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...