Music stuttering... any fix yet?

[Stennix]

I know that there are multiple posts open on this topic, but none of them seems to have a working solution. The music (all other sounds work perfectly) starts stuttering when in the game for roughly 10 minutes. It is really annoying as it increases over time and forces you to quit or disable the music completely.
I have tried multiple 'solutions' but none of them seems to work properly. The AC3Filter application works, but it messes up your game volumes (makes the music extremely loud so you can barely hear any other sounds + the music volume slider gives control over the master volume). So unless there is an option to decrease the music volume out of the game (not using the music volume slider) this is a no-go.


WORKING SOLUTION DOWN BELOW
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- I decided to give the solution mol3kule mentioned (Check below) a shot, because it made alot of sense to me.
I bought one of the USB Sound cards (BlasterX G1), as it was pretty cheap at a local hardware-store. It actually gives a pretty decent sound.
You have to install Creative Alchemy when you plugged it in, and select Oblivion from the list.
There you go, the music stuttering is gone.
Tested over 5 hours of gameplay on a modded game.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------





This issue started as soon as I had installed the game and played a bit. When I play the music without being in the game, so directly from the folder, they work fine.Just like the first 10-15 minutes while ingame.
It happens to all music, so world, dungeon, etc. No FPS drops (mine is usually around 50-60) when the music starts stuttering after 10 minutes. Worth mentioning is that the game itself does not stutter at all, only the music.
This youtube vid shows the exact same problem I have:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb79DmSWo9c

All other games work perfectly fine, never had a sound issue with them what so ever, so it has to do something with the Oblivion music file/frequency as all other sounds such as walking, npcs and sword swinging work fine.

So is there any WORKING fix for this yet? It seems that quite a few people have this issue, especially over the past few months. It seems to happen on vanilla and on modded games.
I am running the game on Windows 10, on a fairly new PC.

I hope to hear something.

[CrackeR]

Never done that for me so it may be a certain soundcard/driver issue? mine uses the Realtec integrated Soundcard on 7.1 surround . Works just great
Do you have Nvidia GPU? Is it handling your sound output also or your soundcard?

[StreamWhenGuy]

Check your codecs/drivers/filters. It's on your end obviously.

[Stennix]

Originally posted by CrackeR:

Never done that for me so it may be a certain soundcard/driver issue? mine uses the Realtec integrated Soundcard on 7.1 surround . Works just great
Do you have Nvidia GPU? Is it handling your sound output also or your soundcard?

I have a Nvidia GPU (GTX 1060 3gb) and it is handling my sound output (NVIDIA High Definition Audio).

Originally posted by KamisantaLolz:

Check your codecs/drivers/filters. It's on your end obviously.

Drivers are up to date.
Codecs: What 'codecs' or 'codec pack' could help me?

[arottweiler]

Was it working fine before and this issue has just started out of the blue? You mention that you can do a fix with a filter but it messes with the volumes so this might work. Go to your Oblivion ini config file which should be in C:Documents\My Games\Oblivion\oblivion.ini. Make a quick backup copy somewhere else for safe keeping and then play around with the audio field settings:

The setting 'fDefaultMusicVolume=0.2300' might change the music without affecting anything else. I don't know what to change it to so it might need a bit of experimenting.

[Audio]
bDSoundHWAcceleration=1
fMinSoundVel=10.0000
fMetalLargeMassMin=25.0000
fMetalMediumMassMin=8.0000
fStoneLargeMassMin=30.0000
fStoneMediumMassMin=5.0000
fWoodLargeMassMin=15.0000
fWoodMediumMassMin=7.0000
fDialogAttenuationMax=35.0000
fDialogAttenuationMin=7.7500
bUseSoundDebugInfo=1
fUnderwaterFrequencyDelta=0.0000
bUseSoftwareAudio3D=0
fDefaultEffectsVolume=0.7500
fDefaultMusicVolume=0.2300
fDefaultFootVolume=0.6800
fDefaultVoiceVolume=0.9200
fDefaultMasterVolume=1.0000
bMusicEnabled=1
bSoundEnabled=1
fLargeWeaponWeightMin=25.0000
fMediumWeaponWeightMin=8.0000
fSkinLargeMassMin=30.0000
fSkinMediumMassMin=5.0000
fChainLargeMassMin=30.0000
fChainMediumMassMin=5.0000
fDBVoiceAttenuationIn2D=0.0000
iCollisionSoundTimeDelta=50
fGlassLargeMassMin=25.0000
fGlassMediumMassMin=8.0000
fClothLargeMassMin=25.0000
fClothMediumMassMin=8.0000
fEarthLargeMassMin=30.0000
fEarthMediumMassMin=5.0000
bUseSpeedForWeaponSwish=1
fLargeWeaponSpeedMax=0.9500
fMediumWeaponSpeedMax=1.1000
fPlayerFootVolume=0.9000
fDSoundRolloffFactor=4.0000
fMaxFootstepDistance=1100.0000
fHeadroomdB=2.0000
iMaxImpactSoundCount=32
fMainMenuMusicVolume=0.6000

