Is it my Mac or Logic X or something else?

I am having exact same problem. Only a few tracks running far less plugins than i have used on older projects, only a few midi tracks and a few audio tracks. I have started getting this sample rate conflict message too, I have never ever had that until this month. The only thing I have done is upgrade to OS Sierra, really wish i didn't. I have found time of day can vary performance, this morning before work song was running fine, now I have all tracks turned off apart from one and it is still doing it. Maddening!! Sorry I can't help you though .

Hi MessyBeatz,

If you are getting “system overload” messages when using Logic I would suggest using the steps in this article to troubleshoot -

Logic Pro X: System Overload messages

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS5412

Further information is available here -

Logic 9.1.4 or later: Core Audio System Overload messages

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3834

Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.

Best,

Brett L

I have had the same problem (intermittent thread overloads) in LPX, first with OS 10.8 and then in 10.9.4.I have followed the steps in the Apple and user advice, in particular:

* Sending all Channel Strips to buses, to redistribute the thread load.

* Re-instating VI tracks that have large libraries on them from new empty MIDI tracks.

* Playing back with only an Audio track selected.

* All my buffer settings are at the maximum.

These actions have ameliorated the problem somewhat, although it still reoccurs at random intervals. It happens both with my Apogee Ensemble or with just System audio. At times one or more threads will even start surging in a new EMPTY project. When it won't stop I have to restart the iMac and everything is OK for a while. I was recently playing a Mac Pro Video NED tutorial while LPX was open and the sound in NED started breaking up - LPX was again 'surging' on a thread - so it affected ALL the Mac's audio. The Activity Monitor in the Utilities Folder shows minimal activity.

After much experimenting with this I really don't think that the problem (in my case, anyway) is related to the processing load caused by plugins (it occurs in Empty Projects). I have concluded that it is probably a mismatch between my 2010 iMac and Logic Pro X.

iMac (2010) 2.93GHz Core i7 16 GB RAM, OS 10.9.4. Logic Pro X 10.0.7.

Hi, yes -- I'm having the same issue. The CPU meter is surging when idle. I considered updating OS X 10.9, but my specs are the same as Russell's.

Do we know if the Logic team is working on fixing this? Is there a thread I can subscribe to for input & updates?

Thanks

iMac 2010 2.93GHz Core i7 16GB RAM, OS 10.8.5, Logic Pro X 10.0.7. Apogee Duet Interface.

Hi Messy,

Have you tried disabling the iMac's WiFi during sessions? I've been turning it off the past couple weeks and haven't had the CPU surge. And just now, while recording in a single track and surfing on Safari, the CPU surge occurred. If you could verify, it might help gauge whether there's something to this idea.

WiFi & CPU use.

Welcome to Intel based motherboards... (and more varieties of "Apple" hardware)

Now you see why many of the complaints against Windows was actually the hardware it had to run on, plus dealing with and supporting thousands of hardware combinations. Every new release of OSX over the past two years has cause some kind of Logic snafu.

Messybeatz,

I'm having the exactly same problem. One cpu is spiking, eventually leading to error saying 'error while trying to synchronizing audio and midi'. I have a duet, 2009 mac pro, 16g ram, SSD boot, I write to a separate drive, and a 3rd time machine backup drive. Most Current versions of logic pro x, and mavericks.

I have eliminated every potential problem, spent days on this, tried 3 different interfaces (duet 2 usb, focus rite 18i20 newest version), went to apple genius, apogee tech support, everyone was stumped. I Did a clean wipe and a time machine backup to when before the problem stopped happening, didn't work. Then I Popped in an older hard drive and ran off a different system, problem still there with these sessions.

Certain sessions, I'm running 80 tracks, tons of midi, bussing, tons of instances of individual waves plugins, reverbs, everything. No cpu overloads, no problems. Doesn't matter where I set the buffer.

On other sessions (all recorded around last week), I can have 8 tracks, and ONE cpu is pegged. As an experiment, I took one of those problematic sessions, with 15 audio tracks, and copy and pasted them to a whole new session. I slowly added CLA vox to every track (which I thought was the problem), and the CPU loads were all evenly distributed, and all stayed very low. I went back to that original problematic session, removed all instances of CLA and any other plugins (which alleviated the problem), then slowly started adding CLA back to tracks. With each added plugin, only 1 cpu core rose higher and higher until it crapped out my system. So, right now any sessions i record audio to, those can't handle any plugins, and they spike my cpu, creating horrible distortion, and they are basically unusable.

