First of all, the master sound toggle at max is faaar too quiet. My PC audio is boosted to max and same with in game, and I can barely hear people speak with the slightest ambient noise. I have to literally stand 1 foot away to catch what they are saying most of the time. Its not just a problem with npc speech, ALL the audio in the game runs at the same level. If I were to compair it to other games, it would be as quiet as taking the master audio toggle down to half. I'm doing this daedric quest where baras or whatever the dog is following behind me, and hes barking rite... but it sounds as if he is behind a hill somewhere 100 feet off. He is right behind me and the bark is a feint whisper. Ambient noise is also far too quiet, I can feintly hear the wind blowing.

This bothers me to the point where it breaks immursion. Bethesda, or you fabulous modders, PLEASE increase master audio to much higher level. I should be turning down the master audio toggle to find a comfortable level, not looking around frantically trying to find a way to increase it.

I dont have that problem and I have never touched the sliders, just left them on default. I think your system may have an issue.

Go to your SkyrimPref.ini and look for the [Audio] section

Look for your master volume settings and bump its value from 1.000 to something between 5.000-10.000 (depends on your comfort level).

I don't know the exact .ini name for the master volume value because I'm at work and I can't look it up, but I used this trick to increase the volume some.

Sliders default at max, and no its not a problem with my system, I have never had an issue with any other game or music.

True. You can increase the volume level over the max default by editing the .ini files. Edit master volume to 2 or even 3.

Not it isn't.

I have exactly the same issue with my game on the 360 running through a logitec surround sound system.

Its either so loud that the wind noise makes the house shake (and yet I still can't hear the dialogue) or its so quiet everyone in the house needs to be silent in order to hear the game.

Yeah, I fiddled with it some because my on-board Realtek HD audio drivers just flat out svck. Someone needs to teach those guys how to get off their rears and make better drivers.

BTW: I even tweeked the individual voice audio values and it worked. The problem is that the values are not named in the .ini, so you don't know which does what until you mess with them. So on top of messing with the master volume values, I've jacked up the NPC voice volume as well.

Im not exactly sure where this SkyrimPref.ini folder is.

Should be in your My Documents-> My Games -> Skyrim folder.

NOTE: make sure you back up your originals just in case you mess something up that you shouldn't have.

From what I've heard, this is a common problem with realtek sound cards. Unless it was fixed by one of the patches.

I went to the skyrim folder as you directed, but all that was there was SkyrimPrefs and saves. Anyway clicked skyrim prefs and found the audio section, changed master to 10 and nothing.

Yes, this is a Realtek issue.... and no, it's not fixed. They've recently released some new drivers for their Realtek HD audio, and they're no better than before.

Thank Mara that my wife has "agreed" to let me get a sound card this coming weekend. I really hate motherboard chipset audio with a burning passion.


There's something else you can try.

If you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, go to your Sound pannel and turn on Loudness Equalization.

Like I said before, I'm at work and I can't step you through that process. There is a video on YouTube that will show you how to do it. Just Google it and it will show up.

I have issues of hearing NPC's without turning up or messing with my ini files instead I kind of find it ironic since Oblivion had the same issue as well the game sounded great but BGS for some reasons did not utilize or at least make them noticeable without adjusting things within the ini that could not be achieved by going through settings.

There is a solution that works and is fairly simple: turn on the loudness equalization.

Go down to your taskbar, right-click the speaker symbol, select Playback Devices, right-click on the speakers in the menu that comes up, and select Properties. Go to the Enhancements tab and turn on the Loudness Equalization. It helps quite a bit.

I play on PC, and my speakers are built into the monitor. Most games I can play with the sound level around 30, but here I need to crank it up to 60 or 70. When I first started it, I couldn't even hear the whole conversation between Ralof and Lokir, so I didnt know what was going on.

With headphones Skyrim sounds fantastic. When switching to bookshelf speakers thats when i get the same low volume on speech and high volume on other things. The solution for me was one i found online where they said to switch my speaker audio setting to 5.1 instead of 2.0. Now am getting balanced sound on my speakers and my headphones still sound great with the new settings. Also my other games werent effected negatively so no problems there either.

And yes i have Realtek onboard sound.

Yes! the loudness equalizer dit it! thanks guys.

I'm just lucky my speakers have their own volume control separate from my system or game volume controls.