Anderton
Glad it's working for now, but please check out the Friday Tip of the Week for Week 35 for info on how to remove pernicious/unneeded drivers that degrade performance.

Thanks for the tip, Craig. I had previously disabled the non-audio-interface audio drivers on my system, but they were enabled again. I'm guessing this happened when I upgraded to Windows 10 last fall, but I don't know for sure. I also installed and ran Latency Mon, per your previous suggestion, and did make a system tweak based on the results of that. So far, the weird digital distortion hasn't returned. Fingers crossed!

Let us know if your luck holds so the thread can be marked "solved."

Yeah, the problem hasn't returned. I wish I knew, specifically, what the culprit had been, but I'll add "solved" to the title.

Aha!
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com...sdevices-m3348581.aspx

benjaminfrog
Yeah, the problem hasn't returned. I wish I knew, specifically, what the culprit had been, but I'll add "solved" to the title.

When latency is on the edge, all kinds of weird things are possible.

The problem did return, even though the HD drivers were disabled. I believe, however, I have found the actual culprit: Remove DC Offset During Record.
 
This morning while recording I noticed the distortion was back. I double-checked to make sure the HD drivers were still disabled. I disconnected from the internet. Turned off my anti-virus. Stopped the Search service. Anything I could think of. Nothing resolved it.
 
Then, on a hunch, I disabled Remove DC Offset During Record. NO DISTORTION!!! I then re-enabled it... distortion! So, although I'd still like to figure out what's causing the DC offset, I at least now know what's causing the distortion and how to resolve it.
 
Thanks, Everybody, for your input. Glad to finally be done with this one.

See related thread - http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3337455 Apparently Remove DC Offset on Record has some issues! I submitted the issue to Cakewalk back in December as CWBRN-42851. I actually looked at your thread early on but it didn't seem immediately related. But the solution is the same. :-)

Hi, PeteL. Thanks for the additional information. I get a runtime error when clicking on the link in your post, however, and can't get to the other thread.

Oooops! I somehow got a period in where there shouldn't be. Try again, I fixed the link.

PeteL!!! Yes, that's my experience as well. I've only ever encountered it when recording two mics simultaneously on mono tracks.