I get the audio crackle also, been trying to figure it out for a while. Some people seem to have solved it by disabling power saving on the audio card. Didn't work for me but might work for you.cat /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/powersaveIf it returns a "1" then power save is active
Bitwig works nicely and has been winning over some Ableton users. Reaper has a Linux version and Ardour is a pretty popular Linux DAW
https://github.com/robbert-vdh/yabridgeI've been meaning to give this a try but not got around to it yet.
I get the audio crackle also, been trying to figure it out for a while. Some people seem to have solved it by disabling power saving on the audio card. Didn't work for me but might work for you.
cat /sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/powersave
If it returns a "1" then power save is active