Atsuko
Hi, Craig,
do you have the latest version of the plugin? It's 2.2.16.

Mine says 2.2.3 (64-bit)...but thanks...!

The current 64bit full version is 2.2.16, TH2 Producer is 2.2.3.

Turning off X-Ray didn't help either, but bumping up the latency to 1,024 samples did. Given that I can normally get by with 128, even on complex mixes, that seems like a lot. It's odd it happens only the TH2 Producer version, not the full one.

Doesn't seem right to me, I wonder if it is related to this:
 
I wonder if it is related to this (it's not the exact issue, and no crackling involved either, post #46 summarises it):
http://forum.cakewalk.com/sonar-X3d-now-time-playhead-Lag-when-moving-the-mouse-cursor-on-playback-m2952126.aspx
 

Anderton
"Alpha blending using GDI calls"...I have zero idea what that means, but I'll try increasing latency

Imagine a photo of a nice, clean car and another photo of some mud spatters. Putting the mud spatters onto the car is basically what alpha blending is.
 
GDI is a graphics subsystem in Windows where live all the programming calls (think: hammer, saw, screwdriver or, more musically: wah-wah, phaser, delay) for doing various types of alpha blending.
 
As for why GDI has priority over audio calls, Microsoft (along with a lot of other sadly-misguided people) seem to be under the impression we're a visually-oriented society. Someday, we'll set them straight.
 

Is TH2 locked to X3? If not I would be curious if you have the same crackles in earlier Sonar versions.  Perhaps you could try it out.
 
I have posted several times about crackles and pops I am having, and believe it could be a driver issue. But seeing posts like this makes me wonder if the source of the problem is something else. I too have found that bumping up to 1024 samples can help, but that it pretty high for moderate projects that ran at 128 or at most 256 with no problems on 8.5. 

cowboydan

Atsuko
Hi, Craig,
do you have the latest version of the plugin? It's 2.2.16.

Is this the (Sonar) producer version or the full version? How do you update the TH2 Producer version in Sonar?

2.2.16 is the the most recent version for the full program.  I was having some issues that were resolved by this update.  Sorry, it's not useful for the TH2 Producer.

Anderton
Turning off X-Ray didn't help either, but bumping up the latency to 1,024 samples did. Given that I can normally get by with 128, even on complex mixes, that seems like a lot. It's odd it happens only the TH2 Producer version, not the full one.

Odd indeed, that the premium edition of Sonar's currently bundled-in (tethered?) guitar amp/fx sim plug-in would be causing problems unless the latency were raised so high. Odd also that a CW developer's response is to blame it on Windows and recommending increasing latency. Makes one wonder to what extent CW actually tests compatibility of bundled-in plug-ins with their software on different systems (and with different graphics cards).
 
If only there someone in a position to exert some influence upon CW (and perhaps Overloud too) to satifactorily resolve this rather unfortunate situation....
 
(fwiw, I do understand what Keith meant about alpha blending, and am generally aware of the state of MS' graphics APIs including Direct2D, but stil found it rather disappointing that CW's only proffered remedy was to increase the latency)

It's a far better response than what most would have given... That is to contact the plugin manufacturer. Must cake get blamed for all third party code issues when they try to help?

Just to give another view. I don't suffer with this problem in the bundled version of TH2. So it's not an issue that everyone suffers. Apart from the video card, my system is nearly identical to Craig.