Logic 9 and X - high CPU spikes (still not resolved)

Hi guys,

 

This is my 3rd post now about this topic. I'm still having high cpu spikes in both Logic 9 and Logic X that prevents me from any work at all. Again, this is a random problem that has ONLY started to happen since I upgraded from Snow Leopard (10.6.8, and working in 32-bit mode in logic 9) to Mountain Lion (10.8.4, and 64-bit only).

 

It doesn't matter if I have one track, or 100 tracks, the problem still remains that my CPU will at random max out and any work in Logic 9 or Logic X becomes impossible. I can easily work in a large project for 4 hours fine, and then suddenly the CPU spikes, same as if I start a brand new session with only one track. It will work fine sometimes, and then randomly, as soon as I start playing my MIDI keyboard, the CPU jumps extremely high. I paid roughly $240 for both Mountain Lion and Logic X and it's been nothing but a nightmare so far working in 64-bit mode. There just has to be something about it being random though... why would it be fine sometimes, then act up at other times? I think this one symptom must be key in figuring out the cause of the problem...

 

I've tried changing my buffer size, changing the IO device from my Apogee ONE to the built-in input and output, changing the processing threads, changing the process buffer range, plugging my MIDI keyboard into another USB port, and NOTHING works.

 

You've all been very helpful so far with offering suggestions, but I have yet to hear from any of the Logic Guru's from this site (are there any Logic pro certified folks who can offer their opinion?).

 

There is one thing I have yet to try, and I'm not sure if it would help or not - create a new account on my iMac, install Logic X and see if the problem persists? Perhaps it's only a problem on my user account? Would that help?

 

Any other suggestions I would love to hear because I can't get any work done, it's costing me money for projects that have due dates and it's driving me insane. I'd even pay to have a Logic / Mac computer tech to physically come to my house...

 

Anyway, hope to hear from you folks.

 

P.S. I used to have a 3 minute youtube video attached but I've since deleted them from my channel, just in case you are wondering about some users here talking about seeing the actual CPU meters go up and down. Sorry for the inconvenience.

 

Cheers

Edited October 22, 2013 by rjsounds

Wow, you can even see the CPU go up when you speak louder... that's absurd... so if CPU reacts like that (never seen or heard this before, in this manner), it must be somewhere in the audio software chain, and the prime suspect must be the ONE drivers - does it have drivers? Are they up to date? Second, have you got the same problem if you use the built-in audio?

What I miss in your Finder menubar, are system measuring utilities - which can be very helpful in diagnosing/troubleshooting the situation, showing you things like disk and/or CPU temperature, used and free RAM, RAM paging activity and CPU use. Free and working well:

http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/

Also, updating to 10.8.5 might help.

Have you tried contacting Apogee?

Yes, I've tried switching to the built-in audio and the same thing happens. I mentioned this in the post, but I guess most people skim when they see a big post like mine

 

I wasn't aware 10.8.5 was out yet - maybe I will update tonight and also check for ONE driver updates. But if it is happening with built-in audio, then it can't be the apogee ONE can it? I can try contacting them I guess - why not - maybe they might have a solution.

 

If it happens again tonight I'll try to do some more tests and update this post. I really want to get this fixed! Thanks for your input.

I am having the same issue since getting mountain lion & logic x... for three years I had no problems with logic 9 & snow lepoard so this is very annoying. Have you found a fix for this yet? I did have one idea: Mountain lion has autosave as a function. Perhaps the spikes on CPU are when the system is saving. I have turned off the autosave function and I haven't had a problem as of yet. But I am very wary and I'm keeping an eye on it. I have called Apple about this and I'm hoping for an update if that's what we need for this to be fixed.

FWIW I've had the same problem too. The only thing that I could narrow it down to was mountain lion. Didn't happen on lion, upgraded to mountain lion and the problem began. Downgraded to lion and it went away again. Re-upgraded to mountain lion and it came back.

 

As stated this could be with one track without any plugins or many tracks with many plugins. It's completely random. Sometimes during playback, sometimes while just sitting idle. CPU would max out and dance around while maxed and glitch out the audio.

 

This was on a 2007 MBP/Mackie 1640i which used the apple built in FireWire driver. Upgraded to a retina MBP this summer and while the problem is not as bad I still get big spikes. This was both with L9/LX and either my Mackie 1640i or Motu 828mk3 hybrid.

 

The problem has become so annoying here I've been using ableton again since I'm not having any similar problems there. Wish I had an answer myself.

Well I can't downgrade to Lion because then Logic X won't work, and it'd be a waste of the money I spent on it. I love the workflow in Logic and I don't want to be forced to use another DAW. I'm just really disappointed... I pay the extra money for a Mac and the Apogee Mac only interface to avoid problems like this... but this is what happens when you force consumers onto the "latest and greatest." I was perfectly happy in Snow leopard... I wish they'd make it so you don't have to use the latest OS in order to use their software. Really ticks me off....

 

Anyway if I find a solution I'll update this or make a new post.

I have checked the activity monitor and it's logic - when the audio is playing the CPU will be showing upwards of 50% and more for Logic. If it happens again I'll update or try to do a screen capture video.

CPU spikes are a problem I'm having has well. I watched your video and I can say that my spikes are not nearly as problematic as yours but they can still happen when I'm only running like two software instruments.

What's weird about my spikes is that they happen when I'm doing absolutely nothing in Logic. If I have a project open, I can sit there and watch my CPU freak out. I'm literally doing nothing with my CPU -- not even typing. As I'm observing this, the only programs I have running are Chrome, Spotify, and Finder. Any ideas?