A test you could try is to see if it happens with your own music. It probably will but it doesn't hurt to try. Go to Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\Music and you should see a folder called public. This is the music that plays when walking around cities so you could try moving the contents to a folder on the desktop and dropping one of your own tracks in there to see if you get the same issue ingame. As long as the file is MP3 and has a bitrate of at least 256kbps it will play. After testing you can move the tracks from the desktop back in to the public folder.

Another test is to see if you have problems in other games which will confirm if it's hardware related. Play the game with fraps running or any utility that displays the FPS to see if they drop when the game is stuttering.

[Stennix]

Originally posted by arottweiler:

Was it working fine before and this issue has just started out of the blue? You mention that you can do a fix with a filter but it messes with the volumes so this might work. Go to your Oblivion ini config file which should be in C:Documents\My Games\Oblivion\oblivion.ini. Make a quick backup copy somewhere else for safe keeping and then play around with the audio field settings:

The setting 'fDefaultMusicVolume=0.2300' might change the music without affecting anything else. I don't know what to change it to so it might need a bit of experimenting.

[Audio]
bDSoundHWAcceleration=1
fMinSoundVel=10.0000
fMetalLargeMassMin=25.0000
fMetalMediumMassMin=8.0000
fStoneLargeMassMin=30.0000
fStoneMediumMassMin=5.0000
fWoodLargeMassMin=15.0000
fWoodMediumMassMin=7.0000
fDialogAttenuationMax=35.0000
fDialogAttenuationMin=7.7500
bUseSoundDebugInfo=1
fUnderwaterFrequencyDelta=0.0000
bUseSoftwareAudio3D=0
fDefaultEffectsVolume=0.7500
fDefaultMusicVolume=0.2300
fDefaultFootVolume=0.6800
fDefaultVoiceVolume=0.9200
fDefaultMasterVolume=1.0000
bMusicEnabled=1
bSoundEnabled=1
fLargeWeaponWeightMin=25.0000
fMediumWeaponWeightMin=8.0000
fSkinLargeMassMin=30.0000
fSkinMediumMassMin=5.0000
fChainLargeMassMin=30.0000
fChainMediumMassMin=5.0000
fDBVoiceAttenuationIn2D=0.0000
iCollisionSoundTimeDelta=50
fGlassLargeMassMin=25.0000
fGlassMediumMassMin=8.0000
fClothLargeMassMin=25.0000
fClothMediumMassMin=8.0000
fEarthLargeMassMin=30.0000
fEarthMediumMassMin=5.0000
bUseSpeedForWeaponSwish=1
fLargeWeaponSpeedMax=0.9500
fMediumWeaponSpeedMax=1.1000
fPlayerFootVolume=0.9000
fDSoundRolloffFactor=4.0000
fMaxFootstepDistance=1100.0000
fHeadroomdB=2.0000
iMaxImpactSoundCount=32
fMainMenuMusicVolume=0.6000

A test you could try is to see if it happens with your own music. It probably will but it doesn't hurt to try. Go to Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\Music and you should see a folder called public. This is the music that plays when walking around cities so you could try moving the contents to a folder on the desktop and dropping one of your own tracks in there to see if you get the same issue ingame. As long as the file is MP3 and has a bitrate of at least 256kbps it will play. After testing you can move the tracks from the desktop back in to the public folder.

