Skyrim

File information

Last updated

Original upload

Created by

HellLizard

Uploaded by

HellLizard

Virus scan

Some files not scanned

About this mod

Little to no mod conflicts or performance impact, done without scripts, spells or quests.
Entire music suites that rotate with the in-game time for every location in the game (suites include explore, combat, perk tree, tension).
At least 30,000 song slots for various situation types making this the most diverse, mod friendly, and largest

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Changelogs

--------------------------------------------------------------------01. WHAT'S IT ABOUT?--------------------------------------------------------------------------

DRAkE (Dynamic Rotational Audio Experience) is one of the most unique add and customize your own music mods you'll ever see for Skyrim.  

With DRAkE, you can have music from your own collection (no music comes with this mod sorry, but there are quite a few recommendations below) play in Skyrim and have almost endless choice over where and when it plays.

You can set up entire music suites for various situations and places for all of Skyrim and its DLCs.  These suites include unique explore, combat, perk tree, and even 'being searched for music'.

With DRAkE you can have those Draugr infested Nordic ruins use more fitting zombie kind of music suites to build atmosphere while your Bandit filled Nordic Ruins can use something a little more exciting.  And as the name implies yes these music suites change every in-game Day of the Week.

DCS finally released, you can find it here

Here's nearly a full list of DRAkE's features

-Little to no mod conflicts
-Little to no performance impact
-No scripts, spells, quests, or inventory items are added
-Entire music suites that rotate with the in-game time
-Music in the Perk Tree (as of V3 it should work anywhere outside now)
-Unique music for Dragon Priest encounters (V4 and up only)
-Unique music suites for every hold town including Dawnstar, Morthal, Winterhold, and Falkreath (V3.0 and below only)
-Unique music for every guild
-Unique music for Imperial and Stormcloak controlled city castles (V3.0 and below only)
-Unique music for most major bosses including Alduin
-Unique music suites for every type of dungeon including DLC
-Unique music suites for faction dungeons
-Unique music suites while in Werewolf form (V4.0 and up doesn't use Time of Day and is more static)
-Unique music suites while in Vampire Lord form (V4.0 and up doesn't use Time of Day and is more static)
-Special music while being searched for by enemies
-Music enabled in the Marsh (leave Marsh Explore empty if you want silence)
-Ability to use mixed genres for 1 place without them actually mixing and sounding awkward
-Ability to use both looping and non-looping music (V3.0 and below, V4.0 has more slots available making duplication of files needed for seamless loops)
-Long Combat music actually always ends properly and with the option to have unique finales for each song (Only supports songs that are 6 minutes or less, if the song plays over this time that puts it past the finale cue points and will need to finish to end, note this won't be a problem for a short song that gets looped for over 6 minutes...more info below on this subject)
-Night music is actually only during the night
-Unique music during creating your character with Alternate Start mod
-At least 30,000 song slots for various situation types (even though a lot was removed with V3 and V4 this should still be true or near it)
-Organize your music by location, day of the week, time of the day, and category (e.g. combat, explore, perk tree, tension).
-You don't need to fill all 30,000 slots, this is a reason for the Time of the Day only having 10 each. You only really need 1 song for each type of song possible (you can always leave some things empty if you want selective silence though)
-OR if you can't take the time to fill each location folder, you can use the All Folder version which adds a single folder that works for everything (keep in mind this version can't support loops and special music such as Vamp/Werewolf can be mixed with it)
-ALTERNATIVE- If the standard version is too much you can try the new NToD version (No Time of Day) which works more like having multiple versions of CDMS/Pers. Music at the same time with 20 tracks that change per day per location type. (V3 & V2 only)

NOTE on long combat songs: Finales are set up for a max of 6 minutes, this is for the length the song plays and doesn't apply for songs less than 6 minutes that loop for 15 minutes in-game.  If a song is longer than 6 minutes and it plays over the time frame a finale can end it then it will have to play all the way to it's end.
Examples if confused
1 minute song that loops for 20 minutes while in-game will have no trouble ending
6 minute song that loops for 20 minutes will have no trouble ending
6:10 song that plays until it's at 6:00 will have no trouble ending
6:10 song that plays until it's at 6:01 will have to finish to end
(If you do have longer songs you want to use see the FAQ below on how to extend the finale time frames)

