Hello. Good news, Engine Fixes is (mostly) working on the latest update of Skyrim. You do not need to disable SaveAddedSoundCategories. I have no idea why people are saying this.
Sound Record Distributor is also working and does not need an update. Here's to surviving another Skyrim update. And happy holidays! 🥂
INTRODUCTION – TOO LONG; DIDN'T READ SURE, WHY NOT. BUT PLEASE CONSIDER READING THE WHOLE THING. Audio Overhaul for Skyrim adds thousands of magic, weapon, ambient, and more sounds to your game. It is strongly recommended that you load Audio Overhaul for Skyrim very early in your load order. Non-SKSE, Epic Games Store, and Xbox Games Pass users should download Version 3.4.3.
As a reminder: I am not David Jegutidse. I am just the current maintainer and developer of AOS. This port and all subsequent updates have been made with his permission and blessings.
NEWS LAST UPDATED NOVEMBER 7TH 2022 Update 4.0.0 is here – Finally, the cloned projectile and explosion records have been condensed into vanilla records. What does this mean? With Sound Record Distributor, nothing (from the user). All necessary projectile and explosion records will have sounds added to them on runtime, relieving a massive burden on users, mod authors, and patch makers. For most users, no action is necessary on your part. For mod authors and patch makers, I've left all of the old "_AOS" records in and your patches are still fine to use.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MODS LAST UPDATED NOVEMBER 7TH 2022
Regional Sounds Expansion – An extensive, standalone regional sound overhaul for towns, dungeons, and open-world. Reverb Interior Sounds Expansion – A thoughtful, vanilla-friendly remodel of the base game reverb, interior sounds, and more.
ADDITIONAL RECOGNITION FROM THE CURRENT MAINTAINER, DYLAN JAMES
David Jegutidse – For letting a guy you didn't really even know take over maintaining and supporting Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2. I know it took a few years, but I'd like to think I held true to a lot of my original promises. And I'm so happy hundreds of thousands of people get to experience this classic project now and long into the future!
aers – For fixing the sound category bug for me back in 2018, allowing custom sound categories and volume sliders to properly exist in Skyrim. Something that had been bothering me for years up until Engine Fixes came along.
Doodlezoid – For taking me up on my proposal and bringing to life Sound Record Distributor. The framework shows incredible potential, and I'm so happy to have a tool like this available for mod authors and users-alike who may have felt intimidated by installing audio mods in the past.
FREQUENTLY ANTICIPATED QUESTIONS AKA PLEASE READ THE STICKY BEFORE COMMENTING
Q: Is it safe to update? Is this compatible with Anniversary Edition? A: Yes, and yes. As of 3.9.0, all AE content can be patched regardless of what you own!
Q: Do patches still work? A: Yes! All patches are backwards compatible with the latest version.
Q: LOOT is saying I need a patch that is no longer available on this page. A: The LOOT master list is going off of outdated information. As of 3.9.0, these patches are not nessecary.
Q: With Sound Record Distributor, does this mean I no longer need patches? A:No! You still need patches! However, it means you will need a lot less – check out below! If you have a simple patch, it's okay to keep it. Having it in your load order won't break anything.
Q: Is Audio Overhaul for Skyrim modular now? A: No, you cannot pick and choose which sounds you'd like to use. It is strongly unadvised you tweak the "_SRD" files (even if you know what you're doing). If you think you notice an error, please reach out and I will fix it as soon as possible.
Q: Will there be a Bethesda.net or Xbox release? May I port the mod? A: No. There are currently no plans for a console release at this time. See "Permissions and Credits" tab on the main page for more information.
Q: Why am I seeing "$" (Dollar Signs) when I open up the audio settings menu? A: It is possible you are either not using SKSE64 or you are using an unsupported language. Please download the compatibility patch for non-SKSE64 users in the Miscellaneous Files tab.
Q: I'm not getting footsteps on a certain surface. A: Certain meshes don't have the correct havok material flags defined in the mesh itself. This can result in the wrong impact sounds (like footsteps) from being played or none being played at all. This is not an issue with Audio Overhaul for Skyrim, but with the vanilla game itself and certain meshes introduced by mods. Unofficial Material Fix by Elzee and Immersive Sounds Compendium by lazygecko are strongly recommended.
