elektronen

Tiger, Quicktime 7.1.3, Audio Clicks/pops

Lately I've become aware of occasional clicks and pops when using a variety of different audio applications on my Powerbook. It's a G3/500 Pismo. CPU usage in these circumstances is quite low, in the range of 25%. The setup involved:

MacOS X 10.4.8
Quicktime 7.1.3
Roland PC300 driver v.1.1.1

and any one of the following applications

HostX 1.0.7 w/various VST instruments
LUNA Free PR4 with various VST instruments
RAX 1.2.3 with several different AudioUnits

The click/pop sounds like a timing error. It happens every 5-15 seconds and nothing I change seems to affect it.

So, I decided to see if I could replicate the behavior under an earlier version of OS X. I have a relatively up-to-date Panther installation on the same hard drive, so I booted into that

MacOS X 10.3.9
Quicktime 7.0.2
Roland PC300 driver v.1.3 (found a newer one on the Japanese site today)

and LUNA Free PR4, several VST instruments with effects, and RAX 1.2.3 with one AudioUnit.

I figured the above was going to make the thing glitch for sure. It didn't. The sound was solid as a rock. Now I have to figure out what the deal is with either 10.4.8 or Quicktime 7.1.3. I've found several references to sound problems with one or both of those items on the Web, but nothing conclusive or specific enough to my problem.

Anyone have similar experiences with Tiger? Any sure-fire fixes? I'd be grateful for your insights.