Logic Pro X: Very slow interface response - normal?

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terence1957 Author

Level 1

43 points

Logic Pro X: Very slow interface response - normal?

Newby to Logic Pro: I've noticed that in a project I'm currently working on that is becoming a bit large, the response to screen commands has become VERY sluggish.

I have about 20 tracks, including several sends, various plugs etc - so nothing exceptional. When I try to resize a track width by dragging for example, or click on mute, record, monitor buttons etc - there's nearly a second of delay between the action and the response. It's suddenly like working in molasses. I discovered that when I open a new project with just a couple of tracks, everything is back to a normal snappy response, do it seems dependent on project size/complexity. I have nothing to compare this with as I'm new to Logic, but never experienced anything similar in Cubase. Is this a known issue with LPX?

The weird thing is there's absolutely no problem with audio function, playback or CPU overload - so the functionality of the program in that sense appears unaffected.

Thanks.

Terence

Logic Pro 10.07

MacBook Pro

Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB

Posted on Jun 24, 2014 7:52 PM

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Answer 1

terence1957 Author

Level 1

43 points

Jun 24, 2014 9:55 PM in response to terence1957

Just an update: It appears that my experience is not unique. I found this thread on Gearslutz about LPX and a slow graphic response reported by some users. The issue comes up on a bunch of other forums also. All this dates back to Sept/2013, so one would hope for a resolution by now.

.../board/logic-pro-x/867859-logic-x-graphics-sluggish.html

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Answer 2

Pancenter

Level 6

14,788 points

Jun 24, 2014 10:08 PM in response to terence1957

To some extent this has always been the case but it's much worse now, OSX has a lot more overhead, Logic's graphic routines have been updated and it's pretty kludgy right now, I've heard the same thing from two former clients. You can tell that the task priority favors audio (as it should) at the expense of slowing graphics the larger the project. A few years ago Cubase was rewritten from the ground up based on the Nuendo code base so there's no old code left in it.

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Answer 3

terence1957 Author

Level 1

43 points

Jun 24, 2014 10:43 PM in response to Pancenter

Thanks for that - it's at least some reassurance that I'm not alone with this issue. It seems like a watch and wait exercise for Apple to fix this.

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Answer 4

terence1957 Author

Level 1

43 points

Jun 25, 2014 9:15 PM in response to terence1957

Final note: While comping vocal tracks in a stack for a practice run, Logic suddenly stopped in the middle of recording and announced that it was analysing the pitch of the five takes I had in the bag (flexipitch was not engaged). After several minutes wait it finally finished and I was left with the the takes, each with about one second delay behind the backing track and with flat lines representing the waveforms. I think I'm about to throw in the towel with LPX and go back to Cubase. I begin a recording session next week and don't want to be left with my *** hanging out of my pants. Can you imagine the embarrassment of this scenario with a real performer! The reason for the move to Logic Pro X was the fantastic loop library, and I actually like the work-flow (very intuitive and reminds me of FCP X which I also use), even though I have used Cubase for about the last 6 years. Also the upgrade path is financially kinder and I was hesitant with the next Cubase upgrade. But I think this last madness may be the final deal-breaker.

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Answer 5

Pancenter

Level 6

14,788 points

Jun 26, 2014 4:33 AM in response to terence1957

The most stable Logic platform at this time Is Logic 9 running on Snow Leopard. Specifically Logic 9.1.5, before Apple implemented the "call home" feature where Logic logs into Apple on it's own for whatever reasons. I daresay you wouldn't have any of these problems using the above system. Personally I've decided to get off the Apple upgrade train (p.s. I use Cubase 6 on a PC w/RME hardware as my main system). I use Logic for my own projects, I too like the workflow. Between the Logic updates and the continual operating system updates Logic and OSX seem to have off/on again conflicts with each other, I can tell you for a fact that Logic-X and Mavericks are a far less efficient and stable combination than earlier versions. I think it's as much to do with the OS as anything else. I used to carry between 14-16 clients whose machines I kept updated, I've dropped most of those as it was too much work trying to stop clients from knee-jerk updating the OS and application thus causing continued hassles. Anyway, the few people I keep in contact with say they're lost between 30-40% efficiency. That means a computer that could do 40 audio tracks with ample plugins can only do about 25-28 tracks before running into problems. Those who can have gone back to Snow Leopard and an earlier version of Logic.

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Answer 6

Pancenter

Level 6

14,788 points

Jun 26, 2014 2:23 PM in response to terence1957

T,

The fact you're running a laptop with a dual-core processor plays a part in the graphics kludginess, Apples software generally tends to emphasize performance on the most recent machines. Still, it's Apple's software, it should perform as well or better than software from companies on a wide range of machines... (of course, that wouldn't sell new hardware) not that I'm a conspiracist. :-/

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Answer 7

terence1957 Author

Level 1

43 points

Jun 26, 2014 6:35 PM in response to Pancenter

Hi P.

Your insights have been very helpful as clearly you have a lot of experience with Logic and with DAWs per se. When FCP X came out it caused a lot of upset and was more than just kludgy - a lot of basic features had disappeared. By version 10.1 it has really developed and most of the bugs have been shaken out. I'm hopeful that LPX will move in that direction. I do hope to upgrade the computer hardware in the near future. I've just invested in a Lynx Hilo, so that's temporarily cleared out any spare change!

Anyway - on a positive note. I persisted with LPX today and by chance noticed that in the audio channel settings I was using for vocal takes, the box labelled "flex' was ticked (something I didn't before notice or do!). It wasn't a tick, more like a blue dash that turned into tick and then unchecked when I clicked it again. Clearly this was implementing flex mode which I thought was only possible via the big "infinity" button above the tracks. Now all this laggy behaviour has gone away, helped further by my freezing the backing tracks. So I'm less grumpy overall and feel I can move forward with this.

Thanks again for all your input!

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Answer 8

Pancenter

Level 6

14,788 points

Jun 28, 2014 5:12 AM in response to terence1957

Terence,

Good to know, let us know how it's going.

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