Scarlett Audio Interface crackling on playback

[nucleox]

CRACKLE FIX:
I had mad crackles even when the interface was unplugged from USB.
Had a chat with Focusrite tech support, SO HELPFUL
He suggested it could be the PSU, I bought a new one online and bang problem gone !
When you have issues sometimes worth checking the simple stupid solutions...
Thanks Focusrite !! My Scarlett 8i6 works again perfectly!!

Maybe i'm misunderstanding what PSU you refer to, but if it's the PSU of your computer then

wow, expend 300$ on a new PSU only to use a interface, what a nice solution...

[nucleox]

Hey guys. I created an account for this board just to tell you this one thing: the issue of crackling and popping sounds during playback or recording is directly related to the USB controllers on your mainboard. Yesterday I installed an internal PCI-E USB card, plugged my Scarlett 18i20 into it and what do you know? No crackling, no popping, no latency issue, nothing. Just pure audio.
I strongly advise you guys to get one of those cards, too. I paid no more than 15 bucks for it and it was a extremely useful investment.

This is very important, and adding to your comment: When you make a setup for audio, ALWAYS install Chipset drivers ALWAYS. All USB problems, communication issues, interface crash, drivers screwing the system, all of it comes from a misconfigured or non-existing chipset driver, doesn't matter if it's a 2002 acer laptop, a Pentium 3 pc or a 64 core threadripper on a MSI motherboard from 2 days ago, all of them fail by the driver of the chipset.

Another advice as a technician, is to never NEVER use an automatic driver installer, the only thing you will get is outdated drivers and blue screens, or even worst: Virus.

So, if you have problems with interfaces, controllers, something related to audio and you suspect USB is the cause, check your chipset drivers

[tonkasgotthestuff]

I made an account to say I've tried everything here and listed elsewhere. Every step presented by anyone.

I'm just going to look at purchasing a new interface with better drivers. I'm convinced Focusrite makes these interfaces for children. Anything not focusrite is fine by me.

[TS-12]

I tried 3 different focusrite Scarlett interfaces before, had cracklings issues with every single one of them on windows 10.
Tried different USB ports, driver versions, pretty much every suggestion I could find online. Nothing helped.
Even onboard audio with asio4all worked better.
Currently using Motu M4 and planing to get RME in near future.

[Spring Goose]

I think its the Focusrite drivers. My Scarlett 2i2 crackles when i use the volume knob, and now it crackles anytime on playback since i added a NI Traktor Kontrol S2 to my computer.

[AlexGardi]

Focusrite has the most problematic drivers on the planet, period.
I had most luck on 2 different laptops (both Windows 10), with 3.6.0 driver version (uninstall the old versions completely, and reboot the laptop before installation).
Buffer size needs to be 192. Traktor or a DAW software can change it without you knowing it.
Just click the F icon on the bottom right (next to the clock), in Windows, and ensure Buffer size is 192.

[Spring Goose]

Somebody told me it isn't the drivers causing my crackling. It's actually the HW causing the crackling. I think they're right.

[ROTMetro]

Never had issues with mine. Check the power usage on your usb ports. Are you powering the Traktor via USB? The fact that the volume knob causes crackling, and adding another USB powered device made the situation worse would lead me to start looking at your USB power. Try using USBDeview to see your power draw:

https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

[tooqsoundscape]

I used to get crackling regardless of the Audio interface, found it was just me trying to put too much into the track and not having great settings on my DAW, pressed f11 on FL studio most of the time so there was not display and the crackling would go.