[anna ley]

I do have a very, very low sound volume on my stereo (2.1) setup. Not everything though. Battle sounds (like drawing swords and hitting emenies) are deafening. Well, because I need to turn up my speakers waaaay up to hear the rest of the sound effects, speech and music, every time there's a battle, I am in danger of either going deaf or destroying my speakers. So every time there's battle, I turn down the volume. After that, I turn it up again.

This is extremely annoying.

Edit: Non-directional speech (like for example some daedra speaking directly inside you head) is also extremely loud. Basically every sound that originates from somewhere extremely close to the player character is very loud, while everything else is very (veeeerry) silent.

I have a SoundBlaster Live 24-bit PCI card with latest 64-bit drivers on Windows 7.

[gary lee]

Yes the dialogue volume versus environmental is definitely low. I can hardly hear somebody if anything else going on.

[Gisela Amaya]

Yeah, I've blown out my eardrums a few times doing other things while/after playing over having to turn up the volume so much to hear things. The sounds of Skyrim are one of its strongest features, yet they're so hard to hear, particularly music and even if the sliders are altered.

DX48BT2's onboard RealTek

[Charles Weber]

How to put this ....

A thread like this ..even with a poll is not really helping the DEV's. If everyone would Post there specs, and what they have tried that would help them. What setting there sound is set to . This might help.

I have great sound. while in the game i smile because i have to turn and face people (like in real life) to hear them better, as their voice moves from ear to ear. Ambient sounds in dungeons are great. I get Echo . I Really like the sound in this title.

So my specs.

Asus Zonar DX2 (Using the Original 2 year old drivers) Because the WHQL certified latest driver wont let my computer Sleep.
Connected to Logitech Z-5500 (1000 watt peak) 500 watt RMS. 6 channel Direct connection. (optical is going to TV).
Sound setting in control for Speakers was (Lowered) to 44 k (cause the Game needed this) BUT going to try the new 1.3 patch and 96000.
Using 5.1 ( I hear sounds behind me and all around)

The sound is equal to what ever I have running...IE: if I load up an internet Radio station,or Winamp and adjust to good listening level , then start the game the sounds are equal.

So just posting ..I have low sound ...and not giving a DX report or any info on your system will not help get this fixed.

Edit: yes all 5.1 channels are working. even my Sub...

You're right. I don't know much about sound stuff though. If someone that knows can tell me what regular soundcards (onboard and not-onboard) there is, and what regular setting options there is, I can intergrate it into the poll.
Just tell me what important options there are for what kind of categories and I'll put it in the poll.

[Rachael Williams]

It was pretty low for me on default standards but then I just edit the main speaker lvl in windows to max and all the programs except skyrim on half or lower. Never had to do this for any other game though.

[Erin S]

I noticed, but i thought it was just me... not one of my priorities but definetly needs to be fixed eventually.

[Hazel Sian ogden]

I'm running a M-audio Profire 610 audio interface and I have to crank the sound al lthe way up on it to get it anywhere near audible...everything else on my comp is nicely audible at the halfway mark.

[Claudz]

It seems to be a realtek issue usually.
Anyway, here is a simple fix that worked for me. Hope it does for you as well. Also it seems editing the .ini for volume doesn't actually do anything but either way I set mine to 2.0

open up your Realtek HD audio manager
(if you can't find it, it SHOULD be in C:\Program Files\Realtek\Audio\HDA) it's RAVCpl64.exe
->speaker configuration
->change to 5.1 configuration
->uncheck center, subwoofer, rear pair, leave both "full range speakers" options on

[Eilidh Brian]

I have an Xfi Fatality Pro card, and I have no extra fancy settings/eq enhancements/eax off/3d off/ 2.1 setting stereo speakers, I also use it for music making (ASIO driver) and I have 5 other games, this is the most quite.

Best described is compared to playing an mp3, listing to web radio/tv, youtube, all other games, this game plays at max level at about 50 percent of everything else. I have to amp it though extra box to up the volume to "normal level like everything else I play" and then deafen myself when i forget and go play some music.

There is an issue for sure, never had a game so far that's been this overall quite.

This is on everything, IE 100 percent volume in game settings = 50 volume output on system.

[Pat RiMsey]

X-fi, headphones, everything is set perfectly and sounds great with this game BUT I've had to turn the volume up a couple of clicks higher vs any other game I play. A little odd but not earth shattering.

[Shianne Donato]

^ Can you try using 5.1 speaker config as I described above and see if it fixes it for you? Try 5.1 speaker config as well as 24 bit / 44100 Hz.

[adame]

^ Can you try using 5.1 speaker config as I described above and see if it fixes it for you? Try 5.1 speaker config as well as 24 bit / 44100 Hz.

