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Name : Dawnguard Music Overhaul - Skyrim Fan-Made Music
Author : OrganicView / CaptainCreepy
Version : 1.0
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Dawnguard Music Overhaul is compatible and intended to be used with Around the Fire, Hun Lovaas, Melodies of Civilisation (use the Melodies of Civilisation version), and Still, my music mods for taverns, combat, cities/castles and exploration respectively.
Dawnguard Music Overhaul contains no cell edits, and as such is compatible with ALL lighting mods and mods that modify/expand Dawnguard's cells (such as Immersive Fort Dawnguard, or Castle Volkihar Rebuilt) without any patching necessary.
ALL plugins provided are ESPFE* (won't take a slot in your load order)
* See the ESPFE section in the compatibility section for more details

Part of the The Phoenix Flavour (Merged music plugin available here)
All my music is also integrated into Soulmancer Music Merge
Xbox/BethesdaNet version: 

• non-replacer (includes all five of my music mods - port by Bass painter)/ replacer (with or without Dawnguard Music Overhaul - port by Clofas1)
• Standalone version (port by Blobbie01): main module (+epilogue) / Combat Module
  

The mod seeks to add new music to the Dawnguard questline. The Dawnguard DLC, while it has a few new tracks, mostly re-uses vanilla tracks and pads itself with long streches of silence. The new tracks, written specifically for this mod, are designed to enhanced the atmosphere and story of the DLC, fitting as well as possible with the original soundtrack while giving the DLC and the unique locations it offers their own unique flavor. All vanilla tracks that were exclusive to the Dawnguard DLC in vanilla have been kept in the mod. Vanilla tracks that were reused have been removed (only from the DLC -  not the game at large) or kept at my discretion. 

The main module adds:

- 2 tracks for Castle Dawnguard
  In vanilla, Fort Dawnguard uses generic castle music. I felt that Fort Dawnguard could really use some unique music to go with its unique look and to embody the ideals of the Dawnguard as a faction. Dawnguard Music Overhaul prevents vanilla castle music from being played at Fort Dawnguard, and only the tracks I've written for it will play there. The new tracks won't be played at any other location that uses the MUSCastle Music Type. 
- 2 tracks for Volkihar Keep/Castle Volkihar
   In vanilla, Volkihar Keep and its dungeon do have their own music. That music is not very distinctive though, being mostly atmosphere and ambiance. That music is not replaced in Dawnguard Music Overhaul, but the two new tracks have been added to the playlist. Those new tracks maintain the creepy atmosphere and tension of the original tracks, but also have some more melodic and rhythmic content to make them stand out.
- 2 tracks for the Soul Cairn
   This is a fairly straightforward expansion. In vanilla, the Soul Cairn has its own dedicated track, as well as a palette track for variety. Dawnguards Music Overhaul keeps those tracks and adds two new ones in the same style.
- 2 tracks for the Forgotten Vale
   In vanilla, the Forgotten Vale has one unique tracks and reuses two vanilla palette tracks. Dawnguard Music Overhaul reduces (but does not remove) the amount of silence played in that location to give the two new tracks time to play while you're there. The two new tracks are both inspired by the unique track for the Vale in vanilla, and both express the wonder and beauty of the Forgotten Vale.

The combat module adds:
 
3 new tracks for your battle with Harkon. In vanilla, the fight with Harkon has its own unique MusicType (=playlist) that contains duplicates of the dragon battle music from the main game. Instead of that, in the combat module,  you get three new tracks exclusive to that fight:
- One track that'll play regardless (called Harkon Combat (Generic) in the tracklist)
- One track that'll play if you've sided with the Dawnguard
- One track that'll play if you've sided with the vampires

The Epilogue module makes so that:

- If you've sided with the Dawnguard: the music that plays at Fort Dawnguard will play in Volkihar Keep once you've completed the "Kindred Judgement" quest with the Dawnguard.
- If you've sided with the Vampires: The Volkihar Keep music will play at Fort Dawnguard once you've completed the "Destroying the Dawnguard" quest.

