Weird artifacting during playback and export

[Jacob USC]

I'm listening to my recording in multitrack mode. The recording was done in stereo. Periodically, the audio will sound like it's mostly coming from one side or the other, or it will sound suddenly a bit louder. If I back up the playhead a few seconds and listen again, sometimes it still sounds weird and sometimes it goes back to normal. If it still sounds weird, I can just go back a few seconds again and try it a couple times and eventually it sounds normal. It doesn't happen consistently in the same place, it's just sort of random throughout. I thought this was just an issue in the editor, but after exporting just now I find that the mp3 it outputs has the same issue.

As additional information, I have 32GB of RAM and a AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor. When I look at task manager, I'm not seeing an excessive use of RAM or CPU by Audition or anything else, but it still seems like the program is having trouble rendering.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

What sound device are you using? Even with some really 'good' devices I get the occasional playback glitch. Whatever you are using, it's worth checking to see if there's an updated driver for it.

[Jacob USC]

Do you mean like what I'm listening through? I'm getting the issue using multiple output devices. Tried it on my speakers and my headphones. And I don't get these issues when listening to anything else.

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

No, I'm talking about the sound device that's either internal to your computer,or is an external usb device, that actually creates the sound. If it's internal it will be the device that feeds your headphone or output socket.