While doing some playing testing (jumping back and forth between the CS and the game) I turned off the music because I was listening to an internet radio station at the time. The next time I went to play OB I forgot to turn the music back on in the settings. At first I was going to exit out immediately and "fix" it, but then decided, "Let's see what playing without music is like." It's a whole different experience let me tell you! Without the background music drowning out most of the ambient noises the game takes on a whole different feel. You get to hear how much work Bethesda really has put into the game. Add in a mod like AWS and really begin to feel like you're riding through the forests of Cyrodiil; the wind rustling the leaves, birds calling in the distance, the sound of your horses' hooves on the soft ground. The eeiry quiet at times. When enemies attack your only warning might be the growl of the bear as he is ready to pounce, or the shriek of the goblin as he hits you over the head with his mace. Keeps you on your toes to say the least. And going to the dungeons without music makes the journey all the more interesting. Like I said, Turn off your music! and submerge yourselves into the game.

What is needed now is a mod that will play music only where it would be in real life, ie a tavern. I guess that could be done by replacing the MP3 files in the "world" and "dungeon" music folder with "silent" ones, and then leave the "town" folder with some medieval music MP3s.

EDIT

Performance tip from Ashakanar

Thanks I thought I was the only one that turned the music off, got tired of the warnings and constant droning over and over and over.

Ha! I knew we couldn't be the only ones, Labyrinthian!!

...we very much prefer the music off. J.Soule's work is good, but the game is more immersive without it.

I do somewhat agree with you about the taverns, though.

good point, worth looking into.

What about Scott Joplin music for the taverns ?

I've thought about doing that, but in the end I always end up keeping it on.

While ambience is nice, and it would be nice to hear more of the background sounds, to me the music adds so much to the experience. Especially since I got the excellent music packs that are floating around the forums (can't remember the guys name, but his stuff is top notch). I'll often find myself staring at the (now beautiful, yay new vid card) scenery just listening to the music play.

And as for the battle stuff... I'm not sure which is worse, honestly. Having a random creature come up and snap your rear end, or hearing that combat music start and frantically looking this way and that trying to find just what it is thats after your hide. Though in caves there's little mystery as to where its coming from, so I suppose in that situation it might be more suspenseful.

I may just have to try going "music-less" for a time, though. See which is really better rather than just assuming. I do love my music, though.

I've been playing without music ever since the game was released, mainly due to the fact that Oblivion crashes every time the tracks change.

The thing that's annoying if you get a creature or NPC to flee, the music replays sometimes, and again if you hit it subsequent times.

As all the music is in MP3 format actually turning it off will give you a few more FPS and less stutter..Plus the first time you get hit by a RAT in a dungeon when all you have is a torch to see by..Your gonna kak your pants....I almost shrieked!!!....I play without music all the time now.

Sheathana'ich

I like playing without the music, but I mostly do it for taking footage without the music in it. Also, I like it when wolves surprise be and make me jump in my seat. Without the music, you get no warning.

I have played without music since day one as I find it more immersive and love the beautiful nature sounds present in Oblivion.
But I would like to have music playing in taverns, I have finished creating my third tavern for the game and music would just make them all so much more life like.

Maybe even a kind of jukebox would be good, that the player can activate.

@:_Tarnsman_
Cant u just delete the mp3s for the combat and exploration music and leave the town music to acheive that affect?

I dont know if it would cause errors though so might need to replace with blank mp3's or something.

A team of us are working on this Minstrels of Oblivion, to fullfil the taverns life with music..

..don't I feel stupid. Doing something like this never crossed my mind. I guess i'll be adding a tips section to my mod list.

Didn't someone make a better ambient sounds mod? I thought it was Aelius or XMarksTheSpot or someone...

You thinkin what I'm thinkin? Maple Leaf Rag:D:D:D

ATMOSPHERIC OBLIVION i think by PirateLord and one other Mod. I use them both along with many horror movie soundtracks with a slow ambient quality about them. Only with the battle music does the music get sudden and loud for shock effect. For cities i use old time cabaret style music like Johnny Sparrow and the timeless music of TES 2 DAGGERFALL which has many free versions available on the internet. Playing without music is great especially with sound mods like AO that take the original Bethesda sounds and enhances them so they stand out more.

I never play with music anymore, originally i did this to keep Ob from crashing as has been mentioned, but once you get your very first "jump out of your chair" scare from a wolf you just can't help but prefer it. Very few games can make me jump and without the music to warn me i find the adventuring alot more realistic.

well if you like games that make you jump out of your chair, i suggest FEAR, probably the scariest game I've ever played

I don't play first person shooters, not trying to be criticle, but if your not gaining anything from the "experience" it isn't worth it IMHO. Now if you gained levels, skills, new abilities as you adventured in Fear i would be VERY happy to try it out.

You can do something similar by unpacking all of your game files from the bsa's and then changing the .ini to not use the compressed archives and then renaming or deleting the majority of the music files (leaving just the ones for the taverns etc that you want to play.) they are located in the music folder.

in the .ini change this line : bUseArchives=1 (to =0) after unpacking the .bsa's (I do this since it seems to improve performance a bit and I have the bsa's unpacked anyways)

Most of the time I play with no music too. It all started for me with a game called Ico on ps2, only way I can describe that game is 'haunting' and beautiful.

If I could be bothered to test it out I'd try keeping music in the towns though and deleting all other music folders. For me its too obtrusive to my gameplay. Personal choice though, and its not because I dont like the music because I do.

I think I'll give it a try sometime, but I like listening to some of those music tracks (just not too often), lots of Michikawa's music too. Perhaps if that mod could add random occurances where the music plays through one loop, then stops for five minutes or so...

I could always turn it on manually, but it'd get to be such a pain.

