(post re-edited the following morning to remove idiocy)

Much love and respect for the thankless job of sound engineering but I got to say there were a few minor issues...

I do a lot of hiking so as a reference I always to try to turn up the foot noise to a level that matches my experience. The result is I have to max out UI noises and reduce the other volume meters.

As a result, the magic casting spells become very loud. I mean VERY LOUD. Adjusting for that causes a lot of subtler sounds to die away to levels that can't really be heard. I realize the magic sound effects are very close to you but they are quite overpowering relative to the other UI noises.

On the other hand, the waterfalls in Skyrim are very quiet. These giant wall of water should be MUCH louder. One of the loudest things actually.

The wind noises around Skyrim should get a little boost, especially across the plains around White Run. Nice sounds but they sound so distant.

Is there supposed to be thunder during the storms? I can't tell.

It should be fairly simple to mod. Just load them in Audacity and adjust the levels..maybe.

There's quite a laundry list of things I didn't like in Skyrim, but if there's a department that I'm satisfy with, it's the sound of Skyrim. Sure, there are some areas that needs better sounds but considering how subjective sound/music is, Mark Lampert did a heck of a job. In fact, I made a thread to personally thank Lampert for his great job. The funny thing is that nobody replied to my thread despite having a decent amount of views. It's amazing because in the sea of fan boys that we have in this forum nobody seem to care to thank Lampert for the sound job.

Yeah, I've encountered the dragonfly thing too. The sounds themselves are great, but their relative volumes are quite silly. It's ridiculous that Tamrielic insects and plants (nirnroot) seem to have biologically developed loudspeakers, and that waterfalls make less sound than my bathroom sink.

Sound design for a video game, or a movie, isn't necessarily supposed to be realistic per se, it's just to give an impression of the scene. I've played some games where the PCs footfalls are overly loud and listening to your own feet just gets annoying after a while. It detracts from enemy footsteps as you have no physical sensation of your own feet to know if it's them hitting the ground or if it's someone else close by. Yes, if you were standing next to a waterfall IRL it's all you'd hear; but you'd also have spacial awareness, whereas a video game relies on sound cues to warn of approaching danger.

Well just keep adjusting till you have the perfect volume for the sounds. Or like Fhaarkaas said, mod it yourself or wait for a modder to create such a mod or request it and hope for the best.

Didn't really encounter it. It appears to be pretty balanced in my game. Waterfall could be a bit louder.

Yeah, I remember in Morrowind the waterfalls in the Canols of Vivec were freaking LOUD. I always tried to scurry out of there as quickly as possible.

I would agree with you. Sounds major role in games is to provide information but I feel they could have balanced the sounds differently.

I had to turn up the voices they are like whispers when your in front of the people who are talking let alone away from them and that's with my sound above normal up to 75% on speakers then %50 that works with any other program or game.

Me and a collegue are Sound Engineers by trade are looking into this, lots of things this can improve on. We are looking at this though from professional sound experience rather than modding experience so I don't doubt someone will beat us to it, however we will still improve for own games at least.

You are correct in saying it is unbalanced in many ways, the game individual sounds have been implemented and eq'd quite nicely with the right balance and plugins however when it all came together I feel strongly that it wasn't eq'd and balanced correctly, and 90% of the time starts sounding messy.

However as I said the sfx, and the general game sound in terms of mood, atmosphere and composition was perfect.

The only issue that I have had with the sound design in the game is that (with 5.1 surround) it doesn't do a good enough job playing down backround noise while dialog is being spoken through the center channel.

I've tested it through Stereo and 5:1. Something doesn't "Sound" right (haha), to me it sounds like they eq'd different parts and when it came together, they did a base eq on stero channels, and didn't touch much on it when it came to 5:1 or even 7:1.

I adore the music and atmospheric sounds in skyrim! My waterfalls are very loud, I don't know why, but they really are, even the small stream in Whiterun gives powerful sounds.
What I don't like (just small nitpicks, no gamebreaker here and not related to the music) :
1. If I go barefooted in my home(on wood) my footsteps make A LOT more noise than my heavy armor boots.
2. The follower's footsteps/running sound FX is way to loud, it's like the sound you get when you're sprinting in heavy armor.
3. If I plug in my measly cell phone headphones the sound is good, if I plug in my Technics BIG headphones it's like I'm playing from inside a barrel< and this is ONLY for Skyrim, all other games sound good, the videos on youtube, the music I listen on my PC....

Yeah, the sound balance is weird. Reminds me of Oblivion. There's a mod for that called More Immersive Sound. It probably doesn't have realistic balance either, but the difference in what you can hear when playing with it is astonishing. Turns out Oblivion is loaded with nature sounds nobody knows are there because they are usually too quiet. I wonder if Skyrim is the same way.

There's a good thunder mod over at skyrimnexus. Over all, I think the sound in Skyrim is a pure strength, but we can always improve things.