It's hard to describe,and it;s not everything, just specific parts, like clubbing something and some NPCs. It's almost a static/crackling, like it's coming out of a broken speaker.

I found some older posts about this but it's going back years and I'm assuming whatever major problems there were had long since been fixed because I found nothing recent.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Nothing on the Steam forums about it. Doesn't seem to be the audio issue fixed in today's hotfix patches, either. Perhaps try emailing them at their support account: support@crateentertainment.com

I haven't had trouble with Grim Dawn but by reports from other users, Crate support is very responsive, though since it's Friday you may have to wait for the new week to start. I don't know if they do support on weekends.

I turned on Administrator and it seems to be working now. Keep my fingers crossed.

Do you know the game well? I'm looking for some build tips because I JUST started and all the choices are a little overwhelming.

No, I suck at these games. I play a Battlemage (Soldier + Arcanist) which ends up being an *extremely* survivable class, with enormous self-heals and multiple invulnerability options. So if you're crap at action games - like I am - and want a simple, straightforward build, go ahead and go sword+board Battlemage, max out Menhir's Will, Cadence, and Rush (for battlefield mobility plus general zoominess) once you've thrown a bunch of points into the Soldier Mastery bar, and spend your Devotion points up and to the right from center, toward either Shieldmaiden + whatever that tower is called, or higher, toward Empyrion's Light, picking up Turtle Shell and Dryad's Blessing along the way. Eventually put just barely enough points into Arcanist Mastery bar to unlock Maiven's Sphere of Protection plus whatever the actual immortality skill in Arcanist is called.

Do not invest in the passive Arcanist elemental ability. Do not invest in the Cadence transmute skill that creates elemental damage. Focus on doing physical damage. The most complicated thing by far about Grim Dawn is understanding how damage stacks, converts, modifies, and multiplies. So for a first go, just tank it up. You'll die a little bit, from time to time, as you learn the basics of the game but once you're comfortable with not standing in fire, you won't die again as a Battlemage. They're eternal.

Failing that, Warder (Shaman + Soldier focusing on 2-hand weapon) is a popular choice and gives you a spiky pet to draw attention away from you while you crush skulls, but nothing matches the durability of a Battlemage.

I want something melee and fast. Something Warrior/Nightblade.

If you want something melee that has a lot of survivability as well I can only echo what Puppy said. The Warder (Soldier/Shaman) is an excellent choice. I personally favor the two-handed build for that. I go for Blade Arc as my main skill, meaning I put it as my left mouse button attack. With two or three swings of that you can obliterate whole groups of enemies, especially with the bleeding damage it deals if you get lots of bonus bleeding damage through equipment or devotion. As my secondary skill I use Blitz, it's also a really fun skill. It makes you rush at a group of enemies and deal a lot of damage to three targets, usually one-shotting them.
In addition to that you can of course go for all of those passive Soldier skills that increase your survivability. You have lots of points for that since by using Blade Arc and Blitz for left and right mouse button you don't have to put any points into the standard melee attack skills like Markovian's Advantage, Cadence or Zolhan's Techique and due to being two-handed you don't have to put anything into the shield skills. To buff survivability even more I tend to go for the Turtle devotion first that offers a very nice damage soaking shield every time you are down to 40% of health, so in tandem with Menhir's Will you really barely have to use potions at all. You can tank pretty much anything, even bosses, as long as you don't stand in the middle of those large area of effect spells they send out.

I haven't really gone for a dual wield melee character yet, but I would assume that Pneumatic Burst would be able to keep you alive quite well. And in that case I would concentrate on the defensive skills from the Soldier tree since a character like that would probably be mighty squishy.

thanks :D

My first character, years ago when GD was in Beta, was a Blademaster (Soldier + Nightblade). If you go for Blitz (I incorrectly called it Rush, above) you're very fast moving around the battlefield. Be sure, if you're a dual-wielding Blademaster, to go heavily into the Nightblade's Pneumatic Burst - which will heal and haste you - as well as the Soldier's lower-tier ability that regens your life (just forgot the name). You'll be doing a lot of piercing damage so you should probably go at least deep enough into Soldier to get the counterattack skill.

If you're not going to be using a shield, you may want to spend your devotion points to the left of center, instead of the right. There are at least two constellations that will provide you with "convert attack damage to health" which is much better than Life Leech (which is a slow trickle compared to the heavy healing of convert to health). Ghoul and Bat, IIRC. If you find your Blademaster is a little squishy, consider putting points into those constellations.

THIS is what I'm, looking for! :D

I'm sure I'll get bored 10 minutes later and want to go 180 degrees in another direction, but this is a perfect starting push. Thanks. :D

Some games put shields in for aesthetics, some they really help and ditto for duel wield. ie: In Diablo2 duel wield sounds great but is almost useless. It helps to know what is what for any game when you start it.