I had never played without music. I'll try it.

Perhaps if somebody could find a way just to get rid of the battle music, I'v tried deleting the battle music file before and would still get a warning of a battle since the current music would pause and restart itself from the beginning.

Exactly the same way it happened to me. It is SO much fun to get ambushed at night outside with NO warning from the music. I never went back and can't imagine playing it now WITH music.

Mozo

I forgot there was music.I turned it off the first day and never looked back.There's something weird and immersion breaking about music playing all the time.

I've had the music off for along time, just a few months after release. At first I changed the name of the battle music to stop it from working but I got the same pause that others get. So I then changed the battle music to some Conan the barbarian music to give it the action feel.

Now I have it off all together but I like the idea of having music for the towns only, I'll have to try that out.

I'll try this out, but not before I try some Finntroll for battle music.

The only portion of Oblivion's music I have ever heard is during the intro screen when you first load the game and at most maybe 15 seconds of it. It's always the first thing I turn off when I install/reinstall and is one of the first ini settings I alter. I've never heard a single note of the in game music. I honestly don't know how people can stand it while playing. HUGE immersion breaker and distraction.

YEAH,


turn off that spoiler music and download


ATMOSPHERIC OBLIVION and


NO SNEAK EYE!!



Never thought Oblivion could actually be exiting...

I turned off the music and I must say...when I walked towards an Aylied ruin I was like "Holy "F"...some "S" might go down here..." Then I tried to fast travel when I came to the conclusion that my companion was ill prepared for the type of combat I was walking into, and couldn't. So that made my instantly go "Oh "F"." as I bolted. Turned out there were two Water Elementals nearby. But it was awsome.

That download for Atmospheric Oblivion is corrupted...

I never thought of turning off the music, seems like a good idea. The perfect finishing touch for all the mods I have to make the game more immersive.

Eh, you get the story, I personally don't care what I'm playing as long as the story is good. Though I have to say I prefer Silent Hill 1-4 over F.E.A.R., myself.

I like the music. I think it does well to get the player into the moment. It definitely adds a cinematic feel to the game.

Glad to see I'm not the only one enjoying "Silent Oblivion". Looking forward to the Ministrels mod. That will add some much needed atmosphere. Hey Bethesda! How about some new NPC animations and some musical instrument models so we can have strolling ministrels and the like in the game. One thing that would be nice is an Oblivion version of Ivza's Haunted Tombs. The mod makes going into the Morrowind tombs a real 'treat'. You always think you're about to be attacked by who-knows-what.

I second this if somebody could do this for The Minstrels of Cryodiil mod it would make it that much better?

Thank _Tarnsman_

I dunno, whenever I play without music, I feel like I'm missing something important. It'd be like watching Star Wars without John Williams' score. It's empty.

I tried a lot of other music pieces from other games and various classical composers, and while it's lovely, it never felt like Oblivion - it just kept reminding me of other games. Soule is really amazing, and I've found that his other work (especially from Morrowind and Guild Wars) goes nicely together with the Oblivion music, fits much better than other composers' material (for obvious reasons).

But I can't disagree that the combat music is annoying - it is. I wonder whether replacing it with a blank MP3 would help (so that I could leave the rest of the music on).

NO IT`S NOT CORRUPTED!


You didn´t even try, did you? Those are old comments, obviously it was fixed long ago. I even downloaded and extracted it to make sure.


@NYM:

You can do that, but you get the annoying warning that the battle starts cause the music just stops.

you guys, if you turn off your music, make sure you also edit your ini.

Edit this statement

bmusicenabled=1

to

bmusicenabled=0

This will give you extra performance becuase it completely turns off music. Turning down the music slider only mutes it, but it still plays...

Ashakanar

Thanks for the tip!

I'm working on modeling... the thing is, I dont think I'll be able to make any good ones by the time the mod comes out so oh well

Turn off the music!?.............What a great idea!..........Why the heck didn't I think of that. It's weird how It makes such a difference.




Defentaly need music in chapels and taverns though!

You'll also notice that you'll get better Fps if you turn off your music

Na. better FPS....well i guess...Do you have to disable it in the INI for that or is just using the slider work?

Mmm... the only time I turn off the music is when I'm filming, so that I don't get any "stutters" because I have to hit the film button again (shareware fraps) I rely on the music to tell if I'm being attacked... so if I turned it off, I'd be at a disadvantage. And when I've got my music on really loud, it shuts out my mom and brother whining at and insulting me all the time quite nicely. I never knew that turning off music improved FPS, though.

I add my own tracks and the music is beautiful. It really sets the tone and mood.

Here's your answer...

Yep better Fps, just turn it off in the Ini. Works with Morrowind to, and Beth actually suggests that you do if you're getting bad Fps (in Trouble Shooting).

Actually I did try. I later found that for some reason, my WinRAR can only read, not extract .ace files. I have never heard of a program ONLY being able to read a compression format

It worked fine with WinACE

Is there a way to completely disable the music (thus, improving performance) while in the wilderness or dungeons, but having it play when in towns?

Because I'm using some wonderful tunes, and wouldn't want to let them go. At least when in town.

Did that with Mw...I havent done it w/ O yet...thanks for the heads up.

ashakanar, Turning off the music in the INI. has made the game run smoother and yet to have a CTD, which were getting to be a bane.

How many FPS, do you gain by turning it off?? 20?

I'd really like a mod that would play music only in taverns and chapels, and none while outside, no combat music. Erm and not by the silent MP3 solution would be nice. It's a shame if you'd lose FPS to playing a silent soundfile.

The FPS hit might be nothing to scoff at... Bethesda suggests that for folks who have FPS problems for a good reason. Just like there's a quiet feet mod for good reason, many feet sounds played at the same time lag some computers big time.

