Crackling & Latency
Pops, clicks, stutters and dropouts almost always mean the same thing: the engine couldn't deliver a block of audio in time. The cure is usually one setting — the buffer size — balanced against how much latency (delay) you can tolerate. This page explains the trade-off and how to read the clues.
Read the status bar first
The bar along the bottom is your dashboard:
Running | 48000 Hz | 10.0 ms | CPU 4% | Ovr 0 | Und 0- Ovr (overruns) and Und (underruns) — glitch counters. If either climbs while you hear crackling, the buffer is too small or the CPU is starved. They should stay still.
- CPU — the engine's load. High here points at a heavy processing chain.
- The ms figure is your current latency.
Restart the engine (⏹ then ▶) to zero the Ovr/Und counters, then watch whether they climb again — that tells you if a change actually helped.
Fixing crackles, pops and dropouts
1. Raise the buffer size. Settings → Audio → Buffer Size. The default is 480 samples (10 ms). A bigger buffer is more forgiving of timing hiccups, at the cost of a little more latency. This fixes the large majority of crackling.
2. Loopback and app channels need headroom. If the noise started when you added a LOOP or 🎯 APP channel, set the buffer to 256 or higher — virtual capture delivers audio in burstier patterns than a microphone. Also check the channel's SETUP tab for a ⚠ "{rate} kHz" badge: it means that device isn't at Aura's 48 kHz, so Windows is resampling it — a common cause of crackle on virtual cables. Set the device to 48000 Hz in Windows Sound → Recording → (device) → Advanced.
3. Check the CPU. A high CPU reading means the processing is too heavy for the buffer. Close other demanding apps, and trim costly chains — lots of FX inserts, HRTF and high-band EQ all add load (mostly Premium features).
4. Let the engine self-heal. Turn on Auto-restart on failure (Settings → General). If a glitch storm hits, Aura Mixer restarts the engine automatically instead of leaving you with a crackling mess. (Settings — General.)
5. Avoid Bluetooth for capture/monitoring. Bluetooth audio is high-latency and timing-unstable — fine in a pinch, poor for a live mix.
Fixing too much latency (audible delay)
If your own voice in your headphones feels delayed:
- Lower the buffer size — but only as far as it stays glitch-free (watch Ovr/Und).
- Switch to WASAPI Exclusive (Settings → Audio). Exclusive mode hands Aura Mixer sole use of the device and unlocks the smallest buffers — latency as low as 2.7 ms — at the price of no other app sharing that device while the engine runs. (Settings — Audio.)
- Remember that Bluetooth adds large, unavoidable latency no buffer setting can remove.
The trade-off in one line
Smaller buffer = less delay, more risk of crackle. Bigger buffer = rock-solid, more delay. Nudge it toward the smallest value that keeps Ovr and Und at zero.