I've had this problem now for a few years and it drives me mad and I've reached the point where I have to do something about it.
 
My sound card is a USB focusrite scarlett 2i4 but was having the same issues with my old Emu 0404 Pci card.
 
I have jut set up windows 10 and for the first few days the problem seemed to have vanished much to my delight but sadly it seems to have returned. It probably has something to do with some software that I have installed but I have no idea what!!??
 
Okay, so to describe the problem, for years I've had trouble with pops and crackles that come and go and have never been able to find the culprit, could it be my graphics card, usb devices or network card. If it's usb devices what the hell am I supposed to do since I use them all and need them running? Buying a new graphics card didn't resolve the issue.
 
The pops and crackles are bad enough but when I've had them and ran DPC Latency checker it's always been way up in the red
but this particular problem seems to go un-noticed by latency checker. What happens is that my audio suddenly runs at half speed or less and is horribly distorted. Here's a link to a sound sample I just recorded using my phone (http://www.mediafire.com/listen/8hvyrhsdcbw2dx8/rec_20151014-1129.mp3)
 
The sample your hearing is, (believe it or not) Rehab by Amy Whinehouse.
 
I'm not sure I've ever heard of this problem before but it seems to be quite frequent and usually happens shortly after booting up.
Rebooting, it does seem to go if I reboot or wait a while but takes quitea long time and when you're in the middle of recording or mixing it's immensely frustrating. As I said, when I had this just now I ran DPC Latency checker and it don't report any issues so I'm a bit flummoxed.
 
Hopefully the link will work and the filter won't assume it has some evil intent.
 
 
Steve

What are your ASIO buffers and project bitrate set at?

Use latencymon rather than dpc latency checker. You can nail it down to problem drivers. Other good tools to download are process monitor and process explorer.

Latest version of Sonar has an issue, if you disable in preferences 'allow arm changes during playback/record' that should save some CPU cycles.

Advice is generally (no particular order)...

1) Update mix control to latest. I strongly recommend removing old version and rebooting afterwards. Then when new one installed reset the settings everywhere for it first.

2) Temp disable your virus scanner. Before you do that though scan for your system for viruses and malware. Ie with AVG and Malwarebytes.

3) Make sure your audio interface is disabled in windows control panel sounds

4) Make sure the interface is plugged in USB2 socket.

5) Defrag.

6) Update your display drivers

7) Update the rest of your drivers and firmware everywhere. eg controllers.

8) Disable unnecessary startup programs and services. Remove unnecessary applications from windows add/remove programs.

9) Update your motherboard chipset (try Intel driver update site) and BIOS

10) Check windows event viewer for bugs.

11) Try deleting AUD.INI (google for details)

12) Check windows device manager. Can you disable any drivers you don't need? eg HDMI drivers.

13) Check task scheduler to make sure nothing is running whilst using your DAW.

14) Make sure CPU in windows power settings is set to 100 - min/max. Optimize your drivers for power management.

15) If you have ASIO4ALL remove it!!!

Cheers...

Doktor Avalanche
What are your ASIO buffers and project bitrate set at?

 
This isn't a sonar issue, it effects all audio from youtube to windows media player or whatever.

Use latencymon rather than dpc latency checker. You can nail it down to problem drivers. Other good tools to download are process monitor and process explorer.

 
Not installed it in windows 10 yet but have used it for years in windows 7 and always gives conflicting info but frequently shows issues with usb drivers which begs the question, why me and no one else?

Latest version of Sonar has an issue, if you disable in preferences 'allow arm changes during playback/record' that should save some CPU cycles.

 
Not a sonar issue

Advice is generally (no particular order)...

1) Update mix control to latest. I strongly recommend removing old version and rebooting afterwards. Then when new one installed reset the settings everywhere for it first.

 
Not required for the 2i4 so not used

) Temp disable your virus scanner. Before you do that though scan for your system for viruses and malware. Ie with AVG and Malwarebytes.

 
Always do, virus scanner is always off line and usually scan when booted or when closing down.

3) Make sure your audio interface is disabled in windows control panel sounds

 
Will try it but am not keen as it's the only device I have to poay audio through so wouldn't be able to play music or watch videos

4) Make sure the interface is plugged in USB2 socket.

 
Not trying to be funny but, it's a USB interface, where else am I going to plug it in?

5) Defrag.

Will try it, I've had, Perfect Disk installed on my windows 7 machine for years which defrags when no other processes are running but haven't installed it yet on windows 10 but this is a new instalation.

6) Update your display drivers

done

7) Update the rest of your drivers and firmware everywhere. eg controllers.

I'll check but I am always very up to date with drivers and this being a new installation of windows 10 has meant driver updates have been essential.

