For me this has happened in plugin-heavy projects with dozens of audio and synth tracks...not a common phenomenon. Full toll.

jonboper
For me this has happened in plugin-heavy projects with dozens of audio and synth tracks...not a common phenomenon. Full toll.

I rarely use more than 8-10 tracks, and only a couple of which would be synths.  Though I do have VSTs/ProChannel on just about every track for in the box mixing.
 
It happens on the majority of projects I export assuming I've been doing some play back of the project before exporting.  
 

Bristol Jonesey spots the issue, but isn't the original solution to this anymore in the settings? Those descriptions bring to mind "Play effects tails after stop"" . If it's not checked, pressing stop leaves the reverb tails in the buffer, and they're the first thing you hear when you press "play" again.

I regularly get this and it is very annoying - I often have to use Adobe SoundBooth to trim the first section of the track to remove the offending artefact

I do notice it more if I am using GUITAR RIG - what plugins and effects are you using?

Boydie
I do notice it more if I am using GUITAR RIG - what plugins and effects are you using?

This is a good point.
If it is indeed a plug in issue, you might be able to narrow down your issue by removing some plug ins then doing an export test until you can figure out which plug in it is.

Kalle Rantaaho
Bristol Jonesey spots the issue, but isn't the original solution to this anymore in the settings? Those descriptions bring to mind "Play effects tails after stop"" . If it's not checked, pressing stop leaves the reverb tails in the buffer, and they're the first thing you hear when you press "play" again.

I spent some time last night going through the menus looking for that very setting, but failed miserably.

Another way would be to briefly hit the spacebar, then hit it again, immediately before Exporting.
 
This would clear out any buffers, and if you still have the problem after doing this, then you have a different problem.
 

chuckebaby

Boydie
I do notice it more if I am using GUITAR RIG - what plugins and effects are you using?

This is a good point.
If it is indeed a plug in issue, you might be able to narrow down your issue by removing some plug ins then doing an export test until you can figure out which plug in it is.

 
I get the problem even when only using products that were supplied with SPLAT.  (though my recent projects did include Waves J37, and sometimes SSL E)

Bristol_Jonesey
Another way would be to briefly hit the spacebar, then hit it again, immediately before Exporting.
 
This would clear out any buffers, and if you still have the problem after doing this, then you have a different problem.
 

Also doesn't solve the problem on my machine.  

Opened a Sonar Project yesterday.  Immediately exported.  Got the same problem clipping/distortion at the start of the first note problem again (and I have zero distortion effects applied for the record).  
 
I'll try to update to "08" and see if it still happens this weekend.

I have had this happen too, but only in playback, never had it show as an export..
And I'll be with Jonesey on this, it's audio stored in a buffer that does not get released. For me it is usually a crash cymbal tail which is often the last note of a drum track.
And I will hear it almost everytime I do an export when the export has just finished and releases the audio engine. But it's never appeared in the exported file.  
I always leave 2 measures, 1= blank, 2 = count in which I chop off during mastering. 
So if it persists, add a blank measure to the start. 
 
Oh and ya,, what ever happened to the " play effects tails" option? I guess they figured only a fool would turn it off so nuked it to unclutter the menu. So we will assume it is always on now.