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Very high CPU usage when Logic is idle

noisyneil

By noisyneil
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des99 Grand Master

des99

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10 minutes ago, noisyneil said:

ven when all those tracks are powered off? Seems like I don't really understand what powered off actually means!

Check my post above, with a demo to show what happens.

When a track is powered off, you can think of like:
"Don't play any regions that are on this track (audio, or MIDI regions in the horizontal lane in the main working area)".

It doesn't mean - if you've selected an instrument track with an instrument plugin, to not play that instrument from incoming MIDI.

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des99 Grand Master

des99

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19 minutes ago, noisyneil said:

Yeah, which is why I'm surprise that Ovox, which isn't selected,

According to your screen movie you posted, it was - you'd selected all those tracks in the arrange page, hence the channel strips were light grey, meaning all those instrument tracks were selected, and in Live mode.

If you mean the second movie, you have the sidechain (instrument) track selected, it's possible that if other instruments have plugins where that sidechain is routed to (I'm not all on all your routing in your project of course), all those will be forced into Live mode too, and thus using CPU.

As I said in an above post where I noticed you had instrument tracks selected, keep a non-routed *audio track* selected, not an instrument track, to test the CPU use as well, to rule out live mode CPU consumption:-

 

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noisyneil

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20 minutes ago, des99 said:

all those instrument tracks were selected, and in Live mode.

Hmm... I'm not sure you're right about that. Only one track will register incoming midi regardless of how many are selected, and if you look at the second video, the CPU usage is identical to the that of the first, so track selection clearly isn't a factor. 
 

25 minutes ago, des99 said:

it's possible that if other instruments have plugins where that sidechain is routed to (I'm not all on all your routing in your project of course), all those will be forced into Live mode too

The lead vocal is selected in Ovox's sidechain. Neither Ovox nor the vocal have any routing relationship with any other instruments. 

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des99 Grand Master

des99

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14 minutes ago, noisyneil said:

Hmm... I'm not sure you're right about that. Only one track will register incoming midi regardless of how many are selected

Possibly yes - sorry, I'm a bit distracted doing multiple things at once and it's quite difficult to keep track of each post with different issues with varying degrees of complexity based on a largish complex project, and trying to follow whether the info you are showing is based on my recommendations for narrowing the specific issue down, or whether you've not followed the suggestions - especially when I can't recreate exactly what you see as I don't have all those plugins. So I was doing some "it could be this" between jobs, rather than giving you the exact cause as I can't exhaustively diagnose right now.

Rather than trying to lock down each specific new case you illustrate, can we go back to the post I linked to above, where I asked you to repeat the CPU test, but *without* an instrument track selected, and let me know whether the CPU goes down or not?

Otherwise, it's quite difficult right now to actively explore in detail every new "yes, but what about *this*" in your project. If we can try to constrain the scope of the problem to the initial issue, and see if we can get to the root cause of that, that would be helpful.

Then I'm happy to explore some more "Ok, but what about this specific case" afterwards when I'm a bit more free from time and attention constraints.

At this stage, I'm more into thinking that the CPU usage you are getting is not abnormal as such, and is more down to not fully understanding how Logic is processing, rather than specific issues with specific routing or third-party plugins, but without eliminating variables and progressively working towards where the CPU use is coming, is difficult to say for sure - especially when there are a large amount of plugins involved.

So if we can continue down that path, I think it's going to be more productive to hopefully get to the root cause of the problem...

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noisyneil Collaborator

noisyneil

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Yes, it's quite a lot of info; sorry if you've been overwhelmed! In my defence, I've only posted what was requested of me.

1 hour ago, des99 said:

repeat the CPU test, but *without* an instrument track selected

image.gif.721d31c173370ec9e1f257aec5e5942d.gifI've done this already, but it's hard to keep track of everything. Here it is again. All tracks powered off, all buss processing disabled, track not playing and one powered off audio track selected. 

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noisyneil

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The thing I'm most baffled by is that often a session will run perfectly for about 30min barely tickling the CPU. I'm not adding things or changing routings, just adjusting levels and tidying up edits etc. Soon enough, it maxes out and I have to restart Logic. This buys me another 30min or so. Rinse and repeat. 

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noisyneil

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58 minutes ago, oh said:

I've had similar issues on a similar machine when using Turbo Boost Switcher Pro. As far as I can tell by your screenshots you have it enabled, does the problem also happen when it's not running?

I did experiment with turning it off, and noticed that doing so seemed to cause the meters to bounce momentarily, but they didn't drop off. I didn't try turning it off for longer periods, as the whole reason I bought it was that it made the system more stable. You're making me wonder if I should have tried, but...
 

I ended up taking the nuclear option and have wiped the machine. I'm currently doing a totally fresh install. Not a fun process!! I'll report back once everything is set up. 

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noisyneil

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41 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

Did you also reinstall Turbo Boost Switcher Pro?

No, I thought I'd try without. Clean system an' all that. Only difference is my mac's a lot hotter now. I think I'll reinstall it at some point. I don't suppose anyone knows how to read an Activity Monitor process sample log do they?

I took this sample while Logic was having one of its freaking-out-while-not-doing-anything moments. 

 

Sample of Logic Pro.txt

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noisyneil

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50 minutes ago, Atlas007 said:

Are you using other apps concomitantly?

