Logic Pro using up 16GB of RAM in simple project

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Level 1

9 points

Logic Pro using up 16GB of RAM in simple project

Logic Pro is using too much RAM for a simple project.

I’ve been using Logic Pro for a few years and have recently encountered this problem. I’m getting a loading circle when first clicking play after opening the project, followed by a “Disk Too Slow” pop-up.

This is not a super big or complex project - it’s still in the early stages, with no plugins or mixing. No third-party sounds either, I’m just playing around with the instruments available in Logic.

It has about 40 tracks of MIDI regions, but only about 10 tracks are actively playing; the rest are muted and simply contain short melodic ideas/potential variations that I’m not ready to delete (and which I’ve put on separate tracks for tidiness).

I have a Macbook Pro M1 with 16GB of RAM, and plenty of disk space. Everyone online says that 16GB should be enough RAM for most medium-high size projects.

And yet, with this simple project that doesn’t even have plugins or third-party instruments, my Activity Monitor shows that Logic is using over 13GB of RAM as soon as I open it.

I have not had this issue on previous projects which had even up to 60 tracks, on this same laptop. I don’t know why this project (and another recent, even less-demanding one) is using so much RAM all of a sudden.

I have tried moving some muted tracks to a separate project, I have also tried changing the I/O buffer size, but nothing has made a difference.

I just don’t understand why Logic could handle a 60-track project with ease last year, and now struggles with this. Especially when it’s meant to be able to do so much more with 16GB of RAM.

Does anyone have any idea what the reason is?

Like I said, there’s practically nothing on this laptop apart from Logic and related files. And there’s still over 3/4 of disk space free, AND no other apps or anything open when I have Logic open. So why is Logic maxing out my 16GB of RAM with a simple project??

Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro 14″, macOS 26.2

Posted on Feb 5, 2026 4:09 PM

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Answer 1

olivelip Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 6, 2026 5:59 AM in response to yoyoBen

Update: I tried de-activating some of my muted tracks. RAM has gone back into green. Don’t know why I wasn’t aware of something so simple! Thanks mate.

Still not sure how my laptop did fine with much heavier projects of all activated tracks before but that’s just a case of my curiosity now

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Answer 2

Feb 5, 2026 4:52 PM in response to olivelip

Using more RAM is not a symptom of not having enough. It is a sign that the app is using what it needs. It would make less sense have some amount of RAM and leave half of it unused. Efficient use of RAM suggests that little is left unused when demand is increased.

An important measure of the adequacy of the RAM you have installed is to view the Memory Pressure graph for RAM in the Activity Monitor application. Check it when you have Logic up and running. If the Memory Pressure graph stays all or mostly green, or even a little bit to the yellow, then you have no problem. If the graph is deeply yellow and into the red, then the amount of RAM installed on your Mac is somewhat inadequate to the task at hand.

Check if your Mac needs more RAM in Activity Monitor - Apple Support

The "Disk Too Slow" performance issue may be related to some miscellaneous process(es) that are running on your Mac.

As when viewing Memory Pressure, you can use Activity Monitor to view what processes are eating cycles and view them in descending order while Logic is running.

View CPU activity in Activity Monitor on Mac - Apple Support

Do you have other drives connected to your Mac? Perhaps one of those is not performing well.

In Logic you can change the buffer size either greater or less and see if that has an affect on the problem. Generally speaking you'll want to use a higher buffer size to lessen the impact on the CPU when mixing and recording.

Avoid system overloads in Logic Pro for Mac - Apple Support

If, after you have examined your Mac with Activity Monitor, you still have questions or concerns, please let us know. There are other things to look at as well and software tools to do that.

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Answer 3

yoyoBen

Level 4

3,457 points

Feb 6, 2026 4:42 AM in response to olivelip

Where are you recording to? Internal vs external, spinning disk vs SSD? Are you using a hub? What is are the exact numbers in total disc size and available space?

What Logic Version, Computer Model?

BTW: "Muting" does not free cpu. You could de-activate a track instead.

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Answer 4

olivelip Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 6, 2026 12:56 AM in response to D.I. Johnson

My Memory Pressure is not red, but deeply into yellow. I looked at the other processes running aside from Logic and they all seem insignificant in size. Without Logic open, my memory pressure is always in green.

As I mentioned, I’ve tried increasing the buffer size and it hasn’t made a difference. I can’t increase it to the maximum because I’m still in the recording process, and I don’t want the latency getting too high.

And no, I don’t have any external drives connected to the laptop.

I have used this same laptop with the same RAM for heavier projects in the past, and I never got the “Disk Too Slow” pop-up.

It honestly seems to me that Logic has just suddenly started using more RAM for a project that hasn’t changed size, which I know maybe makes no sense, but that’s why I’m here asking the question.

Do you have any other suggestions please?

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Answer 5

olivelip Author

Level 1

9 points

Feb 6, 2026 5:40 AM in response to yoyoBen

I didn’t know about de-activating tracks. What exactly does this do? Can I re-activate them quickly to use the regions on them as normal when I need them?

(Also to answer your questions, I don’t know what a hub is and I’m just recording MIDI onto Logic/my laptop as it is, nothing fancy…

I have a Macbook Pro M1 and latest version of Logic.)

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