Hi, no legacy firewire driver here,
but with File -> Clear Settings or even File -> Restore factory defaults
the actual Mix Control 3.3 runs fine now.......
awesome!

Brilliant...

Update - I contacted CW and RME and about this issue and both companies have been quite responsive. They dug into it and found an issue having to do with how Sonar starts and stops ASIO. Apparently it is different from how most other DAWs operate. I don't know if this is a bug or just a different approach. I won't go into much more detail as this is mostly over my head and I know just enough to be dangerous. However, I thought people here would want to know that CW has found the root cause and is looking into a solution.

FYI the effect is related to how many channels are open in your interface. For RME users, in the controls panel (not total mix) there in an option to use all available channels or a subset of them. Reducing the number of channels greatly reduces the problem to the point it is almost not noticeable on my system. This may partially explain why some people see the problem and other do not.

Neirbod, what control panel are you talking about? Windows? I want to try and limit some of the outputs, or are they paired by ins/outs?
 
I have a problem where playback is giving me grief with pops and crackles still, but the bounced tracks and original clips sound fine in SF and WL. The SONAR playback engine is what gets the pops and such, not the bounced tracks for me.

Well it's interesting that it seems to be an issue with one company's drivers. I've been using my focusrite saffire pro 40 with ASIO pretty extremely recently and have had no such issues. I would have though ASIO protocol works in identical ways for any sound card.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Stream_Input/Output
 
>  I thought people here would want to know that CW has found the root cause and is looking into a solution. 
 
I'm not saying the OP is wrong however, it's just I can't see it myself (and I could be wrong). More detail needed I guess...
Would Cakewalk care to comment as this would appear to be a serious issue if true? (just weird how many people remain unaffected).

I would be willing to be a test rat for the fix if they wanted to see about the UFX in use for multiple users that are having the problem. But they already know that...

All - I would just like to add that I'm also experiencing cracks and pops, where I had experienced none previously. Everything is USB for me.  I'm experiencing it even on files that are brand new files with just one audio track and nothing else.  I've compensated by backing off on the latency. However, I used to be able to have super fast latency settings. 
 
I am wondering if a couple of us could reproduce it down to the most basic circumstances for each of us, like I've reduced it to a brand new file with only one audio track.  What other variables might be contributing, etc.  I can't speak to the firewire folks, but USB audio interfaces have been rock solid for me with no clicks or pops until recently, like I mean the last patch.

Like I say I'm running Focusrite Safire Pro 40 just fine on firewire... rock solid. There are plenty of people running Scarletts just fine as well.
 
I would suggest starting a new thread rather than piggy back on the OP's thread, so things do not get too confusing, it's likely to be a completely different issue unless you are running exactly the same hardware as the OP. I would stick to RME hardware on this thread as a consequence, we've had plenty of success troubleshooting and resolving Focusrite issues (assuming it is indeed Focusrite and not a plugin or latency setting).

Guitarmech111
Neirbod, what control panel are you talking about? Windows? I want to try and limit some of the outputs, or are they paired by ins/outs?

Not the Windows control panel.  The RME settings panel.  You should see an RME icon in your tasksbar at the lower right.  This is where you can manually set sample rate, chose to apply DSP effects to the recorded tracks or not etc.
 
I don't know why RME drivers seem to be the only ones affected by this.  RME stated something along the lines of Sonar being the only DAW they know of that stops and starts ASIO, and that other DAWs typically keep it running.  There was some setting in Sonar related to the "arm tracks while transport is running" option that apparently could be tweaked to help address this.  I know just enough to be dangerous about this, but Noel Borthwick at CW and Matthias Carstens at RME were emailing about it (I was copied on some but not all emails), found the root cause, and were working on a fix.

Would that be the EQ&D for record option? That is all I see as far as non-sample options in the RME panel.
 
Maybe Noel needs to call Ron...  ;)