Hi folks.
Having a bit of a problem with multiple VST instances and ridiculous crackling.
Project looks like this: 24bit/48KHz about 20 tracks, audio only, no midi. Each track has an instance of Neutron and Nectar suite VST.
NO VST = NO crackle.
Setting latency to something ridiculously high also resolves issue.
Computer: i7 7600U 2.8GHZ 16RAM  SSDHard drive, 64bit.
Everything: Visual, Power plan + Bios are set to maximum performance.
No external hardware plugged (except for audio (ASIO) interface).
Very little stuff running on startup.
I tried WASAPI exlusive, Asio4All, External Asio interface. 
When project is playing, CPU peaking at around 50% Memory at about 45%.
Oh yeah, crackling happens on the playback/recording live... Sounds normal on mixdown wav.
 
Can anything (besides disabling VST or setting latency way high) be done to solve crackling issues?
Please let me know.
 
Thank you!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

http://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=Cakewalk&language=3&help=Troubleshooting.21.html
 
If the audio interface has a factory supplied ASIO driver, uninstall ASIO4ALL.
 
 

I've also had the experience with some 32-bit VSTs that generate noises. In this case, I use JBridge to convert them to 64 bits and from there they work fine.

Scook, you are always to the rescue :) Thank you!
 
When using external audio interface, it switches to that legacy driver, not Asio4all.
After reading some posts, as one user suggested, I disabled "64 bit double precision engine" that seemed to help greatly, but still crackle at 6msec buffer. Crackle stops at about 12msec. For vocal recording, I like to keep latency under 6msec Should I settle at 12msec or there is something simple i missed to cure it?
 
I never had this issue before when using multiple instance of Nectar Suite, which is a multi effect/comp/eq etc. but as soon as I added Neutron VST to the equation, bad magic started to happen. 

rogeriodec Thanks, but all VSTs are 64bit. 

After tuning disk I/O it still may be necessary to temporarily freeze tracks, choose less resource intensive plug-ins (ex. Sonitus Suite) or create a temporary stereo mix and archive tracks in order to continue tracking. An ASIO 256 sample buffer is about the upper limit when monitoring through the DAW, 128 works for many. If you can directly monitor the recording track instead of monitoring through the DAW the buffer setting does not matter.

Occasionally this does happen, however, I have noticed that even when those cracks or pops are the case, the exported mixdown is clean.

rogeriodec
I've also had the experience with some 32-bit VSTs that generate noises. In this case, I use JBridge to convert them to 64 bits and from there they work fine.

 
It's not just 32 bit VST's. I've used JBridge to solve the issue on 64 bit plugins too.
 
All the UJAM Virtual Guitarist VSTi's exhibited this issue, with me having to set a huge buffer size to get it to work without crackles/pops.
 
Setting the "Load plugin with JBridge" setting, meant I could set my latency down to the lowest setting without issue.
 
Other issues I've seen are with VST3 plugins. For example, the Antares AVOX plugins are unusable at almost any buffer size with VST3. If I use the VST2 plugins, they're fine.