Are you using Time Machine?

I've tried as much as possible to isolate it, so I've quit all other visible and menubar apps with the exception of UA Console and UA Connect. Time Machine and Spotlight have been dormant during most of the freakouts. Tomorrow, I'm going to go through and force quit anything that isn't either Logic or a core process and see if that makes any difference. 

Thanks again everyone for trying to help. 🙏🏼

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noisyneil

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28 minutes ago, triplets said:

The UA B3 Waterfall plugin gets many paragraphs in that report.

Maybe if you bounce that one in place?

Thanks for having a look! Is it doing a lot in relative terms or in absolute terms? I ask because there's not much else going on in that session. If it is a lot in objective terms, is it a cause or a symptom? 

This has happened on countless projects over the past weeks and I only got the Waterfall a week ago, so it can't be the root cause. Regardless of the session, Logic will happily play with minimal expected resource usage for a while, and then suddenly go bananas, at which point even powering everything off doesn't quell the dancing meters.

In short, I could bounce that instrument in place, but not only will that not avoid having to restart Logic but it isn't really a solution. My machine can handle it and a lot more... and then it can't.

Having spent the last three days rebuilding my system from the ground up, I'm getting a bit depressed about this in all honesty, but I really do appreciate the help. 

It's 3:15am so I'm off to bed. I'll try again to kill any unnecessary background processes tomorrow. Here's hoping I find the culprit!

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triplets Experienced

triplets

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2 minutes ago, noisyneil said:

I could bounce that instrument in place, but not only will that not avoid having to restart Logic but it isn't really a solution. My machine can handle it and a lot more... and then it can't.

You can have 20 computers like that, but a specific plugin combination can still bring the computer down.

That's the nature of troubleshooting.

If bouncing that plugin in place calms down the computer, then you know the culprit. If it doesn't, then onto the next step of troubleshooting.

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dmitch57 Collaborator

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12 hours ago, noisyneil said:
12 hours ago, triplets said:

The UA B3 Waterfall plugin gets many paragraphs in that report.

Maybe if you bounce that one in place?

Thanks for having a look! Is it doing a lot in relative terms or in absolute terms? I ask because there's not much else going on in that session. If it is a lot in objective terms, is it a cause or a symptom

All I can see for sure is that that plugin is using most of the CPU cycles, at the time that sample was taken. 
If I were debugging this, I'd disable that plugin entirely, reboot, and proceed with the project with that plugin disabled. (The reboot is crucial after disabling: some plug-ins have code that runs in the background, once they are used...) If the problem does not occur again, you know you've found the culprit.

I know you said you saw the problem before you got that UA plugin, but that was then, this is now, and you've eliminated a lot of stuff since then. Best to be 100% sure.

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Drefue Newbie

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I have read through your post and everything you described is happening on my new M1 MBP as well. I’ve spent hours with Apple support; wiped my system; installed only priority apps and native plugs and am no closer to a solution. All the suggestions offered to this point are all for naught. There is something seriously wrong with either the hardware, the OS, or Logic - or a combination of the three. Plugins are not the issue. Apple support appears to be as confused as anyone as to what’s causing these CPU spikes. I had hoped that downgrading Logic to 10.6 might help. All I can be sure of at this point is that Logic isn’t a functional application with the latest hardware and OS. If somebody has a tried and true solution, I would love to hear from them. 

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noisyneil Collaborator

noisyneil

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@Drefue

I'm sorry you're having trouble too, but at least I know I'm not alone. I'd begun to question my sanity! Interesting that you're on an M1 and I'm on Intel but we're getting the same symptoms. That our hardware differs might imply a software issue, perhaps. Did it start recently for you? For me, nothing remarkable had changed about my setup and I'd previously marvelled at the amount I could throw at it without it breaking a sweat. 

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Drefue Newbie

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I’ve had this issue from the get go. Received my MBP in January, complete with the latest updates. Opened a few projects and it was obvious there was a glitch; old projects, new projects, it didn’t matter. Something wasn’t right. I was told I simply hadn’t configured it correctly, and then that I just needed a fresh install. Hours upon hours wasted. I then checked with developers, trying to sort whether their plugs were at fault, only to find that every developer couldn’t have gotten this wrong (I had reloaded plugs one at a time, and by developer, to see if there was any one in particular causing the problem). I also contacted RME as to the possibility of an interface issue. Nothing there.

Your point about the cumulative loading was what caught my attention - and it’s what has driven me around the bend. I have loaded projects with levels finally looking like they should, only to have the issue pop up within a few minutes of working on a session, having stopped and restarted playback: the system then overloading with all threads banging the ceiling; the playhead stuttering, trying to engage, not to mention the random crashes, sync error messages, overload errors and plugin compatibility error, time to quit, messages (with stock plugs and plugin manager telling me all is well). If I didn’t know better, I’d think there was a virus at play.

Apple support has been there for me, but clearly they’re as stumped as the rest of us, or they’re not willing to say. I trust that’s not the case. Couldn’t be more frustrated.

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Atlas007 Grand Master

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I understand that is indeed an extreme solution or an attempt to solve your issues. But considering that you both are experiencing something that you admitted could not be solved in either ways, the problem could be faulty computers. Those things happen regardless of the model. Even with Apple... Hence Apple Care...

My 2 cents...

 

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