-----------------------------------------------------------------02. INSTALLATION-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-WARNING: BEFORE UPDATING TO V4 OF ANY TYPE FROM V3 OR BELOW
YOU SHOULD RENAME YOUR CURRENT 00DRAkE FOLDER IN SOME WAY OR JUST DELETE IT as V4.0 changed the structure to be more simple (e g Cave - Bandit, Nordic Ruins - Bandit, Ice - Bandit are now just a single Bandit Camp category), basically this is to avoid confusion with no longer existing categories, I probably wouldn't recommend deleting it though as you can still drag and drop a lot of of the old into the new)

SSE Version

-Manual Installation
1. Download 1 main file type
-Main (the standard most supported type)
-'All' Folder Fully Enabled Version (alternate type that enables every music slot in the 'Use Anywhere' category, doesn't work well if you want looping or very specific music setups)
-All Folder Only Version (alternate type that only uses the Use Anywhere category with the exception for special cases with stingers esp)
-NToD (No Time of Day, time of day is ignored with this type resulting in 20 songs per day at any time of the day, note that folder structure remains the same and you'll still need to use the 4 time of day folders) (V3 and below only)
-Lite (Simple dungeons, meaning base dungeons only and no faction dungeons) (V3.0 and Below only)
1. Continued - the 1 Region Data you need (only 1), and any optionals you want.
2. Extract the contents of the downloads to your Steam\steamapps\common\Skyrim\Data folder
3. Convert your music to XWM with the tool of your choice, there are several around Skyrim and Fallout 4 Nexus (I prefer Skyrim Audio Converter found right here on Skyrim Nexus, while I don't recommend MultiXWM because it sometimes fails to convert without telling you it failed, if you can't use Skyrim Audio Converter it's probably the next best choice)
4. Go to Data\Music\00DRAkE
5. Browse through the folders making sure to read the text files for the XWM details and place your music into the folders of your choice. 

NOTE: If you're computer is hiding file extensions you might want to change that to avoid misnaming something (e.g. title.xwm.xwm which won't work).  On Windows usually there is a View button on the top toolbar, click it and find Options or Folder Options then click Change Folder and Search Options if you see it.  When a new window with 3 tabs on it (General, View, Search) opens, click on View and scroll down until you see Hide extensions for known filetypes.  Unchecking this box will allow you to see file extensions like .xwm.

6. Once done enable the esps, then start up the game and enjoy

-Automatic installation
1. Download the main file, the 1 Region Data you need (only 1), and any optionals you want.
2. Activate all that you downloaded to install them, if asked to overwrite say no the first time and yes to specific files such as the esps
3. Ensure you have at least these esps after installing
-DRAkE - Combat.esp
-DRAkE - Dungeon.esp
-DRAkE - Explore.esp
-DRAkE - Perk Tree (this can be disabled if you don't want to use it)
-DRAkE - Region Data.esp of some kind
-Follow the Folder Guide images in order to ensure all of the folders are there (For V3.0 and below but V4.0 isn't too much different)
-If anything is missing try following the Manual Installation method
4. Follow steps 3-6 on the manual installation above

When using Skyrim Audio Converter sometimes files fail to convert, I've been able to fix this every single time.
The 1st thing to check for is that your file name doesn't end with ..., such as title....wav, this needs to be renamed to title.wav and it should convert fine. 
The 2nd thing to watch for is that there is no space at the end of the song, such as title .wav, rename to title.wav should fix the problem.
The 3rd one I'm not sure what causes it but for some files nothing seems wrong but they still fail, the only way I've found to fix this is toss it in Audacity and export it as a new file after which it usually works.

Unfortunately none of the above works for MultiXWM it seems and I've yet to figure out what could be causing some files to fail on conversion (another reason I can't recommend it).

NOTE: Starting a new game if you were using another music mod is recommended and will be probably be needed to avoid any issues that can potentially come with enabling this kind of mod mid-game such as complete silence everywhere.  If you don't have one then you should be fine installing on a save game.

-----------------------------------------------------------03. FOLDER INFORMATION-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DRAkE's folder structure is much more simple compared to its predecessor.  You have inside the 00DRAkE folder the Main Types folders (Dungeon, Explore, Town, All, Castle, Civil War, and Chargen), and inside them the Location Types folders (Cave, Dwarven Ruins, Whiterun, High Hrothgar), and in those the Day of the Week folders (00SUN, 02TUE, 06SAT) and in those the Time of the Day folders (Day & Night with V4, Dawn & Dusk additionally with V3.0 and below). Everything you want to use for that location type will go in the Time of Day folders usually, there are a few exceptions that don't have Time of Day folders.

Helgen and Chargen are examples of this because time doesn't move while creating your character.