Another test is to see if you have problems in other games which will confirm if it's hardware related. Play the game with fraps running or any utility that displays the FPS to see if they drop when the game is stuttering.

This issue started as soon as I had installed the game and played or a bit. I tried changing the ini files as you mentioned, but to no avail. The music is still way to loud with the AC3Filter fix. When I play the music without being in the game, so directly from the folder, they work fine.
Just like the first 10-15 minutes while ingame. It happens to all music, so world, dungeon, etc. No FPS drops (mine is usually around 50-60) when the music starts stuttering after 10 minutes. Worth mentioning is that the game itself does not stutter at all, only the music.
This youtube vid shows the exact same problem I have:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb79DmSWo9c

All other games work perfectly fine, never had a sound issue with them what so ever, so it has to do something with the Oblvion music file/frequency as all other sounds such as walking, npcs and sword swinging work fine.

[SnickerToodles]

Originally posted by Stennix:

Drivers are up to date.
Codecs: What 'codecs' or 'codec pack' could help me?

Codecs are what you DON'T want.

(Referring to third-party codecs which often cause issues and conflicts on games, such as this one...)

My problem (different, but in the same vein) was because of DivX. Uninstalling it immediately corrected the issue.

Do you have programs similar to DivX, such as audio/video compressors and other such tools? Ones that add their own special file format, that can't be read by Windows normally?

Example: Photoshop has .psd. On a default Windows system, .psd can't be read without installing Photoshop or a similar program. So .psd is like a codec. Now think of that, but with audio and video. If you have a program that adds something like that, uninstall it.

Reported incompatible codecs:
-ffdshow
-directshow (including DivX)
-Nero
-Moonlight
-Vodei
(These may mean nothing to you, but programs you have installed might contain these codecs.)

Other solutions:
-Make .mp3 and .wav files default to Windows Media Player.
-Set Set bDSoundHWAcceleration to 0.

...And one thread said to plug in headphones?

Otherwise I have no clue. Perhaps you could try installing modded music and seeing if that causes issues? Also, if you own Morrowind, does the same happen? It did for me. So if you see the same issue in Morrowind, I would point to codecs for sure.

[Stennix]

Originally posted by SnickerToodles:

Originally posted by Stennix:

Drivers are up to date.
Codecs: What 'codecs' or 'codec pack' could help me?

Codecs are what you DON'T want.

My problem (different, but in the same vein) was because of DivX. Uninstalling it immediately corrected the issue.

Do you have programs similar to DivX, such as audio/video compressors and other such tools? Ones that add their own special file format, that can't be read by Windows normally?

Example: Photoshop has .psd. On a default Windows system, .psd can't be read without installing Photoshop or a similar program. So .psd is like a codec. Now think of that, but with audio and video. If you have a program that adds something like that, uninstall it.

Reported incompatible codecs:
-ffdshow
-directshow (including DivX)
-Nero
-Moonlight
-Vodei
(These may mean nothing to you, but programs you have installed might contain these codecs.)

Other solutions:
-Make .mp3 and .wav files default to Windows Media Player.
-Set Set bDSoundHWAcceleration to 0.

...And one thread said to plug in headphones?

Otherwise I have no clue. Perhaps you could try installing modded music and seeing if that causes issues? Also, if you own Morrowind, does the same happen? It did for me. So if you see the same issue in Morrowind, I would point to codecs for sure.

Thanks for responding.
Unfortunately none of your suggestions worked for me.
I have no codecs downloaded what so ever, I even used a program that shows you all the codecs on your PC. I did not find any downloaded codecs that are not part of my PC in the first place.
Setted Windows Media Player as the default audio player instead of groove music player, but that made the problem even worse.
Headphones did not make a difference for me.

I was wondering if it is an idea to convert the music files (wich are .MP3 192 kbps) to like .MP3 320 kbps or even the .WAV format. Could that work? Or is that just a stupid thing to do?
I came up with this idea since all other audio files work fine, wich are in the .WAV format.

