What VGM do -you- play in TES4: Oblivion?
 

Did a search and couldn't believe that no one had started up a thread like this, so here it is:

In the latest Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion, you can insert your own MP3s into the game's music folders to play in certain situations. What VGM (and even non-VGM music) have you included alongside -- or perhaps in lieu of -- the works of Jeremy Soule?

You could do that in Morrowind too, as I recall.

I'd just dump more Soule into the directory, mostly songs from Dungeon Siege or Icewind Dale that fit the mood. There's something about his music that works well with wide-open games that gives them heft.

Of course, I'm sure somebody would prefer to listen to Megadeth while tramping over lush green fields, but not me.

I put "Requiem for the Gods" from Symphony of the Night as one of the dungoen themes. I put a couple Digitonal songs for the overworld, they are like electronic string orchestration pieces. I also replaced that one really cheery town theme with the dark "Night to the Twilight of Everything" town theme from Valkyrie Profile. Also put Aphex Twin's "Weathered Stone" for one of the dungeon themes. That one is pretty cool. Oh, I put "The True Nature of All" also from VP for one of the battle themes but I'm afraid it's over the top. It makes battle too intense. I like the soule rhythmic drumming for battle a lot. =D

These are all pieces I've listened to over and over and they're always good. I do like what Soule did with the music in the game very much, however. Didn't know he did Dungeon Siege 2.

Putting in Requiem for the Gods was by far my best addition. That piece is monumental.

I'm afraid I'm done playing Oblivion for a bit now because I just recently finished the Mages guild quests with my Archer/Mage Bosmer. Which leaves some of the thieves guild quests and some of the Dark Brotherhood quests for one of my characters to complete. I might make a new character especially for that though. I've put in something like a total of 130 some hours. Addicting game =D

For an example, this is the music I currently have in my game directories (in addition to the original Oblivion themes, I removed none of them).

Battle:
Morrowind - Battle 4
Orchestral Game Concert 2 - track 14 - Beyond the Sadness
Onimusha 2 Orchestra Album - Chapter IV: Truth of Edge
Onimusha 2 Orchestra Album - Chapter VIII: Truth of Vice
Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite - TA TA RI GAMI
Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite - The Demon Power
Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite - World of the Dead

I understand what you're saying, Aquas. The typical RPG "rockin'" battle theme doesn't go too well with the combat of Oblivion, or with Soule's score. So I decided to find other dramatic orchestral combat themes that would fit. Also, with the songs from the Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite, I chopped the tracks down to just the main rhythmic section in a WAV editor before encoding to MP3, so that the musical interludes wouldn't kill immersion in an extended brawl.

Dungeon:
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - In the Old Temple
Final Fantasy 6 The Mysterious Woods OC Remix by Russel Cox
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings - Lothlorien
Project Divinity - Gathering Dusk
The Dig - The Madness of the Crystals
Xenogears Xenosphere OC Remix by Oceanfire
Xenosaga - Ormus
Xenosaga - Song of Nephilim

The music for the dungeons, IMO, is the hardest to get a good fit for. It has to be creepy, but not too thematic. Ironically, I think the song that works best above them all is Lothlorien, not even a piece of VGM. Project Divinity is a virtual album that I noticed due to someone in the Oblivion mod forums posting a musical addition "mod" that included their own compositions, including that work. And The Dig is indeed a VGM soundtrack of a LucasArts game, although a rare find.

Explore:
Celestial Aeon Project - Angel's Redemption
Celestial Aeon Project - Angel's Tear
Final Fantasy 6 Squaresoft Variation OC Remix by Jeremy Soule
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Evenstar
Morrowind - tracks 03, 05, 09, and 13
Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite - Journey to the West
Princess Mononoke Symphonic Suite - Princess Mononoke
Project Divinity - Ethereal Awakening
Shenmue Orchestra Version - Waves of Morning Haze
Shenmue Orchestra Version - A New Journey
Shenmue - Wave Sound in the Morning Haze arrangement by Dale North
Star Ocean 2 Fantasy Megamix - The Venerable Forest
Star Ocean 2 Rena Lanford of Arlia Village OC Remix by Dale North
Genso Suikoden 2 Reminiscence (Deep Sleep) OC Remix by Hazama
The Very Best of Grandia - The Beautiful Woman of Alent
Loreena McKennit - The Book of Secrets - Dante's Prayer
The Dig - A River Canyon
Zelda 64 River of Time OC Remix by AmIEviL/Ajax
Zelda A Fate Preordained OC Remix by LindsayAnne Klemm

