With the new modular system for footstep and armor sounds, new custom sound sets need to be added to the ArmorAddon chest records for the armor sounds to play. I have made patches for popular compilations such as Immersive Armors and NordwarUA armors, but you can't realistically expect me or even the community at large to have patches made for every individual armor mod out there since there are so, so many. So if you have some more obscure individual armor mod you want to get sounds from, I have written a guide on how to make your own patch in SSEEdit/xEdit. It's very easy and straightforward if you are familiar with the basics of the tool (which you should be if you're a serious mod user in the first place). In fact the hardest part is just deciding which armor sound is the most appropriate for your armor mod.
STEP 1: In SSEEdit, load the plugin for the armor mod alongside Immersive Sounds Compendium. For this guide, I am picking Skyblivion 3E Cyrodiilic Steel Armor as an example.
STEP 2: In the armor mod plugin, open the Armor Addon section and locate the chest slot record. Usually these will be called "Cuirass", "Armor", "Body", "Hauberk", "Robes", "Chest", etc etc. But in most cases they will be called Cuirass as that is the name all vanilla chest records use. In this case it is called SBPR_3eSteelCuirassAA.
STEP 3: After selecting the chest record on the left, right click the plugin name in the column on the right and choose "Copy as override into....". Then choose <new file>.esp with the ESL column marked. That way the patch won't count toward your plugin limit. Click OK and give the plugin a name. Usually I name them "ISC (mod name) Patch". So in this case I'm calling it ISC SkyblivionSteelArmor Patch.
STEP 4: Now the patch plugin will have appeared in the list on the left. Right click it, click "Add Masters..." and pick Immersive Sounds Compendium from the list. Now the patch plugin will have access to ISC's records we need to add later. Also, it is considered good form to sort masters on the plugin so that its master list reflects your load order. So right click it again and do that for good measure.
STEP 5: Now open Armor Addon in the patch plugin, click the chest record you added back in Step 3, scroll all the way to the bottom and you'll see a row called "SNDD - Footstep Sound". Right click the empty space in there on the column for the patch's record and click "Add" Scroll to the top of the drop down menu and that is where the armor sounds will be.
STEP 6: This is the actual hard part; deciding which sound set best suits the armor! You will simply have to consider what the armor looks like and use your intuition and decide what most closely approximates the kind of materials it has. It can't always be a perfect match with what's available, but having 10 sets sure is a lot more flexible than just the 2 generic "Light" and "Heavy" vanilla offers. In this case it is primarily typical steel armor but it also has a bit of chainmail on the neck and skirt. We could either pick FSTArmorChainPlate or FSTArmorHeavyPlate. It's down to personal taste really.
To make things more convenient I will describe the purpose for each sound set as they appear in the list:
FSTArmorChainPlateFootstepSet - This is for armors that mix plate and chainmail.
FSTArmorChitinFootstepSet - Chitin for falmer and dunmer armors.
FSTArmorDragonPlateFootstepSet - Less metallic sounding plate with some bone rattling accents.
FSTArmorFullChainFootstepSet - Armor predominantly made of chainmail, making it really jingle jangle.
FSTArmorHeavyFootstepSet - This is the vanilla Heavy Footstep Set meant for boot records. DO NOT USE THIS OR YOU WILL GET DOUBLE FOOTSTEPS!
FSTArmorHeavyPlateFootstepSet - Heavy plate armor that clinks and rattles.
FSTArmorLeatherFootstepSet - Reinforced leather with metal accents from studs and belts and such.
FSTArmorLightChainFootstepSet - Light/leather armor mixed with some chainmail accents, like for the Skyrim guard armors.
FSTArmorLightFootstepSet - This is the vanilla Light Footstep Set meant for boot records. DO NOT USE THIS OR YOU WILL GET DOUBLE FOOTSTEPS!
FSTArmorLightLeatherFootstepSet - The most rudimentary form of leather/hide garment without much metal reinforcing it, like for the basic bandit outfits.
FSTArmorPlateFootstepSet - For lighter plate-based armors, such as the vanilla Elven armor. Does not clink and rattle as much as the Heavy Plate set.
FSTArmorRingMailFootstepSet - It's ringmail. Exactly what it says on the tin.
STEP 7: Either hit CTRL+S to save or simply exit and have the save prompt show up and save the plugin. All done!
This mod made my bears at least 50 decibels louder than literally anything else in the game. I genuinely had to throw my headphones off my head when I ran into a pack of them and they started screaming simultaneously. Manually going into fx/npc(s)/bear and deleting everything resolved the issue but that was nasty.
is it possible to have both AOS and ISC, but have AOS' mod sounds for magic take precedence over ISC's? i REALLY love the sound for the summoning spells for AOS, but still want to continue using ISC if possible
I'll keep replying with this. Hopefully enough people will see it. Try this mod. It should fix most peoples sound issues. Otherwise you'll need to check with xEdit what mods are disabling sounds.
