Guild Wars 2

Also been getting this. I ORIGINALLY put it down to my being on a laptop which – although by all accounts ‘should’ have been able to run the game just fine – was struggling with anything involving more than a couple of players, and had to be on low settings all the time. But less than a month ago I started using a brand new computer, built for gaming. This had been doing perfectly until this evening when the annoying sound issue started to show itself again. It often involves pets, flying ones are particularly dreadful. The rest of the game sound is muted and all I hear is REALLY loud (no matter how loud the settings are) and crackly popping, crackling, odd flapping noises.
As the OP mentioned, this happens only in GW2, and the speakers/headset are fine for everything else.
I’ve seen a lot of people reporting these issues since launch but not found any clue to what causes it or what we can do to fix it yet.

(the tl;dr bit:)
Just For Kicks [JFK]
Desolation
Our Forum
Social, 18+, Casual, WvW, PvP, fun!

(the wall-of-text bit:)
Our aim:
Our main aim is simply to have fun playing the game with a bunch of friends! We don’t get neurotic about skill, or tweaking to get an extra 0.005% damage! It’s a game! If we’re all enjoying ourselves, then everything is A.O.K!

About you?
As there can be some adult humour and language at times, we ask that prospective members be over 18! :P We have no upper age limit =P
We don’t mind if you’re a necro or a thief. Or both on the same day. (But not irl please. That would just be weird even by our standards!) We believe in the ‘recruit the player, not the class’ rule. Erm, is that a ‘rule’ or an ideal? Anyway, we believe in it…
On the subject of rules, we don’t have many. Maybe not any. We have common sense. And we have ‘guidelines’ or ‘suggestions’ for things which can be unclear, like gbank policy. (ie- we don’t think people should take something from the gbank to sell on TP!)
We don’t care if you’ve never played an MMO before! In fact, we’re happy to help you learn the ropes.
We don’t care how fast or slow you level.
It’s OK if you never want to visit The Mists in your GW2 lifetime (but so far we all do!). If you like dungeoneering, we’ll try those out too!
You will need a middling-to-high sense of humour.
And Guild Wars 2.
Obviously.
I might even make that our first Membership Requirement Rule.

How to join:
If you think JFK might be your groovy thang, catch up with me in-game for a chat, or for an invitation if you’d prefer to simply jump in and give it a try! (Mumm.5274 – you can mail me if I’m not online and I’ll reply as soon as I log in!)

Home World: Desolation
Guild Name: Just For Kicks
Guild Website: Just For Kicks Recruitment info page!
In-Game Contact: Mumm.5274
Focus: Social; everything
Quick Notes: JFK is a friendly guild for over-18’s and those who are 18 at heart! Our main aim is to have fun playing the game with a bunch of friends! Check out our forum or mail/w Mumm in-game for more info