I have posted about this before, so please accept my apologies. I am about to send this to Cakewalk support, but bearing in mind the backlog I have read about, I wanted to “copy in” the forum community. 
 
Issue: In many Sonar Platinum projects, I am experiencing audible crackling/interference when my mouse cursor moves across VST GUIs.
 
System: This is a new HP all in one 27 inch PC. I have had it four months. Windows 10, Intel core i7 6700, 16GB RAM. Two graphic adapters – AMD Radeon R7 A360 and Intel HD Graphics 530. Audio interface is a Focusrite 1^st generation 6i6.
 
The machine was bought off the shelf, but I have tweaked it in accordance with Focusrite’s suggestions here (1 to 6 only – not done any “Advanced optimisation”):
 
https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/articles/207355205-Optimising-your-PC-for-Audio-on-Windows-10
 
Background: About three weeks ago I bought my first ever Waves plugins – L1 Limiter and Greg Wells MixCentric. I noticed the crackling sound as I moved the cursor over these two plugins, so I contacted Waves technical support. They took control of my machine remotely for two hours, and tried a complete reinstall of both Waves Central and the plugins in question. Both graphic adapters’ drivers have been updated to the latest versions. They tried disabling one graphics adapter and then the other. They ruled out interference from my remote mouse. We have tried increasing the buffer size on the Focusrite to very high levels (10ms+ and 442 samples).
 
The problem has got worse, in that the crackling now often happens with non-Waves plugins – e.g. the Sonitus range. The problem is NOT there if used in a very simple project, e.g., if I export a single mixed wav to a separate project and then use the two Waves plugins to master it, there is no crackling whatsoever. However, in a project with say 5 or 6 audio tracks, Addictive drums and EZKeys running, and a few effects,  then the problem is there. However, the performance indicators in Sonar show very little CPU usage, and only about 25% of the memory is being used.
 
Finally, in the last few days I have downloaded Tracktion 5, with the sole purpose of testing this issue in another DAW. I have imported a project from one of the Sonar projects I was having these issues with, into Tracktion. The problem does not exist in Tracktion.
 
Thanks for reading. 
 
Bill
 

Hi. Is your Windows up to date? I have both L1 and MixCentric, and have not had those issues. IIRC I read somewhere that some of the microsoft c++ redistributables need to be updated for some newer plugins. 
Hope it helps.
All the best.

First, undo 'optimization' 3. Set processor scheduling to "Background services".
 
This is a long-ago discredited tweak (including by Cakewalk CTO, Noel Borthwick). Audio drivers do not run as services, and nothing SONAR does or uses runs as a service. This is actually giving priority to Windows and 3rd-party services that have have nothing to do with audio streaming or running applications like SONAR.
 
Two other thoughts if that alone doesn't cure it:
 
- Does disabling Always Stream Audio Through FX in Preferences stop it?
- Does it happen if you toggle the audio engine off by the button in the Transport module?

I already mentioned the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables in your previous post and you mentioned Waves mentioned one of them looked "weird". I suggest you contact their support again and bring that up. I suspect it has something to do with it.

Thanks - I have gone back to Waves regarding the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables.
 
Brundlefly - tried all of your suggestions to no avail, but thank you anyway. 

+1
I had (or maybe still have?) this issue and I've noticed it in one particular project where any VST GUI I would opened to tweak during playback was producing these crackling noises, getting worse when moving the mouse cursor anywhere on the GUI. I started by disabling all FX and turning plugins one by one, testing the cursor issue between each effect (Lots of those were Waves effects, by the way).
 
Turns out the culprit was TH3.  As soon as I enabled it, the crackling started again. I deleted TH3 plugin, played my project about a dozen times, adding more plugins and tweaking them. Did not have this issue since on any other projects (knock on wood). That was 5 days ago, right after I installed both WIN10 Anniversary AND the new Early Access update.  Never had this issue happening before. 
 
At least, now, I know I'm not the only one............
 
EDIT: I must add that I've only used TH3 on that specific project.  

slyman
+1
I had (or maybe still have?) this issue and I've noticed it in one particular project where any VST GUI I would opened to tweak during playback was producing these crackling noises, getting worse when moving the mouse cursor anywhere on the GUI. I started by disabling all FX and turning plugins one by one, testing the cursor issue between each effect (Lots of those were Waves effects, by the way).
 
Turns out the culprit was TH3.  As soon as I enabled it, the crackling started again. I deleted TH3 plugin, played my project about a dozen times, adding more plugins and tweaking them. Did not have this issue since on any other projects (knock on wood). That was 5 days ago, right after I installed both WIN10 Anniversary AND the new Early Access update.  Never had this issue happening before. 
 
At least, now, I know I'm not the only one............
 
EDIT: I must add that I've only used TH3 on that specific project.  

OMG - bingo!! Just disabled TH3 on my project and the problem has gone away. Only a quick test but you seem to have got it spot on. And now I know I'm not going mad and not the only one. Thanks so much Slyman!

Awesome!!! Glad you guys figured it out. Interesting though that it happened after installing the Waves plugins. That's why I was wondering about the Visual C++.

Try reinstalling TH3.
 

OMG - bingo!! Just disabled TH3 on my project and the problem has gone away. Only a quick test but you seem to have got it spot on. And now I know I'm not going mad and not the only one. Thanks so much Slyman!



Hi Marshall,
I'm relieved that you ended up with the same outcome. Often when you compare notes it ends up being a different problem altogether. Funny because I don't really use TH3. I ended up using it in that project because of a specific stompbox. I personally prefer BIAS FX from Positive Grid. Still, I will do as pinguinotuerto suggested and reinstall it.
At least, this could serve other users having the same issue. Hopefully Bakers or Overloud will take note.