(PC) Sound stutter - frame drop/skips

Returning to TERA and I am experiencing something I had never before. To preface, my computer is definitely sufficient to play Tera, even though it is terribly optimized. However, I have been encountering the issue where, after approximately 20-30mins, the sound will begin to completely stutter, skip, freeze, etc, which then leads to frame drops, and eventually being unplayable. Definitely seems like a memory leak or something like that.

But... how does one fix it? Tera is unfortunately unplayable due to this. I have tried and applied all the optimization .ini changes, FOV, turned off music/interface sound, etc. Looked if there was a conflict with audio drivers and I am up to date in that regard.

Anyone have this experience and fixed it?

EDIT: I've disabled detecting controller. I've even tried playing it with the worst graphics possible. The leak still occurs, stutters all sound (even Winamp, for example), and eventually becomes unplayable due to the stutter also attributing to the random frame drops.