Getting constant 'Disk Is Too SLow' -10010 error message!

Hi Guys, I'm really stuck this end and need your help! To cut a long story short, I treated myself to Waves 'Abbey Road Collection' & NI 'Abbey Road Drummer' software for Xmas. After installing, it was working in an erratic fashion and seemed very 'buggy'. I discovered the above software packages were designed for 'Mountain Lion' onwards so I did what I've been threatening to do for sometime now and upgraded both my OS and my version of Logic (I went from 'Snow Leopard' to 'Mountain Lion' and up to the last available programme version for Logic Pro 9 - NB: I didn't upgrade to Yosemite as I have read a few horror stories about it not working so well with Logic Pro 9 and I'm hoping not to have to change my DAW to Logic X not just for financial reasons but also because I've only just gotten used to working in Logic 9!)

 

So, to cut to the present, for the last month I've been trying hard to get to grips with my new software but it's been a TOTAL nightmare to be honest! I am CONSTANTLY fighting to free up power (raising Buffer size/Freezing tracks/etc) and I just can't get going here. Even just playing back a project with a handful of tracks is a 'mare (say: one midi drums track made with NI 'Abbey Road Drums' using Kontact 5 Player I/O; a couple of vocal tracks utilisng Abbey Rd plug-ins; one electric guitar part (logic plug-ins); one bass) but anything like a more realised composition (ie: 15 track lanes or more) and it's game over.

 

I can almost see the virtual smoke coming out of the back of my Mac! My CPU meter is continuously in the red (full on!) & I must have seen the 'Disk Is Too Slow ...' -10010 ERROR message about 10010 times in the last month alone. Even when I can get my machine to actually make it to the end of a song in playback mode it's really stuttery and the sound is dropping out and/or spiking practically ALL the time. I really can't work like this (in fact I'm getting nothing done because of it!) and I've got to the stage where I don't know what to try next. For my personal sanity ... PLEASE HELP!!!

 

'Triplets' ia aprevious post did indeed warn me against upgrading and, in hindsight, I feel he was right. I just felt I was getting a bit left behind plus around Xmas time I had serious SAS (Software Acquisition Syndrome!) for the Abbey Road stuff! So many variables now as to what has caused this but the bottom-line is that my machine seems to have ground to a halt and I'm seriously regretting upgrading from Snow Leopard and Logic 9.1.8. The thing is, I have all this really nice software now but I can't get going with it. Is there any way out of this so I can just run my machine the way I used to (ie: trouble-free!) whilst still being able to utilise this Abbey Road software?

What is your configuration of hard drive(s)? What type, capacity, and how much space left available on each one?

I'll go look that up now & get right back to you David (thanks!)

OK, I've just taken a note of, well, everything really! Here goes ....

 

DAW: LOGIC PRO 9 v. 9.1.8 [64-bit]

 

COMPUTER: MAC MINI (circa 2009)

O.S: OSX v. 10.8.5 'Mountain Lion'

PROCESSOR: 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

MEMORY: 8GB installed (1333 MHz DDR3 modules x2)

 

MAC INTERNAL HD: 320GB Sava Disk

Current storage level 95.7GB free out of 319.21GB

Audio: 56.46GB

Movies; 337.3MB

Photos: 1.5GB

Apps: 8.67GB

Backups: ZERO GB (!) Post-OS/Logic upgrade my Mac no longer recognises the 500GB USB Ext. HD I had been using for Time Capsule)

Other: 156.56GB NB: I currently store the following software on my Mac's internal HD:

- My entire Logic programme (including all the Jampacks)

- EasWest's 'FAB FOUR' software

- Waves' 'ABBEY ROAD COLLECTION' bundled software

- NI 'ABBEY ROAD '60s DRUMMER' software

- 'OMNISPHERE' software

 

CONNECTED EXTERNAL DRIVE: 500GB Firewire Disk (OS Extended Journalled)

481.21GB free out of 499.76GB

Audio: 17.59GB

NB: I only use this ext. Firewire HD for storing all my Logic music projects - nothing else

 

Any further info required just let me know. I'm desperate to get to the bottom of this so I can move on & start making music again! Many thanks in advance for any help/advice/solutions/light you can shed on this matter. CHEERS!

Note that if you Freeze tracks, that uses **more** disk bandwidth, not less. Try un-freezing as many tracks as you can.

 

Freezing frees up CPU power, and instead offloads it to the hard disk, by pre-rendering. So if your error message says the CPU can't do any more, then freezing will help, but if the error says the disk is too slow, freezing will only make things worse.

 

Edit - also... depending on how deep you want to go down the rabbit hole, you may want to check out the Activity Monitor utility (in the Applications/Utilities folder) to see if there are any unusual things using up CPU.

Thats a shiny tidbit of info Matt, Thanks for mentioning that. Great to know.

MAC INTERNAL HD: 320GB Sava Disk

Current storage level 95.7GB free out of 319.21GB

...

CONNECTED EXTERNAL DRIVE: 500GB Firewire Disk (OS Extended Journalled)

481.21GB free out of 499.76GB

Ok so at least your hard drives aren't completely full, so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

During playback, what do your HD and CPU meters (in the Custom Control bar) look like?

Hi again. Attached are a couple of screenshots that are fairly representative of where my CPU/HD 'Audio Disk I/O' metering levels are on playback.The levels are hitting yellow & red on the Audio Meter during sections where there's more going on (causing playback to stutter & drop out). The Disk I/O Meter only seems to go into the red when you move the playhead from one section of a song to another which is understandable I guess - it usually settles back down to its average level shown fairly soon after. Any thoughts?

I came to this article because I was having the same error message come up when I pushed the compressor up too high.

I pulled back and it runs smoothly

Yes, I'm still smack bang in the middle of this problem and can't seem to find a solution. (Glad you managed to sort things out your end GrooveTech!)

You could try to do the recording from your external HD and not the internal,also what happens if you remove the Kontakt 5 player from the track ? Another trick is to add an audiotrack and highlight that,when playing back.Software instrument tracks can take a lot of cpu,when in "live mode"

Sorry

That was a temporary fix

I am getting the same message

I will post a solution if I come upon one

The funny part here is that according to your meters it seems to be more of a CPU issue than a Disk too slow issue... a couple of things you could try, as troubleshooting steps, in order to determine the cause of this issue:

 

1) Move the project to another drive and see if that helps.

2) Bypass the most CPU-hungry plug-ins possible and see if that helps.