Potential problem with UR824. Yamaha driver and Ableton

Roughly every other time I open Ableton, I am unable to use the Yamaha driver because it sends steady noise spikes to the outputs.

My configuration is USB 2.0 connection to UR824

The UR 824 outs are connected to Neutrik NYS-SPP-L1 patch bay, which are then patched out to my stereo via 1/4-inch cables.

To make the interface work with Ableton, I must disable it for all software, turn the interface off, open Ableton, enable the driver for Ableton and then turn the interface on. Even this only works most of the time.

I have updated to the latest driver and firmware, as of this post.

I was previously using a Focusrite interface and driver and had no issues switching between programs. I understand that the nature of ASIO limits the use of the driver to one program, but having to completely shut everything down to changes DAWs is ridiculous.

Anyone got some advice or help? I’d like to believe this is user error, but it seems like a bug to me.

Here is an update:

I have concluded that the glitching noise is indeed a latency issue due to an overload of VSTis. After increasing the buffer size and removing some tracks I am reliably able to use the interface.

However, I am surprised at how much I had to increase the buffer sized and how much I needed reduce the load. The buffer size is currently set to 1024. The UR824 seems to be performing poorly compared to my Saffire 6, but to be fair, I have not done a direct comparison. I will do that this weekend and provide more technical details. My assumption is that I have a misconception about the Saffire’s performance and will find that it also struggles with the load.

I have some other questions though. The UR824 is not grounded and is installed in a rack with a patch bay and a power condition. Is there a chance that not grounding the device is somehow causing it to underperform? A grounding loop?

Additionally, I am still having difficulties with Ableton Live 9 crashing that I was not experiencing with the Saffire. I can not currently conclude that this is related to the Yamaha driver, but has anyone else had issues with Live and this interface?

I apologize for the lack of hard info here, please leave a comment if you have some advice on what I may have configured improperly or on how I should test the configuration.