SOUND RECORD DISTRIBUTOR WHAT IS ACTUALLY BEING DISTRIBUTED
With Sound Record Distributor, sounds are distributed to records at runtime. "Runtime" means "when the game starts". Here is a non-exhaustive list of what is currently being distributed by Sound Record Distributor, in greater detail.
Dagger Impact Sounds: In vanilla Skyrim, daggers use the same sounds as one-handed swords. Audio Overhaul for Skyrim addresses this by adding in new sounds for daggers to use. With Sound Record Distributor, these sounds are automatically distributed to daggers instead of having to manually edit the weapon record itself.
Region Sounds: In Skyrim, both weather probability and regional sounds are handled by one record. This meant in the past, you would have to have a plugin resolving any conflicts between Audio Overhaul for Skyrim and your weather mod of choice. With Sound Record Distributor, these sounds are now injected into the region records at runtime.
Interior Weather: The feature that added interior weather sounds has been stripped in the more recent releases of Audio Overhaul for Skyrim, and instead serves as a simple replacer for the interior rain file sound in the vanilla game. This means that mods that add their own interior rain sounds will take priority. Interior sounds still remain, and when you're in interiors you will hear house creaks and wind from outside under certain conditions. This is patched into interior region records at runtime, similar to other exterior and interior regions noted above.
Magic Sounds: In previous versions of Audio Overhaul for Skyrim the records attached to magic effects were clones of projectile and explosion records. As of 4.0.0, a majority of these changes have been consolidated into projectile and explosion records. Those records are then assigned their sounds on runtime, minimizing the need for almost all patches.
If it is not in this list, it likely needs to still be patched.
Continue reading to see what is on the compatibility master list.
COMPATIBILITY MASTER LIST NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST – FEEL FREE TO CTRL + F HERE TOO
Audio Overhaul and Sound Record Descriptor distributes sounds to specific records at runtime. Runtime means "when the game starts". When the game starts, this mod will overwrite the subrecord its pointed to. You still need patches – and download them if you are unsure! If you have old patches in, nothing bad will happen. They will mostly just be redundant.
Built-in Support means Audio Overhaul for Skyrim supports any new magic effects, regions, and weapons added by the listed mods. That means if a mod listed here adds a new weapon or new spell, you can reasonably expect that weapon or spell to include Audio Overhaul for Skyrim's new sounds for consistency. Almost all mods will still work fine without built-in support, and most don't need it.
If you have a suggestion for support, leave it down in the comments below.
As of 3.9.0, Audio Overhaul for Skyrim is compatible with most weather mods. No patching to account for weather mods is strictly necessary.
UNRECOMMENDED or UNSUPPORTED Lucidity Sound FX NPC Dialogue Audio Enhancer Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul Sounds of Skyrim Sounds of Skyrim – Civilization Sounds of Skyrim – Dungeons Sounds of Skyrim – The Wilds True 3D Sound for Headphones ‡
NOTES † If Audio Overhaul for Skyrim detects that you have Regional Sounds Expansionor Reverb Interior Sounds Expansion installed, the corresponding modules will be disabled and no incompatible records will be distributed by Audio Overhaul for Skyrim. Both mods were created from the beginning to play friendly with Audio Overhaul for Skyrim, and will play nicely with its changes.
‡ T3DSH is unsupported due to difficult to trace compatibility issues and abrupt CTDs, as well as a drastic shift in how sound is perceived in-game. AOS's soundscape was meticulously balanced for use in the audio engine Bethesda chose to ship with the game. Skyrim, contrary to popular belief, already has built in HRTF, and certain sounds are meant to be processed through certain channels. This, along with an overall increase in loudness and the rearrangement of sound categories, I cannot recommend the plugin. In regard to reported CTDs, what T3DSH does on a straight technical is slightly beyond my skillset and available time. You are free to use it, but no support will be offered from myself.
FOR MOD AUTHORS BUILDING SUPPORT FOR AOS 3.9.0+ RIGHT INTO YOUR MOD WITH NO PLUGIN REQUIRED.
If you're a mod author, adding support for Audio Overhaul for Skyrim using Sound Record Distributor is an incredibly easy and frictionless process. Simply package your mod with an SRD file and it will automatically distribute any sounds you want from this plugin to yours without any need for an additional plugin or having to update the patch for any update.
