Help debugging performance issue?

[FlyingsCool]

I've been recording with my laptop,

an HP ZBook 15, 16 GB Memory, i7-4800MQ CPU @ 2.7 GHz Windows 7 Pro 64bit
with the program loaded on an Samsung MZ7PD256HGCM-000 SSD C Drive recording to a
Seagate ST975042 0AS 750 GB 7200 RPM disk drive.

I just upgraded to the latest Mixcraft 7 64 bit.
I killed all extraneous programs I could (I can't kill the Sophos Virus scanner, it's my company's computer).

I'm playing through my Focusrite 6i6 with and without the latest MixControl software version 1.8.128.0

I'd had a few issues in the past with glitching during playback and even recording. Now It's gotten worse.

I just made a few four track recordings, no VST's in use. When I play back, I'm getting at lots of pauses during playback. It's embarrassing because I'm trying to work with some other people who are used to using ProTools, and these glitches keep interrupting playback. I wasn't getting this as bad previously. It used to be with M7 if I got rid of programs it cleaned up. It's definitely worse now.

I can't figure out what's causing the pausing.

Mixcraft is using 46 MB.

Buffer size on the 6i6 is 265 which gives a 6 ms latency... Could this be the problem?
I notice the most resource intensive item are the system interrupts, then Mixcraft, during playback.

I'm wondering if I should downgrade to 32 bit. Can I? Am I licensed to do that?

What else can I look for?

[FlyingsCool]

I increased the latency to 353 (8ms) and that seemed to help a lot.

Sorry to bother everyone. Looks like it's just my resources.

Is there anything I can do on my laptop to improve its buffer performance?

[aj113]

Are you doing anything that actually requires low latency? The only time latency is an issue is when you are utilising DAW-based VIs and VSTs and you're monitoring back real time when recording - which to be honest is poor practice IMO. If you're not doing this, then set the latency to maximum.

[FlyingsCool]

Ultimately, yes, these were the initial tracks, a scratch track and 3 live drum tracks, and then they would be used to dub more tracks.

As noted, no VI's or VST's were in use on any of these tracks. I would be using some VST's when dubbing the vocals over, however.... The singer hates singing dry and likes to track with reverb on her voice.

[aj113]

Ultimately, yes, these were the initial tracks, a scratch track and 3 live drum tracks, and then they would be used to dub more tracks.

As noted, no VI's or VST's were in use on any of these tracks. I would be using some VST's when dubbing the vocals over, however.... The singer hates singing dry and likes to track with reverb on her voice.

Feed some sort of reverb into the input (but don't record it of course) then monitor the input device/interface directly rather than monitoring off MC. It's a wasteful use of resource to try and force the computer to generate a reverb algo then feed it back to the sound device which must then convert digital to analogue - all done simultaneously just so that the singer can hear a bit of reverb.