You may be clipping your inputs and/or outputs. See if it also happens when you use more conservative levels for recording and playback.

I have a similar problem to the one that h-sstudiostudio has. My audio interface is a Presonus Studio 6/8 and it worked well with my PC being on Windows 10. I got a new faster PC (CPU is an I7-12700K) and Windows 11. I can eliminate the problem by switching the driver to the Windows audio driver but that´s not a suitable solution.

@h-sstudiostudio: What buffer size are you working at? What is your CPU, GPU and RAM size? Maybe we have some similarities in the configuration which leads to that problem.

With a new computer it's important to check the audio settings, the sample rate in particular, of system audio and all other apps using the audio interface. When in serving all users the interface has to switch between settings then that will cause hiccups. Just a thought.

SwitchBack wroteWith a new computer it's important to check the audio settings, the sample rate in particular, of system audio and all other apps using the audio interface. When in serving all users the interface has to switch between settings then that will cause hiccups. Just a thought.

The audio setting are the same in Windows and Studio One. The same crackling problem also occurs in other DAWs. On the last PC I worked with a buffer size of 1024 because it was quite stable with high CPU load. Now this setting is unusable beacuse of crackling. Maybe it has something to do that the audio interface has no special Windows 11 drivers.

What does Latencymon say?

https://forum.level1techs.com/t/i-think-ive-found-an-issue-with-dpc-latency-on-windows-11-with-12-and-13-gen-intel-processors/193867

Thanks a lot @AAV for that link.The results with Latencymon are crazy. On my old PC (i-8700) it was 83 and the new PC has 15392!
There was a hint in the linked page to use MSI mode utility v3 and I followed the instructions in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43gskMlby_4

After the small change in the GPU setting my result in Latencymon is now 35.
If a plugin like Diva from u-he uses multiple cores the crackling is still there. But that could really be specific to such a plugin.

andreasmller1 wroteThanks a lot @AAV for that link.The results with Latencymon are crazy. On my old PC (i-8700) it was 83 and the new PC has 15392!
There was a hint in the linked page to use MSI mode utility v3 and I followed the instructions in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43gskMlby_4

After the small change in the GPU setting my result in Latencymon is now 35.
If a plugin like Diva from u-he uses multiple cores the crackling is still there. But that could really be specific to such a plugin.

Interesting but not exactly what I expected. How does Diva fare on the old PC? What graphic card and OS?

The old PC runs on Windows 10 and I had no problems with Diva no matter which buffer size. The multicore mode decreased the CPU load quite a bit and I always had it switched on. I don´t know why Diva behaves different now. The graphic card was a Radeon RX 580.
What did you expect to happen and are there other things I could tweak?

andreasmller1 wroteThe old PC runs on Windows 10 and I had no problems with Diva no matter which buffer size. The multicore mode decreased the CPU load quite a bit and I always had it switched on. I don´t know why Diva behaves different now. The graphic card was a Radeon RX 580.
What did you expect to happen and are there other things I could tweak?

I expected the issue to be related to your CPU's P and E cores and not so much on the GPU. But it's all interrupts related. The only thing I could suggest would be (if you haven't already tried) to set your MSI mode priority to high if you have it defaulted to normal. You can always go back if it doesn't help or makes things worse.
You might check for audible crackles and check latencymon while playing Diva with and without it's gui open. The fact it's not just Studio One points to Win 11's (current) limitations in scheduling the interrupts adequately for realtime audio. I don't think Windows 10 would be any better as the "problem" is tied to the newer (12 and 13 gen) CPUs with Performance and Efficiency cores, making interrupts scheduling for realtime audio and video more complicated. MSI has been around for a long long time but hasn't generally been needed (maybe for high end gaming). Sorry I can't help more. My own system is a self built 9th gen I9 with conventional architecture. Good luck and hope this helps.

Thanks for your detailed answer. I already have the MSI mode priority set to high. The default priority was "undefined". The Diva gui seem to have no impact on the crackling, it happens whether it´s open or closed. Maybe I ask the u-he tech support.
It´s weird that there are such basic problems with modern OS and CPUs.
The game I´m currently playing also runs smoother now so the MSI tool helped also in that area. I´m very thankful that you helped me by posting the link to the tech forum.