I turn off the music in almost all games, but not in Oblivion (and Morrowind, Icewind Dale II and some others), because I think it actually adds to immersion. But I really would like to get rid of the battle music hints - it's much more fun to be surprised by attacks. Is there no mod which addresses this? For example, is it not possible to make the battle music start when the PC attacks instead? Or is it hard coded somehow?

I just moved all the dungeon music and combat music out of there respective folders leaving the exploration and town music in there folders. This works, and when u go into combat in a town or the wild it just continues to use the town or exploration music (although it makes a slight stutter in the music), but it works pretty well in the desired effects.

Wow what a difference when going for a walk about! Will be leaving the music off from now on. Great tip!

Ahh I just tried turning it off. It sounds beautiful and Beth did an extremely good job, but I can't seem to adjust to it.

Actually, I think it gets eerily silent, and not in a good way, especially in dungeons. Sounds unnatural somehow. Guess that can be fixed by atmospheric sound mods, but considering how bad the engine handles sounds, I'm not prone to try out those.

EDIT: But, yes, there is a noticeable difference in performance when turning off music in the .ini - and that alone is worth much. So thanks for the tip. Will try it a while and see if I'll get used to the sounds of silence.

I don't think that's true unless you actually take out the MP3's from the folder. I might be wrong, but doesn't turning off the music mean turning down the slider, which means just muting it? Or are you changing a line in the .ini?

I'll throw this tip in there that did wonders for me.

Turn off the subtitles. It makes you actually feel like you are in a conversation. Cause I can read about 3 times faster than they talk, its brought emmersion to another level espcially dialogue that I have not heard before like new quests I haven't done.

Tried to play without music; it's amazing. Not only is it a lot more immersive, but it also improved my performance (although slightly).

Hmmm, I always play with the music on, and up.

Maybe now I'll have to try this out.

I decided to turn it off an played for a few minutes. It was very cool hearing birds chirping and the rustle of leaves as I rode through a forest. And I actually heard some orc barbarians talking before they attacked me! Will try it a bit more...

Try System Shock 2.... Exactly what you are looking for.

The problems is that it´s hardcoded, the battle music change, so the track that it´s playing starts over anyway when no battle music is found.



Yes, from the ini. musicEnabled = 0.

I love the music in the game! It;'s so beautiful. I'm a big fan, so I think I'll keep it on for now.
l

Since I've gotten a performance boost from turning off the music in the INI file, but would like music in places like taverns, chapels and maybe the occasional street corner (beggars playing an instrutment with their "tin cup" out) the question becomes: will the game play music via a script command if the music has been turned off in the INI file?

That is what I am trying to do in Minstrels of Cryodiil mod by the way _Tarnsman_, Song's that will be played when the background music is turned off or turned on..I am still researching and playing around with the script's for this..

My Oblivion mods at Filefront - includes Atmospheric Oblivion V1.0 and V1.1
V1.1 requires you have V1.0 installed.

I've never played with music in Morrowind, and done the same in Oblivion. The music tracks get tedius after a while. I'm always looking about when I explore, just to check nothing is going to sneak up on me....

I haven't used music since the first month of play time, during which I had it on only so I could enjoy it a bit. I had music off in Morrowind too - I'm a stickler for immersion, and if music is there trying to set my mood for me, that's no good! What if my character is supposed to be scared? Overconfident? Absolutely calm? Music just doesn't flow with that kind of roleplay immersion.

When playing last night with no music i found myself looking around alot more aswell. The environment felt much more here with tons of things making natural sounds from the wind to rock debris shuffled about. I add in alot horror movie soundtracks so for me music really enhances the mood but playing without it also has its fun value. Reminded me of when i played the old rpgs from the 1990s like DUNGEON MASTER where there was no music only the sounds of a very evil haunted place.

I tried a full day of playing without music, and honestly while parts were nice, overall I prefer keeping the music on. I just love music in general, and this seems no exception.

It was nice to hear more of the nature sounds, but particularly in dungeons it was way too quiet. Only that slightly annoying wind whipping through the cave sound, and the occasional water if the cave actually has water in it.

I'll try downloading Atmospheric Oblivion and see if that improves it, but for the time being it seems like I'll be keeping it on.

I think the music sounds great, and was well implemented into the game.
however I don't use it anymore because it took away some of the immersion for me.
I enjoy the natural ambient sounds instead.

Bumping this back to the top because this has to be shouted to the rooftops:

Turn off the music in the INI. file and say goodbye to CTDs and get some more FPS**

Did some more playing last night with my music turned off and was able to enjoy a two hour session without a single CTD ( 115 mods loaded including MMM, AWS, OOO, and of course mine ). Before this, I got to enjoy the joy of a CTD about every fifteen- twenty minutes, and some times less. Also, less freezing of the game during cell loading and now I'm thinking about turning down my mouse sensitive because of the improved FPS. Wow is all I got to say. Such a simple fix. Now I have go to the OOO thread and apologize as I thought that mod was the cause of my CTDs.


** legal disclaimer ** Some users may not experience the same results.

I used to play Everquest 2 without music because hearing one tune for the same region over and over again drove me nuts. But I hadn't tried it in Oblivion until now and it rocks. Really makes you look around often to see if something suddenly started chasing you. Fun if it's a horde of skeletons when you're level 1 .

I too have started to play without music, a nice change as i always get sick of the battle music playing whenever i resist arrest. Battle sounds like metal against metal and grunts of power attacks and pain feel more crisp.

Btw, does Atmospheric Oblivion cause FPS loss?