Not much to say about the explore themes, it was pretty easy for me to find beautifully reflective pieces upon which to roam the landscapes of Cyrodill. And I just couldn't resist making Jeremy Soule's own arrangement of the FF6 overworld theme part of the Oblivion "overworld" musical experience. ;P

Public:
Bound Together (Earthbound remix project) - Nirvana by Dhsu
Celestial Aeon Project - Awakening
Mario Kart 64 Rainbow Snowland OC Remix by Dhsu
Morrowind - tracks 07, 15
Shenmue Reflections OC Remix by Reuben Kee
The Very Best of Grandia - The Sandy Beach of Ganbo
The Very Best of Grandia - Time to Relax and Talk (New Take)
The Very Best of Grandia - PAVANE (New Take)
Loreena McKennit - The Book of Secrets - La Serenissima
The Dig - The Ancient City
Xenogears Light | an arranged album - Into Eternal Sleep

I thought soft piano music was a nice addition to the calm town themes. And I absolutely LOVE the piano/violin sound of the re-recordings of Time to Relax and Talk & PAVANE from The Very Best of Grandia. If anyone knows where I can get more music that sounds like those two... ^_^

And yeah, Aquas, it certainly can be an addicting game. Especially with all the mods... so much new content and such, and for free! Loves me some mods!

Haven't played Oblivion, but I had a gig or so of music in Morrowind's explore folder, most of it non-VGM:

Selections from the A.I. promo, Baraka, Solaris, Gattaca, Code 46, Azurik, Citizen Kabuto
Vaughan Williams - 'A Pastoral Symphony' (No. 3)
Debussy - 12 Etudes

I am some sort of idiot. You can really do this? I kinda wandered away from Oblivion for a while, but I might be suddenly interested in playing again if you can replace those bland ambient songs with something a little more interesting. Having the game kick over to some tracks from Shadow of the Colossus during battles would be awesome.

Its been awhile since I’ve played Oblivion, which is a shame really because I never managed to finish the primary storyline. I really should go back to it sometime. I also took the time to make some thoughtful custom BGM selections after the first 20 hours or so.

Battle

I selected tracks that took off right from the first few seconds (given the nature of encounters) Some of the longer tracks didn't even cover some of the longer fights in-game, so this could have been better.

- Jeremy Soul - Guild Wars: Sorrow's Furnace Soundtrack - The Latch
- Rome: Total War Gamerip - Mobilize
- Rome: Total War Gamerip - The Enemy Is Near
- Rome: Total War Gamerip - Meele Cafe
- Junichi Nakatsuru - Soul Calliber III: The Legend of Sounds - The Intruder
- Chrono Cross Original Soundtrack - Between Life and Death
- Jeremy Soule - Icewind Dale Origianl Soundtrack - Drums of the Dead
- Martin O'Donnell & Micheal Salvatori - Halo Original Soundtrack - Rock Anthem for Saving the World

Dungeon
I went more for ambient, dark themes here. Many go really well with some dungeons. "Alone In the Town" goes perfectly when exploring any Alyeid Ruin, and "Strenuous Trek" could have been written for the soundtrack.

- Jeremy Soul - Guild Wars: Sorrow's Furnace Soundtrack - Strenuous Trek
- Jeremy Soule - Guild Wars Original Sountrack - Abbadon's Mouth
- Akira Yamaoka - Silent Hill 2 Original Sountrack - Alone in the Town

Exploration/Field

Just like Morrowind, I wanted to have a balance of both bright ambient themes and lonely melodic tracks. Just about all of the Morriwind explore themes went here in a heartbeat, but I felt they were too sad for towns, and not dark enough for dungeons, so they didn't go anywhere else.