Let's say you release a mod that adds a unique dagger. In vanilla Skyrim, daggers and one-handed swords share the same impact sounds with no distinction between the two. You can package a .yaml file along with your mod and format it like this.
# Audio Overhaul Skyrim.esp|05B6EA is WPNzBlade1HandSmallImpactSet # Skyrim.esm|03CED9 is WPNBlade1HandSmallDrawSD # Skyrim.esm|03CEDB is WPNBlade1HandSmallSheatheSD
If both Sound Record Distributor and Audio Overhaul for Skyrim are installed, these forms will automatically be injected into the designated record at runtime with no manual patching involved. Due to the nature of the example given, there are virtually no risks of incompatibility and is highly recommended.
No permission is required to ship these files along with your mod and more examples will be given as this project further develops.
Tomorrow I'm going to do an elimination round of the mods I added today, see which one triggers that particular crash, if it turns out it's AOS I'll send you the log.:)
Whoa! Thanks for sending me the log but I have to delete this. Pasting the full thing destroys the comments section and there's currently no way to search. I copy and paste it into a text file, give me a minute to look over this.
Hey. Just wanted to double check. You're sure you didn't install this mod, right? There's no reference to the audio manager or anything in the game. You're crashing in the dll, and it's impossible to figure why it's crashing without the dll itself.
"hrtfxapoeffect" is found in an HRTF hook mod and is not present in vanilla Skyrim. These 3D sound mods are fun, but highly unstable and produce impossible to trace CTDs. If you have X3DAudio1_7.dll in your Skyrim folder, delete it.
Hey, yeah, the crashreport say a whole lot(to me anyway).:\ No, I'm not using the 3d sound mod. CLA SSE mentions downloading the xaudio redist manually but I'm kind of lost on how to. I tried replacing the orinigal dlls with new ones but that did nothing.
Thanks, sorry for double asking. I just had to make sure. I'm sorry this is happening to you.
I'm not entirely confident this will fix the problem. You would just want to reinstall DirectX if this is the case. Maybe you installed a program that at one point modified these files, or a Windows update went wrong. Here is a link to it - please do not download any file that does not come from Microsoft's site directly (microsoft.com). I assume this is what you did when you said you "tried replacing the orinigal dlls with new one," but I just want to make sure.
Don't use CLA, by the way. It's more than useless and extremely misleading. It doesn't actually analyze anything.
Thank you for the support and commitment! I will try to reinstall DirectX and report back.:) Ah, alright, yeah it has been rare that CLA has been useful.:P
Alright, I reinstalled the Dx 2010 redist...and was able to play from a save no problem! But! When I tried again, with the same set up, to start a new game there was a loud click and the same old X3DAudio1_7.dll/XAudio2_7.dll CTD! Maybe it's some conflict with an initiating script? Since the save game that worked started in the Live another Life prison cell, so it's probably not location based?
I'm a bit confused. How can I increase the volume of certain sounds with this mod? The fireplace sounds as well as the river and waterfall sounds are nearly inaudible by default
Is the recommended volume settings on the original AOS2 still apply in SE version? If not, what are your recommended volume settings for each category?
is it possible to have both this and immersive sounds compendium, but have this mods sounds for magic take precedence over ISC's? i REALLY love the sound for the summoning spells for AOS, but still want to continue using ISC if possible
Hello, I'm using SOS now but really want change that to your MOD However I ve already got 2000 esps in my load order, and it's very difficult to recognize whitch one will require a patch with your MOD, since SOS needs too many patches, I'm really worrying about if I get enough patches to get your MOD work properly.
Hi Dylan, this isn't exactly related to your mod, i was hoping someone with experience, working with sound records could help.
Been working on a mod to revamp NPC shout users, however i'm have a strange bug where the "Krah Diin" and "Ro Dah" magic effect sounds, i placed in Hakon's frost breath & and unrelenting force shouts, play when a dragon is around. Even though Hakon isn't actually there.
its so strange and only happens with those two. When i remove the wav file or disable those records, everything is fine.
And the records are only being referenced by the shout spells. nothing else.
