Yea. I mean to tell you the truth, I "feel" like I'm getting to the point in my music and my career where I need the new PC and more power anyway. So I guess my feeling on that note is right.
 
I still find it weird that freezing a track just within the same project doesn't do the job. I was always under the impression that it frees up resources by doing that... But I guess it frees them up AFTER the fact, so if resource related problems are already occurring you're kinda screwed in that project? It's also kind of weird that now that I think about it, in my original project / try it in a new project test... I left the original project opened... Yea it was minimized, but it was opened... So is Windows/Sonar just that good at managing resources that all of the Omnispheres and other VSTi's that were open in the original project and just minimized weren't counting at all towards my total system load when running the new test project that I successfully froze the track in? I guess that would point to processor related rather than RAM (at least in my limited knowledge, educated guess haha).
 
Here's hoping I get a lot of cash instead of gifts for Hanukkah this year haha.

BTW I just shot an e-mail to Spectrasonics support just to see what they say. I'll report back. I'm gonna be heading to work now so I'll try the first 3 songs in the car that I just edited using the tips I got in this thread. I'll let you all know if it seems to be working. :-)

Here's another trick: when you freeze the crackling track, do a SLOW bounce. If your disk drive is having a hard time keeping up with Omnisphere's demands, the slow bounce gives it a little more time.
 
I've had Omnisphere tracks that would only freeze properly this way. Fast bounces still had the same crackles, or sometimes even weirder stuff such as a pulsing modulation as if it were being amplitude-modulated by a square wave LFO.

OK thanks I'll try that.
 
By the way, Spectrasonics wrote back, said I should change my buffer settings... They said I should try for example 256 to 512... However I don't seem to have that option with my interface... I have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 and Buffers in Playback Queue and Buffer Size can't be changed, but when I click ASIO panel the Buffer Length is at 10ms and Sample rate at 44100. I can move the 10ms Buffer Length down by 1 at a time all the way down to 1. Any suggestions on what might be a good place to start trying to change that?

Check your set up again. On their installation video, in Logic Pro, it has the buffer settings in view. Asio normally shows it.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2M7KejHXr8Y

About 45 seconds in.

10ms would be a 512-sample buffer size at 44.1 KHz (actually 11.6ms).
 
I use a Focusrite interface, not the same one but I'm guessing drivers for all models have similar capabilities. Mine goes up to 2048 samples, which is where I keep it all the time. My previous MOTU went to 4096. I'd be surprised if an audio interface was limited to no more than 512-sample buffers. You might want to check the vendor documentation for your 2i4.
 
Note that buffer size does not come into play when bouncing, only when listening. Spectrasonics was wrong in telling you to increase buffers, given that the problem occurs in bounces, too.

strikinglyhandsome1
Check your set up again. On their installation video, in Logic Pro, it has the buffer settings in view. Asio normally shows it.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2M7KejHXr8Y

About 45 seconds in.

Yea it's not there in Sonar. Just the Buffer Length (which like I said the highest is 10ms)... No normal buffer size like in that video or like with most audio interfaces...

HI David,
Not sure if yours is the same issue or not, but I had some issues with Omnisphere a while back:  you can read the thread here, in case anything helps you out :  http://forum.cakewalk.com/Omnisphere-Multi-issues-in-X2-m287quite 7747.aspx 
 
 

Well a little update to my issue. The other day I woke up and my computer was turned off. I turned it back on and it said that it had shut down automatically to avoid overheating. So I checked and the fan connected to my cpu heatsink was dead. The temperatures were hitting like 180-190 degrees when turned on. So this morning (after about 4 days of not having a computer) I just finally got a new fan installed, temperatures are totally back down to normal. I'm gonna try things out over the weekend, but I'm wondering if some of that crackling could have been caused by the CPU overheating and me not noticing it (overheating is something I've never dealt with before so it's not really on my radar to keep an eye on... now it is! haha).
 
I'll let you guys know if its better.

I had that happen once. In my case it was pretty obvious something was wrong since the computer slowed way down and really hot air was blowing out of the box.