A quick short random list to show an idea of what locations are available with this mod.

Apocrypha   Blackreach  Imperial Castle (V3.0 and below only)   Stormcloak Castle (V3.0 and below only)  Cave  Bandit Cave (V3.0 and below only)   Draugr Cave (V3.0 and below only)  Falmer Cave (V3.0 and below only)  Civil War  Nordic Ruins Dragon Priest Nordic Ruins (V3 & below only)  Draugr Nordic Ruins  Bandit Nordic Ruins (V3.0 & Below only)  Dwarven Ruins  Fall  Falmer Valley  Forsworn Forts (V3 & Below only)  Guilds  Helgen  Chargen  Home  High Hrothgar  Ice   Marsh  Markarth Mountain  Mountain SH  Riekling Ice Cave  Pine  Raven Rock (V3.0 and Below only)  Reach  Riften  Shipwreck  Snow  Snow SH  Solitude  Soul Cairn  Sovngarde  Throat of the World (V3.0 & Below only)  Taverns  Temple  Tundra  Vampire Lord  Volcanic  Warlock Lair  Werewolf  Whiterun  Windhelm  and a lot more

-----------------------------------------------------------------04. COMPATIBILITY---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(NOTE: All music mod esps are incompatible but you can still use the music files they have if you convert to xwm (if needed), rename, and move them to where you want them used)

COMPATIBLE
Audio Overhaul for Skyrim 2 (with Part B patch)
Climates of Tamriel (with Part B patch)
Climates of Tamriel Weather Patch by Prod80 (with a Part B CoT patch)
Expanded Snow Systems (with Part B patch)
Main Menu Music Replacers (No Patch needed, Main Menu music is handled differently from the in-game music and I cna't even find a way to change it in the Creation Kit)
Minty Lightning Mod (No Patch Needed)
Morning Fogs (No Patch Needed)
Natural Lighting Vivid Atmospherics (No Patch Needed)
Natural Skyrim Rain (No Patch Needed)
Pure Weather (with Part B patch)
Reverb and Ambience Overhaul (No Patch Needed)
Sound mods that don't edit the default regions
Sounds of Skyrim
Supreme Storms (No Patch Needed)
Supreme and Volumetric Fog (No Patch Needed)
True Storms Thunder and Rain Redone (No Patch Needed)
Vivid Weathers (with Part B patch)
Weather and Ambience Overhaul (with Part B patch)
Wet & Cold Ashes (with Part B patch)
Mods that disable combat music apparently
Most any other mod as long as it doesn't edit the default Music Type records

APPEARS COMPATIBLE (UNTESTED)
Moonlight Tales
Smarter Combat Music

INCOMPATIBLE
Delarics Conditional Combat Music
Personalized Music Main
Personalized Music Blackreach
Personalized Music Dawnguard
Personalized Music Dragonborn
Personalized Music Dwemer
Personalized Music Town Unique
Epic Music Overhaul
Expanded Skyrim Weather (I've been unsuccessful at creating a patch for this)
Any other weather mod I'm unaware of (ask for a patch for your favorite weather mod)
Mods that change the default Music Type lists

---------------------------------------------------------------05. RECOMMENDATIONS---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adam Frechette MP3 Music Compilation
Additional Music_1
Additional Music _2
Additional Music_3
Additional Music Project
Battle Music For Oblivion
CaptainCreepy - Skyrim Music Pack 1
Carels music for Oblivion
Combat Music - Dragon theme
Dawn of Hope Music Add-on (Half of this is in Fantasy Soundtrack Project)
Digital Nightmare (Good for Dwarven Ruins IMO)
Fantasy Soundtrack Project (Has a lot from Additional Music Project but not all of it, so it's worth getting both)
Glory Days - Music Of Skyrim
Immersive Music
JDR Soundtrack Compliation
Magic College Music - Songs for Academy
Music Pack 1
Music Pack 2
Musical Lore (Soundtrack Mod By Nir Shor)
Nordic and Slavic Music
Oblivion Music 109 - Customized for BetterMusicSystemy Soundtrack
Oblivion Music Overdose
Oblivion Symphonic Variations Music Suite (Also in Fantasy Soundtrack Project but looks as if it's been recently updated[2016])
Original Symphonic Music
Relax music for Skyrim
Skyrim Music Pack 1
Skyrim Soundtrack Expansion
Symphonies of Skyrim
True Medieval Tavern Music

----------------------------------------------------------------06. KNOWN ISSUES & FAQ-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q-Werewolf music doesn't seem to trigger right, what's up with that?

