Audio Emulation

The DSP is an additional processor used by the Wii/GCN to process sound. Dolphin has two ways to emulate the DSP.


 * HLE (High Level Emulation): HLE works by using a DSP engine created by the developers from studying the real DSP. It is not perfect, and is notorious for causing garbled sounds, choppy audio, skipped instrumentation, and desyncs. But DSP HLE is very fast with almost no overhead and does not require any additional files.
 * DSP HLE is improving on a regular basis, and versions introduced fixes for many GameCube games' HLE audio, and  brought those same improvements to Wii games and refined them further. As of 3.5-1154 DSP HLE is very good.
 * LLE (Low Level Emulation): LLE uses DSP ROM files to emulate the DSP's hardware behavior. This unfortunately requires a lot more processing power, but provides perfect sound in nearly all games. As of Dolphin includes a developer-created DSP ROM which allows DSP LLE to function without dumping LLE files from a console. Its compatibility is very good, but it will have errors that a DSP ROM from a console does not have.

For the absolute best audio, DSP ROM files should be dumped from a console. There are several ways to dump DSP files, but the easiest method is to use DSPSpy on a Wii with the Homebrew Channel installed. For details on other methods to dump DSP files, go to the forum thread.

How to dump Wii DSP files with the Homebrew Channel
You will need:
 * A Wii console with the Homebrew Channel (any version should suffice)
 * SD Card
 * DSPSpy

Download DSPSpy and extract the files. Then, rename "DSPSpy_wii_dump_roms.dol" to "boot.dol" and place the files into a folder in your apps folder on your SD card (example: E:/apps/DSPSpy). Run the program on your Wii, and two files will be created: "dsp_rom.bin" (8KiB) and "dsp_coef.bin"(4KiB). Move these files into your Global User Directory "GC" folder, which by default on Windows is located in C:\Users\[your username]\Documents\Dolphin Emulator, and Dolphin will now have official DSP ROMs from your Wii.

Help
For more details, or if you need further help, please go to the forum thread below. They will happily help you with the process. Please do not ask for the DSP files directly.


 * http://forums.dolphin-emu.org/showthread.php?tid=23103