Bob's advice sounds right to me.

When you mention "garbled sound" and Focusrite together, I immediately suspect the ASIO buffer size. Unless your Focusrite is one of the 2xx models, the adjustment is in the Scarlett MixControl software under the Settings button.

Additionally, when I first upgraded to Windows 10 a year and a half ago, I experimented with Focusrite's beta drivers. I got garbled sound and had to roll back to the standard driver.

Note that my experience is with three older Focusrite units, a 6i6, 8i8 and 18i20. If you have a new 2nd generation unit, my advice does not apply - I haven't used one.

About SONAR, I went from version 3 all the way up, through 8.5e, then X1-3, and now Platinum. I never encountered a sound issue that was related to Windows. Any challenges were related to drivers, not Windows.

SONAR 8.5, with the final "e" update, was a stable product, well tested. However, I don't know about using it in Windows 10. There have been a few recent posts about this version and Windows 7, which is no longer supported, on the Cakewalk SONAR forum. I saw that update you mentioned. Absent other info, I suspect your answer will be found through SONAR support. Since that is slow at the moment, you might try the forum. Or even Focusrite email support, which I have always found to be fast and accurate.

Does that help?

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.