Skyrim Special Edition
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Thomas Lack

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MisterStuntman

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About this mod

Symphonic Soundtrack adds (or replaces) over 6 hours of music composed specifically for and partially inspired by Skyrim, blending seamlessly with the original game and original music. For version 2, the music has been loudness matched to the original with strict volume standards. See the full list of additions in the Changelog.

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Changelogs
As of version 2, the Symphonic Soundtrack features over 6hours of new, original music composed by me. Most tracks were inspired by corresponding tracks from the original soundtrack to ensure the music feels seamless and fits perfectly into the world. The additions in version 2 vary slightly more in style, such that the music in the game has more variety without losing its character.
 
There’s new music for almost everything in the following categories:
-a main theme
-scene and location-specific tracks
-castle tracks
-dungeon tracks, specific to dungeon type(including unique music for DLC dungeons)
-general combat tracks
-boss-specific combat tracks
-exploration tracks (including DLC location-specific exploration tracks)
-tavern tracks
-town and town discovery tracks
-Over an hour of “palette” music
 
 
This mod is available in two versions –Replacement and Extension. The Replacement version directly replaces music of the original, so you’ll only hear the new music. The extension version adds the new music but keeps the old, so you’ll hear both. Note that even in there placement version, the palette tracks (Atmospheres) have not been removed due to some potential issues I encountered while testing.
 
I strongly recommend the High-Quality download if you have the available space and time to download. Compressing over 7 hours of music (some tracks need to be present more than once to account for layer changes) to a reasonable size for the Xbox version and normalized volume is noticeable.

 
You can listen to the music here (new music for version 2 at the end): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8j_DBLITCp9KsE87od181yHOGoJSrp6s
 
You can download the music on my Bandcamp page (Music is from Symphony Arcana 2, 3, 4, and 5): https://thomaslack.bandcamp.com/  

**About the Music**
I’ve been writing a series of symphonies based on tarot cards for a few years now. While this music was written specifically for Skyrim, I organized it into 2 symphonies (The Empress and The Emperor) to share elsewhere. I also went back to another symphony and altered music for use in this project. Finally, I wrote another symphony to be used as the version 2 expansion.
 
This music is symphonic in the sense that more motifs are developed throughout many pieces. In my view, this infuses an extra layer of emotion as you hear the music develop throughout different tracks. And, with the tools available in Skyrim, I wanted some locations to have a more unique vibe to them, so I wrote music that can work together with
 
I love Jeremy Soule’s original soundtrack, and while I didn’t try to copy his style, I did use his work as a starting point. Many tracks sound similar to their original counterparts before developing into something new. Many tracks do take on a more overtly symphonic feel than the original soundtrack, but to my ears it is gradual and still fits within the game's style. It can be difficult to balance the old and the new, but I did my best!
 
While I cannot claim to be a professional and I wish to further improve my skills, I sincerely hope you enjoy the music.


**Installation**
Use vortex or manually extract to Skyrim/Data folder. If updating, please uninstall previous version

I do not believe this is compatible with other music mods.

 
**Other Details and Loudness information**
The palette music from the original has not been replaced. These pieces are typically less than a minute long – on the soundtrack, they were edited together into Skyrim Atmospheres. Music to cover the palette tracks has been added with version 2, but I still did not remove the original palette tracks completely as I was encountering an error in testing (and I think the atmospheres blend well together anyway). Also, I did not write new music for certain types of tracks and sound effects (level up, death, word walls, generic location discovery, stingers, etc.). These are so short and contextual that creating new ones is not worthwhile.
 
I spent an extensive amount of time analyzing all the music in the game for average and peak loudness. I found that there was no strict standard for loudness in the vanilla music, even when broken into categories or music types. Also, the feedback I’ve received since version 1 included a roughly equal number of “music too loud” and “music too quiet” statements. So, I found an average that seemed to blend well with the original music. Still, some vanilla music is just quiet and some is just loud – but it may not be noticeable to someone who has been playing the game and listening to the music for a decade. As with all music, dynamic changes are part of the experience, especially with the style of exploration music used in Skyrim. Finally, battle music is set a bit louder than other music types, but I found a sweet spot that is still impactful without being overwhelming. I seriously spent months just testing all of this in my (little) spare time and trying to find something that worked really well.
TLDR: set the volume slider where you want it and it should be fine. 
 
**Feedback**
As stated above, I spent a long time adjusting loudness. I was meticulous in my testing of general functionality as well, but there are over 130 tracks in the mod and who knows how many possible places in the game for them to play, so it is very possible I missed something. If you do find a problem, feel free to report it in the bugs section, but please be as specific as you can. Again, there’re over 130 tracks, so finding the problem can be very difficult.
 
Also, while I am monitoring this mod page, I do not have an abundance of free time. It took me like 7 months to do this update. So, I probably can’t upload fixes very frequently.