Damn, this has been plaguing me for so long wayyy back in 2019 when it suddenly stopped working for me. What a godsend this is. Thanks for sharing :) It works wonderfully.
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With the new modular system for footstep and armor sounds, new custom sound sets need to be added to the ArmorAddon chest records for the armor sounds to play. I have made patches for popular compilations such as Immersive Armors and NordwarUA armors, but you can't realistically expect me or even the community at large to have patches made for every individual armor mod out there since there are so, so many. So if you have some more obscure individual armor mod you want to get sounds from, I have written a guide on how to make your own patch in SSEEdit/xEdit. It's very easy and straightforward if you are familiar with the basics of the tool (which you should be if you're a serious mod user in the first place). In fact the hardest part is just deciding which armor sound is the most appropriate for your armor mod.
STEP 1: In SSEEdit, load the plugin for the armor mod alongside Immersive Sounds Compendium. For this guide, I am picking Skyblivion 3E Cyrodiilic Steel Armor as an example.
STEP 2: In the armor mod plugin, open the Armor Addon section and locate the chest slot record. Usually these will be called "Cuirass", "Armor", "Body", "Hauberk", "Robes", "Chest", etc etc. But in most cases they will be called Cuirass as that is the name all vanilla chest records use. In this case it is called SBPR_3eSteelCuirassAA.
STEP 3: After selecting the chest record on the left, right click the plugin name in the column on the right and choose "Copy as override into....". Then choose <new file>.esp with the ESL column marked. That way the patch won't count toward your plugin limit. Click OK and give the plugin a name. Usually I name them "ISC (mod name) Patch". So in this case I'm calling it ISC SkyblivionSteelArmor Patch.
STEP 4: Now the patch plugin will have appeared in the list on the left. Right click it, click "Add Masters..." and pick Immersive Sounds Compendium from the list. Now the patch plugin will have access to ISC's records we need to add later. Also, it is considered good form to sort masters on the plugin so that its master list reflects your load order. So right click it again and do that for good measure.
STEP 5: Now open Armor Addon in the patch plugin, click the chest record you added back in Step 3, scroll all the way to the bottom and you'll see a row called "SNDD - Footstep Sound". Right click the empty space in there on the column for the patch's record and click "Add" Scroll to the top of the drop down menu and that is where the armor sounds will be.
STEP 6: This is the actual hard part; deciding which sound set best suits the armor! You will simply have to consider what the armor looks like and use your intuition and decide what most closely approximates the kind of materials it has. It can't always be a perfect match with what's available, but having 10 sets sure is a lot more flexible than just the 2 generic "Light" and "Heavy" vanilla offers. In this case it is primarily typical steel armor but it also has a bit of chainmail on the neck and skirt. We could either pick FSTArmorChainPlate or FSTArmorHeavyPlate. It's down to personal taste really.
To make things more convenient I will describe the purpose for each sound set as they appear in the list:
FSTArmorChainPlateFootstepSet - This is for armors that mix plate and chainmail.
FSTArmorChitinFootstepSet - Chitin for falmer and dunmer armors.
FSTArmorDragonPlateFootstepSet - Less metallic sounding plate with some bone rattling accents.
FSTArmorFullChainFootstepSet - Armor predominantly made of chainmail, making it really jingle jangle.
FSTArmorHeavyFootstepSet - This is the vanilla Heavy Footstep Set meant for boot records. DO NOT USE THIS OR YOU WILL GET DOUBLE FOOTSTEPS!
FSTArmorHeavyPlateFootstepSet - Heavy plate armor that clinks and rattles.
FSTArmorLeatherFootstepSet - Reinforced leather with metal accents from studs and belts and such.
FSTArmorLightChainFootstepSet - Light/leather armor mixed with some chainmail accents, like for the Skyrim guard armors.
FSTArmorLightFootstepSet - This is the vanilla Light Footstep Set meant for boot records. DO NOT USE THIS OR YOU WILL GET DOUBLE FOOTSTEPS!
FSTArmorLightLeatherFootstepSet - The most rudimentary form of leather/hide garment without much metal reinforcing it, like for the basic bandit outfits.
FSTArmorPlateFootstepSet - For lighter plate-based armors, such as the vanilla Elven armor. Does not clink and rattle as much as the Heavy Plate set.
FSTArmorRingMailFootstepSet - It's ringmail. Exactly what it says on the tin.
STEP 7: Either hit CTRL+S to save or simply exit and have the save prompt show up and save the plugin. All done!
It should fix most peoples sound issues. Otherwise you'll need to check with xEdit what mods are disabling sounds.
Lost of T'Skyrim at Skyrim Special Edition Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)