Mac Mini (2018) has problems with Logic Pro X

Yes! I forgot the most obvious. Some 3rd party plug ins create clicks/audio drop outs when you upgrade your OS or change part of your system but don't re-authorize your plug. They do it as a way to disable your project, but don't tell you that. (If I remember correctly, I went through similar frustrations that I once attributed to my audio interface because I thought I'd ruled everything else out, but it turns out IZOTOPE products - Ozone, Neutron, Nectar etc - can sometimes need re-authorization or you'll suffer the same problems you're going though.)

Check your plug ins to ensure they're all properly authorized and let us know.

The issue you're having is not a Logic issue! It has to do with your monitor resolution and it's a mohave OS serious bug!

You will notice that if you set your resolution to 1080p or Full 4K the problem will disappear!

The problem exists only in the intermediate resolutions because the OS by default tries to connect to a retina non existent screen!

To solve this issue do the following if you want to use an intermediate resolution:

System prefs/displays/click on scaled while holding the alt(option) key/click on Show low resolution modes

Then go ahead and instead of the high res mode picked by the OS pick the same low res mode underneath!

Problem solved and you will not notice any difference in resolution quality either!

Same reply as to the previous post--did you remember to verify and if necessary re-authorize all of your third-party plug-ins? Certain manufacturers have a licensing security feature that causes crackling in playback as a way to disable an unauthorized plug in.

That's because a selected instrument track is in "Live" mode and gets "enhanced" priority. Make sure the Multithreading selection in Logic's Preferences/Audio is set to only... "Playback Tracks".

Don't blame me I didn't do it! :-) Seems extreme.

I have a 6 core i7 2018 Mini. I'm getting System Overload all the time because Logic/Mojave seem to be hitting nothing but that last core. I've spent so much time trying to optimize every ounce - bouncing, freezing, so I'm not getting system overloads all the time.

And here's why - keep an eye on that last bar in the CPU monitor, 12 of 12. It's spiking as soon as I get more than a few tracks, way before any of the other cores is even at 10%. Doing what creal7 helps for sure, I found out the hard way. But you'll still get system overloads with relatively basic projects, maybe 10 or so tracks, some software instruments, some audio. Software instruments like electronic drums, and especially logic amps, absolutely peg that last CPU, or the last HALF of the CPU. I know next to nothing about CPU architecture, but it's like Apple crammed anything Logic-wise on only part of one CPU. I've had this computer since a couple days after it was released in October and I use it only for Logic, and it's been a huge pain. Making music? Sure, until Mojave/Logic gets in the way. Then it's all futzing with trying to get around this problem It's not the computer obviously. Apple software engineers really need to take a look at distributing what's going on among ALL of the cores. Why have 6 cores if one is pegging and stopping all of my projects.

I've been on the phone with Apple multiple times. I've been on forums week after week, trying everything. I've done every "good practices" for managing CPU. I'm not new to Logic - I've been using it since it was Notator, then Emagic in the 90s. This is by far the worst experience I've had with it. Apple says "get an external CPU" if I'm running out of CPU power. I'm NOT running out of CPU - I have about 90% left to play with on 5.5 cores. I'm running out of CPU on .5 of ONE chip.

I was using a nonstandard resolution (3008) on a 32" 4K monitor as I didn't realize that would be a hit. So I went to full resolution, and that did bring the spiking down by maybe 20%. So that's a big deal. But it still spikes. And with full res, I think 3840, text and interface (like UAD plugins) are just too tiny. I like having the real estate, but it's no fun when stuff is so tiny. And 1920 is way to big and cramped. I hooked my 24" 2560 UHD up to see if that would make a difference, and it was about the same as the 4K at full res, maybe a little better.

So I ordered a Sonnet eGFX Breakaway Puck 560 on Amazon for $400 because I like the large 32" screen at 3008 resolution. That's been perfect for me, and the 24" monitor seemed to small after using this.

Should be here on Friday and I'll post my results as soon as I can tell if it's making a difference. I'm actually not expecting much, as I think it's mostly what zedsdeadbaby mentioned about what's going on that last processor. But could be pleasantly surprised.

