Crackling While Strumming Guitar

[anopentab]

Hello everyone,

I'm a newbie to all of this, so sorry if I wind up asking a poorly written question-- I'll do my best to help you help me.

Earlier today I was strumming my guitar in the standalone TH2 plugin, when I noticed a not so subtle crackle as the notes rang out. When toggling the direct monitor mode on my Scarlett Solo, I found that the crackle completely vanished. After loading a fresh Bandlab project with no plugins I enabled input echo and found that the crackle remained. I plugged my guitar into a physical amp and heard no crackle. The headphones themselves have no crackle when playing audio.

 

Altogether this phantom sizzle has left me stumped, and I'm not sure how to troubleshoot from here. Any advice is more than welcome, and I can provide additional details if necessary. I've noticed that the crackle is inconsistent too. Sometimes it's loud, while sometimes it's quiet. Sometimes it comes as a single crack, while other times it fizzles.

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CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G

RAM: 16 GB

OS: Windows 11

Interface: 3rd gen Scarlett Solo

[OutrageProductions]

Try to increase your driver latency in CW (or in the ASIO ctrl panel) to just less than 30ms round trip (approx 128 samples) and see if it helps. Then back it down until the crackle appears again and you'll know just how fast your rig can respond. I've learned to use headphones and play just a bit in front of the beat, then iron it out in post.

Do this without the TH2 engaged first.

Edit/preferences/audio/driver settings/mixing latency/buffer size. [Some ASIO devices require this to be set in the ASIO device control panel, if such exists.]

Edited May 3, 2023 by OutrageProductions

[mettelus]

Another thing to check with TH2/3/U specifically is that it defaults to a stereo input (not sure why) and this causes problems. The Master button at the top will open that window if you have not already changed it (left side). It should be either Left or Right with inputs set accordingly in the DAW.