Apogee support told me they thought it was something called sandboxing coming from plugins, but they really were stumped and could only guess.

I believe that it has something to do with these tracks that I recorded audio to. If I don't record to the session, and just copy and paste audio in there, there are no problems. Every time I try recording to brand new session, and then start using some plugins, the problem comes back. Jacking up the buffer to the maximum, while mixing, alleviates the problem, but it is still there, and of course I shouldn't record with the buffer so high. Yes, I tried the live input thing, selecting blank audio track and setting input to no input. It is not any of the individual hard drives, I ran the sessions from different HD's, booted from a different HD, that didn't fix it. The computer has been rock solid, It can't be a hardware issue, when this thing has handled much crazier sessions with no problem.

I have read every forum, tried every imaginable thing. If anybody has any ideas I'd love to hear it! Thank you!

Messybeatz,

I am in a similar situation. I have asked many people at Apple but it would seem that no one actually uses the beast with outside plugins so there doesn't seem to be any help there. I have found that for some reason running the fully sweet of Onyx and repairing the HD 'sometimes' works.

Oh and for anyone out there considering buying the new tower: "Don't even THINK about it!". I have thought long and hard about the price and financing the beast but, to my disappointment, if you go to the store and run the built in logic demo song, which certainly isn't robust, the machine will likely crash when you start adjusting the effect's parameters. I have loved logic since it was Notator on an Atari but this CPU issue along with the fact that the new tower doesn't seem to be able to run even the demo song without crashing is driving me nuts.

1) Running any of the so called Maintenance / cache cleaners /Tweaking apps like Onyx are actually likely to do more harm than good...... and should be avoided...

2) I have a new Mac Pro here at the studio, on loan from a client.... (8 Core 3.0Ghz / Dual GPU version with 64GB Ram...) running 10.9.4 (and now 10.9.5) and 10.0.7 and no problems running/editing/tweaking fx with the built in Logic demo at all... so I have no idea what the issue is, you are seeing or what causes it for you...

I've been working on it intensively over the last 2 weeks and had no issues of note that don't exist on any other 10.9.4/10.0.7 combo... i.e. known small bugs in Logic /OS X... All 3rd party plugins i use.. (K5/VSL/U-he/Omnisphere/RobPapen etc...) have all worked normally...

(Note: The original version of Logic Pro X did have an issue with the Demo in regards to some of the built in EQ plugins... when used with the new Mac Pros but that was resolved some time ago...)

So.. if you are still able to create this problem with the latest OS X and LPX combination... What error message do you get if any... or what does the crash report say?

Here is exactly what happens: The entire logic interface wiggles back and forth and then the machine crashes completely turning off. You can witness it yourself at the Manhasset store in New York. Just load the demo song and adjust any of the parameters. It's very interesting to see the personnel's panic at the spectacle of the crash. It is not uncommon for Apple to release bump first generation products as I got slammed with the first new powermac of the new design. And with the Pismo. I will always use mac but I will warn everyone when there is a major issue.

Please outline the exact steps to recreate this issue and Ill test it out here....

Did that Mac Pro have both 10.9.4 and 10.0.7 installed? (or are they still using earlier versions which is not uncommon..)

Also, what is the hardware specs for that Mac Pro? (Which GPU combo for example?) I ask because it sounds like and could simply b..e a GPU driver issue and it only happens for a certain hardware config and not the one I have here... which is the Dual FirePro D700 and not the D500...

I am not sure about the configuration as it was in the store. What you can do is to call the Manhasset Apple Store in Manhasset New York (Miracle Mile) and ask them what they are demoing on the floor. I have given a great deal of thought to this issue and I think it may be that they have the very first batch that rolled out on display and perhaps modifications for the issue have been made for later ones rolling out.

Hi does anyone have any ideas regarding the CPU spike issue that the OP and myself are having problems with?

Reinstalling waves and time machining back to earlier system, adjusting buffer, nothing seems to work.

Thx!