A- Unfortunately I have no clue, I can only guess it probably has something to do with how you don't get race spells to change until loading the game when you use Show Race Menu.  The good news is that I've thoroughly tested this and it does work but you will probably need to enter the Werewolf perk menu after transforming to give it a kick and it might take a few times.  I haven't tested Vampire Lord as much but the same can probably be said.

Q-Music sometimes gets stuck ONLY playing in the Perk Tree and goes silent when out of the Perk Tree, but it does go back to normal upon leaving the area....why?

A-Places with their music set as NONE will do this, this is the reason for the Music Type edits to the College and Karthspire, a lot of mod added places tend to use NONE as well. You can look at this way, you're getting music where you normally wouldn't at all making it a bit of a bonus really.

Q-Special music such as Tension, Temple, Guild, and a few others seem slow to transition to, why?

A-Everything is in the original Music Type lists instead of adding new ones (which requires editing cells as well).  Unfortunately this creates the slight limitation that extra explore themes won't immediately change upon entering the area because music only changes instantly when the game calls for a different Music Type.  

The current explore song must either be allowed to finish after which it will then start using the extra explore themes (and for the duration of being in that area should lockout the normal explore themes) or you can force it to change instantly by going into the Perk Tree menu which will cause the game to call for a different Music Type.   It's a bit annoying sure but at least it's conflict free.

Q-I can't stand the limitation, can I use another mod to work alongside DRAkE, say perhaps Personalized Music's College or Temple esp so it is always forced to change upon entering these areas?

A-Yes you can use mods that edit small sections of the game to replace the way DRAkE does it without losing all of DRAkE's features.  Keep in mind however DRAkE will have nothing to do with the explore music in those areas if you do that and you'll need to add your music to that mod's folders.

Q-Sometimes combat music gets stuck playing with the explore starting up again, any ideas why?

A-This is one I've noticed a few times on SSE and I've been trying to figure it out but so far no luck, I do know a way to fix it however and it's
pretty simple but annoying....just load your last save, heck even saving when it happens and loading works fine to reset it.

Q-My music completely stopped working what's the deal?

A-I've only encountered this on SSE once so far and alongside it land was staying LOD a bit, exiting and restarting the game entirely was the only fix....this was after a lot of hours real time though so it probably won't happen very often.  I think the only reason I can say I've had it
happen on SSE is that original Skyrim would have already had a memory crash before it happened so SSE at least gives you time to save and exit right?

Q-Is the Region Data really needed?

A-Yes and no, while not required for the mod to work Snow, Fall, Volcanic, Snow SH, and Marsh will use their original default music for exploring and the combat music will no longer match.

Q-I don't have enough room for the Region Data esp, I've hit my esp limit so can I merge it or something?

A-You can probably merge it but if you use a weather mod or region editing sound mod like AOS (actually this is the only one I know of, you would think Sounds of Skyrim does but it doesn't) what you should do is add the Region Data changes to whichever of those are closest to the bottom of your load order so you can toss the Region Data esp out.

Q-Ok I want to do that, so what changes are in the Region Data that I need to add to my weather or region editing sound mod?

A-What we need to do is change a few Region's Music Types to use the unused Music Types apparently meant for them.  
If you want to use TES5Edit for this....
1. Load up your weather or sound mod in TES5Edit
2. Expand the esp's contents by clicking the box beside its name
3. Expand the Region contents the same way
4. For each region we need to change you'll want to scroll through the records on the right pane and find RDMO - Music near the bottom after all the Weather Types and before Sounds which should have MUSExploreForestPine or something similar next to it
5. For WeatherDarklightTower - change from MUSExploreForestPine to MUSExploreForestFall
6. For WeatherFallForest do the same
7. For WeatherFallForestNoPrecip do the same
8. For WeatherRavenRock01 change from empty to DLC2MUSExploreSolstheimGeneral
9. For WeatherReach change from MUSExploreTundra to MUSExploreReach
10. For WeatherSkallVillage01 from MUSExploreSnow to DLC2MUSExploreSnow
11. For WeatherSnow change from MUSExploreMountain to MUSExploreSnow
12. For WeatherSnowNoPrecip do the same
13. For WeatherTundraMarsh change from MUSExploreTundra (or NONE if using AOS) to MUSExploreMarsh
14. For Marsh to work properly you also need to scroll all the way to top and the empty space for Region Data Entries you need to Right-Click and choose Add then check the box for Override
15. For WeatherTundraMarshNoPrecip do both again
16. For WeatherVolcanicAsh01 and WeatherVolcanicAsh02 repeat what you did for RavenRock
17. Done, you should no longer need a Region Data esp

