Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
I was resigned to having the Chanters be forever silent. Then, on my current playthrough with a fresh install of BGT, I discovered the Chanters are signing again. Not only that, the cows are mooing, tavern drunks burping, town criers calling out, people are greeting me in the streets. Perhaps the only sound missing is the serving wenches not telling me to "seat yourselves wherever you like," but I can live with that. It's like I'm playing in 1999 all over again.