- Jeremy Soule - The Elder Scrolls III: Morriwind Original Sountrack - Explore 4
- Jeremy Soule - The Elder Scrolls III: Morriwind Original Sountrack - Explore 5
- Jeremy Soule - Guild Wars Original Sountrack - Eye of the Storm
- Jerry Martin - Sim City 4 - Shape Shifter
- Yasonuri Mistusda = Chrono Cross Origianl Soundtrack - Dream of the Shore Bording Another World
- Russel Shaw - Fable Original Soundtrack - Summer Fields
- Icewind Dale Original Soundtrack - Svirfneblin Refugee Camp

Indeed. Go into Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Oblivion\Data\Music and you'll see a few folders labeled Battle, Dungeon, Explore, Public, and Special. Just insert MP3s into any of those first four, and Oblivion will randomly play from the MP3s in those directories in the appropriate event/environment. You can replace the music in Special, but adding new songs to that folder won't do a thing. Oh, and speaking of replacing songs in Special... be careful about substituting the death theme in there with something longer. It always plays out its entire uninterrupted length before returning to another track, even after you've reloaded your game.

Excrono, I'll have to try some of your suggestions. Although, I have to ask, how did you convert those Sorrow's Furnace Pak protected WMAs into MP3s? And -- gasp -- are those Sennheisers in your avatar? I adore the closed HD 280 Pro pair of 'phones I have. How is the open design?
EDIT: And where did your Public songs go? =x

Though I haven't played Oblivion in a very long time, I stuck with the original soundtrack. I felt the game itself was good but not great, and after playing through the main quests and storylines, I didn't feel compelled to play it anymore. I wish there had been a lot more choice & consequence in this game, it could've been so much more.

But on topic, I think the soundtrack really gave the game character, so I didn't really mess with it/add anything. The only things I didn't like all that much was the battle themes... But the music when walking around the world and towns was just beautiful. Soothing stuff.
I'm not usually one who drools over visuals and audio, but in Oblivions case it really kept me playing for a much longer time than I would've if the game had been uglier.

Did you get to experience the significantly game-altering and quest-adding mods that are out there, too? I found the game much better with a choice slew of mods.

And about the game's original soundtrack being great, though, I agree. When I add music, I try only to add songs of the same spirit.

For me, the ES4 soundtrack is Soule's best work since Secret of Evermore, so I enjoy the score. The main problem is that there just isn't nearly enough music for a game of such massive scope. Unfortunately for me, I own the game for 360, so I can't alter the music. There is the Xbox custom music feature, but that isn't as good, especially since my computer has way too many files to sort through; I usually don't even bother.

However... One time my brother was playing "Murder" from the Berserk OST while he was in a dungeon fighting some huge enemies. Not only did it fit the mood perfectly, but it was awesome.

For Sorrow's Furnace it was fairly simple, I just recorded the output from WMP into CoolEdit in real time. The quality suffered a bit, but it was worth being able to listen in Foobar (and my portable media player). Oh, and the headphones are amazing. They may start out the first 100 hours or so sounding sub par, but when they open up the frequency response is amazing. Sennheiser has discontinued that model however, so you will be hard pressed finding them. And as for my public songs, I didn't have any. This was mainly due to me not finding anything that would fit the overall mood of Soule's tracks.

Quite so. I always kept that in my winamp playlist for Diablo 2 sessions. I can only imagine what it's like to get cornered by a couple of giants with that soundtrack thumping in the background.

I like to spruce my exploration up a bit with tracks from Juno Reactor, E.S. Posthumus, Conan The Barbarian OST, The Last Samurai OST, Eternal Darkness, Soul Calibur 2, and Vagrant Story, among others.

Truth be told I haven't installed Oblivion on my PC yet, but it's sitting on top of my shelf, just waiting for my custom soundtrack goodness.

I have a pair. Want to buy them, Moguta? They can be yours if the price is right.

Honestly, I don't know if I'm judging based on the "first 100 hours", but these don't even sound as good as the PMX60 model.

Well, I also have the PX60's for portable use, and there is a huge difference between the two. The PMX60's have very limited frequency response (poor, barely audible lows and moderate mids and highs). If they are sounding worse than those, you need to burn them in a lot more. Yep, just plugged them for comparison and the PMX60's sound like i'm plugged into a tin can...

first experience - the game's original ost
i don't usually change the game music .. prefer to play the game the way it comes
however, things have changed for me in WoW :)
but then i don't listen to VGM with WoW just normal songs