Extremely low sound?

Post » Mon May 06, 2013 5:27 am

Well this has been a problem since i bought Skyrim. sound is always too low. even with my headphones on max. i don't have this problem with other applications so im pretty sure its coming from Skyrim. anyway i got used to low sound in the game but lately its been decreasing to the point where i have to squeeze the headphones to my ears to be able to hear what the NPC's are saying. i dunno if its a technical issue or i'm just getting old... but its getting pretty damn annoying.

I heard that if you go to sound, select your default audio device then Properties > Enchantments and enable Loudness Equalization it will fix it, but this only made the sound glitchy and more heavier rather than making it louder. so its not really a solution. anyone having the same problem?

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Hayley O'Gara
 
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Post » Sun May 05, 2013 7:51 pm

Skyrim seems to have really bad sound support for different sound and speaker hardware. With the right hardware, the sound is beautiful. But with the wrong hardware, sound is, as you say, very low.
It's a very, very common problem and it's almost outrageous that Bethesda has and never will do anything about it. I have complained about this myself since basically the first week Skyrim was released, and Bethesda are aware of it. It's not only poor manners of Bethesda to do this to us customers, but it's also poor manners to Mark Lampert who has been creating all these sounds, which are otherwise really, really well done.

I have tried three different speakers with Skyrim. The first was a 2.1 Logitech, which had low sound. The second was 5.1 Z-906 Logitech speakers, which not only had low sound, but also a bug with the NPC voices (if I turned my head, you couldn't hear a word of what NPCs said). This was tested on the same computer, which is proof of that Skyrim has some serious compatibility problems with speakers.
I have now bought an entirely new computer with new high quality speakers. The sound card I now have is Creative Sound Blaster Z and the speakers are Audioengine A5+. The sound in Skyrim (and also everywhere else; the speakers are amazing) is now more beautiful than ever and I have no problem with low sound. The only problem that I now have is that magic sounds are way, way too loud, so I had to create my own sound patch so I don't go deaf.

So in short, if you have the wrong type of hardware... sorry man there's nothing you can do about it. Loudness Equalization is a very poor suggestion because not all sounds should be equally high (or low); if you're an audiophile this suggestion is downright a joke. The only real solution seems to have the right hardware that Skyrim supports. Which this hardware is is something no one seems to know. I first thought that 5.1 speakers would solve my problem, but as it turns out above, this was not the case. In very short: you're either lucky or unlucky.

Also, you could try this:http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/33740/?

It's definitely worth a shot.

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Claudz
 
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Post » Mon May 06, 2013 1:38 am

This is resolved for me (2.1/headphones) by changing the speaker settings to 5.1 and unticking extra speakers.

Control Panel -> Hardware and Sounds -> Sound -> Speakers -> Configure, '5.1 Surround', Next-> Untick all, Next -> Untick 'Surround speakers', so that only 'Front left and right' remains ticked, Next -> Finish.

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jodie
 
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Post » Mon May 06, 2013 3:14 am

Hope they will work harder on that issue with their next TES title. Well thanks for the help guys.

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Jonny
 
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Post » Sun May 05, 2013 8:37 pm

On my previous computer and speakers, this only helped a little. The problem is however, if you're an audiophile and want perfect sound, this suggestion is also, no offence, a very bad one.

Only thing that has truly helped to me has been to change hardware completely. But it's not worth to buy new hardware to get good sound in Skyrim, because as I mentioned, buying new hardware isn't an assurance that sound will work correctly anyway (like it didn't with my Z-906).

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Philip Lyon
 
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Post » Sun May 05, 2013 4:35 pm

You should still remember the early threads here on this issue, you were posting in them yourself, this is the known fix for many users.

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Louise Andrew
 
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