OSX / Logic Pro random CPU spikes [Found possible fix?]

Hey folks. So I've posted about this topic a couple of times and I'm back again with an update. But to quickly recap: ever since I went from Snow Leopard (10.6.8 ) to Mountain Lion (10.8.5), I have been getting random CPU spikes when using Logic Pro X (and Logic Pro 9), and it will prevent me from doing anything because the audio will stutter constantly. It doesn't matter how big or small the project is. Sometimes massive sessions are fine, and other times, one simple plugin is all it takes. Increasing the buffer size will help negate the audio stuttering if it's only one instrument, but once I had a few more the same thing happens again.

 

I'm going to include a screen capture of the issue happening (I change the buffer size and input / output). Also, at the 4 minute mark (roughly 20 minutes later), I play the exact same thing and the problem completely disappears. This completely blows my mind, and it's impossible to re-create the issue because I don't know what's causing it. This problem has gone on too long and it's costing me money. I have to tell clients I can't edit their stuff because my computer's CPU is spazzing out.

 

Also, I've noticed that when playing music in general (let's say from iTunes, or from youtube, or soundcloud), and the CPU spikes are happening in Logic, I quickly shut logic down and listen for any audio stuttering from the music I'm listening to. It happens even when Logic isn't open, so this leads me to think that it has to be an OSX issue. I mean, in over 3 years using Snow Leopard, I never had a single CPU issue. Then I wanted to try Logic Pro X and upgraded to Mountain Lion, and that's when the problem started.

 

If ANYONE has any ideas or suggestions to how I can get closer to finding a solution, I would be very grateful. Is there someone I can contact at Apple? Should I send them this video or something? Anything helps guys, and thanks in advance.

 

5 MINUTE SCREENCAST OF ISSUE (at 4 minute mark, 20 minutes has passed and issue is completely gone, randomly):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4mlpRtrzZ8

Edited February 2, 2014 by rjsounds

Greetings,

 

How did you install 10.8? Was it an upgrade from 10.6.8? Or did you do a clean wipe and fresh install of 10.8?

 

In my experience it makes a big difference. I've had alright success with the upgrade path but much better and smooth long term success with fresh installs. Especially since Lion.

 

Also check to make sure you have the latest and greatest Apogee driver for your interface. Make sure you have any AU's that need upgrading, upgraded. I find 10.8 to be finicky with 3rd party plugins. Also make sure any other maintenance programs are compatible with ML as well.

 

Wayne

Hey Wayne, thanks for the response. I did an upgrade from 10.6.8. Do you think it would be worth it go with a clean slate and do a fresh install? Honestly, I wouldn't even know where to begin as I've never done that on a mac before. I'd also be admittedly a little scared to do something like that simply because I'd just be worried something would go wrong, or I'd lose important data. But I guess that's where backups come in right? I do have all important documents, plugin installers, and Logic files backed up on another hard drive though.

 

I also have not checked about the Apogee ONE driver... I shall do that right now actually. Didn't even know that was an option (I thought mac's didn't use drivers.... but again, I'm probably just clueless here haha).

 

Lastly, what maintenance programs are you talking about?

 

Cheers

You can do a perfect backup of your system drive with Time Machine.

 

If things go wrong you can revert to the previous state perfectly.

How much free space do you have on your system drive? Free space on project drive?

 

Did you have any issues on 10.6.8?

 

My strategy for OS upgrades is to upgrade a clone of my system, test it for a few weeks then decide If I will run that version.

I use Carbon Copy Cloner, for backing up all of my hard drives.

 

If you use Time Machine, always disable it when using Logic, otherwise it's running in the background, using CPU cycles, and accessing your hard drives.

 

Be aware that the i3 dual core CPU, is low on the Mac food chain.

 

8)

I've never used time machine. I see it on my dock but when I click it, it doesn't say "quit" or anything, which would lead me to believe it's no currently "on"??

 

Someone told me on another forum that I should back everything up on a hard drive, then do a clean install of Mountain Lion. Right now I upgraded from 10.6.8.

 

And gdoubleyou, I never had a single issue while using 10.6.8. I have around 400GB free space on my hard drive. I don't have a project drive.

 

I upgraded the i3 to a better i3 (the 3.2ghz one) but apparently it's still crap then? I thought it was pretty decent...

You have to set up time machine, it doesn't just turn on.

 

You have to specify which hard drive you gonna use as a backup and then tell time machine which hard drive to backup.

 

You can leave Time Machine off, and backup manually with the time machine icon on the upper right (top menu bar). That's what I do.

Hey guys, a little update. I'm working in Logic X right now and everything was going fine, then all of a sudden the CPU starting spiking like crazy again. So I decided to do some detective work. I opened up activity monitor and nothing was really sticking out like a sore thumb, so I just started closing programs. I closed Google Chrome, I closed f.lux, I closed iTunes, etc.

 

THEN, I looked at the top right corner and saw my wi-fi. I was like "meh, might as well close that too." And then BAM. CPU dropped instantly. I even took the buffer size down to 32 samples in my project immediately after to test it for sure (usually doing so during the CPU spikes would render the audio unbearable and choppy as hell to listen to) but alas, it ran smooth as silk!

