core overloads

[jackvandeven]

Hi there,

 

I'm also having a strange overload issue check this link:

http://www.logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=21047

 

 

greetz,

Jack

[john.hodgkinson]

Has anyone tried this on Mainstage? I assume that you would substitute Mainstage for LogicPro in the script?

[cobalt1970]

Regarding the script:

 

I have been using this script about week now and it has done wonders for me. I have only experienced one overload when, in that time frame, i would have otherwise experienced scores. I even took two of my most weighty projects, in terms of processor power, unfroze all of the tracks, loaded more inserts, and still - no overloads.

 

I certainly don't think this is the workaround of the millennium, but it's definitely not snake oil, either. I highly recommend it to anyone.

[audioroom]

im a beginner.. using MBP 2.2 ghz, 4 GB ram, apogee Duet.. Leo Mac OS X 10.5.1...

 

is this script works fine with my system?

thks

[noisenet]

Hmmmm, tried the script. Played a song where the overload issue usually happens. it always happens for me when, in a song, two tracks that haven't been used previously (such as a harmony guitar solo in the middle of a song) begin at the same time. I'll get a processor spike and playback stops. So I copied the renice script, ran it, loaded up the song, got to that point. Blammo. Stoppage. AAARRRGGGHHHHH.

 

Tried another song with the same issue - Blaarrggghhhhh!!!!!!! Script isn't doing a dern thing!

 

So I loaded up the first song again. Before playback, I moved the playhead to the middle of the song, where the issue occurs. Double clicked to start playback - the whole freaking program froze and I had to force quit.

 

Like I said - BLARRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

 

I think before Apple takes this problem seriously, it's going to have to become an embarassment to them. I'm thinking if they start getting some bad high profile press, maybe then they'll get up off their collective rear ends and do something about this. Yeah sure, they lowered the price - does that mean we deserve a less than functional product?

 

I, for one, am all for an email writing campaign to MacWorld, Mossberg, AppleInsider, etc. Just maybe they will write a blub and it can grow from there.

 

Then again, they're probably so far in Apple's pocket that it couldn't do any good.

 

Guess I'll try 8.01. This is weird though, this was usable until today, and I've changed nothing.

[noisenet]

Tried futzing with some settings, but to no avail. I didn't have the Safety I/O buffer checked, so I checked that and increased the buffer to 512 sampkes. Then I played the track and thought I'd found success, till I realized that I hadn't unloaded the track. So I loaded another one with the problem, played it and boom. Stopage. Loaded up the other file, boom. Stoppage.

 

I thought of something that's different in that I just added a LaCie 320gig FW800 drive, so I disconnected (I have all the songs on that as well as a WD FW400 external drive) and loaded one of the songs off the WD - to no avail, same issue. Not only that, but i started getting just some weird sounds, things that weren't in the song. So I figured it was time for a reboot.

 

But nothing's helped. I did, however, notice that loading the songs is about 65% faster from the FW800 drive. At least that's nice to know.

 

After repeating the issue a few dozen times, it seems to me that the problem isn't so much with the additional audio coming into play, but with Logic initializing whatever plugins are associated with that channel. In my case, I have Amplitube on every guitar track (and a dry unamped guitar as the only thing recorded) as well as channel EQ. So I'm fairly sure that my problem, at least, has something to do with the initialization of additional plugins as they happen.

 

So now, how the heck do I fix this?

 

I might as well go back to Leopard, it's as bad in Tigger as it was in Leopard.

[arkanax]

Well done, arkanax, you managed to COMPLETELY ignore the question asked and just go for a rant instead!!!

I, unlike you, find Logic 8 much more stable, with fewer core audio overloads. But that's irrelevant.

 

Nick, if you're getting core audio overloads, it really depends what you have in the project as to what will help the situation. First, I'd try upping the buffer (256 samples +) and see if that helps. You may find it makes no difference at all...

 

If you set a higher buffer size then any instrument you play in will have a latency while you record it (using software monitoring). It won't affect anything else really.

 

As I said before, it *really* depends on the spec of your Mac as to what will help.

.

 

in the midst of creative throes. it sucks to have musicus interruptus if you know what i mean.

 

but yeah, I've done a comprehensive multiple reinstall/downgrade/pull hair out analyzation of the core overload thing.

 

i have two macs. a 2.66 mac pro with 3 GB RAM. and a 2.33 17 inch MBP with 2 GB.

