Hi everyone, I recently decided to start doing some recording so I'm at a complete loss at the moment on what I need to look into to fix my issue. I'll be doing some research on my own but I was wondering if anyone has run into this issue already and can help me narrow down my search for a solution.
 
My issue is during play back of a track I just recorded. The sound cracks, pops, seems to have a stutter from time to time and it will speed up and slow down. It's not skipping, the timer at the top counts down faster or slower. 
 
Originally I installed this program on a custom built computer that was built for more graphical needs, upon a little research it seemed like that was my issue, So, I bought a new laptop with specs that supposedly should be able to handle audio recording / processing just fine; Windows 10, Gen 7 i7 CPU, 512 SSD and 8 gigs of ram.
 
I am recording through an AKG P420 mic going through a Scarlett 2i2.
 
As far as I can tell I have all of the preferences set right to record and playback through the Scarlett 2i2 and thinking the popping was due to a sound driver for the Scarlett 2i2 I changed the output to the laptop speakers and it still has the poor quality.
 
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hopefully you can help me with my problem. 

It sounds like you may be using MME driver mode. Have you installed the ASIO driver for your Scarlett from the Focusrite website? Make sure you have and set Sonar to use the ASIO driver. Try a buffer size of 256 samples to be on the safe side. You can experiment with going to 128 or 64 if it's stable, this will decrease latency but put progressively more strain on your cpu and your audio card driver.

If that doesn't solve it directly make sure to disable all power saving options on your laptop.

Hi, and welcome to this forum. I agree with Sander. Make sure you have the latest ASIO drivers for your 2i2.
You can find them here: https://us.focusrite.com/downloads?product=Scarlett+2i2

This is assuming you have the 2nd generation 2i2. If not, just select 1st generation in the drop down menu. Hope it helps.
All the best.

I do have the drivers downloaded and installed. I apparently missed the step during the initial setup to set the drivers on Sonar. I set the preferences as suggested so I'm going to record a track and see if it fixed my issues.

That did it, thanks for the help.

Glad it was that easy.
All the best.