[arottweiler]

I checked the game music files in my folder and they are all 192kbps so I don't think increasing that will help. After watching that youtube video it seems like a hardware issue but I can't see how. Check the status of the hardware in Device Manager to see if there are any exclamation marks indicating a fault or conflict with something. Also open taskmanager and let that run while playing the game. Then after a few minutes quit the game and see how much RAM and CPU you've been using.

Install the official and unofficial patches to see if that helps.

This mod fixes several bugs so is also worth a try - EngineBugFixes: http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/47085/?

You could try experimenting with one track and trying a lower bitrate in .MPW, .WAV and .OGG to see if it still stutters. I'm not sure if Ogg Vorbis format is compatible with Oblivion but it's worth a try while your testing with .MP3 and .WAV. Audacity is great for changing the bitrate and file format of music files.

When you say the music is too loud with AC3Filter do you mean it's so loud it's distorted or just loud volume? There are a few options in the .ini for music and sound so tweaking them might get the balance right.

Are you using the disc version or Steam version? If it's Steam I would buy the disc version and install that to see if the stuttering is still there. I see the GOTY edition in second hand DVD shops for around £5 so it's worth the price especially if it fixes it.

[StreamWhenGuy]

Nice suggestions: buy the retail version to see if that helps, codecs are what you don't want... Codecs are what you do want
Install K-Lite Codeck Pack. Check the game. Try to play with different codecs\audio filters enabled in the settings there. It's an old game, who knows how its engine manages different sound files. New "cool" nowadays features might not work and cause issues. I know it isn't helpful, but it certainly is a local issue with your drivers, filters or codecs, may be even with sound card itself, may be you screwed something as it often happens.
You said that your GPU handles audio? Why? Try to disable it. You should have another integrated sound card such as Realtek High Definition Audio or whatever. Switch to that one.

[MegaMatt]

I am having the exact same problem with music stuttering. It only started for me in the past month. I haven’t been able to solve it either. I will try your suggestion to convert my mp3 files to wav files.

And updating codecs did not help. That only made music stop working all together.

[MegaMatt]

Update: I may have found the source of the problem. Some of my music files were not the same bit rate as the original files. I converted all my mp3 files to 192 bit rate and tested for 20 minutes with no music skipping. I’ll know for sure when I get a chance to play more.

Edit: Unfortunately this did not fix the problem.

[∞]

Did the OP ever find a solution? :/ Sorry to resurrect this but I am in the same exact position as the OP. I have walked through every one of these solutions and nothing fixes it other than simply turning off music in the .ini which is a stupid solution. I wouldn't mind this so much if there were other ways of knowing when you aggro baddies other than some omniscient music tracks.

[Stennix]

Originally posted by Pseudophobic:

Did the OP ever find a solution? :/ Sorry to resurrect this but I am in the same exact position as the OP. I have walked through every one of these solutions and nothing fixes it other than simply turning off music in the .ini which is a stupid solution. I wouldn't mind this so much if there were other ways of knowing when you aggro baddies other than some omniscient music tracks.

Hey, I have not found a fix yet. I kind of left the game aside because of this. Sometimes I play for like half an hour untill the music starts doing weird stuff again. This bug is just weird and it seems no one has been able to fix it this day. Oblivion without music is just not the same... You even need it to prepare for combat.
(I have tried using different music files and different themes but the same thing happens.)

[Crisperfilly]

Have You tried this It fixed my problem: https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/23208/

[kule]

None of these fixes work. The problem is EAX needs supporting hardware to work properly, and EAX is obsolete. When oblivion was being developed, add in audio controllers were much more common. EAX is obsolete because of changes to windows audio in Vista or 7, I can't remember. It can work with software like alchemy to convert EAX to OpenAL. These days virtually no one uses anything other than onboard Realtek audio, which doesn't provide hardware EAX acceleration..

The solution is to buy a hardware EAX DSP.

This is easily done with Creative X-FI Go or any other EAX USB or internal audio controller. If you use creative audio controller, you will also need to install Alchemy so that EAX can be converted to OpenAL. Just install alchemy and open it and select oblivion from the list. The X-FI Go controller is cheap. Any of creatives USB controllers will work. Another good one is BlasterX G1. But if it were me, I'd just buy the G6 or X-FI surround 5.1 Pro for USB or virtually any of Creatives internal gaming sound blaster cards.