Logic Pro mastering assistant causes distortion in offline bounced file

Seems like this is a common issue. Hoping the folks at Logic are working on it!

One solution: I have found with some files that if I am sure to bounce at the same sample rate as the project, the crackling stops, or mostly stops. If I use another application to convert to 44.1 kHz, then my audio is stays clean.

I had the same issue. Bouncing the project Un-mastered and then creating a new project with just the audio file, and then using mastering assistant on that solved the issue. I was able to bounce offline without any distortion. Maybe all the instruments and data/the project's size causes the bounce procedure to become overloaded. Hopefully this works for you also.

For me, the distortion can magically disappear by turning the mastering plugin off and on again. But not always.

The distortion doesn't appear to be proportional to the loudness of the parts of the track either. And it's very much in the lower frequencies.

Yes, I am having this issue too. The crackle goes away when I turn mastering assistant off.

But some projects, with the exact same instrumentation, have not had this problem.

I hope Apple is working on this, because the mastering assistant is great -- when it works!

I have a similar problem. For me it distorts a soon as I enable the mastering plugin. This happened quite recently. It has to do with Loudness. If I deactivate loudness compensation it doesn't distort, but the volume goes down. The only way to prevent it from distortion and loss of volume is to decrees the Loudness to beneath 0.6. This never happened before. How do I fix it?

Hello,

This is the same for me. I use a Macbook pro M1max. When using mastering only for VST instruments, it works fine. But when you use it only for an audio track, it crackles a lot and is not usable. Same result in PCM and in mp3... And for me, same result if I use real time or disconnected. If I bounce the same tracks without mastering, the result is OK. Someone could help ?

Unsure of your music type, if you're using sub-bass, or a lot of low-end and don't have the monitoring system to reproduce the low frequencies correctly and run the bass frequencies with too much gain,it's possible to overdrive the system. However that would assume you're over-driving a 64 bit system?? How high is the volume level on the Master. it should not go over 0db at any time.

Hi Etienne 243

I only use VST and it occurs randomly; I tried the realtime bounce as suggested my MBonnice and that solved the issue with a troublesome bounce. I’m using Mac Mini M2 … on a different but related issue of use MacBook for a studio setup, I’m sure you already know this but please don’t leave it with the power permanently connected as I did, with a resultant swollen battery and a trip to buy the Mini !

That's an intriguing solution. I'll try it.