Can anyone give me a sense of direction in how to stop the constant clicking and popping when playing VST's in Sonar X3 Producer?
 
Every one of my VST's is creating little clicks and pops like digital distortion while I play them. When I bounce down to audio, they do away.
 
I use a Presonus Audiobox 44VSL interface, and a brand new PC. Asustek mother board. i7 quad core chips. 16gb RAM.

Make sure the 44VSL is running
driver version 1.57.0.5385
firmware version 1.05
and is connected to a USB2 port.

Can you please provide the following information?
 
Audio interface: Sample Rate, ASIO Buffer Size
 
Sonar: Driver Mode, Sample Rate, Total Roundtrip Latency
 
Thanks, 
 
Bob Bone
 

Also, do you have any 32-bit plugins loaded into your project?  (not Cakewalk ones - but 32-bit ones from other vendors).
 
Bob Bone
 

Hi Bob - there was a 32 bit Korg plugin in the project. I removed it and, as they say in separatist Quebec, le voila! no more clicking and popping!
 
but since you also asked, the I am using an Asio driver, 7.3msec I/o, 352 samples, 48khz sample rate, 2 buffers.
 
any advice on how to stop it from happening? is it just as simple as not using my 32 bit plugins? that would be a drag, as I love some of the korg stuff.

and Scook - that is the driver and firmware my interface is using, and I am in USB2 port.

Bob  - I noticed your signature line, and changed my buffer to 128 - reduced my round trip latency from 14msec to 9msec! thanks again!
 
Doh! is right...

Where possible replace 32bit plug-ins with the 64bit version. Korg has released a lot of their plug-ins as 64bit. I do not know if there is a fee for the new versions. Many vendors supply the 64bit versions for free.

I am downloading the 64-bit versions right now, in fact, provided free of charge to registered users.
 
Thanks a ton. I get rid of the pops, the frustration, and anxiety, and get newly upgraded synths to boot!
 
bonus! You rock dude.

Wahoo!  Glad you got it sorted out.
 
I again wish that the stuff I posted was put into some sort of sticky post on debugging audio dropouts/crackles/pops/latency, because it comes up several times a week, sometimes several times in the same day.
 
I think I will write up something and submit it to Cakewalk as a Feature Request - that they post some documentation that talks about debugging latency issues.  
 
I think it would save a lot of frustration.
 
Bob Bone