Distorted/crackling sound in multitrack during playback

[Richmond Comms]

I am recording a podcast using the RØDECaster Pro which is connected to Adobe Audition via USB. My headphones are connected to the RØDECaster Pro which sounds good throughout the record. But when I play it back on Audition at various parts (e.g. 1.20-4mins and 11-13mins) the audio has a crackle behind it and at times is very distorted. Does anyone know why this would happen? I can't understand why it sounds good, goes distorted and then sounds fine again. 

I'm using ASIO, Buffer Size: 1024, Sample Rate: 48000Hz and recording in multichannel and have the latest version of Audition. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

No, I'm afraid that we haven't the faintest idea, because you haven't given us any clues at all. The very basic one would be - can we hear a sample of this crackling, please? Without that, we'll get nowhere.

[Richmond Comms]

I've uploaded a clip here: https://youtu.be/2Af4RCB3v_c 

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

That does seem remarkably like the way a playback buffering error would sound, but it's certainly rather odd that it would only occur briefly - unless something else in your PC is swallowing up resources. If you look at the waveform, what does it look like at these points? And come to that, do they always occur in the same place during each replay?

[Richmond Comms]

It was the only program running at the time but there is a chnace it was running processes in the background (trying to connect to WIFI etc.). Yes the sound is always distorted at the same points both on Audition and when it's exported. 

Here is a screenshot of the waveform. The sound is fine up to about 1.20 then the crackling and then distortion starts. 

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

Well that's a start - we've established that this is a recording error, not a playback one. At this point the obvious thing to look at is what else is connected to your PC's USB system...

[Richmond Comms]

Thanks. The only thing connected was the RØDECaster Pro. 

[SteveG_AudioMasters_]

In that case, as you suspected earlier, something's grabbing the resources in your computer sometimes. There are several possibilities, and the other thing I should have asked you was whether you are recording in Waveform or Multitrack view; they are completely different processes. Waveform view recording is written to a temp file and not to the final file until you've saved the result. Multitrack, on the other hand, records direct to the final file. Generally this is a better way to record, simply because it doesn't involve any copying from temp to final file.

[Richmond Comms]

Okay thank you. It was in Multitrack view. Is there a way to stop this happening in the future? Can I put the laptop on airplane mode for example?