Thought I would answer my own question.
It wasn't NU_StringMachine.. but NU_Expressive_ST - both in the video, and crackling in my SEM. I opened the top portion of the SEM, and under the Chorus settings found that "Noise" was set on?? Clearly, it isn't set 'on' in the video, and turning it off - gives the sound the nice non-crackly textures in the video.
Problem solved for me. But, I am wondering why that setting would be set to noise, for this patch. Feels like a mistake. anyway -- if anyone runs across a patch that seems to have crackles and noise in their SEM... first place i would look is in the upper section under Chorus, making sure that it is set to "SINUS" not "NOISE"
cheers