Layla audio problem

[mjm]

I'm having a devil of a time getting rid of a clicking, popping noise from my Layla. It sounds a lot like playing a less-than-perfect vinyl record. It seems to be somewhat related to the number of tracks in Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 that I record. The more tracks, the more clicks I hear. The problem is still evident (although to a smaller degree) playing files through the Layla using Sound Forge. The noise is not recorded onto the files, I can play them back clean through my Pinnacle DC30. I have tried Cakewalk's advice of reducing the velocity for every track, but it makes no difference. I have also checked for IRQ conflicts, changed PCI slots, checked for bad cable connections, tried different drivers for the Layla, updated the Cakewalk drivers looked for software/hardware conflicts using Microsoft's tools, and a number of other things I can't remember by now. *Nothing* seems to work! I have started contacting Cakewalk and Echo, but was hoping for some advice here. What have I overlooked? Is the Layla hardware just defective?

[foo]

Had a conversation with a guy who has a small studio in LA and he told me (and I didn't fully understand, 'cos I'm not too bright, y'know) that if you are using different 'bit numbers' (e.g. 20 bit this, 24 bit that, 16 bit something else) in the recording chain, when you come to record it you may get pops and clicks of various types because the processors which make all those different numbers work together may not do a great job and some of the transfers may not be totally seamless.
Don't know if this helps at all, but hope it may shed some light on your problem.

foo