1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\GOG.com\Dungeon Keeper.

2. Open 'dosboxDK.cnf' in notepad.

3. Navigate to the '[cpu]' section.

4. Change 'cycles=80000' to 'cycles=max'.

5. Play game.

Won't increasing sound prebuffer be a better idea?

That's what I initially thought as well, and increasing the sound pre-buffer did improve performance slightly during the introductory movie, but after starting a new game, the bird sounds and voice over were still inaudible. Changing the cycles to max (which lets DosBox decide for itself what the optimum setting is) fixed the issue completely.

Worked like a charm, exactly what I was looking for.

Thanks!

Awesome!

I was trying to mess with the CNF file myself and was getting nowhere fast.

Thank you tons!

Just like to add weight to the fact that nmillar is correct. The fix she posted works.

thanks so much dude it was an insta-solve, cheers!

Corrected. My avatar is misleading! :-)

doesn't surprise me. What game is that one from? (if from a game)

maybe if DOSBOX is running while you're editing the conf file, it could cause an issue... otherwise I can only imagine either a virus running amok, or an antivirus program running amok (they tend to behave pretty similar). Aside from that... what editor are you using? Notepad should work, but hey: stranger things have happened than a windows-included program acting up. Just to be safe, try Scite:
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/scintilla/Sc226.exe
(I'm recommending it because it doesn't need an installation... just safe the file and run it)

Actually I think "auto" lets DosBox decide, and it often doesn't decide well, while max tells it exactly that - use the maximum number of cycles possible given the system it's running on.

I'm going to guess that you're running windows 7. You need to run notepad as admin then open the conf file from within notepad. The programs directory is protected so you can't change any files in there without admin rights.

Ah, that makes sense. The important thing is that it works though! :-)