 

now, i also used final cut studio on my MBP. but mainly, when i went to leopard everything went to hell and back. Logic was more snappier, however certain plugins would consistenly bring Logic to the point of being unusable.

 

My mac pro i left it as virgin as i could. mostly because i use pro tools on it too cuz everyone i hang out with uses pro tools. i had to do a downgrade back to 10.4.9 cuz i had to get the superdrive fixed. long story short....lots of things stopped working. so i've reinstalled a fresh 10.4.0 on my mac pro and upgraded it to 10.4.9 and left it at that.

 

logic studio vs. logic 7 on my mac pro yielded the most telling results.

i opened only two logic projects with both my mac pro and my MBP.

one was a 2 track 24/44.1 project. with 1 platverb, and 3 compressor instances.

 

the second was a 15 track 24/44.1 project with 8 audio tracks frozen. and 7 audio instrument tracks (5 of them frozen) with 4 ES Ps, 2 sculptures and an ultrabeat instance.

2 busses with 2 compressors, 2 chan EQs, and 1 multipressor and an adaptive limiter and multimeter.

 

surprisingly, my mac pro would overload the first project only rarely and only once. it was reproduceable if i started logic after a fresh reboot and opened only that song. with buffer at 512 it would still overload the first time on playback. after that nothing.

 

the second project on my mac pro at 512 overloaded at least twice. and it consistently overloads if i have both a multipressor and a some other plugin window open like an adaptive limiter or multimeter. ive posted this before...something especially about tweaking the multipressor too much while its playing....freaks it out alot more than logic 7 ever did.

 

MBP would overload both even at 1024 setting. even if i froze everything. it would do it at least once.

 

on logic 7...with the first project,my mac pro never overloaded once. at the same buffer setting of 512. on the 2nd project it overloaded only once when i first loaded it.

 

on the MBP. the first project never overloaded at all. until i played with the buffer and brought it down to 256. it did it once. then not again.

 

on the second project. it overloaded 3 times until i changed it to 1024 and then it didn't do it again.

 

 

so....well....ive become accustomed to tweaking the multipressor as it plays in logic 7 well. but for me....on my macs...studio freaks out sometimes

oh well.

 

but yes. ive reinstalled and i've waved dead chickens over the monitors.

and i've just come to accept some things. I'm a Logic user. I will be until i die or...until they come up with some technology that you can instantly record whatever you imagine in your head.

 

but either way, im far more wary of software updates now....and im definitely not installing leopard or 10.5.2 or whatever for quite awhile.

im fine with that. logic studio is a brilliant upgrade its true.

 

i'm willing to look past the occasional bug, because, Logic really rocks my socks, ya know. that's all. sorry if it seemed like a rant. but try arming a track and hitting the record button...only to find that it overloaded halfway through the recording right when you were really getting into it. it's frustrating...but yes...thats technology for ya.

 

 

 

on the s

[noisenet]

I really hope I'm not jinxing myself, but here goes......

 

I upgraded BACK to Leopard from Tiger yesterday (I'd gone back to Tiger a couple weeks ago), then installed the 10.5.2 update, and other updates, did NOT install the latest iLife support patch.

 

I worked on a session all afternoon and had zero overloads. I did have a few screen redraw problems, but they were minor and corrected themself.

 

The project I worked on has a few audio tracks, BFD 1.5 for MIDI drums, and a few VI's/loops. I'll include a link below.

 

But from what I can tell, everything was stable. That doesn't hurt my feelings, LOL!

 

Here's the song I was working on.

 

http://www.superswamp.com/_music/cop_show.mp3

[noperator]

Using this script, I can really get some extra CPU out of my system.

 

It would work on Mainstage and any other application. Don't be surprised if you find another app non-responsive if all of the priority CPU is going to one program you specify. Still, I believe OSX's kernel does a splendid job with or without this.

Edited April 1, 2008 by noperator

[SWAN]

Im a bit late to this party-but just logged in because I recently started having a problem with core overloads on my 4th Core...my system has been running beautifully since then-I cant work out whats happened....

 

As you can (just about) see - the first three cores are barely in use-but the 4th is maxing out...This song has been running fine up until a f days ago - when I suddenly noticed it start glitching...Im pretty sure I havent added any heavy plugins....cant really work it out...I have my buffer set low-64-but it was running fine before....

 

Any ideas?

