Crackling no matter what latency setting

I'm getting crackling even if i set the AK1 to Multimedia/Games which is the highest. I went to Manual controls and set it higher but I notice I get random crackling every other minute even on highest.

The thing is, I can't too much latency and delay (more than any soundcard I've used in the past) if I set it to this level, so I end up putting it at medium and get a lot more crackling. I find this a great setback.

Whats to be done about this?

 

Mac? PC? Specs?

 

PC Windows 7 64 bit
Cubase 5.52
Fl Studio 9xxl
Gateway NV59

Its now in my sig..it might update in my next post?

 

Just a stupid basic question, but just in case... you're sure you're not clipping right? Clipping in Cubase means crackling. I find I always have to turn down the VST instruments themselves by a touch.

Do you get this behavior if you put it through a DirectX driver or another ASIO interface? I actually bought an Audio Kontrol1 to help diagnose my crackling issues to eliminate the sound interface. Turns out it was my PC, which had a VIA chipset for the Firewire and onboard USB. After a LONG process of elimination I ended up buynig a DAW PC specifically for music production. Hope you don't have to go that far.

 

Are you running lots of other software alongside your DAW? If you have an email client, a web browser, some Torrent thing constantly leeching and a virus scanner running at the same time you will get crackling for sure Try shutting all the background processes and then running Cubase.

And yeah, like avaktar said, if you have lot of track you might have one that's clipping and you haven't noticed. Take all the tracks out and bring up one or two and listen to it for a while. No clipping? Good, bring up some more and see when it starts happening.

Could be that you're just exhausting your CPU too. Loads of heavy VSTs running simultaneously will do that.

 

The crackling occurs while doing nothing at all. My Daw isn't even open and its crackling. My Firefox, winamp or any sound sources are NOT open.
Even if i close everything I get little clicks and crackles out of nowhere.


Also, this is the only sound card that I have owned where I'm not allowed to run more than one audio source at once without distorting both of them. In that case, I have to close youtube, winamp and my daw and start all over again. In the firewire interface I have owned, it simply took full control and there was no distortion.