On almost every single mission the audio keeps crackling, especially when there are loud sounds like alarms or combat and sometimes even in dialogue. I tried upping the resolution which surprisingly helped a ltitle bit but not enough. I've only had this happen for one other game before, and it was from over 5 years ago never on any other game so I don't think my audio card or drivers or whatever need updating (i wouldn't know how to update anyway). Can someone help? It's pretty irritating.

I'm getting the same issue, especially during combat or when blinking.

My specs:

OS: Windows 8 Release Preview 64-bit
RAM: 16 GBs
CPU: Intel i5-750 @ 2.7 GHz
GPU: AMD Radeon HD 5870

The game also seems to lag slightly when the sound crackles, not sure if the two issues are related, though.

I get crackling when I open a book or some note to read.

I also have this issue and although I've tried several ways to fix this, updated drivers,changed my sound card,reinstalled the game,still the same.

It's becoming very annoying.

I too get crackly audio, or audio with static in it at times. It makes the game basically unplayable since it also stutters graphically when it happens, and it's just too anoying to play with the audio stutters. The audio stuttering is the worst part though when NPCs are talking and it stutters. I'm using onboard sound, but it works fine in New Vegas, FO3, Skyrim, Metro 2033, and The Witcher. I also never had problems when I used to play LOTRO and Rift. This is the only game that has had audio stuttering and crackling. My GTX460 drivers are up to date, Directx is up to date, and Physx is up to date. I don't know about the onboard sound driver as I'm not sure how to get one because I'm using an Abit MB and Abit is defunct. I tried using a C-Media USB audio device, but it sounded exactly the same.

EDIT: OK, right after I posted this I found a driver for Realtek HD Audio at the Realtek website. I installed that and my audio issue is now gone. I honestly did not think it was tied to sound since the USB audio device exhibited the same behaviour. If you are using onboard Realtek sound, perhaps try this http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsCheck.aspx?Langid=1&PNid=14&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3&GetDown=false. I'm using a Realtek ALC888 chipset. If possible, you may try audio drivers specific to your motherboard from the manufacturer website, ie. Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, etc. I couldn't since my mobo manufacturer is out of business.

I have the same problem.

i5 2500k
8GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD6850
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

I pulled the task manager over to my 2nd screen and watched the resources as I played. My CPU stays around 50% while running the game but when there's a lot of sound and the crackling starts happening, it spikes to 70+.

Everyone using Realtek onboard? I am guessing I would have this issue as well if I pulled my sound card.

I'm using a Realtek onboard chip, and I installed that driver. At first it seemed to be helping a bit, but it didn't eliminate the crackly audio entirely. It got worse after playing for a while longer.

I pulled my sound card installed the latest Realtek drivers for my mobo and get the same problem. I assume w/e is causing stuttering is also causing audio issues with onboard audio. Bad port is bad and needs a PC optimization patch.