Minimizing the Crackles

[jonheal]

My new (old refurbished) i7 certainly seems to have a bit more CPU reserves than the Core2Quad it replaced, but I still experienced some crackles, and not only with VSTs.

I realize setting the buffer too low can lead to this and it can be a matter of trial and error to find an optimum setting. There's something strange I noticed, however, and I am not sure if it is my imagination, or not. When I initially installed my audio interface (PreSonus iOne [first generation]), by default, it set itself to a sample rate of 48,000Hz. I backed it off to 41,000Hz thinking I could get myself a bit more processing headroom. Then I spent a few hours with a typical array of random devices, tweaking some random knobs to make noises. I started hearing a bit of crackling. I don't believe I had any VSTs loaded at this point. I increased the buffer, but the crackling persisted.

For the heck of it, I increased the iOne's sample rate to its initial settng 48,000Hz. At this point "I think" the crackling diminished. It seemed counter-intuitive to me, so either it was my imagination or maybe the iOne's circuitry is optimized for 48,000Hz.

[Aikmofobi]

Buffer size is indeed the main culprit. Max it out.