hi i'm a newbe,,,,have a system overload problem

whenever i open a song file and play it ....the song will stop and a message appears that says

{....system overload ,,,,the audio engine was not able to process all required data in time..... }

It works the second time, but i am planning on using this program for live performances , Can this be corrected?

thanks

john

Try going to Logic > Preferences > Audio > and in the core audio tab raise the I/O buffer size.

The I/O buffer has a give and take relationship.

Essentially, a higher buffer setting is going to decrease processing required by the audio hardware, but will introduce some latency

A lower buffer setting won't introduce latency, as well as some other things, but it does require more processing power on the audio hardware side of things, and this is where a lot of system overloads come into play.

Sorry I didn't explain that very well, very tired right now, but try aiming for a number somewhere in the middle, say 256, to start out with.

If you are still getting system overloads frequently, try raising the number until you feel like you are able to avoid system overloads.

Hope this helps.

First, a few questions:

What are the project's like: audio only... audio + plugins?

Which plugins: Logic Pro only, or 3rd party plugins as well?

Which 3rd party plugins?

What audio interface do you use?

Do you use any other 3rd party hardware with the system (midi interfaces/controllers)? Which ones?

Unfortunately, there SEEMS to be more than one cause for the Overload error. Without knowing more about the system and how you're using it, it's hard to say really what the solution would be. I know there's a defect in there somewhere, but it's not alone in its throwing of this error (apparently... as near as I can tell).

I will say that what worked for me was to install the entire system to a bootable FW drive, OS + Logic + everything. I boot from it when I'm wanting to use Logic now, as it won't work in any other scenario.

But, it works perfectly in that setup. I know... it's weird, and I sort of understand why, but I've recited it quite a few times and I don't want to bore anybody.

There are other ideas for solutions as well (work for some apparently, but not for everybody, including me):

Run a little "renice" script to increase Logic Pro's priority within the OS.

Trash Your Preferences (this one just drives me crazy, actually, but it's there).

Fiddle with your various audio configuration combinations (there are loads of combinations, actually): io buffers, midi pre-roll, low latency mode, etc.

Another idea I had, but haven't tested, is to insert a few blank measures at the beginning of all software instrument tracks. Then, insert a more or less meaningless midi region there (I don't know if empty would work, but don't put actual notes and used data in it). Then, essentially think of that section as being the project initialization section... unused, but present.

My theory for that is that since I think the primary problem with overloads is plugin initialization within a song, having all the plugins force initialize right at the beginning, MIGHT take care of the problem. Logic would think they need loaded, even though they aren't going to be doing anything. I've also never received the overload with instruments that start on measure 1... it's always on region start somewhere later in the song, so this theory is based around emulating that.

Like I said: I haven't tried it. I don't know when I'll get around to it, actually. I spent 4 months testing Logic Pro, and now that it's working I'm not all that interested in revisiting testing mode again. I'd prefer to be working on songs.

Google "Logic Pro 8 Overload" and do some searches here, and you'll see tons of discussions on it.

I hope this helps,

- zevo

I have the same problem...I changed a few settings as explained above and it does help a lot- although the error messages do keep returning.

A friend told me that by updating the RAM (mine is currently at a very low 1GB) this would solve the problem, so I will be updating to 4GB + (depending on budget).

Jamie

I dont think that updating the RAM helps in this situation. The I/O Buffers adjustments helped me on my MacPro.

But, occasionally, I will get all the meters pumping and no sound, so I go and switch the Buffers on or off, depending on the state it was in when I opened the preferences and then it usually comes back. It is the oddest thing and I can't quite nail it down.

I have 5 GB of good RAM and every other program runs flawlessly.

I almost forgot to mention:

For those of you who can reproduce this fairly reliably, and can't find a system solution that fixes the problem (like buffer settings, dodgy plugins, etc).

Go here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/logicpro.html

For the more technically inclined, go here too:

http://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/

For both links, make sure you're as specific as possible, with repro steps. Maybe even do a web search and post links to forum threads by others in the same boat as you so Apple knows this isn't as isolated as it used to be, and appears to be (in some cases, at least) a real issue.

For the second link, make sure you follow the posting format guidelines, as it is a defect reporting site, and no one's going to read it if you don't follow the rules.

Also, if the "renice" script fixes the issue for you, STILL submit the issue to apple and let them know. They need to know as many specifics as possible.

Good luck,

- zevo

PS - if anyone follows my "boot system from FW drive" suggestion, I'd REALLY like to know the results. Feel free to PM me about it.

Joined: 10 Dec 2007

Posts: 9

Location: Emeryville, California

New postPosted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:15 pm Post subject: : hi i'm a newbe,,,,have a system overload problem Reply with quote

Try going to Logic > Preferences > Audio > and in the core audio tab raise the I/O buffer size.

tried this and it didn't work

john

First, a few questions:

What are the project's like: audio only... audio + plugins?

Which plugins: Logic Pro only, or 3rd party plugins as well?

Which 3rd party plugins?

What audio interface do you use?

Do you use any other 3rd party hardware with the system (midi interfaces/controllers)? Which ones?