 

Could this be just a coincidence? Or is there something that my computer is trying to connect to at random times that is taking ungodly amounts of CPU power to do.... do you think Logic is trying to download something behind the scenes? Or maybe software update is trying to do something... and it happens every so often, which may also explain the randomness of my problem...

 

Any thoughts would be much appreciated guys. I certainly hope this isn't a coincidence. I will turn my wifi back on and if I see the problem happen again I will screen capture it as I turn off the wifi again, and see if that fixes the problem. Cheers!

Wifi is known to cause CPU issues sometimes.

So perhaps it could be a wifi issue with Mountain Lion, and not actually an issue in Logic... it happened again yesterday (the high CPU spike) so I right clicked on wifi and was about to turn it off, and suddenly the CPU dropped again... I didn't even turn wifi off.. it seems too odd to be a coincidence.... I'll update this thread if it happens again

UPDATE: So here's a quick screen capture of me playing the piano with the high CPU / audio stutter issue, and then look what happens when I turn off Wi-fi. BOOM. Problem solved. Any reason why the wi-fi may be the culprit?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myHF2yeh1oA

Hi

 

5 MINUTE SCREENCAST OF ISSUE (at 4 minute mark, 20 minutes has passed and issue is completely gone, randomly):

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4mlpRtrzZ8

 

I right clicked on wifi and was about to turn it off, and suddenly the CPU dropped again... I didn't even turn wifi off.. it seems too odd to be a coincidence.... I'll update this thread if it happens again.

 

UPDATE: So here's a quick screen capture of me playing the piano with the high CPU / audio stutter issue, and then look what happens when I turn off Wi-fi. BOOM. Problem solved. Any reason why the wi-fi may be the culprit?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myHF2yeh1oA

 

action such as a mouse click or a key down. [...] When the application is ready to process an event,

it takes one from the queue.

[...]

It's like it's waiting for some other process, perhaps part of the audio engine, to complete before getting back to handling the event queue.

 

NSEvent Class Reference

 

WiFi could be clogging up a system like the one above. I see similarities continuing on. If you installed Lp9 from DVD you didn't see the Additional Content Menu to begin with. However if you purchased from the App Store, Additional Content Menu is Default. There's a difference to the system performance at the time the Additional Content Menu appeared, time machine went through a strange period around the same time. A huge chunk of 32bit code was 'purged', look out if you fell on the wrong side of the line. Sometimes the fix is simple, not always.

 

If turning off WiFi improved the system.

Audio Device and Disk usage for Logic?

 

Logic Pro X Bugs & Workarounds

CPU Testing Demo Song on a 13" late 2014 Retina MacBook Pro

 

EQ Slow and Sluggish 10.0.5

I'm having EXACTLY the same issue in Logic Pro 9.1.8.

Having worked flawlessly on 10.6.8 for years with no CPU issues, I reluctantly went to 10.8.5 needing new Plugs that were uncompatible with the older OS, thats when it all went wrong.

CPU spikes and clicks in projects that otherwise ran before. Sluggish performance.

Mac Pro 18Gb Ram 2x 2.4 Ghz Quad Core (so plenty of grunt).

Tried increasing Logic buffer to maximum and large process buffer range but to no avail.

It seems 10.6.8 was a less hungry OS?? Are you aware of anything else that might be causing this problem??

I even went up to Mavericks in the hope it might miraculously improve but the problem persists.

I will be watching WIFI today to see if this is the culprit.

So Frustrating..

Ok, same here

Logic 9.1.8, Mavericks, Quad core i7, 16gb RAM, I am using an external 7200 rpm drive.

 

I was running logic pro 9 in OSX 10.7.5 for ages and my projects were running fine. I never once noticed the CPU levels spiking into the red. EVER.

I upgraded to Mavericks and now 2 of the CPU's are constantly in the red! While the others look normal.

It is the same in 32 bit or 64 bit mode.

This is such a joke.

Surely this is a bug in Mavericks?

 

I am about 1 day away from quitting logic forever and buying cubase 7. And after that i'll probably buy a pc.

 

Are Apple going to fix this? Or will they just tell me to upgrade to Logic X?

Well actually i wouldn't mind trying logic X to see if it has the same issue... but oops Apple forgot to make a trial version.

 

I have tried changing a whole bunch of settings in Logic, but to be honest I don't see why I c=should even need to try that. Surely it should work the same in Mavericks - if not better right?

 

Aaaaarrgggh,

I've been having the same issue. CPU spikes for no reason, only in Logic X.

Quad core i7, 16GB of ram, so plenty of power under the hood... until the spike the CPU meters show around 5% or less usage on each core... then there's a spike, & core 1 hits the roof, & messes everything up.

 

I have no idea why, but I have found a workaround. If I have headphones plugged in (or am using the headphone output) then there are never any spikes... it just doesn't happen. If I unplug the headphones, it goes back to randomly spiking.

Hopefully they can fix this, but until then, I hope that might help people a bit.

I too am having trouble with the beach ball of doom due to CPU spikes and I have one of the most decked out machines that money can buy:

 

Trash Can Mac: 12-Core, 128 GB of RAM, 4 TB OWC SSD. 

 

This is highly irritating as I bought this computer precisely to AVOID issues with CPU spikes, but it's happening consistently in Logic Pro X when I use Spitfire Orchestral Samples. 

 

I am running on OS X El Capitan version 10.11.6.

 

Please help!