Playback Distortion Tips (getting rid of)?

I know this is pretty general but…

Any tips for getting smooth playback (aside from freeze edit)? I’m getting way too many pops and crackles. It usually is worse for the first few minutes and then settles down but not completely. I don’t know? The projects seem pretty tidy and computer is pretty optimal. I haven’t not renamed anything. I usually restart the computer before a session. Should i suspect 3rd party plugins as a possible culprit even if they’re not engaged. The only one that I’m using consistently (maybe on one out of every 10 tracks) is the Decapitator by Sound Toys. But I have no reason to believe it is to blame because nothing ever seems to bog down when I bring it into a track (like say how Reverence* does). I have (saved and recall) multiple versions of each project?

Pretty anxious/bummed because I’m near the end of a nine song record and I want/need to be able to playback so that I can experiment with hardware processing and analog summing…things that require a flawless realtime playback. Any ideas?

  • this is occuring with all reverence plugins disabled, which I cant audition long enough to know what I would want to freeze anyway. basically, on a project with a lot of tracks, i can’t use reverence. that stinks.

I’m on a Mac 10.6.7 2.66 ghz intel core i7, 4gb mem, upgraded to 7200 drive…which should be handling!
mr816x

The more load you put on the processor the more likelihood of buffer underrun in the ASIO output.

What is the VST ASIO meter saying?

Increasing the ASIO buffer size on your soundcard control panel should help.