Thank you. And I am being sincere. It's a nice change, why didn't I think of doing this before!? /me smacks self

I only recently turned off the music again as I was playing a laggy game, it lagged most when the music changed. Now I always play with it off. When I first got the game I left the music off as well. For many games I buy I can't stand the music, although Oblivion was the exception. After several hundred hours of gameplay I know the music, every track, sometimes it sticks in my head all day. I still like it, but thought I'd turn it off for a while. I don't rush everywhere now/ I run a bit, then stop and look around in case something has crept up on me.
I was walking from Anvil to Fort Sutch and heard a snarl. I turned around and there was a leopard trying to maul me. Without battle music I may as well have been deaf But, it's more interesting and a different type of fun now that the music is off. I turned it off in my .ini file and I might keep it that way
Except when Shivering Isles comes out then I'll turn it back on. Surely that has new music

Unfortunately, SI has no new music

I could never imagine playing without music, but I tried it and I am still playing without it. Quite interesiting!

Agreed. Turn the music off.

where did that info come from?

Never played with music. First thing I do when I start a fresh game, put of that irritating classical bullcrap.

From the Fan Interview.

I always played with music, tried it out now and agree that its totally different. But i must get used to it, its the habit of having msuci playing in the background. Since now i had music at 40% and all other sounds 70-100%. Wasn't that bad, also i use additional music. I can't decide what to do...
About some cool sound-mods, i can recommend "Audia Arcanum 2.0" and "Oblivion Stereo Sound Overhaul". They add new sounds, change many existing sounds, even magic and undeads! Really adds atmosphere! (Theyre both compatible and available at TESSource)
Maybe theres a mod that disable only the combat music. That would maybe worth a try. ----> i tried to delete the folder for battle music and it works.
About lesser CTDs ill have to test that now; they plague me too...

One more thought. If we can get music to play via scripting, think it would be WAY cool to design dungeon bosses (or any boss for that matter) so that when you fight them, que the music. Would increase the drama as you would go "Oh, crap! A boss!" when suddenly you hear battle music for the first time after battling your way silently through hordes of the boss' minions.

It is possible to script the music to start when combat start..But, it may be the fact that the music engine itself for oblivon is hardcoded into the game..And the only way to get around combat music is to disable the music in the ini..and then rely on the script to start and stop the music..streammusic does not work correctly..

What about PlaySound?

Play sound and playsound3d only use wav files no mp3..This sucks ..

So that means we have to use the streammusic feature and try to get that to work correctly..I have not played around with stream music yet..

But..there is always convert the battle music to a mono-wave file..and use a script that start's playsound when in combat..

well i like ob music

Thanks

I like the music too, but eating filet mignon every day of the week can get pretty tiresome. I often just turn it off.

i play without the music. i also like to turn off the HUD when i play, for more immersion.

I will try playing a few times without the music but it is going to be really hard to go with the sounds of Michikawa's Extra Music pack. I really enjoy his work.

Music!? There is music in Oblivion?

I play in the time range of from 10 pm until sometimes 5 am.... While my husband is asleep, so I keep my sound so low I don't usually notice the music anyway. I did go and change the settings to music turned all the way left on the slider so I could keep my other sounds low and hear them, but I didn't see an option to actually turn it off. Is it possible to do that, or are we just turning it inaudible? Thanks.

lol Nice to know there are ppl who think the same way you do.
I have "time of your life" by greenday as the starting song (yes, I was tired of that POTC fake they had) and a few special sounds for towns, but all else are off.

BTW Time of the life is a really nice fit for the intro to Oblivion menu!

The INI file is in My Documents/My Games/Oblivion. It's the file with the gear icon labeled Oblivion. The setting is in the middle of the [Audio] section. Makes a big difference, at least for me. Gained FPS and the plague of CTDs I was experiencing has ceased.

[Tarnsman bowing to Ashakanar for the tip]

OK, I'm beginning the become a believer in this. The performance boost alone is worth much and as a whole it is much more immersive w/o music as well as exciting to don't have the battle music cues. Just got hit from behind my back by a Minotaur, for instance, without having a clue it was there. However, I do still think it is too eerily silent in some locations, which leads to the point of this post. Which atmospheric sound mods to you recommend? And, also, do they give a performance hit?

I might just start running winamp behind Oblivion with some general exploration/dungeon crawling tunes playing and disable the music in-game for performance and for the lack of battle music (or as I like to call it "enemy radar")

Heres the ultimate tip for those who want endless music (without the "enemy-radar-battle-music")
http://www.radiorivendell.com/
They only play Fantasy Music of all kinds, but you obviously can't switch tracks, because its streaming.


As i said in a former post, i recommend:
About a performance hit i don't know, you must test it for yourself, but i hardly doubt it.

The problem with this that you have to be online and that will use resources because it is streamed over the internet..

It is better just to replace your music with what you like and place in battle/explore/public folders ..

Thanks for the tips. Managed to miss them earlier and so far I like them. It's rather amazing how a couple of discreet sounds can make forests more immersive and believable. Still think the caves, for example, are so silent that it almost breaks immersion, though. Bethesda are very good at sounds and music, imo, but it is af they relied a bit too much on ambient music rather than ambient, "natural" sounds in the soundscape. Anyway, nice mods, thanks!

Oops... sorry I asked 'the' question again. I thought I was up to date reading on this forum and had not seen the original note about editing the ini. Thanks for the assist and the patient response instead of the kind that rips into someone who has a "duh' moment.

'Time of My Life'... that does sound nice.. but not at 3 am with a light sleeper in the next room.

I appreciate the idea but there is simply no way that I could turn the music off. It's beautiful music and it really adds to the atmosphere of the game, IMO.

My music folders are totally tricked out with some really, really good music. But given the performance boost and the immersion bonuses have to say goodbye. Hopefully the Ministrels of Cyrodiil team will crack the code to make music stream in appropriate settings.

