Poor CPU Performance

[DanRad]

It's been about 6 months since I "upgraded" from my trusty 2009 Cheese Grater Deluxe® to an M1 MBP 

 

  Chip: Apple M1 Max

  Total Number of Cores: 10 (8 performance and 2 efficiency)

  Memory: 32 GB

But damn if the old girl doesn't perform much better than the M1... and I'm wondering if something's gone wrong.  

Lately, I'm getting a lot of crackling and noise that if I hit stop, then hit start again, will go away... for a bit...until it comes back. A real groove killer...  This is on a very light load IMHO, a few audio tracks and a few software instruments.  Is the newer (LPX 10.7.9) a heavier load than what I was running before? (10.3.3). I'm using the same SSD drives, though a different interface.  The old interface was an aging MOTU 828 (fire wire)... now I have a Focusrite Clarett++. Interfaced with the Thunderbolt/USB C connection.  

I get some relief when I bump the buffer up to 256... but, again, this is not a heavy load and my old 2009 CG had NO problem with much heavier loads. 

 

Here is and example.(Had to record it with my phone to get the example)  This is what this is supposed to sound like:

Clean

Here is the crunchy noise I get.  If I solo other tracks, it's on that as well

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/855210546

 

Help!! I'm very frustrated.  

 

Dan Rad

 

[des99]

What does your CPU meter indicate when you experience this? Are you overloading a core? Multiple cores? Or are there no significant performance issues that you can see?

Does it happen when you use the Mac's inbuilt audio, and not your audio interface?

Have you got other devices on the TB connection your audio interface is running on?

Is the noise recorded into the audio tracks, or happening on playback only, and the audio files are clean?

In the video, you can see when you get the crackle, the CPU performance jumps to the top, so likely you've got something (a third-party plugin most likely) overloading your machine. Try to narrow down what's running by selectively disabling plugins until you find the one causing the spikes...

Edited August 17, 2023 by des99

[DanRad]

Thank you for the great questions:

 

What does your CPU meter indicate when you experience this? Sometimes it's very high.. but not always.

Are you overloading a core? Multiple cores? I've been looking for the meter that shows the core usage... where can I find that

Or are there no significant performance issues that you can see? Not sure what you mean.. just the noise and if I stop Logic and then hit play again, it cleans up.

Does it happen when you use the Mac's inbuilt audio, and not your audio interface? Good question, I will try this.

Have you got other devices on the TB connection your audio interface is running on?  The audio interface is going direct.  I'm going through a OWC Thunderbolt Dock

Is the noise recorded into the audio tracks, or happening on playback only, and the audio files are clean? Only on play back.  And bounces are always fine.

In the video, you can see when you get the crackle, the CPU performance jumps to the top, so likely you've got something (a third-party plugin most likely) overloading your machine. Try to narrow down what's running by selectively disabling plugins until you find the one causing the spikes... I've kind of done that, but I'll dig in deeper...but I'm not using anything I haven't used in the past (on my old MacPro) so... I'm confused.  Even the drives are set up the same.

Thanks again for the help.  Anyone out there experience a similar situation?

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by DanRad

[Mania]

2 hours ago, DanRad said:

..but I'm not using anything I haven't used in the past (on my old MacPro) so... I'm confused.

What was compatible with the older machine might not be compatible with Apple Silicon. Have you tried running Logic under Rosetta? (Quit Logic, go to the Applications folder and right click on Logic and Get Info, tick the box beside Rosetta, relaunch Logic).

Your new Mac is 10 fold faster than the old one. There must be an incompatible plugin. Not all plugins are Apple Silicon ready. I struggle with BIAS FX2 sometimes. Logic is so much faster in native mode running compatible plugins, but then BIAS FX2 sometimes crashes. I often use Rosetta when using BIAS FX2

[DanRad]

Thanks for the note.  I am running in Rosetta.  I think there may be some issue with Omnisphere (which I use A LOT, so I've got to figure it out.)

[ozinga]

Hello,

My system was like this when I first moved to Apple Silicon and Logic 10.6. Eventually it got better. Now it is great.

I run in Native mode with 128 buffer and work on huge sessions. I check plugin updates regularly.

Try running in Native mode. If you have intel only plugins Logic can run them in Native mode so you do not have to use rosetta.

Some plugins are problematic. For example Avenger, some Roland Cloud plugins. They drain the cpu with just one instance. Maybe you have a plugin like that. Omnisphere runs great here so I doubt it is that.

Check all plugins you have for their latest versions

[des99]

8 hours ago, DanRad said:

I've been looking for the meter that shows the core usage... where can I find that

Double-click the mini performance meter in the custom control display, or use the key command "Show/Hide Performance Meter".

[PP1965]

Have you selected only the high performance cores in Processing Threads? Efficiency cores can cause latency problems...

 

 

Edited August 17, 2023 by PP1965
Picture added.

[DanRad]

Thanks for the info... is it recommended to only use High performance cores?  As for the crackle and crunch, there seems to be some relationship with Omnisphere.. but I just can't be sure.

Thanks for the help..

[PP1965]

Yes, it is. I highly recommend to check this video:

I have tried Omnisphere in a 48 KHz / 24 bit project. I was using 16 high performance cores, buffer size was 128, Multithreading was set to Playback & Live tracks. The test patch was JP-8 PWM Strings Chorus, 8 keys were pressed. This was my performance meter:

  

There are soft synths which are not optimised for Mx multicore usage, for instance u-he Diva. Diva's multicore optimisation works well only on Intel-based Macs. They promised that one day they will optimise it for Mx as well...

I hope this will help you.

Edited August 18, 2023 by PP1965

[DanRad]

Thank you for the response. I watched the video which was very informative and entertaining. I've set up my Audio Preferences as suggested and we'll see how it goes.  Thanks again.. I really appreciated this community!!

Dan Rad