Loud Crackles and Pops on Playback with all Drivers

[Stephen Power]

I've had to go back to using a Windows 10 PC with 16GB RAM and i5 4 core processor, since my more powerful computer died about 10 days ago.

I am using CbB in the current PC, with the sound driver on WASAPI shared, using a Behringer UMC 22 interface, that worked well with the other PC.

Up until this morning, I was getting good playback of sound with WASAPI shared, but decided to try WASAPI Exclusive, with 'suspend audio engine when Cakewalk is not in focus' checked. I got very little sound at all, just crackles.

The problem is that since going back to WASAPI Shared, I'm still getting loud crackles both on playback of recorded sound and when inputting sound from a Nektar Impact LX61.

I have updated the drives I could find in device manager, restarted the PC, unplugged and re-plugged the AI but nothing helped. 

Can someone advise me as to why this is happening (it was fine yesterday) and how to fix it please?

[reginaldStjohn]

All I can offer is the usual.  Follow some PC optimization guides. Also, running Respendence Latenceymon will help you find what might be causing this.

[Stephen Power]

1 minute ago, reginaldStjohn said:

All I can offer is the usual.  Follow some PC optimization guides. Also, running Respendence Latenceymon will help you find what might be causing this.

Great help thank you. I run the latency monitor you mentioned and see if I can work out what might be going on. If it is a latency issue though, WASAPI shared cannot be adjusted in Cakewalk.

[Promidi]

Personally, I would ditch the Behringer UMC 22 interface and replace it with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (or some other Audio Interface) that comes with native ASIO drivers) .  Then you will be able to reliably use ASIO.

If you do this, I am fairly confident all your issues will evaporate over night.

[Stephen Power]

2 hours ago, Promidi said:

Personally, I would ditch the Behringer UMC 22 interface and replace it with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 (or some other Audio Interface) that comes with native ASIO drivers) .  Then you will be able to reliably use ASIO.

If you do this, I am fairly confident all your issues will evaporate over night.

I see lots of comments like this online and some of them seem like personal preference rather than audiological fact. I'm not sure that the problem is with the interface, in this case to be honest. In fact, I may have narrowed it down to one of the instruments. Tureis from Kompose Audio.

[Bass Guitar]

Actually he is correct. The UM22 is one of the poorest choices for use with a Windows PC because it does not come with an ASIO driver. It is supported fine by Core Audio and that was the market it was made for. Mac. It is a huge waist of time to try and make it work on a PC. Give it to a friend who has a Mac. 

The Focusrite is actually another poor choice because bang for buck. It is lacking in features other similar price 2x2 interfaces have.  Do your research. 

I had just watched this video the other day so that's why I had just found this out.  

https://youtu.be/YcDGKuBJ2VI

And this is another real good one to watch. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMuA-2FbJxE&t=1013s

 

[Stephen Power]

17 hours ago, Bass Guitar said:

The Focusrite is actually another poor choice because bang for buck. It is lacking in features other similar price 2x2 interfaces have.  Do your research. 

 

So, I was right about it being personal preference and not audiological fact, if your opinion is correct - but it might just be opinion (again).

I get the UMC22 to work 99% of the time, and it has gone for months without any issues.

Also, please don't tell people to 'do your research', how insulting is that? How do you know what I've done? I taught research at universities for 20 years. I know how to do it and I did it.