 

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4366/picture1xt6.png

[noperator]

Is this only happening when battery or a third party plugin is running? That'll run on its own core. Are you running a powerpc / non universal binary version of it? Edited April 1, 2008 by noperator

[SWAN]

Hi There-no its a UB version. Im running a few softsynths including Stylus, Battery (4) and EXS, Logic Clav, and EVP88...

 

If I disable/ bypass all Battery instances I still get 50% on the 4th CPU and a little on the others...

 

would running that script help? How do it do that? Ive got no experience with that sort of thing...

 

thanks

[noperator]

Ah, are you running on a PPC cpu?

 

if you are running a non UB and therefore non-intel compiled plugin, you will lose a huge amount of performance because of the behind the scenes translation to run in an intel cpu.

 

If you go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor, it will tell you which plugin/app is taking up that much cpu and if it is of the Kind Intel or not. I'm imagining that even with Battery on a bypass, all of that cpu is going towards keeping it open because it is a legacy app.

 

Is there really no UB update of Battery?

[CHKComposer]

I had this exact problem on my MBP 2.4 Core 2 Duo. It started happening after the latest MacOS update and the ProKit update.

 

Here is a post describing my situation and a possible solution:

 

http://logicprohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=22855

 

Basically it involves trashing all Native Inst preferences and reinstalling/reauthorizing any Native Inst plugs. So far, this has completely solved my problem with CPU spikes. Whereas before I would get CPU spikes and clicks with one instrument recording, now it doesn't happen.

[SWAN]

Im running a Mac Pro-so its not a UB PPC issue.

 

I tried trashing the Battery Prefs-and this has abated the problem but there is still a massive difference in the 4th core load-its double any of the others...I didnt re-install any of my other NI plugins...I find it strange they might be causing this-seeing as they 're not in use....but I guess Shadowbox if it worked for you...

 

To be honest I think Im gonna revert back to LP7. I just loaded it up-and it worked fine-no overloads. In fact I had far more screen space-and I think I prefer it!

 

Perhaps down the line I might sort out the LP8 issue when a new update comes...and re-install all my plugs. This seems like a major hassle tho! I really hate how computers suddenly have you by the balls for no apparent reason....

 

cheers for the help

[CHKComposer]

Hey SWAN,

 

There is definitely a bug between LP 8.01, MacOS X 10.5.2, the ProKit update, and CPU usage/overloads etc. For one thing...as you have probably noticed, the CPU spikes on one core don't always result in a CPU overload error message. Just clicks, and distortion. The trashing of preferences helps but I'm not sure it fixes the problem 100%. When I first did it, it was a night and day difference. I could play a ton of tracks back using Kontakt 3 Ivory, EXS, Stylus, etc with very few, if any, problems. It seems like over the last day or two since trashing the prefs the cpu spikes are starting to creep in. Very odd. Maybe there is some sort of buffer problem. It's not being clear out correctly.

 

Also, in your screen shot you show the track "claps" in record mode. While in record mode the CPU will be used more than when it is playing back. It states this in the manual. When an instrument is taken out of record mode, the CPU is the supposed to release the CPU it was using. But when you take it out of record mode the CPU use does not go down. It continues to overload the one core. To "clear" the cpu you have to record enable another track that is not being used. A "null" track. If you do this you will see all of your cores being used correctly. This is true with Logic Instruments as well, but because they are more CPU efficient it is less obvious.

 

It would be good to find the common hardware/software causing this. I tried everything while troubleshooting. It happened with my Duet driver or my Built-in. It happened with and without external drives. It happened with Native Instrument plug-ins and to a lesser extent Logic instruments as well. It happened with and without external drives attached. It might require a complete re-install of Leopard from scratch. Who knows. But more than a few people are having this problem...but clearly not everyone because this would be a much hotter topic.

[hbj]

Can't even use Logic 8 on a Piano/vocal songwriting session because of all the overloads.

 

Just unreal.

 

RIP Logic.

[DaniGordon]

 

RIP Logic.

 

RIP?

 

It's 8.0.1 guys.

Calm down.

 

After we get 8.2 and still have those problems I will join your "Kill Logic" campaign.

But not at this point, with 8.0.1, a baby Logic 8.

 

Let's keep the optimism.

 

Let's give Logic a chance. The heart is still beating hard and the brain is fully working.

 

C'mon!

 

Thank god you are not the deciding doctor.

 

[Ploki]

sorry, i should have posted here excuse me.

