[ACTUALLY SOLVED] Digital distortion on low frequencies

I've recently been experiencing digital distortion on low frequencies, even though the overall level isn't clipping. I can reproduce it by recording myself walking heavily around the studio. It sounds like an 8 bit recording.
 
At first I thought it was my mic pre, but I tried another interface and got the same result. Then I thought it might be my (desktop) computer, but I hooked up the interface to my laptop and got the same result. Finally, I tried another DAW...
 
Crystal clear. 
 
I would assume it was something with the Lexington update, but my laptop is still on Ipswich and when I was on Ipswich on my desktop I didn't have the issue. My best guess now is that there was a recent Windows update that's interacting with how Sonar handles audio, but I really have no idea.
 
Regardless, anybody else encountering this? Anybody figure out how to resolve it?
 
Edit: Actual solution in post #16.

jpetersen
 Ripdowns (little sections of the waveform go all the way to the negative side, usually when the positive side clips)
This happened with ASIO up to X3e, IIRC

Just FYI, this can still happen if the digital audio clips (e.g., interface level too high when recording).

Hi, Folks. Thanks for your responses. The audio isn't clipping. It never hits 0 dBFS. The only effect going is IK's ARC room correction plugin on the master buss. I don't hear any distortion when monitoring while recording, but the distortion is getting printed to the clip. Here's a screenshot from RX (never added an image to a post, hope this works). You can see the bizarro harmonics that are being generated.
 
Edit: Can't figure out how to insert the image, but here's a link to it:
 
https://drive.google.com/...p9e_6MKcWVMSDVuOVpmZ00

Craig is right. Same thing happened to me. Culprit was nvidia driver. Discovered,as he said with latency mon. 

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.

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!

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

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.

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. :-)

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

Darn - I wish I had replied to your thread when you first posted it even though it didn't sound like the same issue. I could have saved you some time and trouble.