"Disk too slow....."

In terms of harnessing maximum speed, I’m not sure any enclosure slower than thunderbolt is worth the price of an SSD.

Totally!

It does sound like an issue with that particular HD, so it would surely be worth ditching it and replacing it with one you know is fast and reliable? It almost sounds like that disk is running at USB 2.0 speeds. You can test disk speeds with the free Blackmagic Disk Speed Test from the App store.

It does sound like an issue with that particular HD, so it would surely be worth ditching it and replacing it with one you know is fast and reliable? It almost sounds like that disk is running at USB 2.0 speeds. You can test disk speeds with the free Blackmagic Disk Speed Test from the App store.

That´s what I did and that´s where my read/write results come from. The drive is a Lacie rugged mini with 7200 rpm and USB3.0 ports. The ports on my iMac are of course USB3.0 too. As well as the cable

In terms of harnessing maximum speed, I’m not sure any enclosure slower than thunderbolt is worth the price of an SSD.

So that´s a vote for the Thunderbolt/HD daisy chain solution then?

So that´s a vote for the Thunderbolt/HD daisy chain solution then?

Thunderbolt and SSD is the best combo. But still very expensive.

I would ditch the Lacie brand and try something else. Start with 7200 rpm and USB 3, and not bus powered.

Try www.macsales.com

I found this thread after I began encountering more frequent Logic error messages about "System overload". I'm not so sure if the OP's external HD is the culprit. (And I hope you don't mind if I take up where he left off as our problem sounds almost identical.)

 

I have a 2.5Ghz quad core iMac with 20Gb RAM. I too just bought an external LaCie HD (7200rpm), connected via Thunderbolt. I've mixed fairly hefty projects in the past (Logic 9 and X) and rarely if ever encountered this error message.

 

I had read in several places that running high track count projects from an external drive (SSD or HD) via Thunderbolt would yield much better performance. I see no change at all. I still get the same dang "System overload" on the very first playback. Huh?

 

I read that manually setting "Processor threads" in audio prefs to "4" (if you have 4 cores) versus automatic is suggested. No change. I also changed multithreading to "Playback tracks". No change.

 

I should clarify that the track I'm playing has only 7 MIDI tracks and 3 audio tracks. That's it. CPU is PEGGED at 100%, barely able to keep up. I have a fair number of FX inserts/buses active, but no way that could be so CPU-intensive? Originally I had this all running from a 5,400rpm external HD connected via USB 2! How can a 7,200rpm HD via thunderbolt be no faster?

 

Which leads me to ask: WHAT should be run from that external HD? Just the Logic project file? All the audio files? All the software instruments? Should Logic Pro be installed and running from that drive too?

 

I can't really use my internal drive for the same reason as the oP: it's only 250Gb. Besides, I read that you should always run the app on a separate drive from the data.

 

Thanks for reading all this...really disappointed that this investment didn't show any change.

The common practice is that projects should be stored on the external HD.

Logic has to reside on the system HD. It's not recommended to start moving stuff around.

Certain heavy software instruments like Kontakt give you the option of storing their large libraries on external HDs.

I found this thread after I began encountering more frequent Logic error messages about "System overload". I'm not so sure if the OP's external HD is the culprit. (And I hope you don't mind if I take up where he left off as our problem sounds almost identical.)

 

I have a 2.5Ghz quad core iMac with 20Gb RAM. I too just bought an external LaCie HD (7200rpm), connected via Thunderbolt. I've mixed fairly hefty projects in the past (Logic 9 and X) and rarely if ever encountered this error message.

 

I had read in several places that running high track count projects from an external drive (SSD or HD) via Thunderbolt would yield much better performance. I see no change at all. I still get the same dang "System overload" on the very first playback. Huh?

 

I read that manually setting "Processor threads" in audio prefs to "4" (if you have 4 cores) versus automatic is suggested. No change. I also changed multithreading to "Playback tracks". No change.

 

I should clarify that the track I'm playing has only 7 MIDI tracks and 3 audio tracks. That's it. CPU is PEGGED at 100%, barely able to keep up. I have a fair number of FX

inserts/buses active, but no way that could be so CPU-intensive? Originally I had this all running from a 5,400rpm external HD connected via USB 2! How can a 7,200rpm HD via thunderbolt be no faster?

 

Which leads me to ask: WHAT should be run from that external HD? Just the Logic project file? All the audio files? All the software instruments? Should Logic Pro be installed and running from that drive too?

 

I can't really use my internal drive for the same reason as the oP: it's only 250Gb. Besides, I read that you should always run the app on a separate drive from the data.

 

Thanks for reading all this...really disappointed that this investment didn't show any change.

My problem differs/differed in that the CPU barely moved on the activity monitor while the disk meter spiked irregularly throughout the song. But like You the track count did really seem to matter much. The error message would appear in projects with a lot of track but also in projects with just a few. Anyway, I run my sample libraries, soft synth libraries etc. from external HD via thunderbolt connection (there´s a lot of instruction videos and info to be found on that topic) and there´s never been any problem with that. In my case the problem turned out to be the Lacie HD (a Rugged Mini 7200 rpm) which wasn´t able to stream audio fast enough. When I ran a speed test on that drive the results didn't´t match what´s claimed in the tech specs for that drive. Having said that I know people who are using the very same drive for similar tasks with no problem. My problem were solved by getting another external HD for streaming audio. Though I get the best results by running the audio from the iMacs internal SSD. Active projects are thus now kept and run on the internally and the stored on a larger external HD

Ah right, I missed the fact that your internal drive is SSD...that would change the equation. What has me puzzled is that my 7,200rpm HD + Thunderbolt isn't any faster than my old 5,400rpm + USB 2. <-- That tells me that the issue has to do with the processor, not with where/how files are streamed.