Give Feedback
1885 comments
WITH REGARDS TO 1.6.1130
Hello. Good news, Engine Fixes is (mostly) working on the latest update of Skyrim.
You do not need to disable SaveAddedSoundCategories. I have no idea why people are saying this.
Sound Record Distributor is also working and does not need an update.
Here's to surviving another Skyrim update. And happy holidays! 🥂
INTRODUCTION – TOO LONG; DIDN'T READ
SURE, WHY NOT. BUT PLEASE CONSIDER READING THE WHOLE THING.
Audio Overhaul for Skyrim adds thousands of magic, weapon, ambient, and more sounds to your game.
It is strongly recommended that you load Audio Overhaul for Skyrim very early in your load order.
Non-SKSE, Epic Games Store, and Xbox Games Pass users should download Version 3.4.3.
As a reminder: I am not David Jegutidse. I am just the current maintainer and developer of AOS.
This port and all subsequent updates have been made with his permission and blessings.
NEWS
LAST UPDATED NOVEMBER 7TH 2022
Update 4.0.0 is here – Finally, the cloned projectile and explosion records have been condensed into vanilla records. What does this mean? With Sound Record Distributor, nothing (from the user). All necessary projectile and explosion records will have sounds added to them on runtime, relieving a massive burden on users, mod authors, and patch makers. For most users, no action is necessary on your part. For mod authors and patch makers, I've left all of the old "_AOS" records in and your patches are still fine to use.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED MODS
LAST UPDATED NOVEMBER 7TH 2022
Unofficial Material Fix – Ensures the correct material sound plays when walking over or impacting surfaces.
Immersive Sounds Compendium – A dramatic and extensively customizable sound overhaul.
Audio Overhaul - Immersive Sounds Integration – An intelligently-made integration of both mods.
Regional Sounds Expansion – An extensive, standalone regional sound overhaul for towns, dungeons, and open-world.
Reverb Interior Sounds Expansion – A thoughtful, vanilla-friendly remodel of the base game reverb, interior sounds, and more.
ADDITIONAL RECOGNITION
FROM THE CURRENT MAINTAINER, DYLAN JAMES
David Jegutidse – For letting a guy you didn't really even know take over maintaining and supporting Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2. I know it took a few years, but I'd like to think I held true to a lot of my original promises. And I'm so happy hundreds of thousands of people get to experience this classic project now and long into the future!
aers – For fixing the sound category bug for me back in 2018, allowing custom sound categories and volume sliders to properly exist in Skyrim. Something that had been bothering me for years up until Engine Fixes came along.
Doodlezoid – For taking me up on my proposal and bringing to life Sound Record Distributor. The framework shows incredible potential, and I'm so happy to have a tool like this available for mod authors and users-alike who may have felt intimidated by installing audio mods in the past.
FREQUENTLY ANTICIPATED QUESTIONS
AKA PLEASE READ THE STICKY BEFORE COMMENTING
Q: Is it safe to update? Is this compatible with Anniversary Edition?
A: Yes, and yes. As of 3.9.0, all AE content can be patched regardless of what you own!
Q: Is 3.9.0 compatible with Audio Overhaul - Immersive Sounds Integration?
A: Yes! The 3.9.0 release is compatible!
Q: Do patches still work?
A: Yes! All patches are backwards compatible with the latest version.
Q: LOOT is saying I need a patch that is no longer available on this page.
A: The LOOT master list is going off of outdated information. As of 3.9.0, these patches are not nessecary.
Q: With Sound Record Distributor, does this mean I no longer need patches?
A: No! You still need patches! However, it means you will need a lot less – check out below!
If you have a simple patch, it's okay to keep it. Having it in your load order won't break anything.
Q: Is Audio Overhaul for Skyrim modular now?
A: No, you cannot pick and choose which sounds you'd like to use. It is strongly unadvised you tweak the "_SRD" files (even if you know what you're doing). If you think you notice an error, please reach out and I will fix it as soon as possible.
Q: Will there be a Bethesda.net or Xbox release? May I port the mod?
A: No. There are currently no plans for a console release at this time.
See "Permissions and Credits" tab on the main page for more information.
Q: Why am I seeing "$" (Dollar Signs) when I open up the audio settings menu?
A: It is possible you are either not using SKSE64 or you are using an unsupported language. Please download the compatibility patch for non-SKSE64 users in the Miscellaneous Files tab.
