SKYRIMLE Kill The Orchestra - By alt3rn1ty

[alt3rn1ty]

Kill The Orchestra - Skyrim Nexus

 

Kill The Orchestra - Skyrim SE Nexus

 

Kill The Orchestra - The Assimilation Lab

 

Kill The Orchestra - AFK Mods

 

by Alt3rn1ty

 

 

======Description======

 

This mod installs silent music files which the game will load instead of the original music, disabling the music.

You choose which music to disable by type ( personally I prefer to disable everything except Discover Special locations, Reward music, Tavern music, and the two Special music options for the DLCs )

 

Resulting in no invisible orchestra throughout the game.

You could just turn the music volume down in settings ..

But then you dont get to hear Tavern music for example

( because the music volume turns down all music )

 

With this mod you selectively silence music by type.

 

Also you will not get any hints from the music of any danger ( explore music changing to combat music - you cant hear it ), immersively its a better experience. Now you will be a bit more cautious.

 

You will get to hear more of the games sound effects and ambient sounds a bit more clearly around the game too. Including other mods sound fx like AOS.

 

And .. Just maybe .. Trolls might not be so bad tempered if they dont have to wear pink ear muffs to go to sleep in case you wander past with your stupid invisible orchestra keeping everyone awake. Disclaimer : I cannot be held responsible for Trolls jumping up and down wildly gesticulating after you have installed the mod, you may have upset them all too much already.

 

 

===========INSTALLATION===========

 

Automated Install :

 

If using Nexus Mod Manager, it will use the scripted installation. Follow instructions and make selections.

 

 

 

If using Wrye Bash, after putting the zip in Bash Installers, go to the Installers tab and right click the zip, and choose Wizard install, follow instructions and make selections.

( or .. just select individual sub-packages followed by right click install / anneal - Wrye Bash users know the drill )

 

 

 

 

Manual Install :

 

Extract the archive with 7zip

 

Copy the music folder(s) of the music you want, to skyrimdata folder.

 

For example, if you want to disable only Skyrim exploration music, copy ..

20 Skyrim - Explore Music / music / *all-files* to skyrim / data / music / *all-files*

 

 

==========UNINSTALLATION==========

 

NMM / Wrye Bash users just get your mod manager to un-install / re-install it as required with different options.

 

Manual installations : Delete your skyrim / data / music folder to restore the original music, or delete individual folders inside skyrim/data/music to restore only those tracks.

 
 

====TWEAK TIP - For users of KTO====

 

Skyrim.ini:

 

[Audio]

uMaxSizeForCachedSound=8192

 

The default value is 262144 ( normally a hidden setting, it does not go in the ini by default ).

 

Too much cache brings out a game engine bug = sounds are repeated for different items when they should be playing a different sound, lowering the cache limit to 8mb makes the game refresh the cache more often, preventing repeated sounds for different sound events. Picking up a gold coin for example plays the generic pickup sound. Picking up a second gold coin plays the right sound, and this will last until you leave the area or switch to picking up other things. This tweak solves the problem.

 

And seeing as you are also using Kill The Orchestra ( short 1.1 second duration silent sounds at only 8k each replacing the original music files some of which were as big as 100mb ), there is even less need for such a huge sound cache.

 

 

==========TOOLS USED===========

 

BSAOpt by Ethatron

To extract the original files from the games BSA and find out their folder path and names

 

xWMAEncode from SkyrimSoundTools

To convert xwm files to wav and vice versa - Needed to be able to listen to them and determine what some of the music was used for

 

Audacity

The best open source sound manipulation tool out there :)

In this mods case, used to create the one file which was used repeatedly to replace all the files we needed to silence.

 

 

==========COMPATIBILITY===========

 

I use Audio Overhaul for Skyrim ( AOS v2.5 at time of writing ) which changes the games sound fx, but does not change music .. So yes that mod for one is compatible. Sounds of Skyrim I should imagine is similar if you use that instead. My mod has no plugin or records to worry about, no scripts or references which will become embedded in your save game, just plain ol' replacer music files.

Install / remove / overwrite as much as you want.

Though overwriting them with someone elses music files will give you different music ..

That becomes your problem in deciding what you want, these or those, simple.

As is any Mod manager related questions.

Go forth and rtfm.

 

Enjoy.

 

 

Original mod by Fleedar is here for anyone who has not seen it before .. Disable Music by Category
 
It has been a long time favourite, decided to do something about bringing it up to date, permissions are open since 2011, no Dawnguard or Dragonborn in sight .. And there were a couple of music files I thought people might like besides me added to Fleedars Skyrim selection.

Edited October 28, 2016 by alt3rn1ty

[torminater]

Awesome, I like it!

[PioneerRaptor]

I'm torn between liking it and not liking it. I love hearing the epic score but at the same time the immersion factor is awesome and it would really bring out the sound effects as well.

[z929669]

This is a great idea. I just may implement in my own game (I like taking an arrow in the back without expecting that as a possibility).