I actually bumped my headphones down to 24 bit / 44100 Hz the first time I ran Skyrim. Same problem.

Can't change speaker config with the headphones to 5.1. It's locked at stereo. (The "speaker configuration" drop-down menu is greyed out.) I don't think those headphones are capable of 5.1 sound; they only do stereo.

[lucile davignon]

I actually bumped my headphones down to 24 bit / 44100 Hz the first time I ran Skyrim. Same problem.

Can't change speaker config with the headphones to 5.1. It's locked at stereo. (The "speaker configuration" drop-down menu is greyed out.) I don't think those headphones are capable of 5.1 sound; they only do stereo.

Did you try going by control panel as well as Realtek Interface? Do you have the latest Realtek drivers installed? I'm just using normal stereo headphones, the config I provided processes the signal as 5.1 and turns it into stereo (as long as the plugged in device is set properly).

[Trevor Bostwick]

I just tried the 5.1 setting for 2.1 speakers setup and it works

I failed to read this whole thread or previous page and now I have sound volume normal again setting windows sound/speakers to 5.1 instead of 2.1 (XP 32).

Thanks for your post mate, even though I missed that page the fist time around.

BTW: I have an XFI fatality platinum card, and I kept the surround settings in the xfi control panel to 2.1 and JUST changed windows control panel/sounds/speakers to 5.1 in that drop down to sort it.

[April D. F]

For me the npc voices are like a whisper when you face an npc, but if you turn to the side you can hear them fine.

[Shiarra Curtis]

Hi, I want to know when this issue will be fix ?
I'm waiting that to begin the game because I want to benefit of the marvelous sound of Skyrim.

I've a P6T with a Realtek integrated sound card...

Please, solve that, I can't wait more !!!

[Alexxxxxx]

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1308833-how-to-fix-low-sound-volume/page__hl__fix%3A+low+sound

Search function next time.

[Haley Merkley]

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1308833-how-to-fix-low-sound-volume/page__hl__fix%3A+low+sound

Search function next time.

Hi, sry & thx...
but I'm waiting for a solution that uses the footer and it will be better if this is a Bethesda solution (in one of the next patch...).

[Leanne Molloy]

Same bug here: the sound is way and way too low. They indeed should fix that bug asap

[Antonio Gigliotta]

You need to check your WAVE and SW-SYNTH volumes. Both do not show-up on the volume controls in windows, until you turn it on. One is WINDOWS sound, the other is PROGRAMS sounds. Your WINDOWS sounds may be loud, but your PROGRAMS sounds may be low. (Most old programs play through windows sounds. Games with direct sound drivers, play through program sounds.) This game plays through the SW-SYNTH, and then the WAVE which is like your MASTER volume.

Thank windows for that confusion.

If that does not help... You can adjust the INI volume levels for the master-sound.

If that does not help... You may have your OUTPUT wrong. You may have DIGITAL-OUT or HEADPHONE connection, connected to the non-digital speakers or low-amplified speakers, which need LINE-OUT voltage levels. If you have un-amplified speakers, you NEED the LINE-OUT, which is powering the speakers with power from your motherboard.

Thx, I try that when I come back to my home.

[Smokey]

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1308833-how-to-fix-low-sound-volume/page__hl__fix%3A+low+sound

Search function next time.

This is only a work around. This is a true bug that needs fixing.

[Eddie Howe]

This is only a work around. This is a true bug that needs fixing.

/sign

I will NOT screw up the audiomixing on my system just because of a bug. This has to be a console related "optimization" the developers made and which is now causing all this trouble for PC users, because in Fallout 3 there hasn't been something like that. And this kind of bug is pretty common for multi-platform games nowadays (but get's fixed much more quickly than in this case). There are rumours the devs had to made some last minute changes to the creation engine due to copyright issues and had to implement a lot of new code they came up with on their own. Let's see if this gets ironed out in resonable time... It's quite annoying.

[Setal Vara]

Belated post reply...go!

Did you try going by control panel as well as Realtek Interface? Do you have the latest Realtek drivers installed? I'm just using normal stereo headphones, the config I provided processes the signal as 5.1 and turns it into stereo (as long as the plugged in device is set properly).

Well, I thought I'd had the latest drivers--turns out it was just the latest Realtek drivers provided by my motherboard manufacturer. Oops. I'm now on the real latest Realtek drivers (2.66) and I can finally configure my headphones to 5.1.

I've set them up as shown in the screenshot...we'll see if it makes any difference to Skyrim or not later.

[Scotties Hottie]

Got everything except footsteps at 100% volume. My speaker sound is also at 100% and only now the volume is good.
Of course everything else on my machine is extremely loud now.

[Mylizards Dot com]

voices are very low