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Q: How does my Activity Monitor show >300% on Logic Pro x?

I am running a 2Ghz quad core i 7 with 16 gigs of RAM and an ssd as my primary drive. My system monitor shows percentages between 60 and 80% and when i start Logic Pro X on my Yosemite OS they increase up to a 100% and i can't even get a song to play because it shouts System Overload and stops the process of playing my tune. The weird thing is that sometimes my activity only shows 20-40% and Logic is playing fine...Any suggestions?

 

Best,

Thomas

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on May 21, 2015 10:53 AM

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Q: How does my Activity Monitor show >300% on Logic Pro x?

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  • by Eriksimon,

    Eriksimon Eriksimon May 21, 2015 11:03 AM in response to LeChefs
    Level 6 (12,469 points)
    May 21, 2015 11:03 AM in response to LeChefs

    You have a quadcore processor with HT (HyperThreading), meaning 4 real plus 4 "virtual" is 8 CPU-cores, meaning when you totally max out your Mac it'll be at 800 % CPU.

    Also, the refresh rate of Activity Monitors' CPU-meters is slower than that of Logics', so AM may miss CPU-peaks Logic doesn't.

    Why your session is behaving as you describe is unclear, because I have no idea how it is set up and what plugins are in use in it. An all-encompassing screenshot of your mixer may help, as well as as screenshot of your audio preferences device settings (Logic Pro>Preferences>Audio>Devices>Core Audio)

  • by LeChefs,

    LeChefs LeChefs May 23, 2015 6:25 AM in response to Eriksimon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 23, 2015 6:25 AM in response to Eriksimon

    Hi there Eriksimon...thanks for answering my question...here are the requested screen shots. I hope you'll take a look at them and please ask for more info if you need it

    Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 15.16.48.pngScreen Shot 2015-05-23 at 15.18.49.png

  • by LeChefs,

    LeChefs LeChefs May 23, 2015 6:27 AM in response to LeChefs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 23, 2015 6:27 AM in response to LeChefs

    The input and output look like this because I'm travelling right now. Otherwise i have a TC Electronics Near Interface connected via Firewire...

  • by LeChefs,

    LeChefs LeChefs May 23, 2015 6:33 AM in response to LeChefs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 23, 2015 6:33 AM in response to LeChefs

    I'm sorry, here's the full view of the mixer:

    Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 15.31.54.png

  • by LeChefs,

    LeChefs LeChefs May 23, 2015 7:05 AM in response to LeChefs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 23, 2015 7:05 AM in response to LeChefs

    Oh, and here's my system in full setting

    Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 15.16.48.png

  • by LeChefs,

    LeChefs LeChefs May 23, 2015 7:06 AM in response to LeChefs
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 23, 2015 7:06 AM in response to LeChefs

    Screen Shot 2015-05-23 at 16.05.25.png

    Arhh damnit, here it is

  • by Eriksimon,

    Eriksimon Eriksimon May 23, 2015 9:24 AM in response to LeChefs
    Level 6 (12,469 points)
    May 23, 2015 9:24 AM in response to LeChefs

    Well, a few things spring to mind when seeing your mixer: first, Reaktor is a CPU-guzzler, especially in Live mode (= when its' track is selected). You also have quite a few instances of Kontakt, and 3 instances of Massive (as if it's named after its' CPU-impact). I cannot accurately assess which is the bigger contributor though, since the CPU load of all these very much depends on how they're configured - but each of those can easily be configured so they can overload any CPU.

    So, if they already stress the CPU when playing 0 voices, chances are you're going to see CPU-overloads pretty soon, especially since you have relatively slow CPU-cores.

    You should try to find out which of these instruments are the heaviest contributors, then reduce their load by either turning off any onboard effects (especially reverbs), or by freezing the tracks.

     

    In your Audio preferences: when mixing, there's no reason to not use the 1024 samples buffer - this alleviates CPU-pressure. Also, set the Process Buffer Range (the mixers' buffer) to Large.

     

    Logic Pro X: System Overload messages - Apple Support

  • by LeChefs,

    LeChefs LeChefs May 23, 2015 10:44 AM in response to Eriksimon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 23, 2015 10:44 AM in response to Eriksimon

    Thank you very much for your thorough analysis of my system. There's a lot of useful advice there. But it still nags me that i today all of a sudden was able to play that exact setup you see posted from me - with a load below 40%...