How in the world could this project create a "system overload"? Logic Pro 10.8.1

[Symphonichrome]

I was just adding some rain sound effects and an Apple MIDI loop to a video (just a still image with zoom effect from Final Cut Pro X) and received a "system overload" message

Here are the specs of my computer:

Here is the "system overload" message:

Here is the project, CPU meter, and audio settings from Logic:

If anyone knows what the issue could be I would appreciate some advice - it amazes me that I would get a "system overload" on such a small project

The only other application I had open during was iMessage

Thank you.

[des99]

If you selectively disable the various plugins (there aren't many, so shouldn't take long to test) - does the issue go away? Ie is there one of those plugins spiking a core, possibly?

[David Nahmani]

It's probably the codec used to playback the movie in Quicktime. Make a copy of that project and in that copy, remove the movie. My guess is that system overload will disappear. 

[Symphonichrome]

1 minute ago, des99 said:

If you selectively disable the various plugins (there aren't many, so shouldn't take long to test) - does the issue go away? Ie is there one of those plugins spiking a core, possibly?

Well, the issue went away when I dismissed the "system overload" message and did not happen again -- it still perplexes me though, as to why it would appear in the first place

 

2 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

It's probably the codec used to playback the movie in Quicktime. Make a copy of that project and in that copy, remove the movie. My guess is that system overload will disappear. 

Hmmm - interesting that the codec would be an issue between two Apple programs - I figured there would be seamless integration

[David Nahmani]

8 minutes ago, Symphonichrome said:

Hmmm - interesting that the codec would be an issue between two Apple programs - I figured there would be seamless integration

I'm not saying it's an issue or that there isn't seamless integration. I'm just thinking that depending on the movie you're trying to play, its codec and size etc.. this could be what's putting too much stress on your CPU? Just a guess as there doesn't seem to be another reason for your Logic project itself putting too much stress on your CPU. 

In any case, it's an easy test. 

[Symphonichrome]

9 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

I'm not saying it's an issue or that there isn't seamless integration. I'm just thinking that depending on the movie you're trying to play, its codec and size etc.. this could be what's putting too much stress on your CPU? Just a guess as there doesn't seem to be another reason for your Logic project itself putting too much stress on your CPU. 

In any case, it's an easy test. 

 

I will have to wait until the "system overload" message appears again to test that theory out

I'd assume that an M2 Ultra chip could not be overloaded by 2 tracks of MIDI and 1 minute video 

[fisherking]

20 minutes ago, Symphonichrome said:

 

I will have to wait until the "system overload" message appears again to test that theory out

I'd assume that an M2 Ultra chip could not be overloaded by 2 tracks of MIDI and 1 minute video 

...and, generally, you'd be correct, suggesting that something very specific caused the issue. try the suggestions from @des99 & @David Nahmani

[wonshu]

Sometimes this can happen the very first time we hit play on a project. My personal explanation is that something has to be loaded into cache and it just took a little longer than expected...

Maybe all running programs where doing something at the same time and caused and overload. I know... shouldn't happen, but, well...

If it doesn't happen after that then all is fine.

Edited February 14 by wonshu

[David Nahmani]

1 hour ago, Symphonichrome said:

I'd assume that an M2 Ultra chip could not be overloaded by 2 tracks of MIDI and 1 minute video 

I hear you.

However the fact is, your M2 Ultra chip is overloaded. IMO the next step is to try to figure out why the CPU is overloaded, and what the culprit is.

For example, if the issue is that your movie is a huge file with a CPU intensive codec that is resulting in QuickTime stressing your CPU, then there's no point blaming Logic or trying to find a solution in Logic. 

The length of the video doesn't matter. QuickTime decodes the movie in real time. A 5 second movie puts as much stress on the CPU as a 5 hour movie. 

[des99]

6 minutes ago, wonshu said:

Sometimes this can happen the very first time we hit play on a project. My personal explanation is that something has to be loaded into cache and it just took a little longer than expected...

It's a playback optimisation thing, as I understand. On first play after loading a project, there's an extra optimisation process which takes a little bit of CPU, and in heavy projects, can affect playback until the project is "played through" all the various bits until the optimisation process complete.

Then playback should be fine after that point.

Not that it's something I've noticed for a long time, now I have hardware that doesn't really sweat for the things I need to do...

[Symphonichrome]

26 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

I hear you.

However the fact is, your M2 Ultra chip is overloaded. IMO the next step is to try to figure out why the CPU is overloaded, and what the culprit is.

For example, if the issue is that your movie is a huge file with a CPU intensive codec that is resulting in QuickTime stressing your CPU, then there's no point blaming Logic or trying to find a solution in Logic. 

The length of the video doesn't matter. QuickTime decodes the movie in real time. A 5 second movie puts as much stress on the CPU as a 5 hour movie. 

Well, the video file was 4.74GB with file extension .mov - it was a still image with a zoom effect on it

If that size is too big, I would assume that no composers could use Logic to score feature films 

26 minutes ago, des99 said:

It's a playback optimisation thing, as I understand. On first play after loading a project, there's an extra optimisation process which takes a little bit of CPU, and in heavy projects, can affect playback until the project is "played through" all the various bits until the optimisation process complete.

