Strange thing going on.
When I play any of my Vocal or Background vocal audio tracks in solo, there is a strange crackling/popping sound.
This is not occurring on any of my other audio tracks (guitar, bass, etc)
 
I checked the original audio track files in my audio folder and played them on Windows Media Player to see if it was the original recording/mic, but the audio tracks sound clear.
 
Also, when I use a frequency spectrum analyzer on the tracks the entire waveform seems to jump when I hear the popping/crackling.
 
Any ideas as what this could be and how I can eliminate it?

What do the waveforms look like?  Could it be clipping?
 
Do you have any effects on those tracks?

Well, a super-quick way to see if one or more effects are doing this is to temporarily bypass the effects, by hitting the 'E' key on your computer keyboard, to see if the problem goes away.
 
If toggling the Effects Bypass does fix it, then indeed one or more effects loaded in the project are the culprit, most likely on that track, but I suppose it could still be somewhere else in the project (dunno for sure).
 
Hitting 'E' again will toggle your effects back on, by the way.
 
Some effects are either heavy CPU users, or use things like look-ahead processing.  These kinds of effects are meant to be used post tracking, for mixing/mastering.
 
Bob Bone
 

Hi,
It does it without any effects.  And I've attached links to image files of 2 sample clips that do it a lot.   As you can see, the waveform is far from clipping.  Any other ideas?
 
screencast.com/t/Aug3jgzvr
screencast.com/t/kJdxdOm6Zi
 
 

Does it happen all the way through the clip, o just once?  Does it happen at beginning and/or end of clip?
 
Did you edit the clip?

What are your computer specs and audio interface specs?

I have seen popping with audio tracks start and stop on playback when the now time SPP is in the middle of a vox wave, but does not behave that way in the middle of instrument audio. I thought it was real weird. There should be no discernible reason for that so I just ignore it or try to stop/start playback outside the vox waves.

I wonder if is a certain part of the audio spectrum that causes this or not with SONAR to where it is more sensitive to vocal waves than instrument waves. It may be possible, but I find it unlikely. I still wonder though.  :)

It happens throughout out the clips.
Much more in the background vocal clip than in the lead vocal clip.
 
I have a 64bit Windows 7 HP laptop with a 2.3 GHz dual core intel processor. (i3-2350M)
4GB ram and 335GB Harddrive with plenty available.   I can't get any info on the audio because it is part of the motherboard, but I do use a Roland QuadCapture audio Interface.

Can you please download and run DPC Latency Checker and/or LatencyMon?
 
These are freeware programs that will measure your computer's basic ability to handle audio streaming, such as what recording software like Sonar does.
 
DPC Latency Checker: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml
 
LatencyMon: http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon
 
Run one or the other with Sonar NOT running, and post back the results.
 
Thanks, 
 
Bob Bone
 
 
 
 

yep, those are great tools to get a base on a DAW performance ability Bob.
 
Also, how fragmented is your disk if at all?

How long should I run latencymon....it doesn't seem to stop