[Solved] ? Melodyne and cracking ?

I am recording an a capella piece with several voices; I've used Melodyne fairly extensively to tighten timing and to some degree pitch.  When I'm tracking additional singers, I get frequent cracking and popping - pretty sure it's at each clip juncture, and I assumed due to the processing of the Melodyne-altered clip.  (If I Mute all edited clips, the cracking stops.)  For tracking, I have my ASIO audio buffer set to Minimum to minimize real-time latency.  (If I set it to maximum for stability, all the cracking disappears, but there is too much latency for tracking.)
 
Here's where my problem comes in.  The cracking is too distracting for the vocalist - plus there is cracking being recorded in the new track.  So I tried Flattening the Comp, assuming that would remove the processing and get rid of the cracking - no go.  So I went through one of the edited tracks and bounced each edited clip to removed the Melodyne processing.  I am STILL getting the cracking and popping unless I set the buffer to Maximum.  So I edited by Read Caching and Write Caching (more than doubled Read caching and doubled Write caching) under Synching and Caching.  I think it improved the amount of cracking, but it's still very much present.
 
(1) How do I get rid of the added noise for tracking additional vocalists?
(2) Why is the noise still there even though I've bounced to clips - shouldn't I be back to a simple audio clip at that point that is using minimal resources?  Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

That works, thanks!
 
But why am I getting the added noise even after bouncing to clips?  Shouldn't Melodyne NOT be processing anything at that point as well?  (Or perhaps it's not Melodyne - but I don't have this problem in a similar project with the same vocalists where I have NOT used any Melodyne editing yet.)

Perhaps I am not processing the audio effect properly; but I just realized in attempting to follow the recommendations I ended up with all unused (muted, and non-MEL-edited) clips in the entire track converted to stereo clips; and the Melodyne-edited clips still appear as Melodyne-edited clips with no processing having occurred.  I right-clicked in the track composite waveform, selected Process Effect -> Audio Effects -> VST3 -> Celomony -> Melodyne.  The Melodyne editor appears but with no waveforms showing.  After selecting OK the above occurred.
 
(With the desired track selected, Process -> Apply Effects -> Audio Effects is grayed out.)

If I set the buffer high there is no issue.  (Although when I slide mine all the way toward Maximum I only get 960 samples; Melodyne user manual suggests 1024 as you note.)  But when tracking other vocalists I need a lower setting due to latency.  I've realized Melodyne is too CPU-intensive to have it on with other tracks while tracking. 
 
I'm still confused by why I get identical noise even after bouncing - I thought that converted it to a wave audio clip.  Melodyne's user manual states "The 'bounce' function (variously known as 'Render to Disk', 'Mixdown', or 'Print to Track') results in your Melodyne edits or sampler output being finalized in an audio file that can then be played back from a simple and resource-sparing audio track instead of the original track.  This makes it possible to remove Melodyne and/or the software sampler from the original track and even delete the original track entirely, thereby economizing on RAM."  In other DAW's the audio track has to be transported into Melodyne for editing. In Sonar X3 it is utilizing ARA integration as a Region FX; I am assuming that there is no "Editor" to removed once it has been bounced. 
 
But is this my misunderstanding - is it still processing the original clips in the background, until I find them and delete them, thereby "removing" the Melodyne editor?  (Freezing did get rid of nearly all the noise, although still a few instances.)

So I went back and did several experiments.  With few exceptions the results are not too surprising.  Playback is done with ASIO buffer set to minimum (to reproduce output while tracking added vocalists.)
1) Frozen with Fast bounce, ASIO buffer set to minimum while bouncing -> lots of clicks and pops
2) Frozen with Fast bounce OFF, ASIO buffer set to minimum while bouncing -> occasional clicks and pops
3) Frozen with Fast bounce, ASIO buffer set to Maximum while bouncing -> 2 or 3 clicks and pops (in entire track)
4) Frozen with Fast bounce OFF, ASIO buffer set to Maximum while bouncing -> 2 clicks/pops
5) Frozen with Fast bounce OFF, ASIO buffer set to Maximum while bouncing, closed then re-opened Sonar -> NO clicks or pops (I assume indicating RAM needed to be freed up)
6) bouncing to clips, ASIO buffer set to Maximum while bouncing -> several clicks and pops (but reduced from pre-bounce)
7) I opened another similar project from same recording session, that has NO Melodyne editing, ASIO buffer set to MINIMUM for playback -> ZERO clicks / pops.
 
What I still don't understand is why a Frozen or a bounced clip will generate this noise consistent with CPU being over-utilized, when it doesn't happen with simple audio tracks.  There is NO other Fx or processing going on, this is a very simple project.  After bouncing the Region FX clips of Melodyne editing disappear, as I would expect, but there is still noise as if the processing is going on; similar (although not as notable) with a Frozen track.

MorganT - cool, you had me worried for a second there. Helpful to see the story unfold.

Can you put Solved in the thread name?