Then playback should be fine after that point.

Not that it's something I've noticed for a long time, now I have hardware that doesn't really sweat for the things I need to do...

I have read about the playback optimization causing this error as well

However, I would like to think an Apple Mac Studio with an M2 Ultra chip should not be sweating at all.

[David Nahmani]

3 minutes ago, Symphonichrome said:

Well, the video file was 4.74GB with file extension .mov - it was a still image with a zoom effect on it

If that size is too big, I would assume that no composers could use Logic to score feature films 

It's too early to rush to conclusions. What I'm suggesting is some troubleshooting steps in order to first find the culprit. 

[Symphonichrome]

2 minutes ago, David Nahmani said:

It's too early to rush to conclusions. What I'm suggesting is some troubleshooting steps in order to first find the culprit. 

I will have to try this again and see if I get another "system overload" -- for the amount of money I spent on this computer, it is very silly that the system could be overloaded by 2 MIDI tracks and a video file

I am just frustrated and venting

I do appreciate the advice

[David Nahmani]

I understand you're frustrated, ideally things should work out of the box, but unfortunately, in many situations, that's not the case. All I can offer is that the best troubleshooting is done when you manage to keep your emotions out of the equation (I know, easier said than done). 

[des99]

So - are you still getting the overload, or did it only happen once?

If it's recurring, then to rule out the video, remove the video from the project - if you're still getting overloads, then it probably wasn't caused by that. then try my other suggestions I made above.

Video containers can be *very* complex, and often video is output from film guys in super high res formats that they like, but are not efficient to play - super high quality pro res etc. If this is the case, use QuickTime to recompress the movie into an efficient playback format, which is much more suitable for movie scoring and barely taxes the computer.

These are all things that you learn as you work with files that you are provided with from external sources - don't assume you are given the formats that will work best for you, but *do* understand this, and learn how to handle them appropriately.

[Symphonichrome]

32 minutes ago, des99 said:

So - are you still getting the overload, or did it only happen once?

If it's recurring, then to rule out the video, remove the video from the project - if you're still getting overloads, then it probably wasn't caused by that. then try my other suggestions I made above.

Video containers can be *very* complex, and often video is output from film guys in super high res formats that they like, but are not efficient to play - super high quality pro res etc. If this is the case, use QuickTime to recompress the movie into an efficient playback format, which is much more suitable for movie scoring and barely taxes the computer.

These are all things that you learn as you work with files that you are provided with from external sources - don't assume you are given the formats that will work best for you, but *do* understand this, and learn how to handle them appropriately.

Well, it only happened that once and, upon dismissing the overload message, it did not happen again

I will be making another 1 minute video later so will see if the same issue occurs and report back

Thank you

[fisherking]

have you rebooted?

do you have a lot of apps open, browser windows, etc? ie what else is your mac doing while you're in logic?...

[Symphonichrome]

56 minutes ago, fisherking said:

have you rebooted?

do you have a lot of apps open, browser windows, etc? ie what else is your mac doing while you're in logic?...

I thought I wrote in the OP that the only other app I had open was iMessage

That, and Logic

[fisherking]

1 hour ago, Symphonichrome said:

I thought I wrote in the OP that the only other app I had open was iMessage

That, and Logic

got it. have you rebooted?

[Symphonichrome]

33 minutes ago, fisherking said:

got it. have you rebooted?

I have not rebooted - the issue has no occurred again

I just tried it with a much smaller file size .mp4 and it worked without issue

However, I am still perplexed that a Mac Studio M2 Ultra would overload from a 4.74GB video -- just makes no sense to me (I watch tons of YouTube videos of people using nothing close to the processing power afforded by the machine I have yet they have 200 tracks while loading a video to score to -- I am starting to think the universe is trying to tell me something)

[oscwilde]

1 hour ago, Symphonichrome said:

I am starting to think the universe is trying to tell me something

That random stuff happens?
Seems like a one off bit of weird, so expending energy on trying to find a solution that may not exist might be counter-productive (and not great for your sanity 😉).
if it happens again - with the original video file or another, post again.

[David Nahmani]

I agree that if it's happened only once I wouldn't lose sleep over it. If it reoccurs then it's worth troubleshooting to understand what's going on. 

Your CPU runs many processes besides running Logic Pro, and it could well be that when this occurred, one of those processes tripped up the CPU. Here's my CPU activity with only Logic running (and idle) - plus Activity Monitor and LiceCap which is used to take the screen capture: 

[wonshu]

Movie file size is less of the issue - it's the codec and its implementation.

I've seen all kinds of stupid incompatible things happening with movie files I've received... even from some seasoned editors. And sometimes even a re-export fixed the problem...

So yes, movie files can (not will) create serious performance issues.

Unfortunately I was never able to track down what exactly was the issue - most of the time it happened it was in crunch time and when the project was over I was not overly motivated to keep looking at it... 🙂