PeterIngmar Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 “Disk is too slow or system overload” I´m sorry to bring up this topic since it´s been dealt with numerous times before. On this forum as well as on many other. Crazy thing is; while many are familiar with this message only some of us get them to a degree where it´s utterly impossible to have any kind of workflow going. Me, I´ve scanned the net for advice. I´ve tested and tried them all. To no avail. My set up I´ve had for about a year (during which time the error messages have steadily increased); iMac 27 Retina 5K 4.0 GHz Quad Core (intel core i7) with 32 GB SDRAM. The internal drive is a 250 GB SSD. I´m on the latest version of Logic Pro X (10.3.2) and Sierra 10.12.6. I stream my sample libraries/VST/loops etc. from an external SSD/thunderbolt drive and my audio from SSD/USB3 dito. Usually everything runs smoothly in the beginning of a project when I´m mostly working with Midi. It´s later on when it builds up with recorded audio that the messages start to appear. Right now I´m recording and mixing an album for the first time with this set up and it´s just not possible. With multi-micked drums, bass, keybords and some guitars, even without any plugins, Logic already stumbles. The activity meter reads almost nothing under Audio (CPU) but hits spikes at random parts of the songs under I/O (disk) This happens whether I freeze all the track, maximize the buffer size etc. etc. or not. Help. Me. Please EDIT: After trying streaming the audio from all kinds of different external drives I finally got the system working after moving the audio to the internal system disk which goes against everything I´ve read and heard about how to set up Logic. This is not a long term solution though as my system disk is only 250 GB and only 100 GB free at that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulcristo Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Have you tried turning off disk sleep in your System Prefs Energy Settings? You could also move entirely to SSD if the problem is hard drive-based. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 25, 2017 Author Share Posted October 25, 2017 Yes disk sleep is turned off. All my disks, 1 internal & 2 external, are SSD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 For audio recording, I still use external or second internal spinning disks and never had issues thru eSata or USB 3. Even with 24 simultaneous tracks at 88.2k. On the SSD side, a lot depends on the brand in my experience. I only use OWC drives on laptops and old cheese grater mac pros as system drives and they work great. I don't know if the garbage collection on SSDs got any better or if it's still an issue on brands like Samsung, Crucial and the like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulcristo Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Is your Multithreading preference set to "Playback & Live Tracks"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Is your Multithreading preference set to "Playback & Live Tracks"? Good point. Definitely switch it to Playback for mixing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 Thanks for the tips but as I wrote I´ve followed all the usual advice on every Logic forum I´ve found on the net. My system is set to optimize Logics performance. My external drives are both Lacie (SSD) but I´ve also tried different makes, SSD as well as HD, without luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulcristo Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 Then my guess is that you’re running into a limitation of Logic’s ability to process everything you’re asking it to do in real time. I’ve also optimized my system and run into that error from time to time. Logic isn’t perfect, and sometimes it can’t handle everything we throw at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 OK but this would mean Logic can´t be used in a professional environment. The things I´m throwing at it now, in the middle of process, is nothing compared to what it will when it´s time to mix. I´ve been a Logic user since 1998 and I´ve had all kinds of different computers. The iMac I´m using now is the most powerful of them all. On paper. Performancewise, with the latest version of Logic, it´s the worst set up I´ve ever had. But as I wrote in the EDIT note, it works fine if I move the audio to the the internal system drive (you´re not supposed to do that, I know) How come that works? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 But as I wrote in the EDIT note, it works fine if I move the audio to the the internal system drive (you´re not supposed to do that, I know) How come that works? That means something is not right with your external drives setup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 Suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 Do you have 7200 rpm external HD thru USB 3 or FW 800 to test? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 26, 2017 Author Share Posted October 26, 2017 I have a 7200 rpm HD (Lacie) but it´s got USB 2.0 ports. I´ll see if I can borrow one with USB 3 from a friend later today. I´ll get back to You Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Whoops! Turns out my Lacie drive is in fact HD not SSD. Sorry. (it´s so damn quit still) Now, since it´s the one causing my problems the question is, what would be the best alternative as external audio drive; a SSD through USB3 or a fast HD through thunderbolt daisy chained with my sound card? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 The best would be obviously SSD thru Thunderbolt SSD thru USB 3 doesn't get all the speed of the SSD. Better to go a fast spinning HD thru USB 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Well, that´s what I´m using at the moment and that obviously doesn't work so....It´s strange though, a friend of mine has almost exactly the same set up as me and his system runs like a dream. Is there a big difference between different makes of drives? Mine´s a Lacie Rugged Mini Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Is there a big difference between different makes of drives? Mine´s a Lacie Rugged Mini There can be. I've seen Lacie drives die just like that, or have issues. One that I used as a backup died a couple of days ago. Sometimes it's just bad luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulcristo Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 In my experience, Lacie's conventional drives liked to die real slow, throwing out little mysteries like this for a month or so before finally kicking the bucket. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 27, 2017 Author Share Posted October 27, 2017 Ok, thanks for the tips. I´ll just stream the audio from the system disk for now since that works without issues. Guess I´ll have to live with moving the projects I´m working on back and forth for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 I get my external HD from www.macsales.com I buy the enclosure and the HD separate, that way I can choose the brand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 I just did a speed test on my Lacie drive and it showed 69/63 MB/s for write and read. That´s really slow isn´t it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Yes it is. my external 5400rpm 2x RAID0 goes around 170mb/s. Also thats for sequential r/w. if its fragmented and heads need to jump, it drops drastically, and with USB2.0 latency its even worse. SSDs are cheap. Get the cheapest thunderbolt LaCIE rugged, throw the drive away and fit it with and SSD if you can't afford to have active projects on the internal SSD. I keep ALL my active projects on internal SSD and only move them to external when I finish them. Also, new macbooks have 3gb/s SSD speeds. faster than anything you can buy, be a shame to waste all that speed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Cardenas Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 It's painfully slow to be honest. A decent 7200 RPM drive is at least twice as fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 its even slow for a 5400rpm drive tbh, my Scorpio Blue go 90mb/s on their own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 According to the tech specs it´s a 7200rpm drive. Running first aid in Disk Utility it checks as OK. I´ve also seen other people using the Lacie rugged mini for audio. It´s weird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triplets Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 According to the tech specs it´s a 7200rpm drive. Running first aid in Disk Utility it checks as OK. I´ve also seen other people using the Lacie rugged mini for audio. It´s weird Very slow for a 7200. Use it for backup. No point in continuing use for audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 No, that stops here and now. I´ll use it for Time Machine back up. I´m gonna try out one of those Glyph drives next. A 7200 rpm with 2 thunderbolt2 ports. Thanks everybody for helping out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ploki Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 No, that stops here and now. I´ll use it for Time Machine back up. I´m gonna try out one of those Glyph drives next. A 7200 rpm with 2 thunderbolt2 ports. Thanks everybody for helping out thunderbolt is wasted on 7200rpm, might as well get USB3.0 (cheaper) or, use the Glyph enclosure, rip the 7200 drive out and put an SSD in. buy a cheap usb3.0 enclosure on the internet to use the 7200rpm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterIngmar Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 Coming to think of it, I do have access to a USB3.0 dock. Maybe buy a SSD for that then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulcristo Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 In terms of harnessing maximum speed, I’m not sure any enclosure slower than thunderbolt is worth the price of an SSD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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