I happen to like the music, so I just play Oblivion on really low music settings (so you can only hear it if the sounds dont drown it out), and with the Intermittnent Silence mod, which adds 30sec-4 minutes of pure scielnce to the music tracks for atmosphere purposes

Dumb question from a computer illiterate person:

How do you turn all the sounds off? I'm curious to try it

or is it in-game

Eagerly awaiting development on that myself. Turning the music off increases the games atmosphere tenfold, but having music in specific places would be even better.

On a similar atmosphere/performance note, if you've always played with HDR on, try turning it off in favour of bloom or no effect at all. I did just now and was amazed at how much better the game looked, plus got a nice little performance increase. Now to seek out some bloom tweaks or make my own.

i did, and then i downloaded my old config settings from oldblivion.com (they are very good optimizations if you use oldblivion) and never got around to turning it back off, ill have to do that then, or turn the music volume way down...

The INI file is in My Documents/My Games/Oblivion. It's the file with the gear icon labeled Oblivion. The setting is in the middle of the [Audio] section. Makes a big difference, at least for me. Gained FPS and the plague of CTDs I was experiencing has dwindled to an occasional thing.

working on this ai is being tricky..

Any chance OBSE will help matters?

I do not want to force people to use OBSE ..not needed animation sequence see Minstrels thread..

It is radiant AI that is being picky about things has usual..

Nevermind.

Thank you so much for the information. I did not know there was an ini file in that folder! I had tried to edit it on the one in the Oblivion folder itself. Since it made no difference to the music, I put it back to the original setting. It sure helps to know about little things like that. I appreciate that you didn't yell at me about asking such an elementary question. Some do and it makes it harder for us to learn anything at all.

*I bow to you, for your courtesy*

Noticed this thread a few days ago, and just wanted to give a thanks to _Tarnsman_ for bringing it up. I knew about the option in the INI, but never considered actually turning the music off.

Besides the occasional surprise attack from behind (which never fails to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up (that's a good thing)), the forest sounds create a brand new kind of music and my blade truly sings. I'm hearing things I didn't even know were there before.

Thank you so much for the new sense of immersion!

Honestly, I think music adds so much to the experience that I couldn't bear to part with it. Though I do use OSSO I also have those 4 or so music packs that are incredible. I don't have the music blasting, its on really low so its only like background theme music thats really quiet just to add to the atmosphere.

In fact I always play without music ... music in a rpg completely breaks immersion for me ... I can't imagine myself running through a cave with an orchestra playing in the background, just feels silly imho ...

Besides: The sounds - water dripping, footfalls, distant screams ... all come through much better without interference from music

There are times I miss the music, but with AWS and its sound counterpart plus Piratelord's sound mod loaded into the game makes for an incredible gaming experience. Plus without the enemy "radar" on you learn quickly to listen for the slightest sound cue that enemies are near. And even then you find yourself getting ambushed when you least expect it. You're happily picking flax seeds, listening to birds singing in the trees, when suddenly a leopard pounces! (MMM users know what a royal pain those cats are). But to each their own.

Yay! tarnsman is back!

Anyways, I've been keeping my music off for a while and I must say, it's a pleasant experience. Every once in a while I'll turn it back on, but I'm thinking of disabling it in the INI to lower stuttering... If only I hadn't have downloaded that new music pack I'd do it... but I havn't become bored of the new music yet.

I like the music, personally. It's good, adds a distinct feel to everything, but unfortunately nullifies immersion. It tells you what you're supposed to be doing. Whether that's worrying or not, exploring or not, fighting or not, whatever. For my first 12 months of playing this game- on and off, not constantly- I had the music in-game going, even swapped the default Battle tracks with a Heavy Metal (or something) alternative to get the blood flowing better in combat. An adrenaline boost, to add to the feel.

Adrenaline, eh? Don't need music for that, when silence and chance will do just the same. Last week, while listening to something in WinAmp, a radio station, talk show basically, I load up the game, turn off the game's music... and trek around the Isles, looking for something. A Scalon, tricky things, was waiting for me, invisible. With no "enemy radar" to let me know it's there, I about broke my desk when it screeched and appeared out of nowhere. Was about ready to jump out of my chair, that's how sharply it shocked me.

So, yeah... the music is good, but nothing beats nearly shouting in terror, or at least surprise, at a pixelated critter... even if it WAS a Scalon... they're disturbing enough to look at as it is.

I do this too, besides I get enough Soule music from Guild Wars every day.

Seconded. But what is the sound counterpart of AWS? Is it included in AWS or a separate mod? I'm not interested in changed weather/skies etc., but very much so in more atmospheric sound effects.

many games turning the music off can very easily change the immersion that you feel in the game... On the flip side, I found that I enjoyed played Tribes 2 with the music on, coz the music just rocked! But i turned it off from time to time.. It seriously changes your reactions...

You could also try playing games with different TYPES of music, and see if any has a particular effect on your gaming skill? Mellow reggae could slow down your reaction times, making you more sluggish in responding to an unexpected attack, or maybe hardcore heavy metal could get u pumpin that fast HE didnt know what was commin??

Theres more study to be done on how sound can effect animals and plants and other categories of life forms. We dont know how much of the effects of music are genetic responses, endemic to our species', or just programmed reactions post your genetic combination?

I pick music thats very ambient with a lot of bass and very little melody. Recently one of those additions has been the 300 soundtrack. I use a few from there. I like it a lot the bass makes it feel epic but doesn't drown out the other sounds and since I have it so low the switching of combat music isn't too noticable.

I also have turned off the music, but as an alternative I've taken my custom tracks I had set up in the Explore, Dungeon, and Town folders in Oblivion, added them to a playlist in Winamp, and set Winamp to run in the background when I'm playing Oblivion.