 

anyway, is this being solved? it really bugs my nerves

 

edit:

How do you deinstall the Pro Kit, ever since i updated to pro kit it started to work like CRAP.

CPU overloads on every single plugin Bypassed, on a brand new Mac Pro.

s#!+ this is so annoying! it cant peak the PCU if i have EVERYTHING bypassed, this is worse than my old PC

[bmdaugherty]

this goes back a ways, but fyi, the midi server shares a pid with logic pro on my machine. So renicing the logic pid should bring midiserver with it.

 

also, I agree, logic 8 is a young app. When I used Protools I never even considered upgrading from 6.4 until around the time they released 7.3. You find a configuration that works well for you and thats it. I personally have few issues with L8 on my mbp 2.33gHz, thats just me, but I still dont think it is mature enough at this release to be criticizing it so harshly. If you are new to logic and 8 is your first version, its hard to see, but they are really trying to bring logic to the cutting edge of audio production. I can see it coming. The program becomes more and more powerful with each version, it just needs to mature a little.

[Fred B]

this goes back a ways, but fyi, the midi server shares a pid with logic pro on my machine. So renicing the logic pid should bring midiserver with it.

Interesting. Is this new in Leopard?

On my system Logic and MIDI server show up with a different PID.

I always thought that PID is a unique process identifier...

[bmdaugherty]

yeah, sorry about that. It turns out that the last digit of the pid was being cut off in my activity monitor. They were only different by the 5th digit...

[novacainestudio]

I tried the script with my 2x 2.5 running Logic 8 - and actually I saw higher CPU usage. Weird. It was on a track I cut for a commercial - maybe 15 audio tracks and 3 softsynths - without the script I barely saw CPU spikes in the red - with the script I saw them all the time - what gives? s this script meant for Intel Macs?

[Ploki]

how do you remove that rotten ProKit update?!

i have buffer on 1024 and it spikes, on 8core!!!!

[blz]

how do you remove that rotten ProKit update?!

i have buffer on 1024 and it spikes, on 8core!!!!

 

Ive got the same thing on my 8core 2.8 gig macpro, that script helped a bit, but still i get some overloads :/

 

It looks like Logic has some problems with symmetrical processing and threads distro over cores

[Ploki]

yeah thats definately true, but i didnt have problems before installing PROKIT :S

which i installed because i thought it might work off my FirewireAudio problems (which it didnt.)

 

so, doesnt anyone know how to remove prokit? im just tryin to eliminate all the possibilities

[Anantadev]

Hi to all Logic peoples here. I have overload problem too in MacPro. So, i was try this applescript posted here, but it not work perfect. Yes, logic not overloaded after this script, but now i can't see Logic's main menu row in the upper part of monitor... by cmd+tab i select Logic Pro... and see Finder menu, or something else, but not Logic. Anyway, thank's for advice, hope you can kill this bug.

[SwedeinLA]

WOW Loading time is dramarically faster, and like a person above said, It feels a lot snappier. However, my current project so far has 7 tracks all with applied channelstrips and effects and so forth, but my CPU meter still goes to the red

 

Granted i use a G4 Mac mini 1.5 ghz 564 MB....MAybe thats the real issue here?

 

Any thoughts on that?

[Ploki]

probably yes

the problem with multiple cores overload is that the mix is so busy it overloads one core instead of making some of the others work.

you have no cores left to unload the garbage increase buffer size to the max, it eats less cpu and its okay for mixing

[Paps4]

You need not the re-nice script...

 

 

The i/o safety buffer in the audio preferences of logic 8 is a new addition, and usually the culprit... However nice the concept, it simply doesn't work for me...

 

I can run a full session on my 8-core and macbook pro without it, and the system won't even hitch. However, when i try to run a session with that option on, then i get several audio/midi sync errors etc...

 

Also of notice is the fact that whenever you change latency settings, or the i/o buffer setting, you should restart logic. Although it does restart the core audio engine by itself, it doesn't do so successfully every-time.

 

As a personal preference, i have seen improvement not only by un-checking the i/o buffer option, but also when i set the rewire behaviour to live mode...

 

I have used the renice script on both a mac pro and a mac book pro. I have had worse results, mainly because the system is slower all together, in favor of logic. Logic however was fast most of the time, and sluggish at times. I think that it overrides the priority even for the graphics engine, which is NOT a good thing....

 

These are my two cents....

My settings that work...