Note: once you've completed the appropriate quest for the music to change, the new music will start the next time you enter that cell. You can install the Epilogue module at any time because it actually checks the completion of the cited requirements before letting the new tracks play. Meaning you don't have to wait to have finished either quesline before installing this module. The change will only trigger once the appropriate quests are completed.

You can take a listen to the new music here (timestamps to each track are in the video's description):

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COMPATIBILITY
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As stated above, Dawnguard Music Overhaul is compatible with Around the Fire, Still, Hun Lovaas and Melodies of Civilization, as well as all lighting mods and mods that edit cells in general. 
Also worth noting that the patches for Chapter II provided on the Still and Melodies of Civilization pages work with Dawnguard Music Overhaul without any patching required.

So, why do I bother with stating that Dawnguard Music Overhaul is compatible with lighting mods and such? My other mods don't edit cells either, and I don't make such a big deal of it.

To answer that, we need a little background. To handle music, Skyrim uses Music Tracks and Music Types. Music Tracks represent each individual track: the track's unique ID, where it located in your Data folder, conditions on the track (such as time of day). Music Types are playlists that contain Music Tracks. Each cell (=location) is then assigned a Music Type in its properties.

So my other mods simply add their new Music Tracks in Skyrim's Music Types. So the only mods that will conflict with my mods are mods that edits those Music Type, which is a conflict that's easily resolved, as you only need to to merge the two conflicting Music Types.

But Dawnguard Music Overhaul doesn't just add to vanilla's music type: it also adds music specific to a cell. Specifically, the problem is Fort Dawnguard itself. It uses the vanilla "MUSCastle" MusicType, which is shared with all castles. 
The simplest way have your custom music for a specific cell is of course to create your own Music Type, then assign it to the cell where you want your music to play. The problem with this method is that you need to override the entire cell's record. But that record contains important things, most notably lighting properties. So, had I implemented my music that way, it would then conflict with every lighting mod out there.

So instead, I used conditions. Each track in the "MUSCastle" MusicType now has the "GetInCurrentLoc" condition attached to it, linking to Fort Dawnguard. For the tracks I want to play only in Fort Dawnguard, I set the value to 1. For the tracks that play everywhere that also has the "MUSCastle" Music Type but Fort Dawnguard, I set the value to 0. If you have a mod that's not Melodies of Civilization that edits that Music Type, that's how you patch it. You do the typical merging of the records, then add the condition to every track in the Music Type (remember : set it to 1 to play at Fort DG, and 0 for everywhere else).

Conditions are also how I enforce quest completion and faction checks on tracks. You can dig a little in the plugins in xEdit, it should all be rather straightforward. 

Note on The Phoenix Flavour:


The Phoenix Flavour includes the main (Melodies of Civilization version) and combat modules of this mod. You can still use the Epilogue module, if you load  "Dawnguard Music Overhaul - Epilogue" after the merged plugin provided by Phoenix.


ESPFE:

All plugins in this mod are ESP Flagged as Esl (ESPFE), meaning they don't take one of the 255 slots in your load order, but you can still move them around in your manager.

In the optional files, there's a FOMOD that'll change the plugins you choose to versions that don't have the esl flag. Use it if:
- You wish to backport the plugins to LE. LE doesn't support esl, so you'll need regular esp. You can then resave those plugins in the LE Creation Kit, theoretically allowing you to use this mod in LE.
- You experience a CTD on load with this mod active. This issue should be extremely rare, and it's only been reported to me once, but it appears that the esl flag can cause CTD's on load in certain setups. Using regular esp's fixes the issue.


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ABOUT ME
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I am a composer, and have been for more than ten years now. I'm also a huge fan of mods and video games, and love making music for those. You can hear some of my older work in Summerset Isle by yourenotsupposedtobeinhere. 
I've written the soundtrack for two video games: Lost Past and 20000 lieues sans la mer.
You can check out some of my personal work on my Bandcamp and Youtube channel.