8) Disable unnecessary startup programs and services. Remove unnecessary applications from windows add/remove programs.

I've done this for years although there are some microsoft services I'm never too sure about killing/disabling.

9) Update your motherboard chipset (try Intel driver update site) and BIOS

 
Always a bit scared of doing that, p[artly because this is an overclocked machine that was built by a bespoke audio company and I'm concerned that updating bois will over ride those settings that I have no idea how to configure manually.

10) Check windows event viewer for bugs.

never done this before but where and what exactly should I be looking for?

11) Try deleting AUD.INI (google for details)

Not a sonar issue

12) Check windows device manager. Can you disable any drivers you don't need? eg HDMI drivers.

 
Will have a look see.

13) Check task scheduler to make sure nothing is running whilst using your DAW.

 
You mean apps and not services presumably? No, nothing else running.

Cheers...

 
Thanks for the suggestions and will try the ones I've not tried already.
 
 
Steve

1) Do it with your audio interface firmware and drivers.
4) USB3
5) Don't run perfect disk. It still takes overhead to detect what is/isn't running. Defragging all the time is bad for the disk.
8) Requires some research for sure. Google. Warning..Don't disable any security features.
9) Contact the bespoke company I suggest for BIOS update. And check intel driver update.
10) Google 'windows event viewer'.
11) Deleting AUD.INI has resolved issues like this in the past. I'd avoid labelling the issue you don't know what the problem is yet. Strongly recommended.
13) Nope. Google 'windows task scheduler'.

Check points 14+15. I edited the post above.

I forgot to say don't forget to backup with something like trueimage.

Cheers.

14) Make sure CPU in windows power settings is set to 100 - min/max. Optimize your drivers for power management.

Are you saying it should be set to 100% maximum and 100% minimum?
 
It's currently set to 100% maximum and 5% minum

15) If you have ASIO4ALL remove it!!!

Tried it years ago and never again.
 
Steve

14) 100%/100%. Cheers.

I would assume from your comments above that once you had found on a prior Windows version that you did not like ASIO4ALL that you haven't installed it on the Windows 10 build.
 
I myself never point Windows to use my audio interface drivers - I either use a small set of PC speakers connected to the audio output jack on the back panel of the computer, or more often connect my HDMI output from the computer to one of my HDTV's, and let the sound play through the TV speakers that way.
 
Even if you are pointing to your audio interface, is it running in ASIO mode?  For a short time, I tried having Windows also share my audio interface, and I recall also there being an issue where I had the interface using one sample rate and bit-depth, but Windows was configured to use 16-bit 44.1, and I had to alter the Windows settings to match how I wanted to run.  I ended up choosing to never again have anything but Sonar or stand-alone synths access the audio interface.
 
IF your computer happens to have a WiFi adapter - I would urge you to try something, as lots of folks have issues with DPC Latency spikes coming from their WiFi.  Just prior to running sound, disable your WiFi adapter in Windows Device Manager, or turn it off if there is a switch or function key to do so.  Then, stream your sound or launch Sonar.  When finished with your audio session, then you can enable WiFi again or turn it back on.  Again, if you do not have WiFi this will not apply.
 
Lastly, I always have my processor minimum state set to 100%, so that it never runs at anything other than full tilt.
 
I myself have had several computers that could be overclocked, but I choose to never myself do that.
 
Bob Bone
 

So, whatever is causing this horrible noise, (see link below|) neither latencymon or DPC latency checker are reporting any issues even though I'm playing this horrible noise whilst they are running.
 
(http://www.mediafire.com/listen/8hvyrhsdcbw2dx8/rec_20151014-1129.mp3)
 
I will contact focusrite support but I recall I had this issue on occasion when using my Emu 0404 so not sure it's a sound card problem or not.
 
Steve

I have this problem intermittently also. If I restart the computer, it usually goes away. But it usually ends up coming back as I work on a project. It's been going on for years with me too. I just chalk it up to something I'm doing.(or not doing)

Well, I've just unplugged everything from my USB3 sockets and plugged them all into the boards USB2 ones.
I've also disabled the USB3 controller in the device manager.
Latencymon had been reporting the USB3 port as having the highest latency with the USB2 port a way behind.
It's only been about 20 minutes but so far all is quiet and latencymon seems happy.
 
I'll run it for a day or two and see how it goes. If it remains quiet then obviously I have my culprit.
I may also try it the other way round and plug everything in to my USB3 ports and disable my UAB2 ports.
A friend of mine has suggested that there maybe an incompatibility between the two and if he's right, then obviously I would sooner have my USB3 ports running and available but I'm doubtful that he's right.
 
I'll report back in a day or so.
 
Steve