If you want to use the Creation Kit...
1. Open the CK and on the top left corner click on File and then Data...
2. Find your weather or sound mod esp, click on it to highlight it,  click on the Set as Active File button, and let it load clicking Yes to All for all of the warnings that pop up no matter what esp you load (seriously these pop up with just the vanilla ESMs loaded)
3. On the same top bar find and click on World and then Regions
4. Use the Drop Down list in the upper left corner to find DLC2SolstheimWorld
5. Scroll down the Region Name list to find the RavenRock, SkaalVillage, DLC2Snow, VolcanicAsh weathers mentioned above in the 'If you want to use TES5Edit'
6. Highlight the weather by clicking on it and on the right side click on the Sound tab
7. Use the Music Type drop down list to change the music as mentioned above in the 'If you want to use TES5Edit' section, do this for all of the Dragonborn added regions
8. In the Upper left corner use the drop down list again to find Tamriel and find and change the default Skyrim weathers mentioned above in the 'If you want to use TES5Edit' section as well
9. Once done close out of the Regions window and on the top bar click on File again and this time click on Save, after that you can click on File again and Exit
17. Done, you should no longer need a Region Data esp

Q-Will this mod cause my music to go silent upon uninstalling like most do?

A-Actually no it shouldn't because everything is in the original Music Type lists except maybe in the College and Karthspire which are originally silent to begin with.

Q-I have combat songs over 6 minutes that I really want to use, can you increase the timing so I can use them?

A-No sorry, I would have to increase ALL of them and there's a lot more records than slots that meets your eyes, but you can do it for the ones you need it for.

Q-You said I could increase the timing for longer combat songs....but how do I do that?

A-Here's a step by step guide for you to do just that.
1. Load up DRAkE Combat.esp in the Creation Kit and wait for it to load.
2. On the Left Panel, find Audio and expand it, then find Music Track and click on it.
3. The fastest way to do this is use the Filter above that panel (e.g. you are needing Fall, so you type in the filter Fall).
4. Once you've found the record you are looking for, open it up and on the Single Track tab you should see Cue Points with an Add button.
5. Keep adding 3 - 5 seconds with the Add button until you have the timing you need.
6. Save and Exit

Q-Even with the volume slider all the way up some of my music is quiet in-game but not in my music player out of the game, can you fix this somehow?

A-No the mod can't fix this because it's out of the mod's scope, but I did find a way to do it, just follow the guide below.
-Fix for Quiet Music without the need for volume editing of your files-
IF USING AOS
1. Load up TES5Edit, right click on the list of active esps and select NONE

2. Then scroll down the list and find AOS.esp, make sure the box beside it is checked

3. Then click on Ok and let it load

4. When you see Background Loader: finished, then on the left side click the little arrow symbol to the left of AOS.esp and scroll down to Sound Category

5. Find AudioCategoryMUS and click on it, then right click anywhere on the right panel area and choose "Hide No Conflict Rows" to make things easier

6. On the Static Volume Multiplier line you see 2 numbers (horizontally), the number on the left in Purple is the default game value, the green number on the right is what AOS is changing it to.  Now I don't remember what the exact number AOS has it set for since I've changed mine but it seems like it was even less than the default (meaning AOS makes music more quiet than it was).

7. The AOS changed number as you can imagine is what we want to change, so far I've found 0.849989 to be decent, you might also want to change the Default Menu Value to 1.000000 which is optional, all that does is automatically sets the slider in the game options menu  to always be max even if you lose your Skyrim INI.  Exit and Save

If you are not using AOS you can still adjust this but you'll need to use the Creation Kit (found in Steam, Library, Tools). In the CK the easiest way is to scroll down on the far left panel list and find ALL, which should be completely empty at first, then in the "Filter" above that panel type in AudioCategoryMUS and it should appear on the right panel.  Double click it to open it and change the same value to .89 or so.  Then save it, exit, and try it out in-game to see if you notice a difference.

------------------------------------------------------07. CREDITS & SPECIAL THANKS--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Side777 for Better Music System for Oblivion - The main inspiration for DRAkE and what drove me to go as far as I have.
No_Aardvarks_Allowed - For the inspiration and encouragement.
FaegenFeorhlif - For being supportive and encouraging.
Bethesda Game Studios - For the awesome game.