So now I have un-interrupted atmospheric music (turned down in Winamp so I can still hear the game sounds of course), with no immersion breaking battle interruptions.

Works like a charm.

This is the "companion" mod for AWS. Some really, really cool thunder peals and other weather sounds in it. Who needs music when you can listen to the singing of the sky?



Sort of. Still trying to finish Knights of the Nine and I'll like to start with SI. But have gotten sidetracked by offering some assistance to Star Boi on his mod project. Hopefully, that will go to the "presses" for a weekend release. Don't want to give too much away, but two of his new meshes are simply outstanding. Going to be a big hit I sense. Honored that he let me help with the mod.

Bumped just because.

I personally like the music quite a bit and feel immersed enough with it playing. I feel no need to turn it off. If I did, I would feel like something is missing.

Try it. Don't turn your nose up at something new. I have my music folders totally tricked out with some seriously great music and having played awhile now without any music no way I want to go back. The immersion factor alone is worth trying it.

I've been playing without the music and I like it. Especially that there's no warning that enemies are about to attack me - I have to stay on my toes. I do miss the dungeon music though, but hearing Grummites wheezing around the corner and the soft blaze of torches has an atmosphere of its own.

You're absolutely right about the boost to performance.

Before i did this, i had to enable the console and type in 'tlb' to get decent performance at the cost of a LOT.

Also, music playing in a realistic game doesn't seem so realistic. I mean, who walks around and hears their own background music?

I'm glad someone revived this thread - I just tried with the music disabled and the performance boost is more than noticeable !

Just the thread I've been looking for

Ask this to millions of iPod users...

im considering doin this
but i cant stand not knowing that im in battle or not

if i had some sorta message pop and tell me, without music

Note to Bethesda:

For TES V make it so that the background music can be disabled in the ini, but allow music to be played through scripting. Just my two septims.

More options/choices == good

Saw this thread months ago and couldn't imagine playing without the music, but what finally did it for me was the tedium of The Dramatic And Scary Battle-Music Of The Mudcrab. Once music was off in the INI, I never went back, especially after the first surprise attack. Much more immersive, all the background sounds are crisp and I get better FPS and stability, and less stutter. As much as I love Jeremy Soule's work, the music will stay off.

Today I don't even notice it, playing without music is jsut natural for me. It's a much better game without the songs playing.

It get's rather boring without music.. IMO

But I guess I should download the ambient sounds again..

Agreed. I use select tracks from Michikawa's fantastic Extra Music Pack in addition to Soule's work, and I could not do without. For me, the music actually helps with immersion, helps me drift away from reality.

Try it, you'll like it! I've jumped out of my seat more than a few times since turning off the "battle radar". The worst are the damn mountain lions and the other bad boy kitties that MMM and OOO add in. Enjoying a quiet stroll in the forest when one of those suckers pounce on you without warning. Talk about a heart attack. Usually I get so pissed off that I got sneaked attacked that I put in a few extra hits for good measure into their corpses after disposing of my attackers. But I wouldn't miss out on the experience for the world. Just got done playing SI start to finish without any music and the absence made the journey through the Isles all the more enjoyable, at least for me. Like I said in the OP without music you get to hear how much work and thought that Bethesda has put into this game.

For all those who play without music may I suggest you get these three mods

Atmospheric Oblivion
Audia arcanum
Mis

Merge them together into a beautiful one hit Omod...Install

Then get yourselves Combat sounds 300..Install

And now here's the bloody icing on the cake....Download and install Oblivion EAX mod.....You will absolutely love what this last mod does for the Oblivion!!!!! Awesome sounds from caves....City's and the like configured through the console....


Oblivion has never sounded better....or creepier!!!

Sheathana'ich

I can't find Mis..

Add AWS - Sounds into the list as well.

More Immersive Sound

I turned the music off a long time ago, partly because I usually don't use music in games, but mostly because it was getting really repetitive - I could hear that damn music in my head if it was quiet enough!

There's music in Oblivion?

Ah! Thank you, you Swede!

Yup.

I have OSSO installed, I liked the surprise attacks which made me all jumpy, and the slight performance boost was nice. Still I felt something was missing. Now I have music enabled, with volume set quite low. Sometimes I don't even notice when the music changes, but it still provides a nice peaceful flow of sound in the background. I'm a music addict though

Yup, have been doing that for the longest time aswell.
Although sometimes at peaceful moments of house decorating and shopping, I tend to put it back on.

Never tough shutting it down in the ini would cause a much needed performance boost tough.
Thanks!

Mirrors my stance exactly. I would never turn back now.

On the other hand, I've tried all sound enhancers etc., but kept none.

I'd have to agree with Simbacca; Michikawa's great music packs help you "feel" like you're actually "there". Standing on a hill at sunset with the clear skys looking over the countryside with "Angels Redemption" playing in the background greatly increases the immersion for me. The peacefulness of walking the road from Chorrol to Bruma with the sun filtered by the trees and the wind gently blowing is greatly enhanced by the soothing melodies of Michikawa's music. Although, now that I've installed MMM, I have less of these "peaceful" moments.

With the correct balance, I can still hear the great ambient sounds of the game, but I believe these are all enhanced by the music.

Same here. Am a music fanatic and it really enhances the mood of every situation and makes it easier to drift into moods i may otherwise have not walked into. I also believe playing without music is just as great with a real life feel to it like walking in a park early in the morning and seeing a deer on the side of the road eating grass with that certain magical sound in the air only possible just after sunrise.

I turned of my ingame music, and I have the Bee Gees playing in the background. I'm listening to "You Win Again" while beating the crap out of homeless people.