Q: I'm not getting footsteps on a certain surface.
A: Certain meshes don't have the correct havok material flags defined in the mesh itself. This can result in the wrong impact sounds (like footsteps) from being played or none being played at all. This is not an issue with Audio Overhaul for Skyrim, but with the vanilla game itself and certain meshes introduced by mods. Unofficial Material Fix by Elzee and Immersive Sounds Compendium by lazygecko are strongly recommended.
SOUND RECORD DISTRIBUTOR
WHAT IS ACTUALLY BEING DISTRIBUTED
With Sound Record Distributor, sounds are distributed to records at runtime. "Runtime" means "when the game starts".
Here is a non-exhaustive list of what is currently being distributed by Sound Record Distributor, in greater detail.
If it is not in this list, it likely needs to still be patched.
Continue reading to see what is on the compatibility master list.
LOAD ORDER GUIDANCE
IN WHAT ORDER DO I PUT THE PLUGINS
[Base Game Content]
Audio Overhaul Skyrim.esp
Immersive Sounds - Compendium.esp
AOS_ISC_Integration.esp
Regional Sounds Expansion.esp
Reverb Interior Sounds Expansion.esp
[Everything Else – Weather Mods]
[Patches]
COMPATIBILITY MASTER LIST
NON-EXHAUSTIVE LIST – FEEL FREE TO CTRL + F HERE TOO
Audio Overhaul and Sound Record Descriptor distributes sounds to specific records at runtime. Runtime means "when the game starts". When the game starts, this mod will overwrite the subrecord its pointed to. You still need patches – and download them if you are unsure! If you have old patches in, nothing bad will happen. They will mostly just be redundant.
Built-in Support means Audio Overhaul for Skyrim supports any new magic effects, regions, and weapons added by the listed mods. That means if a mod listed here adds a new weapon or new spell, you can reasonably expect that weapon or spell to include Audio Overhaul for Skyrim's new sounds for consistency. Almost all mods will still work fine without built-in support, and most don't need it.
If you have a suggestion for support, leave it down in the comments below.
ENDORSED, SUPPORTED, RECOMMENDED
Unofficial High Definition Audio
Unofficial Material Fix
Immersive Sounds Compendium
Audio Overhaul - Immersive Sounds Integration
Regional Sounds Expansion †
Reverb Interior Sounds Expansion †
BUILT-IN SUPPORT
Creation Club: Bittercup
Creation Club: Fishing
Creation Club: Necromantic Grimoire
Creation Club: Saints & Seducers
Creation Club: Arcane Accessories
Creation Club: Staff of Sheogorath
Beyond Skyrim: Bruma
Beyond Skyrim: Wares of Tamriel
Beyond Skyrim: Morrowind – Bonemold Pack
Wyrmstooth
BUILT-IN SUPPORT (MAGIC)
Mysticism
BUILT-IN SUPPORT (WEAPONS)
Destructible Display Cases
ESO Imports
Hunterborn
Immersive Weapons
Lore Weapon Expansion
Royal Armory – New Artifacts
Reforging To The Masses
NO-CONFLICT or COMPATIBLE MODS
Pure Waters
Realistic Water Two
Simplicity of Seas
Water for ENB
As of 3.9.0, Audio Overhaul for Skyrim is compatible with most weather mods.
No patching to account for weather mods is strictly necessary.
UNRECOMMENDED or UNSUPPORTED
Lucidity Sound FX
NPC Dialogue Audio Enhancer
Reverb and Ambiance Overhaul
Sounds of Skyrim
Sounds of Skyrim – Civilization
Sounds of Skyrim – Dungeons
Sounds of Skyrim – The Wilds
True 3D Sound for Headphones ‡
NOTES
† If Audio Overhaul for Skyrim detects that you have Regional Sounds Expansion or Reverb Interior Sounds Expansion installed, the corresponding modules will be disabled and no incompatible records will be distributed by Audio Overhaul for Skyrim. Both mods were created from the beginning to play friendly with Audio Overhaul for Skyrim, and will play nicely with its changes.
