreTiming::ForceExceptionCheck(100);
  

  }

Can confirm this as fixed.

Initial tests with pr-1012-dolphin-latest-x64 are extremely positive. Music is perfect in the menus, as well as during two races and during the replays of those races.
I've only tested HLE and Burnout 2's Stereo music, Should I test other things like LLE, the mono/Dolby Pro Logic II music, etc?

It should work in LLE the same as HLE. I tested interpreter to make sure it works too.

I encountered one case where the music did not play. In the Winding Road Grand Prix (the second GP), during the second race (Interstate Loop); the intro music played but the main music was silence.
I have encountered this case twice, but have also had three cases where the music did successfully play.
In cases where the music was silent, I did the following:

1. Boot the game, start the Winding Road Grand Prix with the Muscle or the Oval Racer.
2. Complete the first race with a 1st place.
3. When starting the second race, do not skip the introduction.
4. Do a boost-start (tap Brake then hold Accelerate to do a burnout, then press Accelerate again right before GO).
5. Notice the lack of music.

I'm not entirely sure what exactly causes the silence or if it is even consistently reproducible. I haven't done any extensive testing since completing the first race takes about 4 minutes, and an attempt where I skipped the first race didn't cause silence.

shockdudeX, I have updated the build at the link (same name). Would you please try downloading it from there again and check if the issue still persists? It probably does, and if so, could you zip up your memory card and either attach it here or dropbox?

https://dl.dolphin-emu.org/prs/pr-1012-dolphin-latest-x64.7z

I exported the GCI for Burnout 2 using the Memcard Manager; is that enough?
I'll try to find time to test the new build tomorrow.

Sometimes when starting a race, the intro music (during the 3-2-1 countdown) doesn't play, but the main music (during the actual race) plays. This occurs in both the GP and single race modes.

My guess is that the music playing/not playing is completely random and that any correlations are coincidences, but I dunno.

Whoops; let's try again.

Can you check and see if this happens on single core? I've had this happen once on dualcore with my machine, particularly when it lags loading a track, but never on single core yet.

I can't say for sure, I haven't tested this game that much.

One more thing in testing the new build tomorrow, please test it on DSP LLE.

Downloaded your updated build (4.0-3089). LLE w/ official dsp_rom, dual-core. Game seemed to run at about 50FPS (only so much that a 3.2GHz i7-4700MQ can handle).
Started the second GP, beat the first race. Music played during the second race, but then cut to silence around where the music was supposed to loop. At this point the game returned to 60FPS, implying that Dolphin wasn't processing audio during the silence.
Will try again with single-core HLE, and single-core LLE if it's not unplayable on my laptop.

Single-core, LLE on separate thread w/ official dsp_rom.
Second GP, first race, music cut to silence at the loop.

Single-core, LLE on same thread w/ official dsp_rom. Game ran at about 45FPS.
Even with these settings, music will sometimes not start.

Start the second GP (or any Championship event, but I only tested the second GP). Press Start, select Retire, watch the replay a couple times, move onto the next race, repeat. After finishing the GP, start it again. Eventually you'll encounter the silence.

Just now I finished the GP, returned to the main menu, and found silent menu music.

Thanks for testing, shockdudeX. I will investigate that. If you have time and are available to, would you please also test any other gamecube games you might have in your library?

You're welcome!
I'll try testing other games if I have time. Is there anything I should look out for?

Please look out for Music/sound effects cutting out and games that hang in a particular spot (repeatable, not randomly).

Fyi I haven't had time to test other games with the pr-1012 patch, and I don't think I'll have much time going forward. I can still test Burnout 2 if a new patch comes up.

shockdude, that's fine. I am still working on the patch. May I contact you via e-mail if I would like you to test something (maybe months from now)?

Not a problem!