I tend to turn the music off in every game i play....most of the time i'd rather hear the game play over the lame sound tracks that games get. I do like some of Oblivion's ambient music, but i can't stand the warning music you get when an enemy approaches...that's stupid and totally unrealistic. I know it's supposed to add to suspense but in the real world you don't get warning music when you're about to get nailed by an axe.

Yay! Now I can have a performance boost to boot!

That is a great mod idea....i would definitely download that...

Sometimes though it's funny to think of my guy having an iPod on him when he's jogging along out in the woods and the music is playing..

Not sure anyone has mentioned it, but with Streamline 3.0 you can toggle music with a hotkey. It also disables it when turned off, so you get the performance benefits as well.

Bump to keep Turn off the music thread alive...useful stuff in hear..

...So many useful ideas in this thread..if only the time to work on it..

Boy, ain't that the truth.

NpcwithJobs is getting pretty close...So, I will spend some time in the npcwithjobs worldspace and working on figuring some things out with Sounds...Since I am in middle of working on sounds for that...I will see what I can come up with...for Tavern, Churchs, Etc...and try to come up with something ...For Ambience settings..

Personally I really have no problems with the Music I have set up to run in my Oblivion...

Course, It's almost all music from the Baldurs Gate and Baldurs Gate 2 soundtracks, and my character looks like someone who could have just stepped out of those games and into Cyrodiil.

I would definitely enjoy tavern music at the right times and places, but unfortunately the only Tavern music I know of is also from the Baldurs Gate soundtrack. And legally it wouldn't be good to distribute it in any sort of a mod (although many people seem to bundle soundtracks as music replacers despite the illegality of it anyway).

Yes thats one of the secrets to enjoying a ton of music in OBLIVION is by making sure it captures a certain similar sound through each piece. Am the type who just throws a ton of horror movie sound tracks into OBLIVION and that gets annoying hearing so many different styles of music clashing. Will have to start putting them into Theme folders and use what hits my mood at the moment or play without music which is also enjoyable.

I liked the Music from Neverwinter Nights 1. I think the same person who did the music there did it for oblivion too.

Found out just how cool the ingame sounds without music can be with headphones when i was checking out a new mod and accidently heard this twinkling sound. Looking around i followed the sound to its source atop the Vilverin dungeon entrance and found out it was the shrine making this mystical magical sound. Very cool. Havent heard such a great effect since playing HEROES OF MIGHT AND MAGIC when using the magic statues and running into fairies.

I love the ambient sounds in Oblivion, especially the giggle the Spiggans make. Makes it hard for me to kill them, they seem to be enjoying the grass tickleing their bare feet so much.

Funny story...I turned off my music and Dled a whole bunch of these sound mods; OSSO, and a bunch whose names are not in convenient acronym format. I started Oblivion after turning off the music in my INI...and I didn't hear anything. Nothing made any ambient noise; the only sound was me stepping, attacking, talking, etc. Then I noticed that when I turned so that my character's left ear was facing a source of noise, I could hear it! So I went into my control panel, and played around with speakers and equalizers and a bunch of other options, but I had very little change.

It was when I gave up for the day that I saw what had happened; I put my headphones down and noticed immediately that the switch between mono and stereo had been accidentally set to mono.

Now, in stereo, I can't get enough of the lack of music! Music in music-appropriate places is nice, though, such as bars/taverns.

I think that is what Minstrels of Cyrodiil is working on doing...adding musicians to various inns and taverns.

Corepc would be the one to confirm this.

Yes, that is one of the goals of Minstrel's of Cryodiil..and there is something else that someone is working on and we have joined efforts somewhat...in order to provide player with something also..

Would turning off the music negatively affect Minstels of Cyrodiil and the harpsichord mod?

I can't speak for the Ministrels mod, but the Harpsichord mod uses wav. files, not MP3 files. These are found in the sound folder. The background music is all MP3 files and these are found in the music folder. Disabling the music in the ini. file only affects the music (MP3 files), so you will be able to hear the music coming from the harpsichord without the background music competing with it. Plus you get a performance boost and a very different gaming experience. Like Hellbishop, I think you'll be one of the converts.

I went back to having my music on this week. I like the soundtrack.

No Same has harpischord mod..I use wav files also ..you can have music on or off...With mine when you walk up a current lute player the sound will be low and once up close it will be louder...It does not drown out the background music if that is turned on...

Oh my goodness! I never heard the Spriggans giggle! Gah! Am definitely playing with no music for a looong while. Especially now that am not using any sound enhancement mods at the moment since i didnt hear as much with them before. Then again it could be my new headphones helping me to hear some of these new effects along with perhaps the sounds having been unknowingly in mono instead of stereo for whatever reason as mentioned by ATT-Spartan.

I always play with headphones on too...have actually heard Nirnroot, and had to look for it by following the sound (looking left and right to figure which direction the sound is coming from).

What are the sound enhacers you're talking about? And what kind of problems are you having with them?

Yea i've heard the Nirnroot at times when close enough but usually only with no music on since the sound is so faint or ambient with the environment.Theres a old mod that increases the volume on the Nirnroots but i always liked how inconspicuous and hidden yet out in the open they were so i never used the mod.

With sound enhancers i was having the same problem you were only hearing certain sounds like talking,walking and combat. Never heard the twinkling shrine sound til now and havent heard a Spriggan giggle yet. Makes me wonder what the other creatures are gonna sound like. Now that i have reinstalled OBLIVION and have yet to install any sound mods i suddenly noticed alot of new sounds i never heard in vanilla OBLIVION audio. I also just got some new headphones in the past week but i doubt the change is as drastic as what am hearing from just that.

Sound mods i was using in my previous install was PirateLord's sound mod (dont remember the exact name at the moment), Audia Arcanum,More Immersive Sound,Combat Sounds 300. May have just been too many mods in the mix.

You've been missing a lot then. Sounds add immensely to the ambience and atmosphere imo.

