pan control in 10.5

Like this ?

What happens if you try ?

trackpad click-drag one finger

That's a force-click-drag with one finger? I have to say I haven't used force-actions in years. Try two or three fingers swipe (no force)? For three fingers you have to enable it in Accessibility but being faster than two fingers it makes it much easier to make wider adjustments. So finer adjustments = 2 fingers, broader adjustments = 3 fingers.

Obviously force-click-drag with one finger should still work. Not sure why it doesn't, but first let us know if 2 finger swipe works?

Nope. Still not working.

I wonder if Apple disables certain things when CPU usage gets high. 41 tracks, 11 reverbs, not a lot of plugins, but I'm running Scrivener with 3 docs open and mail and google, etc. Used to use the iMac but I need the mobility, so this little MacBook is it until the new MBP comes out.

I wonder if Apple disables certain things when CPU usage gets high.

No, it does not.

Is the issue in all your projects? Or only one specific object? Can you share an example of a project file where you have this issue?

Do you work for Apple? How could you know? They have a long track record of making arbitrary decisions such as this 'in their infinite wisdom'.

There are two things known for certain:

1) This never happened under 10.4.8. This means something changed.

2) The more I look at this, the problem seems to be there when the computer is under CPU stress, and you can believe me when I say I put this little notebook through it's paces. There are moments when the CPU is not loaded down, and then the problem seems to not be there, same project, same track, and when the computer is cranking, the problem then is there, all projects, all tracks.

The reason I thought it might be constant is because once you get burned enough times doing something certain way, you find other ways to do it. I am now in the habit of using the pan knob in the track rather than the one in the channel strip, because that often does not work, so it appeared that it never worked until I investigated a bit and tried it when the computer was stressed compared when the computer was dead cold, and this seems to be the emerging pattern.

I'm not doing anything different under 10.5 than I did under 10.4.8.

Another development since 10.5 is that when the computer is stressed it doesn't always redraw the screen. Instead, there are often large chunks of black in the tracks window. I never saw this in 10.4.8, and I've never seen another program ever behave in this manner.

This 'significant rewrite' in 10.5 may simply be using a lot more resources than 10.4, probably to support all that kiddie junk they shoehorned in.

I'm often surprised that so many people seem to equate "I don't know what was involved in the decision making process that resulted in this decision" to "this decision was obviously a random decision for no good reason and they clearly should have made the decision to best support how I think the outcome should have been, based only on my interests."

It sounds like the OP has graphics issues, likely OS/Graphics card related, or possibly something else on the system causing conflicts, it does happen to people here (though thankfully not to me so far) and I can confidently say that I can drive my little laptop into the ground, fans screaming, CPU burning, until it can take no more - but my pan knobs still work.

From a developer's perspective, the idea that ignoring mouse events (that still happen at the system level) and the graphics updates of the pan graphic would in any way result in a meaningful reduction of CPU time when the computer is loaded hard is, quite frankly... well, let's say, "uninformed".

If a Logic developer *had* made that decision, then I would indeed consider that "arbitrary" and based on a whim. Thankfully, they are a bit more competent than that...

Which doesn't solve the OP's problem, of course.

So, if you load a new, fresh template, do your pan knobs work? Under what conditions do they stop working?

I can't recall anyone ever posting this problem here or in other places before, so it seems like something isolated to the OP's system in general.

Also, check your screen graphics resolution, some Macs have graphics cards which get stressed really hard if they aren't running native resolution, and this has resulted in poor performance in the past (not related to Logic, this is an OSX/Graphics hardware thing.)

Do you work for Apple?

I am not an Apple employee, however I have done consulting work for Apple and the Logic team for over a decade. I have been flown to Cupertino by Apple to meet with the Logic team, and work with them on multiple occasions. Authoring the official Apple Certified textbook for Logic Pro since 2007 (Logic Pro 8), I have kept a close working relationship with the Logic team, with a lot of back and forth regarding the inner workings of the software, features and bugs alike. Which means I have an idea or two how the software works. That's also how I ended up creating and managing this website which is one of the largest Logic forum online today, thus what most likely led you to choose to come ask your Logic Pro X question right here on my website in the first place.

So now, allow me to be utterly and categorically clear: no, Logic does not have a feature that freezes the Pan knob when a project stresses the CPU, and no, there have been no changes regarding that behavior between 10.4.8 and 10.5.1.