‡ T3DSH is unsupported due to difficult to trace compatibility issues and abrupt CTDs, as well as a drastic shift in how sound is perceived in-game. AOS's soundscape was meticulously balanced for use in the audio engine Bethesda chose to ship with the game. Skyrim, contrary to popular belief, already has built in HRTF, and certain sounds are meant to be processed through certain channels. This, along with an overall increase in loudness and the rearrangement of sound categories, I cannot recommend the plugin. In regard to reported CTDs, what T3DSH does on a straight technical is slightly beyond my skillset and available time. You are free to use it, but no support will be offered from myself.
FOR MOD AUTHORS
BUILDING SUPPORT FOR AOS 3.9.0+ RIGHT INTO YOUR MOD WITH NO PLUGIN REQUIRED.
If you're a mod author, adding support for Audio Overhaul for Skyrim using Sound Record Distributor is an incredibly easy and frictionless process. Simply package your mod with an SRD file and it will automatically distribute any sounds you want from this plugin to yours without any need for an additional plugin or having to update the patch for any update.
Let's say you release a mod that adds a unique dagger. In vanilla Skyrim, daggers and one-handed swords share the same impact sounds with no distinction between the two. You can package a .yaml file along with your mod and format it like this.
# Audio Overhaul Skyrim.esp|05B6EA is WPNzBlade1HandSmallImpactSet
# Skyrim.esm|03CED9 is WPNBlade1HandSmallDrawSD
# Skyrim.esm|03CEDB is WPNBlade1HandSmallSheatheSD
Requirements:
- Audio Overhaul Skyrim.esp
- CoolDaggerMod.esp
Weapons:
- Form: CoolDaggerMod.esp|801
Impact Data Set: Audio Overhaul Skyrim.esp|05B6EA
Equip: Skyrim.esm|03CED9
Unequip: Skyrim.esm|03CEDB
If both Sound Record Distributor and Audio Overhaul for Skyrim are installed, these forms will automatically be injected into the designated record at runtime with no manual patching involved. Due to the nature of the example given, there are virtually no risks of incompatibility and is highly recommended.
No permission is required to ship these files along with your mod and more examples will be given as this project further develops.
I've been breaking my head on it for hours.
Take your time!
"hrtfxapoeffect" is found in an HRTF hook mod and is not present in vanilla Skyrim. These 3D sound mods are fun, but highly unstable and produce impossible to trace CTDs. If you have X3DAudio1_7.dll in your Skyrim folder, delete it.
No, I'm not using the 3d sound mod.
CLA SSE mentions downloading the xaudio redist manually but I'm kind of lost on how to.
I tried replacing the orinigal dlls with new ones but that did nothing.
I'm not entirely confident this will fix the problem. You would just want to reinstall DirectX if this is the case. Maybe you installed a program that at one point modified these files, or a Windows update went wrong. Here is a link to it - please do not download any file that does not come from Microsoft's site directly (microsoft.com). I assume this is what you did when you said you "tried replacing the orinigal dlls with new one," but I just want to make sure.
Don't use CLA, by the way. It's more than useless and extremely misleading. It doesn't actually analyze anything.
I will try to reinstall DirectX and report back.:)
Ah, alright, yeah it has been rare that CLA has been useful.:P
But! When I tried again, with the same set up, to start a new game there was a loud click and the same old X3DAudio1_7.dll/XAudio2_7.dll CTD!
Maybe it's some conflict with an initiating script? Since the save game that worked started in the Live another Life prison cell, so it's probably not location based?
I've disabled mods a few at a time, and the moment I re-enabled this, crash on launch. It gets to the Bethesda logo, but then immediately crashes..
Oddly though the Crash logger gives a generic error relating to form ID FormID: 0x00000014
However I ve already got 2000 esps in my load order, and it's very difficult to recognize whitch one will require a patch with your MOD,
since SOS needs too many patches, I'm really worrying about if I get enough patches to get your MOD work properly.
Been working on a mod to revamp NPC shout users, however i'm have a strange bug where the "Krah Diin" and "Ro Dah" magic effect sounds, i placed in Hakon's frost breath & and unrelenting force shouts, play when a dragon is around. Even though Hakon isn't actually there.
its so strange and only happens with those two. When i remove the wav file or disable those records, everything is fine.
And the records are only being referenced by the shout spells. nothing else.
Any hints you could give me will be appreciated