Well, when you say "banter", it's probably not actually banter, but battle responses that have no subtitles, or the random yells that the should be able to be included in the dialog window by adjusting the feedback options ... the banters are the dialog that has the player can select responses and can see what the NPC says etc, like hiring an NPC, or the dialog with the Winthrop. Also the dialog window can be scrolled back upwards.
Or am I wrong ?
About the music, well there's a few things there that are of note, one being that saving and loading the game during the time the battle is over while the music is still playing is noted to be causing problems, that should clear out when you restart the game, it has to do with the way the music is made to playing, especially in the first game. There's a BGT - high quality music tweak mod that requires other content, but it's said to be a little better.
Yep, Jarno Mikkola. my Mega Mod FAQ. Use of the BWS, and how to use it(scroll down that post a bit).
OK, desert dweller, welcome to the sanity, you are free to search for the limit, it's out there, we drew it in the sand. Ouh, actually it was still snow then.. but anyways.