Granted, nothing beats a jerky drummer for aggravation.

Reboot then Factory Reset are then first things to try, as mentioned.

Not only turning off the virus scanner, but also turning it off during an install, is a good thing to try.

The last time I recall seeing the term "jerky" used here was a case where there was interference by the network card. The playing "stuttered" but then raced to catch up to where it should have been. If that sounds familiar and you are using the Internet at the same time, try disabling your network card temporarily.

If that doesn't do it, you could try the DPC Latency Checker to see if something is interfering with your system's ability to do audio. It's a simple but powerful utility with instructions here: http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml

Did you recently change anything on your system?

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.