exact same problem as other Sound Blaster users. Downloaded ALchemy and it makes my game crash literally every 5 mins where it didnt before. Anyone know where we can report bugs and actually get them fixed?

I'm having the same problem with Realtek HD audio and an ATI 5770. When I play through HDMI through my home theater system, I get music with no dialogue. When I go through my computer speakers, I get the dialogue but the music is nothing but a skipping sound. I've tried setting to stereo all the way up to 5.1 with no change, also updated my drivers with no change...

Be nice when we get to play this like it's supposed to be played...

Looks like this was my problem too. Also, when I had the game in windowed mode I had sounds fine. Very irritating I must say. Also, the priority thing was also a fix around. go figure.

I have almost the exact same set-up, RealtekHD audio and ATI 5770, running to desktop 2.1 with WinXP64 and the voice dialogue works maybe 10% of the time.

I've tried all the fixes listed (Deleting folder, reinstalling, updating video/audio drivers, playing in windowed mode, vsync on/off, enbdev Silent Hill config, etc.) and nothing works.

I'm hoping this gets patched because it's really ruining the immersion.

I'm having the same problem with Realtek HD and it's only started doing it shortly after the last patch.
After trying all the fixes to no avail iv'e been trying to find out whats causing the problem.

First thing i noticed was that if i rig my audio up to my home entertainment system and turn off all the in-game sounds except for the voices, and then pump up both volumes to full, i can actually hear the voices of Dialogue NPC's (although its very quiet).

I've also noticed that some of the sound fx are also out of whack (and im not meaning the occasional sound de-sync and glitches).

I found out that if i listen to a none dialogue NPC that's chatting away to someone (or even just a radio set laying around ect.) and i am looking directly at them, i can barely hear them, however if i turn my character though 90 degrees, either so they are to the left or right of me i can hear them a lot better. (try it and please let me know if the same for you coz it might just be my pc)

It's looks to me like it might be a problem with some of the sound fx that are being assigned to a incorrect channel in surround sound.
Personally I think it might be bug/incompatibility/DirectX issue that's incorrectly swapping some of the sound fx from the Front/Back channels to the Left/Right channels instead.

Unfortunately if im correct because of this, when you are in dialogue mode, you are automatically looking directly at a NPC in zoomed in mode and you are incapable of spinning through the 90 degrees in order to hear them speaking correctly. (I think the sound that you're actually listening to ahead of you is actually the sound which should be to the right or left of you're characters current position hence why it's a lot quieter)

I've also tried switching the settings to stereo (headphones) from of either 5.1 or 7.1, but it doesn't make any difference for me but it might work for you.
Playing in windowed mode, updating drivers or any of the other fixes might also work for you, but again none of them have sorted out my sound problem (however d3d9.dll has fixed a lot of issues for me relating to general lag and CTD's and i recommend getting it if you have such problems)

I guess i'll have to stick it out for now and hope they'll fix it with the next patch... or hope for a third party/Mod fix