Core Audio System Overload (-10011)

A slow disk (plugged in via USB 1 perhaps) or you're running Logic in Rossetta mode for some reason? I'm just guessin'. Logic works well for me on a less powerful computer than what you've got.

Hi,

You are the Nth person with this issue. I remember answering this at least five times over the last 6 months.

Here we go again:

Here's a few off the top of my head:

1. Hard Drive bandwidth issue. The hard drive is actually not being able to read enough data in time to keep up with Logic.

2. Hard drive BUSS issue. The bandwidth at the Motherboard section that is connected to the playback drive is getting overloaded. This is less common, but can happen, with some of the fastest drives, and slower motherboards.

3. Buffer overload. This happens when the audio hardware buffer, gets overloaded with data. This is the Core Audio Engine. This can happen with a myriad reasons. Most often is can be a hardware driver that is incorrectly reporting or polling data throughput. Other times, this can be due to a corrupt file somewhere in the system. Regular maintenance routines can prevent or alert to these problems.

4. Audio system overload. This is where the audio playback device, the converter, is being overloaded with data. This usually is quite rare, but can happen when faulty drivers, or a bad FireWire cable, for instance, are in the mix. resetting the device, updating firmware, or ultimately repair can solve this issue.

5. Finally, when there is actually too many audio data streams happening at once, and the computer itself is not fast enough to process it in time to keep up with Logic. This is by far the most common issue that happens. People get involved in creating their music, and after adding track after track after track, "suddenly" the problem happens. If one knows one's equipment, and it's limitations, then this problem will simply not happen. In this case, ignorance is certainly not bliss. This happens a lot when using a combination of streams, for example, a lot of Sculpture instruments AND audio tracks. This can choke usually right at the Core Audio playback level, without involving hard drives or even the audio hardware. This issue is from the song itself. When this issue arises, the best option is to render the soft synths into audio files, either by "freezing" the track, or by bouncing out the track, and re-importing the audio.

So, if one judiciously follows a logical regimen of TROUBLESHOOTING, then one can and does find the problem, quickly followed by the correct solution.

If one does not follow proper troubleshooting procedures, one will not get the correct solution. Patience and diligence are usually key to getting results.

Cheers

Spellchecked by a rabid baboon on caffeine

Everytime I first turn on my computer and launch Logic,
then open a session that I'm working on then play back the
song I get the following error everytime no matter which
song it is:

A question, and a couple of things to try.

Is it only the first time you play the song through, does it play ok after the first error, or is the error repeated each time you play the song.

Are you using the Mac's onboard audio? I didn't see mention of an audio interface.

1. Check the I/O buffer under "Audio Hardware & Drivers".
Try a 512 or 256 setting, Don't start at the lowest
possible buffer, especially if using the Mac's
built-in audio.

2. Try using the internal drive for audio recording.

3. Under "Audio Hardware & Drivers" again, do not check
larger disk buffer. Set process buffer to medium,
(experiment with this setting, some people get good results with the PB set to small.

4. Are you using any Space Designer reverbs? If so, how many?

pancenter-

p.s. What's up with this forum??? It's a pain in the
derrière to use.

No it is not only the first time but several times after >that, it just keeps overloading every time I play it back.

So, did you even try my first three suggestions? (below)

Try using 1 Space Designer Reverb on a bus. You have to be careful of the length of the impulse you use as some of them are long and use a lot of CPU.

Speaking of which... what are your CPU and Disk performance meters reading when the get the overload.

1. Check the I/O buffer under "Audio Hardware & Drivers".
Try a 512 or 256 setting, Don't start at the lowest
possible buffer, especially if using the Mac's
built-in audio.

2. Try using the internal drive for audio recording.

3. Under "Audio Hardware & Drivers" again, do not check
larger disk buffer. Set process buffer to medium,
(experiment with this setting, some people get good results with the PB set to small.

pancenter-

There is actually a bit of a bug with space designer although I think it might only be with intel macs. Basically, whenever space designer is no longer in use it 'unloads' itself and causes a massive CPU spike which more often than not incurs an overload message.

Open your system performance window and watch the CPU usage. If it runs fairly low most of the time then spikes massively only on one CPU and always at the same point in the song it is likely space designer is causing it. There's a simple workaround though - you just have to make sure it never enters an idle state. Create a small region of audio silence on one track, loop it through the song and send it to all of your space designers. This fixed the problem for me. Although for future projects I think I will be switching to Waves IR-1!

Hello! I am having the same problem with Logic ( Core Audio system overload) running in my MacBook Pro. Did you solve this? is it a low RAM? do you think that getting an external sound card will solve the problem????

It sounds like you using space designers as inserts. The workaround I described was for using them on busses as sends (which btw is a more efficient way of doing it as you can use a single reverb for multiple tracks). If you are using it as an insert, loop the silence for the tracks you are using it on to fill all the gaps instead. The easiest way to do this is create a duplicate track sharing the same audio object and loop the silence on it. The active regions will take priority over the loop automatically, although I don't know how this would work if you are using loops!

Other tips : Turn of any kind of energy saver and use only the Macbook with the power supply so no sleep mode or whatsoever messe with the harddrives while you're working.

Morten

Ok I'll try describe this quickly. First make sure your audio objects are displaying sends. They should appear underneath the insert slots. If not, select the audio object in question and in the inspector check the box which says 'show sends'. Click on one of the send slots and select a bus number. You'll now get a little pot on the channel. If you turn the level of the pot up it will send that amount of the audio signal to the bus. Now go into your track mixer and click on the box on the left hand side which says bus (make sure global is turned on). Put the space designer as an insert on whichever bus your sent from the channel. Turn the reverb level up to max and make sure the direct level is at 0. Since your using it as a send you'll want it to be all reverb. Now any channel you send to that bus will get the same reverb. The process is exactly the same as using a send on an analog desk.

Did that make sense?

Hey,

I started getting this error about two days ago with a song that had been playing back just fine for a week but now fails. I have made no changes to this project - it just fails to play back now.

The only change to my system has been the addition of a LACIE SATA PCI Controller Card. I have an external HD that connects via SATA or USB 2.0. I added the card to increase performance.

I am going to pull the card and see what happens....