 

I did discover a couple of things while testing--I don't know if this sheds any light:

 

1. When I check CPU use during playback, audio is between 50%-100%, spread across 4 cores. Pretty steep for only 3 audio tracks.
   
2. When I enabled track on/off switches, and turned all tracks off, CPU use was still hovering around 40%. Audio was still hovering between 10%-25% across 4 cores. Shouldn't this be practically zero? That has me concerned.

 

I also noticed that whenever I open a new project, I would get these "System overload" failures during the first several playbacks--specifically when entering later sections when as-yet-unplayed tracks were being encountered for the first time during a session. Once the full project had been played, it would generally settle down (somewhat).

 

What does that mean? This sounds like a caching issue--that until a part is loaded into RAM it's not loaded, and so the CPU is choking when it encounters "new material". Anyone else see this behavior?

Edited November 11, 2017 by cbmtrx

The common practice is that projects should be stored on the external HD.

Logic has to reside on the system HD. It's not recommended to start moving stuff around.

Certain heavy software instruments like Kontakt give you the option of storing their large libraries on external HDs.

 

Yeah, I had been holding off on moving my instruments from the slower USB drive to the new, faster Thunderbolt drive...I think it couldn't hurt if there's no performance penalty for having the Logic project file and audio/instruments all streaming from the same drive.

I ran BlackMagic's HD speed test. Ouch.

 

USB HD: Read 27 Write 37

Thunderbolt HD: Read 190 Write 212

 

So even the thunderbolt drive speed isn't that great. Short of a full system update, maybe investing in a small external SSD drive just for current project/audio files would be a temporary solution...

Keep in mind, just because an external hard drive’s connector is Thunderbolt, that doesn’t mean the interface connecting the hard drive to the Thunderbolt is automatically just as fast.

What has me puzzled is that my 7,200rpm HD + Thunderbolt isn't any faster than my old 5,400rpm + USB 2. <-- That tells me that the issue has to do with the processor, not with where/how files are streamed.

 

You saw later that the Thunderbolt drive is around 8 times faster on the BM disk test. Remember that with Thunderbolt, the bottleneck becomes the drive's native speed, so in the case of a spinning drive, there's your snag. But still faster than USB 2.

 

Yeah, I had been holding off on moving my instruments from the slower USB drive to the new, faster Thunderbolt drive...I think it couldn't hurt if there's no performance penalty for having the Logic project file and audio/instruments all streaming from the same drive.

 

I would definitely NOT use a USB 2.0 drive for streaming or projects.

 

When I check CPU use during playback, audio is between 50%-100%, spread across 4 cores. Pretty steep for only 3 audio tracks.

When I enabled track on/off switches, and turned all tracks off, CPU use was still hovering around 40%. Audio was still hovering between 10%-25% across 4 cores. Shouldn't this be practically zero? That has me concerned.

 

Depends if you're using a custom template. These can get corrupted and bring the CPU to the roof.

Also, do you use 3rd party plugins?

Keep in mind, just because an external hard drive’s connector is Thunderbolt, that doesn’t mean the interface connecting the hard drive to the Thunderbolt is automatically just as fast.

 

Yes of course; I'd just have expected a faster drive + a faster connection to yield at least some improvement... The original Thunderbolt ports appeared when SSD drives were basically in their infancy, so offering 5Gbps must have meant something when HD speeds were still only 7,200rpm and when most ports were still USB 2.

 

I'm testing out Logic some more today with basically everything running off the TB drive except Logic itself. We'll see...

I would definitely NOT use a USB 2.0 drive for streaming or projects.

 

Yes I had been relying on old tech to do things it wasn't designed for! It's high time I upgraded...

 

Depends if you're using a custom template. These can get corrupted and bring the CPU to the roof.

Also, do you use 3rd party plugins?

 

I mean I guess *everything* I do is a "custom" template...each new track is different, right? I need to read up on this issue because I had migrated some of my current X projects from version 9. If that's what's causing CPU usage to max out...

 

Oops, meant to add: YES, I use mostly 3rd party plugins. Generally these have always behaved themselves although with this particular track I have that dreadful, sneaking suspicion that a Waves plugin could be partly responsible. (Yes, avoid Waves plugins.)

If you start from an empty project, that's not custom.

 

If you start a new project and there are already a number of tracks and plugins ready to get used, that's custom.

In that case I start every track from a "non-custom template" and "customize" it until the track is finished

 

No, I understand what you mean. But 3rd party plugins yes...tons of them. This might sound like the likely culprit, but I've been using these for years without this kind of behavior. (The possibility exists, of course, that a newer plugin is causing this.)

 

I got a piece of advice elsewhere: check my activity monitor and nix any CPU hogs.

FWIW, I found one AU instrument responsible for CPU spikes in Logic Pro X under El Capitan: After some sleuthing, I found at least one culprit responsible for CPU spikes.

 

When using the TAL Noisemaker's envelope editor (splines controlling filter, OSC1, etc) it produces 100% CPU spikes during playback. When the envelope is deactivated, the spikes cease.

 

I don't think it affects bounced material, just playback.