So I wanted to put this Apple article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205975 to the test (so I could put all this to bed). What is basically says is that if you're recording multiple audio tracks or VI track stacks, then you want "Playback and Live tracks." But since it consumes more resources, try to stick with Playback only. I found that to be the case - with Playback only, everything went down. However, I tried it on an electronic drum designer kit, which are hogs, and are track stacks. You can see that with Playback only it's pegging. But with Playback and Live tracks, it's manageable.

So I'll try to stay on Playback only, then try to remember that when recording track stacks to go playback and live.

This all brings me back to the original post. As I said, I've been working with versions of Logic since the early 90s. But only now am I having to learn all this, because frankly, until this Mac mini/Mojave, I never had to deal with it much before. Sure I would get some cracking and popping and knew I would have to bounce some tracks. But all of the system overloads, never. Maybe I'm just getting more ambitious. Or maybe it's this Mac mini/Mojave combination. Who knows.

Maybe I'll actually get to play some music soon :-)

Screen resolution is definitely an issue. When I talked to Apple about my overload and spiking problems the tech recommended an external GPU if I’m running 4K, which I am. However, I learned through this or another forum that if you run your 4K at one of the two native resolutions, highest or 1920, it will greatly decrease the cpu demands. Do you know what resolution your 4K was at? I can’t work at 1920, so I have my 32” 4K at the highest resolution. Things are small, but manageable.

i just hope Apple figures out how to better manage these resources.

The MacBook Pro had a similar issue. Attached is a link to a terminal fix that temporarily solves the issue (that is, until you turn off and restart your machine). But at least you could keep working. I don’t know if it will work for the Mac Mini but here it is and you can try it if you think it might help. Let us know.

https://youtu.be/dedxf5dOzkY

Hmmm actually it's worth a shot... Are you connected via HDMI? And do you have more than one cable you can try?

I still have a 2012 Mac Pro and it doesn't play nice with 4k even with a really beefed up video card meant to run 4k. HDMI and macOS have never played together very well IME. (Displayport outputs 4k at 60 FPS but HDMI at 30 FPS despite my card and cable being correct. Even using the new MacBook 4K HDMI is super laggy and I'm only getting 30 FPS output.)

One other thing you might try is going to Display Preferences and temporarily switching to 1080p and see if performance improves...

Interestingly the one thing that concerned me about the new MINI was GPU specs. All of the hype about using an eGPU seemed kind of weird...

(Also I updated my previous reply... Read through it if you missed some of it..)

following up on what zedsdeadbaby said about live tracks, cause this is important, but frustrating. Just now I took two screenshots - one with the vintage organ track selected while it was playing back, and the other with just an audio track selected while it was playing back. As you can see, if you're getting spikes while resting on a VI track, try just selecting an audio track, the result is pretty dramatic.

Hugh,

Understood about the MacMini & Mojave my main machine is an older Mac Pro running Snow Leopard and Logic 9, it is flawless with more power than I've ever needed. Eight months ago I purchased a refurbed iMac. I'm running Logic 10.4.4 on Sierra and it's decent, I'm trying to keep it on Sierra as it's far more efficient than High Sierra and Mojave. Oh, a sparking clean OS install does wonders for stability.

Yeah, Logic's infamous One-Core Curse...

From what I understand by letting live tracks focus on a single core theoretically Live performance should be more accurate and stable. Unfortunately this doesn't account for people on lower powered machines like MacBook Airs or older MacBooks, and doesn't account for CPU hogs like Omnisphere. And from what I've found in various threads, that same core is the core delegated to run OS background tasks. Why all of this focus goes to one core, let alone the same core that runs the kernel just makes no sense...

The other thing that I've found never amounted to anything useful was 'playback and live tracks' (I use 'playback tracks' by default. Even on the i9 I find the live track settings aren't any worse, and more frustrating is I find overall CPU increases...

Someone mentioned CPU issues using Logic's amps. This is definitely not normal. I've never seen CPU issues with Logic's amps, even on much older machines.