[CJ2311]

Hmmm, I might use this to disable the generic exploration sounds, but leave the music on and use Smarter Combat Music to handle that part instead.

[alt3rn1ty]

Thank you all for the comments, I recall someone doing a similar thing for Oblivion quite a few years ago, combined with T.I.E ( Tamriel Immersive Experience ), plus Duke Patricks Combat Archery introducing mechanics like tripping - add no warning cue music .. the game got a whole lot more scary and forced you to approach situations a bit more cautiously :).

Skyrim has a lot of elements from Oblivion community modding which Bethesda have obviously been taking notes of, but I guess they have to do the cinematic music thing for the crowd.

I like those moments when you hear the panting breath of a wolf and you know its almost on you by that time, swing around drawing sword and hopefully plant a good first strike before it rips a chunk of flesh out of your legs ..

And occasionally you get to breath a sigh of relief because its a fox instead :)

Those higher level random encounters with orcs and bandits can be a bit of a close call too if they get the jump on you and first blow. And the odd dragon who does that little "thud!" behind you occasionally without being all loud beforehand .. Thats just cheeky.

I am nearly at the stage when I want to restart and up the difficulty again, aswell as installing Spooky's particular brand of excellence.

[alt3rn1ty]

Version 2.0

a. I had the descriptions in the installers mixed up for reveal and reward music - Fixed 

b. Better worded descriptions for a few of the options - Fixed 

c. I had a missing file in v1 - Fixed

[alt3rn1ty]

Version 3.0

Version 3.0 

Had a couple of requests 

a. Separate the Boss combat music from the generic combat music - Done 

b. Include Word Wall music for disabling - Done 

c. I also wanted to include Stinger music for silencing - Done 

[MadWizard25]

This looks interesting. Im setting up a play through with Requiem. Depending on how difficult I find it, I might use this to give me an edge. Will have to experiment with AOS 2.0, mix and match. I can see myself retaining some AOS atmospherics, like rockfalls and animal calls, and removing the rest, then using this mod to remove vanilla soundtracks. Thanks!

[Kuldebar]

I just participated in the Battle for Solitude and that stupid music was playing the entire time even during the cutscene conversations...it was annoying.

 

I think I'll download this mod. By the looks of it, it's just sound files so no esp's needed.

[alt3rn1ty]

~ By the looks of it, it's just sound files so no esp's needed.

Yep. Its just a replacer using loose sound files with the same path + filename .xwm as the originals in the games sound BSA .. So the game uses these instead. Reference BSAs and You topic. I just updated the description technical section to make that a bit clearer .. TY 

This looks interesting. Im setting up a play through with Requiem. Depending on how difficult I find it, I might use this to give me an edge. Will have to experiment with AOS 2.0, mix and match. I can see myself retaining some AOS atmospherics, like rockfalls and animal calls, and removing the rest, then using this mod to remove vanilla soundtracks. Thanks!

You will have no problem using it with AOS 2. ... I am using it myself.The are no conflicting files ( AOS is all in data sound fx , my files are all in data music ) Edited April 2, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[Octopuss]

I've just installed this, and totally love it. Removing all traces of combat music makes the game so much more better! Not to mention the damn bug where the game keeps on playing combat music over and over until you shut the whole game down.

11 out of 10 points from me.

[alt3rn1ty]

:) Thank ye kindly, I had a feeling shaking the cobwebs off this idea would be good.Its also now available at AFK Mods aswell as Skyrim Nexus, link at the top of the first post.I forgot to put up a precautionary backup mirror previously.Edit : You guys know about the sound tweak too ?Skyrim.ini:[Audio]uMaxSizeForCachedSound=8192The default value is 262144 ( normally a hidden setting, it does not go in the ini by default ).Too much cache brings out a game engine bug = sounds are repeated for different items when they should be playing a different sound, lowering the cache limit to 8mb makes the game refresh the cache more often, preventing repeated sounds for different sound events. Picking up a gold coin for example plays the generic pickup sound. Picking up a second gold coin plays the right sound, and this will last until you leave the area or switch to picking up other things. This tweak solves the problem.And seeing as you are also using Kill The Orchestra ( short 1.1 second duration silent sounds replacing the music ), there is even less need for such a huge sound cache.

Edited June 8, 2014 by alt3rn1ty

[alt3rn1ty]

Ammended the description to include The Assimilation Lab link

[alt3rn1ty]

Also amended the description to explain the reason for showing that picture of the properties of the original sound files

 

"Thats 3.15 Gigabytes of data the game engine normally has to shift around constantly just to keep the music flowing. With my mod installed, the game only needs to move 2.94 Megabytes of data around

( those small silent replacer files ).

Less load on your system playing the game."

 

I dont think that benefit of using the mod was obvious before.

 

 

Edit : See post #21 - The above was a bit misleading

Edited May 30, 2015 by alt3rn1ty