I have an imac , am running Logic 8 , and have a MOTU Ultra-lite interface to hook up my controler ( using an old ensonic VFX) and a boss GT-6 for guitar , that runs to the interface..

i think you're on to something ....everytime i hit a region that introduces a new instrument i get the overload error.

john

Hi dude,

I'm using Logic Pro 8. The sessions can be anything from a whole weeks (or longer) worth of work inc. plugs (millions of them) and audio, and also it can happen (overload error) when I've only got ultrabeat and an audio file up and running.

This only happens with Logic, not Ableton Live or anything else I try.

I use a Mackie ONYX Satellite audio interface and no other hardware.

Jamie

Thanks for the extra info.

That helps a bit. One of my test machines back when all I was doing was investigating this was, in fact, an iMac 2.16GHz with 2GB memory. It was quite easy to reproduce, actually.

See if you can do this:

- create a test project with 3-4 tracks of built-in instruments (es1, es2, ultrabeat, etc.). I'd NOT recommend using Sculpure for this test, and don't put anything else on the tracks (no effects... no environment patching with arpeggiators, etc.).

- stagger the start times of each instruments midi regions... something like: track 1 starts @ measure 1, track 2 @ measure 9, track 3 @ measure 17, track 4 @ measure 25... end the project @ measure 33. (something like that.. . it doesn't have to be exactly that).

- set your audio buffers @ something reasonable... say 256, and the process buffer range to medium... don't enable the i/o safety buffer

- reboot the machine, open logic and play the test project

Did you get the overload?

If so, increase your audio buffers to 1024, and set the process buffer range to large. Reboot and try to play the project again. Did you get it this time?

If you have time to do that, please report back.

If you do that test, and receive the error message each time, then you might be in the unfortunate camp of hitting the ROOT core audio overload problem going around these days. If you are, there's very little you can do. I tried many, many things over a very long period of time, and couldn't come up with a simple solution.

I don't, however, suggest you just "get used to it."

Instead, file the feedback and bug report, and think about investigating booting the system from external FW drive.

If you can't boot from an external drive, or really, really prefer not to, let me know and I'll put my system back on my internal drive and see if my other idea works (inserting "dummy" regions on all my virtual instrument tracks, measure 1).

Let me know how it goes, and good luck,

- zevo

Strange, my computer flickered and my "edit" became a quote...

Ah, computers.

Ignore this post,

- zevo

Hi all,

Just a small bit of input here. I was also experiencing the overload message quite frequently. I have a Mac pro (mid 2007) quad core with 4Gb of ram with a Motu828mkII and powercore firewire. I tried various buffer settings but still had the problem. I decide to set up a raid 0 project drive and at the same time install a sonnet firewire card and I have to say, touch wood, I have not had this problem since. I have both the motu and powercore connected to the sonnet card and my buffer is set to 128 with the safety buffer set to off and the process buffer range set to small. The overload seemed to happen when a guitar sound I had loaded in Kontakt 3 kicked in and the cpu would rocket up causing this problem (in that particular project), but the same project now works great with the changes I have made. I appreciate that everyones setup is different so this may not be much use to you. Just my findings, cheers.

Thanks DiScO,

It's always good to get more information.

BTW - I think that CPU spike is related to disk read/writes as much as it's related to Kontakt. It got that too, and it always corresponded to a disk IO usage increase and the overload.

The RAID bit is telling, since I think at at the core of this issue is flooding the hard drive during plugin initialization (reading/writing over the bus too quickly for the hard drive to keep up with, even 7200RPM drives). RAID 0, however, should help this particular situation, by increasing the performance of the hard drive set.

What's your raid controller? SCSI? SATA?

What's the RPM of the drives? 7200? 15,000?

So you say it's the project drive that's RAIDed? Fascinating. I would have thought that the drive doing the work during plugin initialization would have been the system drive, but I truly don't know such details.

I have an iMac and a Macbook, so I can't RAID anything or add alternative controller cards.

But, I think I've solved the issue on my system from completely the opposite angle:

Instead of increasing the performance of the drives via RAID or something like that, I decreased the performance of the bus going TO the drive, which should make the drive have slightly fewer things going on in real-time read/writes (close to real time, anyway).

It's worked extremely well, and I'm Overload free 100% since doing so.

Still feels weird to boot a laptop from a FW drive though.

It's good to know there's more than one workaround.

Just a thought: think about filing a feedback report about it even though it works for you now. Without meaning any disrespect to Apple (seriously), we shouldn't have to have RAID drives and boot system externally to make the product work. No negativity meant by that statement, btw...

Take care,

- zevo

Hi inmazevo,

Did your test, didn't get the sytem overload message on the first test...think I followed it right!

Jamie

Hi inmazevo,

Did your test, didn't get the sytem overload message on the first test...think I followed it right!

Jamie

That's good... I think, though it does make one wonder why you sometimes get them with small projects, and not with other projects.

Did you notice any CPU spikes @ region starts?

If I can remember to, I'll post my test project so you can try it. Perhaps patch/sample selections have an impact on it as well.

- zevo

Didn't take not of CPU tbh. Would love to try your test project.....

Jamie