Need advice on balancing Logic's cores

[Arkadi]

Hi, I wanted to ask a question regarding Logic’s core balancing.

 

On my Logic setup I have multiple instances of Vienna Ensemble Pro with three outboard PCs handling all the samples. Each of the instances in Logic are bussed out to three Altiverb instances and a compressor. Occasionally I'll get a core overload that causes distortion. For the most part I'm still able to work without this problem plaguing me too much, but occasionally I still get single core spikes as you can see from this pic:

 

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/2787/logic1.png

 

The interesting thing is, when I play back the same part of the music that previously caused this overload, it will go back to normal as you can see here…

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2825/logic2.png

 

Then eventually and randomly it will spike up again causing distortion. I’ll have to stop Logic… wait for a bit then it will go back to normal for a while.

 

I read the apple article regarding this issue:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3161

The only thing that seemed to help a little bit was when I bussed out the VEPs instances to three separate Altiverb busses. Then I noticed some of the other cores lighting up more. But other than that, I'm not sure how to apply the advice in this article to my situation since it seems to be caused by having multiple instances of the same plugin rather than just FX. To know for sure, I bypassed all my FX plugins and still have the issue. I’m also wondering if there are any background processes on my Mac that could be taxing the CPU.. Is there a Logic OSX optimization guide or any tips anyone could give me?

 

Thanks!

[involver]

Perhaps this is live mode as described in the Apple article? Do you have an audio instrument track selected when it occurs?

[Arkadi]

Yes, I always have a track selected as I'm constantly playing in midi data. But I'm wondering if selecting a single track triggers ALL the instances of the Vienna Ensemble plugin in my project or just that one.