The only sound enhancer mod I've kept (and I've tried them all, I think) is Oblivion Stereo Sound Overhaul, which has subtle, but clear (imo) enhancements to stereo/ambient sounds.

I'm curious about the Oblivion EAX ObSE Plugin, but I haven't tried it yet.

Thanks for the list of mods. Looks like you might have had issues with two or more mods trying to play a sound at the same time and canceling each other out. Now that I've discovered how easy it is to make OMODs, I'll try these out one at a time.




Think I'll try OSSO first. Doesn't EAX just add an echo to flat sounds to "fake" 3D? Will have to read that thread to see what they are doing....

Yeah, frankly, I've never liked EAX effects, which probably is why I haven't checked it out yet. But I would like more atmospheric sounds to dungeons - echoes, dripping water, flying bats etc. And I've read some posts about how it makes dungeons múch more ambient.

EAX will only work on soundcard that support it..

So first make sure that you card an support EAX first before trying ..

EAX for Oblivion

I believe that is using eax 2.0 this usually supported by most sound cards nowdays...So check your dxdiag's sound section this will tell you..

Wow, this topic is still going? Amazing!

The music has an interesting feel to it.
I think I'll keep it on. What's a video game without music anyway?

Can't keep a good topic down!

I have an integrated graphics card, a 6150le Nvidia (yeah a horrible card) and playing with sound off is remarkable I have much better fps. It has risen close to 10 or 15 frames outdoors and correspondingly higher in other types of cells. Plus my resolution can be higher than the lowest setting.

Adventuring is much more fun too.

Amazing info!

I like music, I don't like the music suddenly stopping and knowing exactly when to prepare to fight when it stops what it's currently playing and does the combat music, takes abit of challenge away and is also annoying to have a combat track start for 2 seconds zap the random monster and play something else... if anyone has found a way for the game to ignore battle music and allow the exploring/dungeon music to continue, I would love that.

Unfortunately, I think that is hard wired into the game. You could empty out the battle music folder and I think you'd would have the music simply stop when it's "battle time". Come on, take the plunge. Turn off the tunes, get more of challenge and as an extra bonus a little bump in performance as TrevorD can testify.

These days, I usually load up some of Soule's music in winamp (what better way to enjoy my new Morrowind and Eye of The North soundtracks) and play that in the background. Still lets me listen to my music without the annyoing early warning system.

From Below form unreal tornament 2004 in dungons, razorback from UT (pt 1) and Flight castle from Unreal (1st unreal game FPS) in battle..

Here is my solution to this problem.

I have A4Tech X-750 mouse, which has additional 2 buttons on it. So, what I have done:

1. Donloaded MediaKey 0.9.7.2 (google it).
2. Created Winamp playlists for every type of music (like Explore, Public, Dungeon).
3. Attached two of my additional mouse keys and mouse wheel button to these three playlists using MediaKey.
4. Opened winamp and turned on "shuffle" and toggled repeat of playlist.

Done!

So, when load screen pops up, you just press needed button, and listen to corresponding music!
Additionally, you can turn some effects on in winamp settings, like crossfade (mine is ~10secs).

Yes, this method requires from player to manually change the music types him/herself. But we do nothing on loadscreens most of the time anyway. And no more battle music! (with my method, you can create a playlist for battle music too).

PS: sorry for my english.
.RM.

Thanks for the tip and link Arkngt I downloaded the mod and will check it out later today. Looks like something that will enhance the vanilla sounds without removing them.

Woe gonna try this out! Thanks RebelMax One question though does Mediakey work for the keyboard aswell or is it only for the mouse?

Amazing if we continue this thread it will ...almost time for Turn off your Music Thread number 2...

Just my two cents but I tried with no music and it really took away from the feeling of atmosphere the game has with music. It was ok for a little bit. Honestly the best thing I've done to improve the sound experience was buy a set of headphones. I have a 300 dollar sound system and a pair of 16 dollar crap headphones from Walmart deliver a much richer sound experience. You can hear the direction everything is coming from, and suddenly I hear trees wooshing, footsteps of creatures, logs creaking all kinds of sounds I've never heard before. I think it was more apparent without music on using my speakers. So for me the best is using headphones with music turned down to maybe 35% volume. Then I toss in some lord of the rings soundtrack on top of the default oblivion stuff and it's pretty nice. That song where the orcs are running accross the plains is excellent explore music for an evil character.

Your welcome And Mediakey was designed primary for keyboard, but it has a mouse plugin builded in too.

Thanks for the info RebelMax will google it and download


MadMole yea headphones make a big difference. I would use em all the time if they didnt stop me from hearing whats going on in my surroundings during the day.Right now am separating my music into folders and only using like one to five tracks per folder depending on what i want to hear at the moment. Hopefully this will add a certain constant mood aswell as allowing me to enjoy all this great music in a less random manner. I have like one gig of music in my folders yet i only hear like four songs per folder in a game session. So i might as well choose what four i actually want to hear whenever i play. And thanks for the advice about keeping the volume about 35% to get a more full experiance when using music.

ah! thanks for the instructions, was wondering on this, and when i want music, yay iPods!
so, really, just burn a cd with some ren tunes, or fill your mp3 player with'em, and when ur in town, [play] now, onto the annoying [drip drip] in *dry* caves...

I don't like OB's music at all, i find it too repetitive.

So yeah turn the damn thing off.. if you play OB for a while you find that the music has a relatively high degree of repetition.

This is a great idea! I just tried turning on winamp today and was kinda bummed that i couldn't have my dungeon and public music. I can't seem to find an english version of the program though. Anybody else have any luck? All i see are ???????????? in the UI.

Same here Oh well i guess its back to my other plan

Here's another post to help push it to the limit.