Ten Penicillium and Aspergillus species, four with a strong musty off-odor and six reference fungi without any characteristic odor, were cultivated on oatmeal agar for 5 days in cultivation vessels provided with an inlet and an outlet for air. Samples of volatile metabolites were collected on a porous polymer adsorbent attached to the outlet from day 2 through day 5 after inoculation. Adsorbed compounds were desorbed thermally and analyzed with GC/MS and a combined GC and sensory analysis, the GC sniff technique. Multivariate analysis of GC/MS and fungal odor data revealed strong associations between 6 of 65 volatile compounds and musty off-odor. The GC sniff technique showed that five of these, dimethyl disulfide, 1-octen-3-ol, 2-methylisoborneol, and two C11H18 compounds, had prominent off-odors. In addition, geosmin, 1-methoxy-3-methylbenzene, and methylphenol were produced in large amounts by some off-odorous fungi and contributed to their unpleasant odor. 3-Methylfuran, 2-methyl-1-propanol, and 3-methyl-1-butanol were much more commonly produced than the off-odorous compounds. Both odorous and other volatile metabolites could be detected after 2 days of fungal growth. The production of odorous metabolites was enhanced at the time of sporulation.