No matter what format I render the video to it always ends up with the audio clipping/crackling. Can anyone help?
Hi Garrick and welcome to the user to user forums.
Assuming you are using Movie Studio 2023 or above.
If the sound is only crackling on export then the sound from your sound track/s are set too loud for export. They do not distort in the program as the sound is handled at a 32 bit depth but a rendered file does not have that amount of headroom so clips if set too loud. There are various ways of setting sound volumes which are covered in the pdf manual and sometimes depending on the project requirements it may be easier to use one or more of the methods available and may also depend on the view you have set in the project window. Most of us use the timeline view but you may be using the Scene overview or the Storyboard Mode instead.
As you haven't mentioned which view you are using I will show you the basics that will work with any view in the picture below. Click on the image to enlarge the image and then to the side of the image to return to the normal page view.
Checking the volume sliders and making sure the limiter is on in the mixer should prevent clipping of the audio on export.
However, if the sound is also causing problems in the program you may have to increase the sample or buffer numbers in the program settings. Do be careful to not make large adjustments but small incremental adjustments until the problem goes away as those adjustments come at the cost of responsiveness of the program and can cause the playback to become laggy.
Please let us know if any of this has helped.
Ray.