Zemalf

Yes -thank you! I couldn't pinpoint it on the minimized tutorial messages! Minimizing, but not disabling tutorial messages seems to cause the bug. EDIT: Disabling tutorial messages removes the sound bug (save & reload), but maximizing the tutorial messages back didn't seem to help

Chanter can be tank - max Con, high Int, Might irrelevant - standing in the front row with shield up, chanting away and letting the party (behind) to shine. Chanter requires very little micro-management, so you can focus on the cipher, wizard and others requiring more action. The lvl2 reloading speed phrase is a game changer as it makes the back row with arbalests/arquebuses extremely good. Chanter a ranged character works too, taking advantage of the mentioned phrase him-/herself and chanting from the middle of the group. With about 20 hours in with a chanter main, I like it a lot, but the early game (first game) it was very hard (on hard), because built as tank commander (low might), I struggled before I got the full party. In some fights you only get one phrase off, but chanter really shines in long fights, as the phrases just keep on coming and you never run out of steam - but still, it's likely the rest of the party actually doing the damage.

Looking at your post, seems you missed the fighter companion in Gilded Vale, plus you could've hired custom tank from the Inn (which I did before I found the companion). Related to soloing the game - I'm sure someone will eventually do it, but based on the hard difficulty party experience this game feels unsoloable and I'm not even that far into it.