The only thing I can think of is that you have a controller setting the volume to zero. Be aware that some controller information in Alchemy is global, you may change a controller in one patch and it will effect another patch - yikes! Bit me. That doesn't explain why patches change. I know it's not much help, but Alchemy works fine with the latest cbb and platinum on win 7 and it's been working fine for me on win 10.