As I'm observing this, the only programs I have running are Chrome, Spotify, and Finder. Any ideas?

How does it act without Chrome, Spotify, and Finder open?

Still seeing spikes.

 

I do have Dropbox, Google drive, Evernote and Avast running in the background but I have a hard time believe that would be causing problems. Even without playing anything whatsoever, I still get gnarly CPU spikes.

Avast? As in antivirus? This would be the first thing to disable to troubleshoot CPU activity, whenever an AV starts scanning it typically eats through CPU cycles like there's no tomorrow. A well known issue on Windows machines that I've learned to live with - whenever a PC suddenly becomes sluggish, don't psyche out and either let the AV finish or cancel the scan.

Still seeing spikes.

 

I do have Dropbox, Google drive, Evernote and Avast running in the background but I have a hard time believe that would be causing problems. Even without playing anything whatsoever, I still get gnarly CPU spikes.

 

Turn off the antivirus. If you're on a Mac and you don't have a windows partition, you don't need that. There are no viruses on the mac.

FWIW I've had the same problem too. The only thing that I could narrow it down to was mountain lion. Didn't happen on lion, upgraded to mountain lion and the problem began. Downgraded to lion and it went away again. Re-upgraded to mountain lion and it came back.

 

I know this doesn't answer your question, but due to issues like this I am still on 10.6.8 with Logic 9. It took me so long to get all my components operating in harmony that I don't wanna risk any failures by upgrading! Perhaps if you just go back to Logic 9 until things are resolved you can wash away these issues.

 

Also FWIW the Apogee ONE is compatible: http://apogeedigital.com/drivers/ONE_July_2012.dmg

Same problem here!

Same here. I'm now getting spikes when Logic's not even playing. It just sits there and spikes at random. I feel that this may be a serious problem, but I don't see a response from Apple?

Same here. I'm now getting spikes when Logic's not even playing. It just sits there and spikes at random. I feel that this may be a serious problem, but I don't see a response from Apple?

 

I won't go and say I know exactly what this is, but here's what happened for me:

 

Basically the same issue. It turned out that my internal HD was corrupted, so I bought a new 7200rpm 1TB drive, installed it, backed up from a clone, and everything was magically fine! I had already been using 8G RAM and 7200rpm external G-Drives so I knew those weren't the issue.

 

Do you have an app like Drive Genius? Or even disk utility, it will let you know the status of your drive. It's at least worth a shot!

I wouldn't sweat it, Logic's cpu meter doesn't represent system performance.

 

Are you getting system overload messages that stop playback?

 

Same here. I'm now getting spikes when Logic's not even playing. It just sits there and spikes at random. I feel that this may be a serious problem, but I don't see a response from Apple?

 

I won't go and say I know exactly what this is, but here's what happened for me:

 

Basically the same issue. It turned out that my internal HD was corrupted, so I bought a new 7200rpm 1TB drive, installed it, backed up from a clone, and everything was magically fine! I had already been using 8G RAM and 7200rpm external G-Drives so I knew those weren't the issue.

 

Do you have an app like Drive Genius? Or even disk utility, it will let you know the status of your drive. It's at least worth a shot!

 

Thanks for your help. I will check it out. It's a new computer though and I doubt that the HD is corrupted.

I wouldn't sweat it, Logic's cpu meter doesn't represent system performance.

 

Are you getting system overload messages that stop playback?

 

 

Logic's cpu meter is randomly spiking and I hear pops and clicks. The audio interference is what drives me nuts.

 

I initially mixed a CD at high buffer rate and all was fine. Now I need to use 128 cycles or less for composing/playing and the audio is not reliable.

Oh, the mystery deepens. I turn on Logic this morning with the same settings as last night when it spiked like crazy, but now everything is super smooth!

 

No rhyme, no reason! What am I missing??? I don't see any app running in the background that could randomly cause Logic to misbehave.

 

I will let you know when the problem starts again. I hope it won't ...

30 minutes later the spikes are here again ... Could it be a RAM issue? I only have 8 GB.

I was recording one software inst. and thought I would stop inputting midi (playing keyboard) watched the meter and it would still spike randomly.

I'm thankful that logic9 is working for me. But this sucks

 

 

iMac i7 2.8 with 4 gigs....I know that's not much ram these days, but come on 1 instrument (from logic)

I'm not making progress with my random cpu spikes. Anybody got better luck ... ???

Any background apps running? Antivirus, or anything unnecessary?

Have tried turning off Spotlight for your external drives?

Hi triplets,

 

There is no other app running besides Logic.

 

Re Spotlight: I look into it. Not sure how to turn it off, but I'll figure it out.

 

Thanks for your help!

Re Spotlight: I look into it. Not sure how to turn it off, but I'll figure it out.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Go to system preferences, click on spotlight, click on the privacy tab and then select the drive you want to exclude from spotlight.

I'd like to share what I've found. If I shut down my browser, then suffer through one or two paybacks of my project with all the overload roadblocks, then they will stop happening completely.

 

Here's my theory. The browser competes for virtual memory (or something like that) with my browser, which stakes out a position before Logic gets a chance to use it. It takes a play-through to clear the address of that junk. well, it's a theory, anyway. I CAN say that the procedure seems to work every time.

Trivial but turning off the Mac for a while could be beneficial. Leaving your Mac On all the time: not good!

Turn screensaver off. Dont use sleep mode.

Try SMC reset.

Thanks for your help. I've followed all the advice, but I'm still getting random clicks.

 

What worries me is Logic just sitting there, nothing is playing or triggering, and it's spiking (CPU #4). Does anybody else have these random spikes? Do I have a faulty machine???